Item creation is probably the single biggest contributor to the latter stages of the game being very unbalanced. This is due to +6 stat items, weapons with an absurd amount of extra +d6's in damage, and the low cost in plentiful xp and gold. These are things we all already know, of course; the problem is solutions. Disabling item creation feats is certainly not a good idea, as item creation is a great idea - after all, how many +3 Celtic Short Swords do we find in game? There's many things that balance item creation feats in PnP - I'm not sure if these things can be done in ToEE, but if they can, it would go a long ways towards balancing item creation. Time: According to the DMG, crafting magical items is a serious time-sink, particularly for the more powerful items. With Ted's respawning Moathouse, we know respawn is possible, and the PnP module did give specific respawn rates. The problem? Well, that just adds more XP (and gold!) to the campaign. Some respawn would probably help, given its tediousness, but I had a different idea regarding that. What if players who spent many moons crafting Holy Avengers ventured back into the temple to find that some other group of adventurers had been busy at work too? Maybe the Fire Temple room with the chest is cleared, or Smigal is already dead and looted. If it's possible to time events like this, people would likely cut back on their crafting to resonable levels to make sure they don't miss out on some of the good fights in the temple. There could also be a time consideration for the Temple's success -- if they're able to proceed unhindered for a long length of time, eventually they'll succeed in their quest. The biggest factor that balanced crafting in PnP is money. Gold seems plentiful in this game, but only because the merchants have unlimited supplies of cash. By RAW, merchants funds' are strictly limited by the size of the town they're in. If any kind of change were able to be implemented regarding this, you wouldn't be able to sell an inventory worth thousands of gold on a simple village blacksmith or town herbalist. Even merchants in the cities would be hard pressed to buy everything the PC's had to sell, given the RAW cash limits. Money limits on merchants and timed events could seriously cut down on the availability of crafted items, while still allowing the possibility to craft a reasonable amount of stuff and customize your Celtic Short Sword wielding, Kilt wearing Ranger. Would anything like this be theoretically possible with the tools at our disposal?
They would certainly offer to buy it, but capped by depth of their pockets. Perhaps the Appraise skill could let you know if you're getting ripped off, or the merchant would be honest about it. If that were the case, the likelihood of selling it would go down. Can anyone provide the limits that Greylan suggested based on Verbobonc and Hommlet's respective populations. Nulb is an interesting question as it is basically a black market which might not be bound by DMG limits. On a different note, it seems that one cannot upgrade Wondrous Items (e.g. +2 Dex gloves to +4 Dex gloves). Money is lost on the resale of RAW upgradable items. The disparity is obviously dependant on the Appraise skill (party's highest, including NPCs, right?).
You can also try to limit enchantment level on weapons to +6. Or set a clvl required to wield such powerfull weapons like vanilla NWN used to have.
Has anyone done a rough calculation of party assets at say level 5 and 10? How far over the top are we talking? Just curious, without crafting, the norm would be parties having loads of unspent gold for lack of good stuff to buy?
You can't upgrade magical items, you make a +2 gloves, and if you want a better enhancement, you need to make a brand new set. I dunno if the old set could be used as part of the cost of the new set, tho. Technically speaking, if you craft your items, you're not ripped off when selling. Crafting an item costs half the price of the same item market's price. So, if you sell them to half a price, you're getting what you spent. Say, you craft a pair of gloves that cost you 2000 gp. The market price is more or less 4000 gp. When you go to a merchant he will pay you half the market price, this being 2000 gp. The greatest restriction in crafting (in pnp) is the time spent, and also you have a chance to fail and ruin the materials. You need a suitable place to do it ( a laboratory, or the like). I think that the time spent in crafting cn be added in ToEE, but since it really doesn't affect gameplay or events, is not worth the effort of rescripting all the world random encounter/events just for that. The suitable place could be a good idea tho, maybe using Burne's tower upper/lower levels. Again, there's isn't much problem at that, since the only thing you really need is a quite, safe place. A 6 lvl party is well suited to have a nice place for their mage to work...the house in Nulb could be easily equipped by such a party. :shrug:
Players tend to hate time limits. See Fallout 1 for instance. Also, I think item crafting doesn't pass any time, and it's not possible to script passage of time appropriate to the level of crafting being done as far as I know (i.e. it'd involve major dll hacking). As for crafting, I thought the highest level of crafting possible is +3? Or does +6 include the worth of other bonuses like flaming, frosty, etc.? Lastly, I think the only real solution to this sort of thing is to have a live DM to handle things, something we obvisouly can't mod in
Indeed. Plus, we should remember that Troika likely figured out ahead of time what PnP elements would translate well to a CRPG and which wouldn't, and thus implemented accordingly. We have to take care not to add stuff that just ends up being irritating or an inconvenience for no payoff. Personally I would be in favor of abolishing item creation altogether just to remove it's unbalancing effect from the game (I rarely or never craft when I play), but that's not what Troika wanted and a lot of people love it, particularly power-gamers. So it stays. And of course we have to remember that variability is supposed to be a prominent feature of this game - you play it your way, I play it mine, and both of us can be equally satisfied because the game accomodates everybody. Doing a lot of stuff with time limits would probably hinder that more than anything.
Agreed :yes: I rarely craft too, mostly some specific weapon or item, that i want one of my charcters have cos it would look cool with it or is part of teh character background and usually not too powerful. As a matter of fact, usually got desperated by the fact that i end having so many magical weapon/items, that i don't know to who i could equip with it Yes, my favourite choice is a +1 keen frost scimitar -_- Personally, i hate time limits. Always hated those games you see the time limit a top the screen, or games that time is a big factor. I like to take my time and think what i'm, doing, that's why i suck at MMOrpgs, or games like Warcraft, where you have to click frenetically. Except Mortal Kombat
Am I correct that the game won't let me craft a flaming sword at 6th level because the item caster level is 10th? If so, this is incorrect. SRD Magic Items I (Basics and Creation): • Caster Level: The next item in a notational entry gives the caster level of the item, indicating its relative power. The caster level determines the item’s saving throw bonus, as well as range or other level-dependent aspects of the powers of the item (if variable). It also determines the level that must be contended with should the item come under the effect of a dispel magic spell or similar situation. This information is given in the form “CL x,” where “CL” is an abbreviation for caster level and “x” is an ordinal number representing the caster level itself. It is not, as many believe, a level requirement. The page continues by describing the next part of the item requirements • Prerequisites: Certain requirements must be met in order for a character to create a magic item. These include feats, spells, and miscellaneous requirements such as level, alignment, and race or kind. The prerequisites for creation of an item are given immediately following the item’s caster level. * Perhaps you guys all know this, but nothing can be done about it.
