The two birds, in this case, are "making magic items more special" and "that bloody Weapon Expertise feat". My idea is extremely simple, but at the same time devilishly clever, if I may say so myself (I'm pretty arrogant): swap the sources of the bonuses.
The "One Stone" System
Feats' bonuses to attack rolls or defenses no longer scale with level.
- e.g. Iron Will grants a +2 feat bonus to Will.
- e.g. Light Blade Expertise grants a +1 feat bonus to attack rolls and a scaling bonus to damage rolls.
Each PC gets a cumulative +1 mastery bonus to all attacks, damage, and defenses every five levels or so, to a maximum of +6. There are two ways to distribute this bonus:
- As a reward to a PC who completes a minor quest of great personal significance. This could be anything from a journey to a monastery to train with a martial arts master to an attempt to reconcile with an estranged daughter. Anything that shows the PC has something to be fighting for. This is the recommended method.
- As an automatic bonus every fifth level. I'd suggest 5, 10, 15... , but your mileage may vary.
- A compromise: as 1, but your bonus increases automatically at levels 6, 11, 16... if you haven't increased it with a quest in the last five levels.
Magic weapons, implements, ki foci, armour, neck slot items, augmenting whetstones, and all other items that grant a scaling enhancement bonus grant a +1 enhancement bonus every 10 levels instead of every 5.
Masterwork light armour no longer exists. Masterwork heavy armour now follows this table:
Armor Name | AC Bonus | Enhancement Bonus | Special |
|---|
| Crysteel |
+7 |
+2 |
+2 Will |
| Forgemail |
+8 |
+2 |
|
| Pitmail |
+9 |
+3 |
+2 Will |
| Spiritmail |
+10 |
+3 |
|
| Stormscale |
+8 |
+2 |
+2 Fortitude |
| Wyrmscale |
+9 |
+2 |
|
| Titanscale |
+10 |
+3 |
+2 Fortitude |
| Elderscale |
+11 |
+3 |
|
| Specter plate |
+9 |
+2 |
Resist 2 all |
| Warplate |
+10 |
+2 |
|
| Tarrasque plate |
+11 |
+3 |
Resist 5 all |
| Godplate |
+12 |
+3 |
|
All effects that depend on an item's enhancement bonus, including but not limited to item level and price, crit dice, and many properties, instead depend on twice its enhancement bonus.
- e.g. a +1 Magic weapon is a level 6 item, costs 1800 gp, and deals +2d6 damage on a crit.
- e.g. a +3 Staff of Time is a legal level 30 item that costs 3,125,000 gp and deals +6d12 damage on a crit.
- e.g. Acrobat Boots are still a level 2 item costing 520 gp, because they don't grant an enhancement bonus.
The party receives 1.5 fewer items each level from treasure.
Special Exceptions
Artifact enhancement bonuses are halved and rounded down. Effects that depend on their enhancement bonus instead depend on their original enhancement bonus. Many artifacts may need to be managed on a case-by-case basis.
- e.g. a fully assembled Rod of Seven Parts is a +3 rod that deals +7d6 damage on a crit and grants a +7 item bonus to Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Religion checks.
- e.g. the Axe of the Dwarven Lords is a +2 battleaxe that deals +5d6 damage on a crit. When it is pleased, it becomes a regular +3 battleaxe; when it is angered it becomes a regular +2 battleaxe.
- e.g. the Invulnerable Coat of Arnd is +1 chainmail. When it is unsatisfied or angered, it becomes +0.
Attack powers that lack the weapon or implement keyword and grant a scaling bonus to attack rolls, such as Dragon Breath and Darkfire, reduce the bonus they grant by a cumulative 2 per tier.
- e.g. the attack line for the duergar's Infernal Quills power is now simply "Constitution vs. AC".
- e.g. the attack line for the drow's Darkfire power is now "Intelligence+2, Wisdom+2, or Charisma+2 vs. Reflex".
- e.g. the attack line for the Minotaur Horned Champion's Driving Gore power is now "Strength+2 vs. AC".
