Ezri said:Making it so that people can no longer use the things they already have will be a customer service nightmare. Creating a skill to use them (while that would be an ok idea if we were just starting - I've had that thought myself) will just mean that you'll have to allow people a re-build if they request it, so you've accomplished nothing, as the people with the "pocket scholars" just had to sell back skills to be able to do what they've been doing all along.
Here's my thinking:
You can do one of two things - make magic items harder for combat classes to use, or add a benefit to it that only casters get.
The former will upset lots of people, while the latter could be a big boon to casters.
I have some ideas, but I'm not sure that they're good ones, I'd like some feedback. For the purpose of discussion when I say caster I mean somebody with the skill to cast a spell - which could be a scholar, adept, templar, or any other class that has put build into a spell tree of either school:
Idea #1 - If a caster activates an item in his or her primary school, they may choose to activate it silently. This would still require an OOG verbal of "casting <spellname>." The verbal is not in-game, and may be made while the character is silenced, paralyzed or otherwise incapacitated (yet still conscious). The verbal represents an audible surge of magic coming from the caster, much like the damage swing "2 normal" represents the sounds of battle, swords clashing etc. ("casting" is a placeholder - if somebody has an idea for a better verbal let me know) Ex: Aislynn has a purify item. Because her primary school is Earth, she can activate it while under the effects of a silence to rid herself of the effect.
Idea #2 - A caster who activates an item in his or her primary school may choose to ignore all flaws in said item. Ex: Cedric has a 2/day dragon's breath item, but it has a flaw that only allows it to be used while sitting. Because Cedric's primary casting school is Celestial, he has enough knowledge of the spell to be able to use the item and ignore these restrictions.
Still pondering more, but thought I'd kick these around to start.
**Edited to Add bits from the old thread on other solutions to the Magic Item debate
-Stop allowing permanent NPC items (HQ already does this).
-When items go out of treasure policy, do not put out items with very powerful spells in them, except perhaps where they make plot sense (like a racial artifact or something). No prisons, lifes, circles, dragons breaths, purifies etc. out of items. I'd rather see 8 disarm items than a dragon's breath. You want the big boom? Go to a caster. It means there are more items overall, but it also means that the big spells remain the realm of the caster.
-Player-made items obviously can still be permanenced, or have 9th level spells or whatever. The rules on these would not change.
Eventually most of the other items will get used up, expire or otherwise make their way out of the game. I'm sure some will hang around, but over time things will shift. No, it's not an immediate fix, which is what I'm sure we would like. But sometimes those sort of changes create more problems that we didn't forsee.
Great Ideas