You're Not A Superhero
D&D 4th Edition's sometimes overlooked magic item rule
With the new edition of D&D hitting the shelves, I am imagining a world where the next version of Dungeons and Dragons is actually 4th edition. These posts highlight some of the key differences between 5e and 4e.
One of my favorite things in D&D 4e is the magic items. Just the Player’s Handbook alone has dozens of amazing objects. And the Adventurer’s Vault and Adventurer’s Vault 2 offer a huge boost in awesome trinkets that can help a character.
Many of the items offer a simple bonus to an attack or a defense or a skill. A good number of them also offer powers. This is where things get really special. You could pick up a magic item that has a cool power and your character is instantly amped up to do something amazing.
But this is also where those of us familiar with 5th edition sometimes forget about an important rule.
Powers are the core of everything in 4e. Having access to more powers is what makes your character more…well…powerful. If you ever found yourself in possession of a bunch of magic items that each had powers, you might well be unstoppable.
As a 1st level character, you would typically have a single Encounter power and one Daily power. Once you use that Daily power, you do not get it back until you take an extended rest.
But, let’s say that you were fortunate enough to find yourself in possession of both a Frost Weapon (PHB p234)…
and some Dwarven Armor (PHB p229)…
Each of these items have daily powers of their own that could shift the balance of an encounter.
And this is where the DM needs to be paying attention.
You see, if you look closely at the second page of the 4th edition character sheet, you will notice a little section at the bottom of the Magic Items box. This section is labeled ‘Daily Item Powers Per Day’ and has a bunch of check boxes.
No matter how many magic items you have with daily powers, you cannot use all those powers every day. At Heroic tier (1-10), you can use one daily power from your magic items. At Paragon tier you can use two such powers and Epic tier grants you access to three daily powers from magic items.
You get to use an additional daily power each time you complete 2 encounters without stopping for an extended rest. This is called a milestone (PHB p259)
My Dwarven Armor has a Daily power and my Frost Weapon has a Daily power. I will always get the +1 defense bonus that the armor provides and the weapon will always give me the +1 to my attack and damage, but as a Heroic tier character I can only use one of the magic item daily powers each day.
The biggest point of confusion is that this is not one daily power per magic item. It is one daily power from ALL the magic items you possess. If you are a Heroic tier character with a dozen magic items that each have daily powers, you can only use one of those daily powers each day.
Keep in mind that this is not an issue in 5th edition because most of the magic items in 5th edition do not do anything extraordinary. 5e is a magic-lite game. The magic items will provide bonuses and enhancements just as the 4e magic items do, but very few also provide some sort of special ability that would require a rule to keep it in check.
Is it better to have amazing magic items that need special rules to control them or is it better for the magic items to be more mundane? I suppose it depends on what kind of game you want to run. I know where I stand. What about you?
Do you like to just run wild with magic items or do you feel less magic is better?
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I’ve just always been completely floored by the extreme care put into Balancing every aspect of fourth edition. The one daily item power rule is just one example of the brilliance of 4th edition’s balanced ruleset. The encounter XP rules are another, and that part not only balances The encounters well, it makes it insanely easy for the DM to build encounters.
anyway, Thanks so much for these posts and your videos-Great work.
I prefer magic items to be more mundane but for powerful magic items, yes, I def think there should be controls, special rules or whatever to use them.