Item Level Restrictions - Pros and Cons

Aloro · Post by **Aloro** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 4:59 pm

It is 100% in character for any character of any alignment to use any item that gives them an advantage. The only exception I can imagine is if it was an intelligent artifact that was evil, and the character was a Paladin, but even then, there are plenty of IC reasons to use an evil artifact to do good.

I can't agree with this.

OK, so maybe that Evil item you found does give you an edge. Do without it. You'll get by, and you can doubtless find something almost as useful that won't taint your soul.

My primary character is CG. He is an excellent example of "the ends justify the means as long as you serve the greater good". And yet even he has real limits as to what is acceptable in serving the greater good.

My character has a very close friend who has for some time liked to use a certain item. This item is evil. My character's friend used it to do good, and yet my character was ALWAYS troubled by this item, and continually mentioned it to his friend. One day my character's friend dropped the item by mistake and didn't notice. My character promptly picked it up and hid it, later destroyed it, and never said a word about it to his friend.

- Aloro

Melakin Skywieder · Post by **Melakin Skywieder** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 5:07 pm

My primary character is CG. He is an excellent example of "the ends justify the means as long as you serve the greater good". And yet even he has real limits as to what is acceptable in serving the greater good.

My character has a very close friend who has for some time liked to use a certain item. This item is evil. My character's friend used it to do good, and yet my character was ALWAYS troubled by this item, and continually mentioned it to his friend. One day my character's friend dropped the item by mistake and didn't notice. My character promptly picked it up and hid it, later destroyed it, and never said a word about it to his friend.

- Aloro

Damn you're sneaky....you sure your not really a rogue

Reminds me never to tell you if I have a really nice, evil thing bwahahahaahaha......

Aloro · Post by **Aloro** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 5:13 pm

Melakin Skywieder wrote:Damn you're sneaky....you sure your not really a rogue

Reminds me never to tell you if I have a really nice, evil thing bwahahahaahaha......

The character we're talking about isn't one of my rogues. But yeah, I (and he) can be pretty sneaky at times.

- Aloro

Melakin Skywieder · Post by **Melakin Skywieder** » Sat Aug 16, 2003 10:39 pm

I know who your main character is

Like dude chill.........

Aloro · Post by **Aloro** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 3:59 am

Heh. I answered that way because I meant to imply that I, not my character, am sometimes a rogue.

Like dude chill.........

Duuuuude!

- Aloro

Vroshgrak · Post by **Vroshgrak** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 5:38 am

rego has an "arrowhead" that requires lvl 7. and shes had it for like 2 or 3 months RL. I've been lvl 6 the whole time. maybe its a sign I should play her more. but i think that ILR are a good thing

Aloro · Post by **Aloro** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 6:55 am

rego has an "arrowhead" that requires lvl 7. and shes had it for like 2 or 3 months RL. I've been lvl 6 the whole time. maybe its a sign I should play her more. but i think that ILR are a good thing

Heh. Jenny got a shield embossed with her name on it for winning the first open Avlis bardic championship. However, you have to be level 4 to use it, and she's only level 2.

- Aloro

Strangg · Post by **Strangg** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 11:41 am

Dirk Cutlass wrote:Yep. 'Tis a good idea.

I strongly disagree with it not making any RP sense. I think it makes perfect sense!
Well, that's my view on the rationale behind it.

While this reasonign works for the +5 hammer of thor it makes no sense at all when discussing the more mundane items. You wil lnever convince me that a +2 fortitude ring is so vastly superior in it's power that a character who can wear a +1 ring shouldnt' be able to wear the +2 version. When discussing items such as a +5 hammer of thor we are talking artifact level items, such items are so powerful they have some sort of "will" or "ego" as it was called in 2e. Which can explain very easily as to why a low level can not wield it properly. The same can not be said for most items however. If we were in a more strict RP environement item level restrictions wouldn't be an issue. Just as they are not in your tabletop games. Well at least not in any games i have been involved with, level restrictions just don't exist.

~S

Strangg · Post by **Strangg** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 11:51 am

Aloro wrote:
My character has a very close friend who has for some time liked to use a certain item. This item is evil. My character's friend used it to do good, and yet my character was ALWAYS troubled by this item, and continually mentioned it to his friend. One day my character's friend dropped the item by mistake and didn't notice. My character promptly picked it up and hid it, later destroyed it, and never said a word about it to his friend.

- Aloro

I'd like to point out that there are very few items that are really evil(I'm curious to know what item your talkign about as there are very few items in avlis that are evil), and even evil items can be used for good. I'll give you a wonderful example one of my players came up with in a campaign i ran long ago.

The group i was running had an assassin after them, they managed to Forest Gump their way into defeating him without much trouble. On his person he had a Dagger of Venom. These things were quite nasty, the hilt was filled with poison and on a roll of 20 they injected a dose of fatal poison into the victim, which was a vs poison save or die. It specifically stated that the weapon, if used by good was pretty much a very bad thing. So when the ranger who dual wielded a dagger and short sword picked it up i was quite suprised. At this point in time i hadn't a clue what he was up to and was interested to see what he was going to do. The player, in a stroke of genius, decided to empty out the poison then clean it out and fill it with holy water from the party cleric. The ranger was an Undead Hunter BTW...pure genius. One of the best ideas i had seen concening what to do with evil type items, the guy got a nice xp cookie for sure. Not to mention he was an undead killing fool when he put that dagger to use.

~S

Starslayer_D · Post by **Starslayer_D** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 12:46 pm

Strangg wrote:
Dirk Cutlass wrote:Yep. 'Tis a good idea.

I strongly disagree with it not making any RP sense. I think it makes perfect sense!
Well, that's my view on the rationale behind it.
While this reasonign works for the +5 hammer of thor it makes no sense at all when discussing the more mundane items. You wil lnever convince me that a +2 fortitude ring is so vastly superior in it's power that a character who can wear a +1 ring shouldnt' be able to wear the +2 version. When discussing items such as a +5 hammer of thor we are talking artifact level items, such items are so powerful they have some sort of "will" or "ego" as it was called in 2e. Which can explain very easily as to why a low level can not wield it properly. The same can not be said for most items however. If we were in a more strict RP environement item level restrictions wouldn't be an issue. Just as they are not in your tabletop games. Well at least not in any games i have been involved with, level restrictions just don't exist.

~S

They are unneeded, as normally your DM makes quite sure that none of the treasure he gives out is capable of overpowering his campaign.

Aloro · Post by **Aloro** » Sun Aug 17, 2003 6:20 pm

I'd like to point out that there are very few items that are really evil(I'm curious to know what item your talkign about as there are very few items in avlis that are evil), and even evil items can be used for good.

I understand that Evil can be used for Good (and Cha'reth understands this as well

). However, in general it is unwise for people to attempt to do this, because Evil can also tempt you and taint your soul. That is, after all, in its nature. So if you NEED to use Evil to accomplish a Good goal, that's one thing. Using it because it's convenient or cool or especially powerful is corrupting yourself. Using something Evil on a longterm basis is to be avoided if you are Good. Yes, there are exceptions, but I think there is a very sensible guideline.

- Aloro