Trade working ideas!
keep Metis's thread running smoothly!!!
Here is what I am looking for, suggestions for unique items (armor, weapons, belts, etc.) for level ranges of 13-25. Make short posts using this simple format:
Level range (13-16 etc):
Name:
Properties:
Description (some history of how it came into being):
Keep suggestions appropriate for the level i.e. no +5 for a level 13, elemental damage/resistance can be added use your imagination.
//edit try to offer some rarer items like sickle, large shield, etc
Okay - just to interject here - you've got to be reasonable about some of the suggestions. No item we add in is going to have things like Immunity to Critical Hits - not unless it has some HUGE penalties to it like 100% damage vulnerability to every damage type and -4 CON or something. A level 13 (or even 40) item that gives you the main abiliity that a 10 level committment in Pale Master is going to give you ain't gonna happen.
We're not trying to be boring in our gear development - we're just trying to keep NS4 about the quality of the build rather than what tweaked out gear you find and see everybody use the same cookie-cutter gear loadouts. Paradoxically, at a certain point, really unique gear doesn't create diversity, it creates uniformity.
So, when you're coming up with ideas, try not to put stats on items that aren't already there (some exceptions are okay, more okay if they have negatives to offset them).
INT on helms, CHA on cloaks, STR on gloves, DEX on boots, CON on belts, WIS on amulets.
Also, spells on objects that are 1/day are a bad idea (unless they're pretty mild spells or it's a really really high level object). Offensive spells on an object most likely should only be put on armor since you can't equip out armor during a battle.
Also, unresistable damage (magic, divine, positive energy) should (except in uncommon unique situations) remain unresistable. So, no 50% immunity to divine. And, since that's the case, unresistable damage on weapons should be used sparingly as bonus damage rather than be the primary damage or damage vs. specific alignments/races.
If you want a real balancing headache, try and tackle rings...
Ah, but rings, you get two slots - so that's +24 total to a stat. Which stat gets that that doesn't ruin building chars? Certainly not discipline... perhaps some more benign ones like heal or parry or something. And, in general we do want to try and avoid gear that's Fighter only, etc.
Again - no feats on items unless they have HUGE penalties to them.
A -2 to hide is not a huge penalty.
You also want to consider that the penalty on the item is going to be an impact to all classes. A negative skill to hide/move silently isn't going to effect a paladin at all for example. So, if it's usable by all classes, you probably want to pick negatives that will apply to everyone: reduction in discipline, CON/STR score, reduction in spot/listen, negative AC, etc.
I'm not criticizing - I'm just trying to maximize the amount of artifacts that actually stand a chance of making it into the game. You have to think about the balacing effects of these items.
If I can find a helm that has a feat like Blind Fight on it (an extremely useful feat by the way), why would I ever take that feat? If I were to face an opponent that had concealment, I just slap on the helm and go to town.
Same with a cleric who wants extra turning - he just puts on the cloak with still a great CHA bonus and he's done.
If you really want to make it a tradeoff - give the cloak the feat of extra turning but then give it a -2 WIS and -2 CHA score or something. So, to get the feat, they have to trade something to get it.
Just trying to be realistic about what goes in without becoming unbalanced.