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Mar 4, 2012 -- 6:22AM, Marshall wrote:

Here's what I dont get....

The distinction between Uncommon and Rare is solely Story based in the base game. The ONLY place where changing an item from U to R makes the slightest bit of difference to a PC is LFRs bundle restrictions. Since several of these items fail miserably at meeting the definition of Rare(neither powerful nor character-defining)....

I'm left with the question of whether this is a change that the Globals requested, making the Devs incompetent for breaking the system when any problem is not a system issue, or if the Devs just dont know what they are doing(likely) since all the change does is make these items sell for more GP.

Either way, LFR is in worse shape than it was before. You now have a large swath of PCs that are "illegal" and 80% of the player/DM base isnt going to know it. Those that do are going to look at things like the Orb of Light and the other real LFR rares and compare that to a Fortune Stone and say "That's gotta be a misprint" and ignore the change.

IOW, the Globals are forced to add this whole swath of changes to the next CCG and/or the promised eratta doc just to clarify whats really going on. OTOT, the HRC is still broken in need of eratta, now its in the same place as the idiot Runes, so that hasnt changed and there's a NEW class of Rare Utility Items that need to be accounted for by increasing the rare cap or undefining these as rare items.
 
All in all, Epic Fail on the part of the eratta team. 

IOW = in other words
OTOT = on top of that

HRC = Horreb Ritual Cube

Runes = ???
Rare Utility items = ???

The Globals are in any way more involved in the discussion about item rarity than anybody on these boards were. Those lists were drawn up based on discussion on the D&D forums, which I personally did not pay much attention to. It is also a bit silly to accuse the designers of inaccuracy based on one or two mistakes on a huge list of items. I also know others do use the rarity rules, otherwise there would have been much less a public outcry to update the lists. I doubt those were all Organized Play people. Mind you, the rarity rules are perfect for Organized Play assuming the selection criteria and number of items is reasonable (which is obviously open for debate whether that is the case), so I won't complain about the rarity rules in itself.

Mar 5, 2012 -- 2:31AM, imaginaryfriend wrote:

Mar 3, 2012 -- 11:07AM, logopolis wrote:

Mar 3, 2012 -- 4:51AM, Metafictional wrote:

I don't really think the Harper Pin should count against your limit of rare items, given that it only exists to explain why the theme grants the powers it does.

That would be a reasonable rule, but I don't see anything in the LFRCG that would currently allow for that.

Reasonable is kinda expected to be used as a guideline by DM's in cases like this. While I realize a lot of people just will not be happy untill something is in writing, preferably in unassaiable legalese, the standing advice for DM's and players within LFR still is "when in doubt go with what makes it more fun for the table" (and yes the DM is part of the table ). I even think that is official, global backed, advice. Less legalese, more play

Sooner or later (probably later) a doubt dispelling clarification with the official stamp of LFR globalism will be issued concerning the harper pin, but it would seriously surprise me if that ends up not being reasonable. 

 

Such a clarification would make a good admin blog post by a global.

Mar 7, 2012 -- 10:52PM, Dragon9 wrote:

Mar 4, 2012 -- 1:18PM, Mommy_was_an_Orc wrote:

Mar 4, 2012 -- 11:45AM, Dragon9 wrote:

I'm kind of stunned at the reclassification of the Headband of Intellect. A rare? Really? It doesn't strike me as powerful enough for Rare classification.

 

Actually, that strikes me as the very definition of a Rare. Has two very good properties(+2/4/6 to a very broad category of skill checks), a +1 to hit on a powerful keyword with great support, and essentially, "I want to hit now." as a Daily.

 

The skill checks aren't that broad. MOnster Knowledge checks are pretty common, but knowledge checks? In all the 4e games I have played to date I have never had a Dm call for a knowledge check. MK checks are useful for sure.

knowledge check: A skill check used to remember a useful bit of information in a particular field of knowledge. Arcana, Dungeoneering, History, Nature, and Religion are the skills most commonly used to make knowledge checks.

Knowledge checks happen a lot in LFR...History checks are Knowledge checks almost by definition. A lot of mods ask if you know this little piece of Arcana, Nature, or Religion information.

Mar 7, 2012 -- 10:52PM, Dragon9 wrote:

I mean heck, my +2 Orb of Impenetrable Escape is lower level, provides +2 universal to hit, +2 damage and allows me to make an enemy reroll a save. Yes, I know, it's a mafic implement it's supposed to do that while the other is a head slot item providing a to hit bonus, but to me it illustrates an absurdity of the rarity upgrade (downgrade?). *shrug* I guess some see it as reasonable, I think it's a bit off.since I just hit 10th, I won't be out of the Rare collecting game for long. Always look on the bright side...

You Orb is being compared to other Orbs. You have a Daily power and no bonus to damage on a critical hit. How is that significantly better or more interesting compared to other Orbs?

Items that provide additional item bonuses to hit are very uncommon in 4e. You might even say rare...

Mar 8, 2012 -- 8:08AM, tirianmal wrote:

I'd be interested in where this definition of what constitutes a Rare is. Perhaps I've missed where the definition got made.

Here you go: www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/d...

Part of the problem with item rarity is that they are trying to do two separate, not necessarily compatible things with it. On one hand, they want rare items to be the most powerful and common items to be the least powerful. On the other hand, they want rare items to be the most complex and common items to be the least complex. A rare item would have several different powers/properties while a common item would have a static bonus that you can write on your character sheet once and then completely forget about it.

The problem with item rarity is that more complex does not necessarily mean more powerful and less complex does not necessarily mean less powerful, but the rarity system is attempting to account for both of those factors at once.