Magic Item Slots and 'New Magic Items'

[Constantinos]

A friend of mine said to me that he didn't like in Pathfinder how there is no limitation where you could put ability enhancing items. I thought that it was clear that physical was belts and mental was headband. But I could not find a ruling on that, though I have found many instances where it says 'designers intended.'

He also said -- he could find not reason why you could not make Bracers of Natural Armor.

Another friend said he did not think you could make 'new magic items.'

What's going on here?

[seebs]

You can. With GM approval. And GMs are encouraged not to let you swap things around casually. But there's a long history here, and there are a ton of magic items from 3E and 3.5E which give stats and are different slots, because originally they did in fact have different default stats. Headbands were intellect, cloaks were charisma, for instance.

So basically, allowing custom items in other slots is probably a bad choice, but would be pretty reasonable if you increased cost to account for them not being in one of the high-priority contested slots. There is no inherent absolute limitation, nor should there be.

[Jeraa]

In Pathfinder, there are no body slot affinities. You can have any enchantment in any slot(with GM permission of course, as it would be a custom magic item). That means you can legally have goggles that enhance strength, boots that enhance intelligence, belts that enhance Perception, and hats that enhance Jump. Those are all custom magic items, however, and require GM permission to craft. Pathfinder does counsel against it, but does not actually prohibit it.

You could also do the same in 3.X D&D as well, but the cost was increased. Any ability that was in an improper slot had its cost increased by 50%.

Quote:

Another friend said he did not think you could make 'new magic items.'

Of course you can make 'new magic items.' That is the entire point of having a table that shows their cost. If you were limited to the items in the book, there would be no need for that table.

[Avatar-1]

Custom magic items are an exception to the normal rules.

You're right that it's clear about belts and headbands as long as you're using only regular magic items and not custom ones. With custom rules, obviously the sky is the limit (depending on the GM's ruling).

Otherwise, the rule is that every item goes in a slot (except "slotless" magic items, which don't go in any slot, but are priced higher).

[Haladir]

Of course you can create new magic items for your home game.

The rules for making new magic items are here.

There isn't any game mechanical reason for the traditional kinds of items in specific slots, other than tradition and game balance.

Keep in mind that pricing of magic items is more of an art than a science. The formula is a starting point, not the be-all and end-all. Generally, when you deviate from the "standard" slots for items, you need to increase the price (usually double or more). And some items aren't a good idea at all.

And the final arbiter of what's allowed in your game is the GM.

[LazarX]

Constantinos wrote:

A friend of mine said to me that he didn't like in Pathfinder how there is no limitation where you could put ability enhancing items.

Your friend has made a common mistake. He assumes that campaigns are run by rulebooks and forgets that that rulebooks are tools for GM's, not their masters.

[Weirdo]

There was a recent discussion of re-slotting.

My group uses it occasionally, mostly for ability score items: we have used Gauntlets of Strength, Gloves of Dexterity, Cloaks of Charisma, Mantles of Wisdom, and even Boots of Constitution. Most of us played with similar items in 3E and never felt a need to reduce it down to two shared slots.

LazarX wrote:

Constantinos wrote:

A friend of mine said to me that he didn't like in Pathfinder how there is no limitation where you could put ability enhancing items.

Your friend has made a common mistake. He assumes that campaigns are run by rulebooks and forgets that that rulebooks are tools for GM's, not their masters.

This is true. And it also applies to the friend who said that because Bracers of Natural Armour weren't in the book they weren't possible. The GM can taketh away, but the GM can also giveth.

However, custom magic items are one of the places where the book that sees fit to remind you that this is a particularly good place for your GM to step in and exercise their judgment.

[Lynceus]

One of my friends just pointed out to me a Rod that grants a +4 enhancement bonus to Charisma, which surprised me, because I thought stat boosters had been limited in Pathfinder to head/belt and Ioun stones.

So yeah, you can apparently put an enhancement bonus anywhere you like, although it's not a very good idea. 3rd edition had a plethora of "stat booster" items in a wide variety of slots, making it pretty simple to have boosts to every stat at fairly low levels.

That might not break your game, depending on the power level of the PC's, but it will exacerbate another problem of the game: a lot of really neat utility items exist that are never used, because they occupy the same body slot as items that grant "bonuses".

Just earlier today my group had a discussion along these lines- our wizard likes stinking cloud a bit too much, and when the Necklace of Adaptation was suggested, all our melee types were like "ah...yeah I guess, but I already have an Amulet of Natural Armor...".

[seebs]

Adaptation's pretty cheap, so the 50% extra price for adding it to something else won't be horrible.