I won't lie. I'm a huge fan of how wondrous and magic items were such a huge ubiquitous part of 1st ed. Belts, headbands and so on were bread and butter to most characters. If you needed an item to make a character fit an idea, there was likely an item to do that.
And... I can't help but notice all the non-consumable magic items in the playtest kinda suck. They either are completely underpowered for their supposed "item level" or plainly don't provide any real benefit for when you'd likely afford or be given one in the game. Price is also a huge hurdle for them.
For example, let's look at a good old belt. Any stat-improving belt is super expensive. Granted, they now adjust your stat to be an 18, but odds are if you wanted a belt to boost a key stat, this is pretty useless. I guess it helps multiclass characters, but again, odds are you picked favorable stats for that already.
Another favorite of mine are the Slippers of Spider Climb. Being Spider-Man is fun, even if they're now a little pricey. But unlike before, the slippers don't just work all the time. Nope. They work for 1 minute every 10 minutes. I can understand wanting to limit 2.5D and 3D movement, but considering they weren't that helpful in 1st ed combat, why limit them here? Better hope Cloak of Arachnida makes it in the final 2nd ed and has an upgraded version like Cloak of the Bat does.
Lastly is the complete lack of custom magic items. You just straight up can't make anything custom. That really sucks.
The belt EITHER increases the stat to 18 OR gives +2 on the stat - and I think the other benefits are at least interesting
and the slippers, well they can be used more often but not as often in a single go, so depending on the circumstances i would say they are usually better (the new ones)
The belt EITHER increases the stat to 18 OR gives +2 on the stat - and I think the other benefits are at least interesting
and the slippers, well they can be used more often but not as often in a single go, so depending on the circumstances i would say they are usually better (the new ones)
Well blow me down. I actually never saw that. Been using it wrong for years.
Custom magic items aren’t going to be in a playtest.
Does the belts of "giant strength" increase it to 18 or add +2 if you are already 18 or above (such as 20 becomes 22)? Or is is just 18 max, if so that is terrible.
It adds 2 if you already have an 18.