4.0 Giddies

I was following the 4.0 news kind of dispassionately until I saw this 4.0 excerpt about treasure on the 14th. Now I've got a case of the "hurry up alreadys."

This may be because I have finished by big 3.5 game, and am looking for something else to capture my attention.

But...

3.5 Broke for me at higher levels. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but it specifically broke around equipping NPCs.

I loved creating complex magic items for my games, and or the blog. I hated the endless process of equipping NPCs.

The above article breaks the process of awarding treasure into simples steps. One treasure per of a certain value per encounter. I could have done that in 3e. In fact I did for awhile. But when you threw in NPC gear, it got hella messy. Too much to keep track of.

In 4.0, it looks like NPCs/monsters aren't really supposed to have big fun treasure. I'll have to wait to see what the articles on creatures with PC classes as opponents looks like, but this article seems to indicate that if you give a monster a magic item, it may boost it's challenge a little depending on how strong the MI is. But that's it.

I like this. Include a treasure, change the creature's abilities and boost the challenge and XP awarded some what, and because treasure is not awarded by value per encounter, no fidgety math!

Can I hear Yee! Can I get a Ha-ah!

All right. I'll settle down.

Also: 4 items for the four higher levels plus a set gp amount per level of adventuring. Not per encounter. Per level of adventuring. I don't have to balance different levels of treasure for higher or lower level encounters. I can keep a straightforward log of treasure awarded.

Man, it looks smooth. Like dat.

And easy to hack. The article gives suggestions for hacking your economy: no magic stores? That's easy: Strip off the extra charges for enchanting items. There's a rule set for taking the magic off unwanted items and turning it into new magic items. I've been fiddling with that forever.

I'm thinking of hacking it by removing one of the magic items given as treasure and replacing it with gold, in addition to removing magic vendors. This will give it a more low magicky feel.

So, of course, in my excitement, I've started trying to deconstruct how magic items are made.