robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) (11/21/84)
One thing that has troubled me about AD+D is the remarkable difficulty
of creating magic objects, relative to their value. Many of the really
expensive items seem well-priced, but the low-priced objects,
particularly potions, make no sense at all.
(In discussing price, I am referring primarily to the "value" of the
objects in the AD+D DM guide.)
For example, it makes no sense to me that potions of healing should
be more common than wands of healing, which would have many more
charges and would be easier to carry. I would also expect potions to
be made in enormous quantities (for economy of scale), but they never
seem to OCCUR in large quantities.
It appears that the object values were set to be reasonable regarding
discovered treasure, and the description of how to create magical
treasure was made in order to discourage the creation of magic
(since the point of the game is to find it, not create it).
- Toby Robison (not Robinson!)
{allegra, decvax!ittvax, fisher, princeton}!eosp1!robisonjs2j@mhuxt.UUCP (sonntag) (11/26/84)
Tobias Robinson writes: > One thing that has troubled me about AD+D is the remarkable difficulty > of creating magic objects, relative to their value. Many of the really > expensive items seem well-priced, but the low-priced objects, > particularly potions, make no sense at all. Yes, potions and many other items are ridiculously underpriced. Whenever I have had a character capable of making potions, I NEVER sold any potions for less than 3 times book value. (it costs the potion maker book value to make the darn things.) > For example, it makes no sense to me that potions of healing should > be more common than wands of healing, which would have many more > charges and would be easier to carry. I would also expect potions to > be made in enormous quantities (for economy of scale), but they never > seem to OCCUR in large quantities. First of all, ecomomies of scale do NOT apply to potion making. Any DM worth his/her salt could easily come up with 3 or 4 good reasons why this is so. Secondly, a character must reach name level (11th or 12th) before they can create wands. There are a lot more characters of 7th or higher level, which is all that is required for potion creation. Jeff Sonntag ihnp4!mhuxt!js2j