Certain items, including most alchemical items, use a flat number to determine their attack bonus, rather than depending on the ability of the user. Mastery bonuses do not apply to this attack.
- e.g. Mindiron Vambraces' daily power is +11 vs. Will / +21 vs. Will / +31 vs. Will, regardless of who is using it.
If an item grants an item bonus to damage, halve that bonus. In other words, an item bonus to damage is equal to the item's (effective) enhancement bonus, instead of twice that value.
- e.g. a +2 Staff of Ruin is a level 18 item that grants a +2 item bonus to damage and deals +4d10 damage on a crit.
- e.g. Iron Armbands of Power grant a +1 item bonus at level 6, a +2 item bonus at level 16, and a +3 item bonus at level 26.
Discussion
See, the math of the game assume that you'll get, on average, +1 to attacks and defenses each level. That's 29 increases between level 1 and level 30. In the standard system, they're divided as follows:
- +15 from the usual 1/2 level bonus
- +4 from ability increases (or masterwork armour, if you wear the heavy stuff)
- +6 from enhancement bonuses
- +3 from feats (or masterwork armour)
- +1 from miscellaneous sources, like item bonuses or paragon path features.
In my system the final sum is the same, but the breakdown looks like:
- +15 from the usual 1/2 level bonus
- +4 from ability increases (or masterwork armour, if you wear the heavy stuff)
- +6 from mastery bonuses
- +3 from enhancement bonuses
- +1 from miscellaneous sources, like item bonuses or paragon path features.
This simple change has many interesting consequences.
A long-needed fix
The first of these is that Weapon Expertise and its associated feats are now utterly unnecessary and can be disposed of in the nearest suitable location, such as a volcano or the depths of outer space.
This also applies to the Paragon and Robust Defenses feats, as well as certain aspects of the masterwork system. While I will refer mostly to weapons in the following paragraphs, please note that everything I say applies equally to armour, amulets, and other enhancement-granting items.
Update: Since Essentials expertise feats are actually pretty good (albeit overpowered), I've allowed them to return in a more balanced form. They're still better than most feats, but they're not (quite) mandatory any more.
Magic items are more special
The most important consequence in my opinion (after the removal of Weapon Expertise, anyway), is the reason I originally thought up this rule: to detrivialize magic items. I mean, despite the designers' original assurances that 4e would reduce the "Christmas Tree Effect" and make magic items neat again, things haven't changed much at all. Indeed, magic items are even more vital, and thus even more pedestrian, than before: without that +6 to attacks at high epic, you might as well be swinging an enormous stuffed kangaroo for all the hitting you won't be doing.
Now, however, you'll only need new gear every ten levels.That +1 sword you found in your first adventure will be sticking around for a good long while. You might even start to feel some attachment to it. And when you get that +2 dancing longsword, well, I bet that'll be even more exciting.
Magic Items are less vital
Interestingly, despite the increased relevance of magic items, it's still possible to go without one for a while and still be effective. After all, it's only a three-point difference at most, and we were all able to survive without that (albeit at reduced capacity) before Weapon Expertise. Now you can actually take away the PCs' items briefly, trusting that they'll still be able to fight their way out of prison with the knife they nicked off of that careless guard. Best of all, you can make Page 42 attacks and not feel like you're shooting yourself in the foot by trying to do something interesting!
Fewer items in treasure parcels
Since there are now fewer items available overall, PCs won't need to replace their items as often: once a tier, rather than twice a tier. To make up for this, I suggest removing 1.5 item parcels from the treasure the PCs find each level. That is, remove two items at even levels, one item at odds. This is a little awkward, and for that I apologize.
On the other hand, now that you have fewer treasure parcels to dole out, you can spend more time hand-placing each one. It won't be "Okay, you killed the remorhaz; you find 750 pp and a level 23 magic item", but rather "Okay, you killed the remorhaz; YOU FIND NOTHING BECAUSE IT'S AN UNINTELLIGENT NOMADIC GIANT CATERPILLAR. Maybe you'll find something next level." (Okay, bad example.)
