I was thinking... the DMG goes into some detail on the easy way to write an adventure, as based on the whole CR/EL thing: four encounters in a row, each with an EL of the party's average level, more or less. Since each "appropriate" encounter is supposed to drain 20-25% of the party's short-term resources (mostly hp and spells), four encounters should pretty much exhaust the party, making the fourth pretty risky. However, there is one item that makes this whole setup into a big sham:

The lowly wand of cure light wounds.

This item costs a mere 750 gp, for 50 charges of 1d8+1 healing. That comes out to between 2 and 3 gp per hp healed - call it 3 gp on account of some "overkill" (and that term feels VERY inappropriate when talking about healing). Its existence means that the party starts every encounter in top condition, at least as far as hp are concerned. It makes most traps pointless, unless they deal enough damage to outright kill those affected or have some other, non-hp related effect (e.g. poison). The same pretty much goes for monsters, except they usually stick around for a few rounds so they have more time to deal lethal (or at least dangerous) damage.

The wand also affects class balance a bit. Clerics and druids get a little boost through its existence (since it means they can use their spells for other things than healing), but the big winners are the fighting classes, especially the plain fighter. The main resource the fighter expends in an encounter are his hit points, and the wand easily replenishes those. Other fighting classes tend to have some X/day abilities (Rage for barbarians, Smite evil for paladins, um... nothing I can think of for rangers other than spells), but hp are a pretty big thing with them too. The ones who gain the least from the wand are arcane casters, since the main resource they expend in an encounter are their spells and the wand doesn't help there.

I'm not sure what, if anything, to do to the wand. I don't have any problems with the spell itself, or with potions/scrolls of it (since you don't tend to carry around fifty of those in a convenient light-weight package that you get for a big discount). I don't have much of a problem with other wands either, mainly because wands tend to suck for most other 1st-level spells you want to cast a lot of (because of low DC, damage, and/or other level-based effects), and as soon as you leave 1st-level wand territory
prices go up pretty steeply (a 2nd-level wand costs six times that of a 1st-level wand). I think it's a combination of the general lack of time sensitivity of Cure Light Wounds (by the time the fight is over, you can generally take a minute or two to heal people up) and the fact that it doesn't rely much on caster level or save DC. I don't want to add a surcharge to that one wand in an arbitrary fashion, and I don't feel like adding a focus to the spell (which would increase the wand cost in a non-arbitrary fashion) because that would increase the cost of scrolls and potions as well.

Whatever, if anything, I end up doing probably won't be done in the course of the campaign I'm currently running. I don't like changing rules mid-stream, especially rules as game-affecting as this. But I think something should probably be done before I start up another campaign, but I just can't think of what.

The Bag of Holding is a big game altering item allow characters to triple there carry capacity with out penalty.

True, but carrying capacity is generally not as big an issue as hp, especially not the way 3e is specifically built around the grinding down of PCs along the adventure in order to make the last encounter really challenging.

Hit points aren't the end-all-be-all of party resources. 25% of resources used up includes spells and interestingly enough - consumable magic items. Such as wands. So whether you reach the last battle without hit points, or without wand charges, you're missing a resource. Plus, there are many forms of damage a lowly cure light wounds wand won't fix - ability damage, negative levels, etc.


Personally I think space-saving items are game-altering. Imagine, if you will, a DM who forces his players to keep track of encumbrance. Yeah, I know, just about the most tedius waste of time you can imagine, but it's RAW. That poor party has to leave behind all these nice weapons and armor, and carry away only small, portable loot, lest it become overencumbered. Simply investing in a bag of holding could dramatically increase such a party's profit-per-adventure.

Plus, I'd say it's game-altering when your PCs throw down a portable hole at the feet of the enemies, then toss in a bag of holding.

They are absolutely neccessary. And not the answer to everything. All Spells with the lvl/min range will be seriously hampered by using CLW-Wands. it takes around 30 charges to refresh after a big fight. That means 3 minutes!
Enough time for reinforcements and your lesser buffs to run their course, especially if done repeatedly.
And a trap that sucks up charges and thus money is OK with me. If not for CLW Wands, most 3.5 Adventures would be unplayable, unlest you take 2 healing clerics with you, who do nothing else. so every Party would have to have 3 clerics.

QuotePlus, I'd say it's game-altering when your PCs throw down a portable hole at the feet of the enemies, then toss in a bag of holding.

That´s the transdimesional version of shackling Pundit to eyebeamz together and throwing them in a 20x20 room...

This reminds me of a time when, in a campaign, we picked up a cursed item and were constantly attacked by this cult in our dreams. However, we soon realized that items we used up in the dream weren't used in real life.

So we bought a ton of magic items, scrolls, and cool one-shot explosives and went to sleep with big smiles. Man... to borrow an internet term, we owned the cult.

One of my favorites was tricking a bunch of cultists into a Bag of Holding, and then casting Magic Missile at the bag and destroying it.

Heck Wand of Cure Light Wounds is not a problem compared to a Wand of Lesser Vigor. Same price, but 11 hit points, a use, compared with 1d8+1. Thats less than 2gp a hp.

