Scrying The 4e Crystal Ball - Christmas Tree Or No Christmas Tree

Logan Bonner recently posted at Dungeons & Dragons Insider about magic item slots. While others are busy figuring out whether his mention of the gnome means the gnome is back in (I'm betting not, as a previous article mentioned some shenanigans in converting the gnome character), I'm going to focus on something else. One of the stated goals of 4e was to reduce the "Christmas Tree" effect of magic items on characters. That is, Characters simply could not function well in 3.5e without certain standard magic items hanging off of them (like the ornaments on a Christmas tree).

From the article, I'd say they haven't succeeded that well... I mean, that gnome has more magic items than most comparable characters that I have of that level... so how is this helping? Of course, it's difficult to tell. We're given a list of magic items, but little insight as to what these items do or how powerful they may be compared to the equivalent 3.5e items. What surprises me most is that they provide a list of magic items a typical character might have (it's a formidable list) while still stating their commitment to decreasing reliance on those items:

One of our goals in 4th Edition was to reduce characters’ reliance on magic items. The most important portion of this goal involved removing a lot of the magic items that were essential just so your character could feel effective, like stat-boosting items, amulets of natural armor, and the like. We also felt like these items weren't as exciting as magic items should be, yet characters depended on them heavily to feel adequate in proportion to their level.

So - we can either conclude that they've failed in their goal OR that the magic items in question are "more exciting" - until we find out just what wavestrider boots and bracers of perfect shot do, the jury is still out. The full article is here. Thanks for the posters at Paizo for bringing it to my attention.

[via Paizo Publishing]