We seem to have a scaling issue in our games when it comes to magic items. In an AL module, you scale up the encounters by adding more or higher CR encounters to average out the experience at the end to be within a certain min-max range. The issue is that whether you have the minimum or 3 or maximum of 7 players, there is no scaling for magic items. I have a Wizard that is now 18 with 5 magic items (1 being a +1 dagger lol) that plays in a set large group whereas I have a 13 Bardlock that plays with a smaller group and already is loaded up with 9. The system unintentionally rewards smaller groups as they will always get xp in the set range of the module but you have a 1 in 3 chance of getting whatever drops instead of a 1 in 7. They both level out at the same rate as the XP does scale with party size.
I feel like scaling that up wouldn't be a bad idea. A character getting 2-3 magic items per tier is a reasonable thing, but not really possible with larger tables. Not only that, but as you progress, there is little to no chance to get uncommon items you would like. My Wizard has a 0% chance to get boots of elvenkind or a handy haversack as only legendary items drop now.
So I would propose that as there is a 1 in 3 chance with 3 players, maybe drop 2 items with groups of 5 or more? Maybe some other way to obtain more items? Dunno, just a thought lol.
While such an idea would definitely help in massive tables, the issue is just due to the sheer variance in tables in terms of player numbers, it would be difficult to write and would place more responsibility on the writer. Writing a module is already difficult as is. Additionally, assuming the average of 3 games for a level, it'd mean from tier 1 to 2 its already 15 games. You would either have to be extremely unlucky or be surrounded by fairly selfish players who only wish to get magic items to trade out rather on a "My character would find this useful basis". If it was the latter, thats more of a "we need to as a table sit down and ask is this okay" discussion to deal with it.
I doubt it would be very tough writing wise. Just add one more magic item to be dropped by a particular NPC and you are done. Tier 1 is especially fast as it takes only 2 modules to get you to level 3 and then probably only 2 more to hit level 4. Tier 2 and 3 both have 6 levels in them which would lend more time for more drops as you are playing more modules. But that still would not rectify the issue of 3 man groups being rewarded more than twice as much as 7 man groups. The goal of AL is to be homogeneous so anyone can pick up their character and go to another table somewhere else and jump on in. If I bring a T3 that has played in only 3 man groups with 15 magic items to a group that has primarily played with 7 people with an average item count of 5 it definitely skews the power level.
Hmm lemme clarify, yeah writing it you could definitely go "oh hey here's another NPC who rewards you another magic item" , however its more of its difficult to write the module to take into account the variance of the number of people. Dropping 2 magic item per mod would only increase the magic item gap between a 3 man group and a 7 man group. I personally don't think increasing magic items would fix that. Additionally, I'd say that while the power level is disparate, it's not impossible to play around based on player choices.
Or we could just roll a wizard and have a merry time laughing at "balance".
The modules already have tables showing what to add or subtract based on the APL of the group. Kobold fight club is great too with making sure encounter difficulty is balanced. As there is already a mechanic in the modules for varying numbers of players as well as the APL, I am just saying there should be a mechanic to modify the rewards accordingly. There is the argument that a 3 person group is less powerful than a 7, but it is a poor one. You are supposed to throw more at that group than a 3 man and I can tell you that my Wizard pairing up with our normal party's Champion Fighter and Life Cleric will faceroll just about any encounter whereas I've been in 7 man groups where players were just horrible.
Yeah I can see where you are coming from regarding having a guidance similar to APL for tweaking, though I'm not sure the AL admins would do such a thing tbh (they don't really like talking about loot). Regarding the 3man vs the 7man, that's just player variance and tends to be too varied to factor even on homebrew games. There'll always be the chance there'll be THAT player on the table or several of them.
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We seem to have a scaling issue in our games when it comes to magic items. In an AL module, you scale up the encounters by adding more or higher CR encounters to average out the experience at the end to be within a certain min-max range. The issue is that whether you have the minimum or 3 or maximum of 7 players, there is no scaling for magic items. I have a Wizard that is now 18 with 5 magic items (1 being a +1 dagger lol) that plays in a set large group whereas I have a 13 Bardlock that plays with a smaller group and already is loaded up with 9. The system unintentionally rewards smaller groups as they will always get xp in the set range of the module but you have a 1 in 3 chance of getting whatever drops instead of a 1 in 7. They both level out at the same rate as the XP does scale with party size.
I feel like scaling that up wouldn't be a bad idea. A character getting 2-3 magic items per tier is a reasonable thing, but not really possible with larger tables. Not only that, but as you progress, there is little to no chance to get uncommon items you would like. My Wizard has a 0% chance to get boots of elvenkind or a handy haversack as only legendary items drop now.
So I would propose that as there is a 1 in 3 chance with 3 players, maybe drop 2 items with groups of 5 or more? Maybe some other way to obtain more items? Dunno, just a thought lol.
While such an idea would definitely help in massive tables, the issue is just due to the sheer variance in tables in terms of player numbers, it would be difficult to write and would place more responsibility on the writer. Writing a module is already difficult as is. Additionally, assuming the average of 3 games for a level, it'd mean from tier 1 to 2 its already 15 games. You would either have to be extremely unlucky or be surrounded by fairly selfish players who only wish to get magic items to trade out rather on a "My character would find this useful basis". If it was the latter, thats more of a "we need to as a table sit down and ask is this okay" discussion to deal with it.
I doubt it would be very tough writing wise. Just add one more magic item to be dropped by a particular NPC and you are done. Tier 1 is especially fast as it takes only 2 modules to get you to level 3 and then probably only 2 more to hit level 4. Tier 2 and 3 both have 6 levels in them which would lend more time for more drops as you are playing more modules. But that still would not rectify the issue of 3 man groups being rewarded more than twice as much as 7 man groups. The goal of AL is to be homogeneous so anyone can pick up their character and go to another table somewhere else and jump on in. If I bring a T3 that has played in only 3 man groups with 15 magic items to a group that has primarily played with 7 people with an average item count of 5 it definitely skews the power level.
Hmm lemme clarify, yeah writing it you could definitely go "oh hey here's another NPC who rewards you another magic item" , however its more of its difficult to write the module to take into account the variance of the number of people. Dropping 2 magic item per mod would only increase the magic item gap between a 3 man group and a 7 man group. I personally don't think increasing magic items would fix that. Additionally, I'd say that while the power level is disparate, it's not impossible to play around based on player choices.
Or we could just roll a wizard and have a merry time laughing at "balance".
The modules already have tables showing what to add or subtract based on the APL of the group. Kobold fight club is great too with making sure encounter difficulty is balanced. As there is already a mechanic in the modules for varying numbers of players as well as the APL, I am just saying there should be a mechanic to modify the rewards accordingly. There is the argument that a 3 person group is less powerful than a 7, but it is a poor one. You are supposed to throw more at that group than a 3 man and I can tell you that my Wizard pairing up with our normal party's Champion Fighter and Life Cleric will faceroll just about any encounter whereas I've been in 7 man groups where players were just horrible.
Yeah I can see where you are coming from regarding having a guidance similar to APL for tweaking, though I'm not sure the AL admins would do such a thing tbh (they don't really like talking about loot). Regarding the 3man vs the 7man, that's just player variance and tends to be too varied to factor even on homebrew games. There'll always be the chance there'll be THAT player on the table or several of them.