May 15th, 2008: Magic items is the topic for this week.
One of my ever increasing gripes about D&D has been the proliferation of magic items either
in published adventures or in item creation rules. 3rd editon especially made it so ridiculously
easy to make or upgrade items that they became mundane in a way. One of my few hopes about
4th edition is that they cut back on the items like they promise. We shall see how that fares.
In the meantime poor Boccob the Uncaring has had to endure this deluge of magic items over
all the editions. In case you aren't familiar:
"It is said that in (Boccob's) palace there is at least one of every magic item, save
artifacts and relics, ever devised by magic-user or illusionist."
A copy of EVERY item. Think about the ordinary iconic magic items in 1E then in 2E the four volume encyclopedia of magic items, then
boggle in amazement at 3E and how every magic item ever devised could possibly be
an infinite combination of bonuses and tacked on special abilities on up to +10 weapons of the Epic order.
The worst part is mortals are guaranteed that their creations will be successful if they burn enough gold and XPs. BAH!
Boccob can only take so much of this runaway glut of items...
-mortellan
