The Campaign Builder's Guild

Well, as the players have grown in level I've noticed a disparity in performance (since I don't use magic items whatsoever within my game). The numbers were working against the players - the higher level they became, the less effective they were.

So to address the issue, I've introduced armor and weapons based on the "Mearls Code", for those who have read a few of this threads on how to address no to low magic games, in order to keep players ahead of the game. The community recommendation has been to offer the bonuses by level, but I want to continue supporting the idea of an item-based reward system.

Attached is the file for armor and equipment. You'll note that there are two separate distinctions across Light and Heavy armor by subtype.

LIGHT ARMOR
Padded
Thick
Woven
Studded
Ringwoven
Brigandine

HEAVY ARMOR
Cast Iron
Wrought Iron
Common Steel
Superior Steel
Masterwork Steel
Superior Mithril
Masterwork Mithril

Additionally, I also introduced bonus HP for armor+shield type worn (to address the issue with diminishing returns for Fighters who have above avg Dexterity and elect to go the Hide+Shield route, instead of wearing heavier armors+shield). Heavier armor gives more HP, and shields grant a pretty significant bonus on their own in order to give some immediate return to go "sword-and-board".

My prices are based off of the Gold Mark (gm), a macroeconomy I have created using the Grain Into Gold (grain as a commodity to determine a standardized pricing economy) suppliment - I heartily recommend this to everyone here, even if you don't run Dungeons and Dragons.

Weapons grant additional proficiency bonuses when wielded, much akin to the age-old Sword +1 through +6. They also give bonuses to criticals, as recommended by Mearls to pad their damage output.

Lemme know what you think!

Cheers~

File located here -> http://v1.cc/ARMOR_Lowmagic.xls

seperate from everything else, I have to give you kudos for the economic system you have adopted.  It is so important to make the world's economy actually work.

Moniker, I will give you a few points to show exactly why higher level characters underperform in 4E than their lower level character counterparts.

Player Attack and Defenses scale at 0.5/level. Additionally, they get +1 to each every 5 levels (not regular, but it is suposed to come to them somewhere within 5 levels) from magic weapons, armor, and amulets. Lastly, they gain +1 to everything from increased ability scores (the +1 at 11 and 21) and an additional +3 to their Attack (from their prime ability score), 1 or 2 defenses (from both ability scores they chose to increase at 4, 8, 14, 18, 24, and 28), and 3 to AC. Additionally, armor gets a further 2 increase from Masterwork Bonuses at +4 and +6 enhancement (now this is tweeked a bit more due to the new masterworks in Adventurer's Vault).

This totals to a +25 increase to Attack, a +27 increase to AC, and a +25 increase to 1 or 2 defenses and a +22 increase to the other defenses.

While players increase like that, monsters attacks and defenses increase at a steady 1/level. Over the course from 1st to 30th levels, monster attacks and defenses increase by a wopping +29. That means the difference between player attack and monster defenses has decreased by 4 over the course from 1st to 30th levels, and monster attacks have increased anywhere from 2 to a staggering 7 points higher than player defenses.

Sure, players can spend feats to increase their AC (getting +1) or Defenses (getting +2), and there are a few magic items to increase non-AC Defenses now, but there are almost no ways to increase player attack bonus beyond the expected amount.

I don't just come with dire news. The most simple way to fix this is to double ability score bonuses whenever they are given out. This makes it so attack bonuses increase by +29, AC increases by +29 for light armored characters (heavy armored characters will require a change to masterwork armors), and 1 or 2 defenses will increase by +29 (while the other increases by +23; sorry, your Brawny Rogue is going to need to pick up Iron Will and some other Will boosters).

I advise that the ability score increases be moved as well, so that they don't occure on even levels when characters gain their level bonuses. A simple way would be to have players increase 2 ability scores by 1 at 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th levels (and other levels that end in these numbers), and have all ability scores increase by 2 at 11th and 21st levels (the "hurray you entered into a new tier" bonus). This nets 2 ability scores increasing by 16 (an increase of 8 to their ability modifier) and the other 4 increasing by 4 (an increase of 2 to their ability modifier), which is twice what it is now and makes it so no ability modifiers will increase on a level that a character's level modifiers increased.

In the end, 4E is not without it's nitpicky mechanical faults. Monsters still increase at an even 1/level, while players have to rely upon when they get their magic items. I am seriously considering discussing a change to the system with my players, making ability scores more static but having everything increase at 1/level. This would make things more balanced, but I worry that players will feel less cool if their Fighter doesn't have a 30 strength at the end of the game.

Otherwise, I think magic items with plusses should be handed out at 3rd, 7th, 13th, 17th, 23rd, and 27th level. I am considering making minor adjustments to the magic weapons, armor, and amulets that feel noticably weaker than the others (the simple "magic weapon", for instance) and adjusting them (maybe removing the magic weapon that's only difference from the base is having a very large crit die and making that the standard magic weapon) so that all magic weapons, armor, and amulets can just be the same level (3rd, 7th, 13th ...). Most players want the magic weapon, armor, and amulet that fits their character, and they aren't going to fret that they are using a 2nd level weapon rather than a 4th level weapon, so I'm fairly confident this wouldn't have huge reprecussions. But if I'm going to micromanage things like this, I might as well just remove the plusses from magic weapons, armor, and amulets and just have attacks, defenses, and skills scale at +1/level.

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More towards the OP's point, though, that's a lot to go through at the momment. I would definately like to see a more realistic economy in 4E, and a large part of me yurns for a game more "less reliant" on magic items than 4E turned out to be (something we were promised for 4E).

I will be putting this on the top of my reading list. For now I'm milling about waiting for my sleeping pill to kick in. Sorry about the rant, you just hit upon a topic I spent a bit of time researching. Hurray for that "Skill Focus (Gaming Proficiency)" feat I purchased.

Kapn,

Are you looking purely at bonuses based on the stat array introduced for 4e?

No, I'm looking at the +15 to attack and defenses from level increases, the +6 enhancement from items, and the potential +4 to two stats that you gain if you put all your stat ups (+6 to 2, +2 to 4) in two stats.

There are a handful of items to boost defenses beyond the amulet enhancement bonus, and there are a few feats to boost defenses (+2) and AC (max +1, since feat bonuses don't stack).

The starting stats do not matter. I'm looking at how much your Attack and Defenses increase between 1st and 30th.