Of course our party has two of each. Cleric carrys a Wand of Cure Light and Lesser Vigor, as do I as the Warlock. Cure Light is generally better for healing in combat, Lesser Vigor can then be used for healing out of combat. We never go into a fight on anything but full hit points.

It is a double edged sword however, as because your on full hit points, the Fighters, Barbarians, Rogues and Warlocks are all for pressing ahead, while the Wizards, Sorcerers, and to a lesser extent Clerics are might well be low or out of spells. Some times it comes round to bite you in the ass, when you do press on a meet a tough challenge that a fireball would have made a piece of cake.

So while we are on full hit points nearly all the time, it doesn't mean fights aren't challenging, just you are less likely to die from a lucky attack, or them winning initiative.

It speeds up adventuring, and really helps at low level where people have hit points in the 10's and low 20's. If you didn't have them a sensible party would rest until healed anyway.

I know when we did the Wispering Cairn (AoW Adventure Path part 1) we couldn't afford them at 1st level and we ending up resting for a several days between each encounter to make sure we were at full strength.

All the wands do is remove the need to rest as often.

So yeah it's game altering, if we'ld had one during the Wispering Cairn searching the upper level of the tomb would have taken one day instead of 1.5 weeks. I know which I would have perfered as a GM and a player.

Female Gamers wear low cut halter tops with Push up Bras are a constant game altering item.

QuoteFemale Gamers wear low cut halter tops with Push up Bras are a constant game altering item.

I don´t get it. Females alwys wear Bras, don´t they? And most of them use Push Ups.

Quote from: BagpussHeck Wand of Cure Light Wounds is not a problem compared to a Wand of Lesser Vigor. Same price, but 11 hit points, a use, compared with 1d8+1. Thats less than 2gp a hp.

True, but none of my players have figured that one out yet. Plus, it does take more time (up to 10 times as long if you only have one character in need of healing)

QuoteIt is a double edged sword however, as because your on full hit points, the Fighters, Barbarians, Rogues and Warlocks are all for pressing ahead, while the Wizards, Sorcerers, and to a lesser extent Clerics are might well be low or out of spells.

That's what I meant when I said that increases the power of fighting classes but not spellcasting classes (with mixes winding up somewhere in between, like paladins who might be out of lay on hands and smites, but can still mix it up in combat).

QuoteSo while we are on full hit points nearly all the time, it doesn't mean fights aren't challenging, just you are less likely to die from a lucky attack, or them winning initiative.

But it does make the entire adventure/dungeon less challenging.

QuoteI know when we did the Wispering Cairn (AoW Adventure Path part 1) we couldn't afford them at 1st level and we ending up resting for a several days between each encounter to make sure we were at full strength.

Let me tell you a story. I have a secondary "campaign" that's just about hopping into a dungeon, fighting through a couple of rooms, and get the treasure. We play this campaign when neither me nor the other DM in the group has had the time to prepare a proper adventure for the night, or when more than one player is missing, and we use it sort of like a testing ground for character concepts ("I wonder if an aasimar psion would be fun to play.")

The week before this, I had prepared a dungeon of eight rooms or so, plus a couple of traps. The party totally breezed through it - the only death was due to a bad roll against a cockatrice's attack. This week, the guy playing the Favored Soul/Fighter was sick, so he couldn't play. After the first fight, one of the characters had taken a bit of damage (by stupidly searching a room for traps the old-fashioned way, by running around triggering them), and yelled for the cleric (another PC) to come and zap him with the healing stick. His reaction to the cleric's response "What? I don't have any wands." was priceless, and the party was a LOT more careful about the rest of the dungeon (which was a little smaller than the last one).

THAT's what I mean when I say that the wand is a game-altering item. Its absence totally changed the way the party treated the dungeon.

QuoteTHAT's what I mean when I say that the wand is a game-altering item. Its absence totally changed the way the party treated the dungeon.

OK, nobody can argue with that. It´s the moral judgement where we differ. But AoW is just too tough to play w/o CLW Wands.

The most game altering magic item for a character of mine in a campaign was when I got hold of the Instant Fortress, or as I often referred to it, "the RV".  Not only are there the advantages of always having a nearly impregnable fortress to sleep in whenever you like, it also gave me (a non-magic user type) a way to change the geography of any fight, to suddenly do unexpected damage to people, or to be able to gain height for an advantage.  One time we needed to rescue someone being transported by caravan from one stronghold to another, and as part of our ambush we buried the thing in the road.  When half of the caravan had passed, I shouted out the command word and - whomp - suddenly we had two half-caravans, one of which had dead horses.

QuoteOne time we needed to rescue someone being transported by caravan from one stronghold to another, and as part of our ambush we buried the thing in the road. When half of the caravan had passed, I shouted out the command word and - whomp - suddenly we had two half-caravans, one of which had dead horses.

If you have dug the hole, you EARN this surprise. Boy, 360 m^3 of dirt...

What about the Deck of Many Things?

Pure. Game. Killer.