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delroland wrote:

But I can just take gold every adventure and buy same level items through level 21, then at the end have three level 25 items, three level 26 items, three level 27 items, three level 28 items, three level 29 items, and fifteen level 30 items, plus the items I bought with my gold.

Of course, then you'd have to go for 20 levels without any magic items higher than your character level. You'd be underpowered for 20 levels, which might not be fun for you. You'd be underpowered for 20 levels, which probably puts your PC and the others at the table in danger.

Among the people I play with, underpowered characters have a hard time reaching high levels. For one thing, they die a lot. For another, people refuse to sit down at a table with a PC who can't carry his weight. Someone who delays taking any found items until 21st level is pretty unlikely ever to see 21st level.

Maybe other groups are more willing to put up with dangerously underpowered characters who will be teh UBER in 3pik, but I doubt there are many.

delroland wrote:

In a home game, I don't have the DM telling me I can't use a nifty item I found in an adventure because I grabbed an item last adventure. This is a repeat of the "you found it, but not really" problem that plagued LG, just in a different way.

And I love how you clamp on my posting syntax instead of addressing my point. Does it make you feel smarter?

I DID address your point, you just choose to ignore it.

And yes, i do feel smart thank you very much. :P I figured you would understand the point better if I used your syntax.

The point is that The DM in a home game isn't going to necessarily give you a shiny after every adventure you play, so he doesn't have to tell you you can't use it because he didn't give it to you/dangle it in front of your face in the first place. A Living Campaign has shinies at the end of every adventure out of necessity because of the campaigns structure. While a DM in a home game can tailor item distribution to his players post-adventure because he is dealing with the same groups of players/characters every session, you can't do that in a Living campaign.

If a home game follows the guidelines set forth in the DMG you're playing in, he will give you a useful item 4 times out of 5 levels (I misspoke in my earlier post and said 4 items per 5 adventures I think, it should have been 4 items per 5 levels). In a worldwide campaign where you aren't playing with the same DM every time or the same group of people you can't have the DM going around and determining who got an item already this level, or last level, or if they already have received one per level, to see who should be given an item at mods end. The onus falls to the player to select the item they would normally have received from the DM if they were in a home game as the one they would receive that level.

So, as Keith Hoffman said, if you have a problem with it, talk to Andy Collins.

But I can just take gold every adventure and buy same level items through level 21, then at the end have three level 25 items, three level 26 items, three level 27 items, three level 28 items, three level 29 items, and fifteen level 30 items, plus the items I bought with my gold.

The system as written can be abused as well, and based on the above example gives a disadvantage to the person who chooses to take items.

As Fakegoatee said, you 'd be horrendously underpowered. For one you wouldn't be able to buy enough magic items through those levels to be effective at all. If you can make it from 1st to 21st without much more than a +1 or 2 weapon and armor, more power to you. It's certainly not recommended as you will be far behind the power curve.

Once you made it to Epic tiers you wouldn't even be that uB3r, because not all high level items will be useful to you then. (If you're any thing but a Rogue, do you really want Guildmaster's Gloves? They're the highest level hand slot item though). many slots don't have items with levels above the mid 20's. Most don't have a level 30 item.

So either you'll be effective for a few levels and then the power curve will straighten itself back out or you won't end up as powerful as you think.

Fakegoatee wrote:

PHB items are open access, and you get 5 slots per tier for must-have non PHB items, such as holy avengers or pact blades.

Holy Avengers and Pact Blades are PHB items.

delroland wrote:

A +1 implement/weapon, +1 armor, and a +1 amulet are not that expensive. At most, a heroic character will have three daily item powers between extended rests (four for paragon, and five for epic); three low-level daily use items are not terribly expensive either. How, exactly, would that be underpowered?

A heroic tier character can only use one daily item power per day regardless of the number you have (paragon tier can use 2, and Epic can use three). Unless you take an extended rest or reach a Milestone (although you can't use that same power after a milestone, you get to use a different one though). So it's possible to use all three between extended rests but only if you're hitting Milestones a lot.