Small quibbles
There are a few downsides to my idea, mind you, mostly of the 'extra work' variety. Luckily I've done most of that extra work for you already.
Masterwork light armour provided that +3 bonus normally granted by feats, so it had to go. Masterwork heavy armour is a stranger beast, though: not only did it grant that +3, it also provided the AC bonus normally granted by a high Dex or Int score. That's still there, so masterwork heavy armour has been modified appropriately.
Many innate powers that don't use weapons or implements needed changing. Dragon Breath, for instance, had an attack line of "Con+2/+4/+6 vs. Reflex". These extra plusses were to make up for the fact that it didn't get that +6 enhancement bonus. Now, though, everybody gets that +6 bonus for free on every attack; thus, innate attacks should be normalized to a flat "Con vs. Reflex".
Some innate powers, like Darkfire, grant bigger bonuses: Cha+4/+6/+8 in this case. These should become Cha+2, to reflect how they stay 2 points above the baseline.
Innate powers received at level 20, say from a paragon path, should be counted as belonging to the Epic tier. After all, you'll be spending 91% of your time with that power (10 out of 11 levels) as an Epic character.
Artifacts are a little weird. They already come with a built-in scaling mechanism: you find them with a bonus appropriate to your level; you level up and it goes up a plus; then you level up again and it disappears. Unfortunately, this is a little too granular for my system to handle easily, since it doesn't usually differentiate between a high-paragon and a low-paragon item.
The fix I came up with--letting artifacts sit between bonuses--works okay I think, as long as you only apply it to artifacts.
Don't use it on normal items. It's okay for artifacts to come in a wider range of power levels, because artifacts cost nothing, arrive unbidden, and leave the same way. Allowing half-bonus regular items means that magic items will need to be replaced every 5 levels (ever half-bonus) rather than every 10 levels, wjich completely invalidates the whole "Magic Items are more special" concept.
The Weapon Focus feats haven't been removed, so a character built under this system will deal 3 more damage with each attack than a standard character. Item bonuses to damage have been reduced to compensate. This is a good thing, since Iron Armbands of Power and similar items will no longer be a must-have... or in other words, an item tax.
Campaign tone
I should note that this system isn't appropriate for all campaigns.
If your campaign is a kick-in-the-door dungeon crawl, where the only goals are to fight more monsters and get more stuff, you should probably stick with the original system. The same holds in any other campaign where your items are a defining part of your character: some kind of fantasy-mecha hybrid, say.
On the other hand, if your campaign is a gritty, low-magic one where colourful tricks are no match for three feet of cold steel, you might prefer a system with no enhancement bonuses at all. I've seen a few around these boards, and most of them aren't bad. Some are definitely worth a look.*
However. If your campaign takes place somewhere between those extremes, in the genres known as high and heroic fantasy, my system might be just the thing for you. Give it a go.
A word of warning
Now, I'm sure there are some of you who are reading this and saying, "Hey, this guy has some pretty good ideas... but I think I could make it better by changing this one thing here." First of all: No, I'm fairly sure you can't. Second of all, DON'T CHANGE THE SYSTEM. The math of the system is very carefully balanced, and if you go mucking around in it without knowing what you're doing you could mess it up colossally.
Don't put Weapon Expertise back in "because you're nerfed without it."
Don't put the enhancement bonus cap back to +6 "to make weapons more epic."
Don't cap enhancement bonuses at +1 or +0 "to make the characters stand out more."
Don't change the levels at which you gain your mastery bonuses... actually nah, this one's okay. You can do this if you like.
Okay, so I'm exaggerating a bit. But seriously, if you're thinking of changing something, at least read the thread first. And then tell us about your idea. If it's bad, we'll try to explain why; if it's really good, it might just get incorporated into the system.
So, what do you think? Is it a good house rule? Are there any hidden downsides I may have missed? Is there anything I could have made better? Tell me your thoughts.
*If you want a quick fix, here's an idea: use my system, but convert every magic item into a legendary boon (/divine boon/grandmaster training/whatever). Oh, and have any boons that replace enhancement-granting items take 10 levels to fade, instead of 5.
