Apr27
on April 27, 2018
Eye Sore
During my 3e/ Pathfinder days, I sometimes wondered how effective it was to cast detect magic when the rest of the party was standing a few feet away wearing more magical items than a hockey player wears pads. It must have been trying to find a dropped flashlight while a raging bonfire flamed directly behind you.
Yeah, I totally agree. At high levels (or mid-level for that matter), characters will light up like a Christmas Tree with magical detection. The ubiquitous nature of magic items (and the utter reliance on them at higher levels) in 3e D&D annoyed me to no end! You could not find NPCs without magic times, to where they became their defining characteristic. And too much magic ruins their… you know: Magic!
I remember seeing the Ogre Barbarian within the Ogre entry (v3.5 MM) as having: +1 great club; +1 hide armor; and ring of protection +1. OK, I can understand the beefed-up Ogre leader taking someone’s ring of protection as a prize, but where the hell did an ogre get a magic tree trunk, magical animal hide? Last time I checked, no one enchants anything that big or primitive! Plus, when did Barbarians in D&D ever needed (or trusted) magic? As an official rule, they used to only go raw-dog on people!
I just ignored it for my own sanity.
I think the inherent comedy in a +1 club is probably worthy of its own strip. I’ll have to “steal” that idea.
Wait, what? *checks the 3.5 SRD*
Huh. So that’s not just a greatclub and hide armor, that’s a masterwork greatclub and masterwork hide armor. Who crafts that and enchants that for a large creature?
…Actually, a mighty club and fine hide? Reminds me of what I read on the wikipedia page on Oni.
There’s an idea, even if it’s not as charismatic, the ogre barbarian presented is slightly smarter than other ogres. Perhaps he serves an ogre mage who created those gifts for his favoured minion.
…Darn, now I want to play an ogre-mages game in 3.5. Unlimited invisibility, alter self, flight and regeneration…
Well, I partly disagree with this… detect magic is directional, with a small angle of perception, and does not directly depend on sight (you could pinpoint the strenght, aura and location of an item hidden in a shallow pond under a layer of mud, for example). But the rest of the group must stay out of the perception arc or range….
About the number of magic items, it largely depends on the style of the campaign, and this means on the DM. I totally agree with Malcadon on this.
But you should see some PCs I rolled up for a 3.5 campaign in FR when we got around 16th level…
That is a perfectly rational and entirely reasonable interpretation of events. The opposite of a funny comic.