Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 the_sword_emperor Sep 07, 2009 3:13:55	The boons and training will be useful for campaigns by way of adding flavor without sacrificing good mechanics. The problem until now is that sometimes a DM thinks of a really cool benefit for the players, but needs to work around a potential break in reality that comes from turning the "gift of the gods" into "just another" suit of magical armor. In my own campaign, one of my players recently absorbed fragments of two powerful archfey into his being. I have actually been holding out for this boon system to effectively represent the boon while retaining game coherency. I knew from the get-go that I did not want to simply hand him a wondrous item or give a piece of equipment an enhancement. I wanted him to embody the transformation. With this system, I can give him a benefit or two and make it work more easily than I could have without.   I am a bit concerned that the system will make the game significantly easier (a bit of a loaded term, to be sure) or change player expectations. The preview suggests that they occupy a mechanical space on the character's body, but I did not see a proper entry under the boons for that. Either they forgot it, or boons simply do not occupy any of the character's magical item slots (a freedom not granted so expansively to even the magical tattoos). Therefore, the only limitation on a players' number of boons would be that which the DM creates. Theoretically, players could request boons, which would cause problems for DMs who have difficulty moderating player requests. I do not expect this to be a tremendous issue, but it is worth noting. As for the more general problem of the game becoming significantly easier, I suppose that if this proved true that I would simply up the game difficulty a notch. One of the great things about the system is that the toolbox approach enables the game to adjust easily to new information. I wonder if we will see more examples of boons in future publications. I imagine that, like artifacts, boons will not appear in PHBs or AVs. However, they might appear in future DMGs and Dungeon articles. Look forward to that, especially articles suggesting what boons the players might receive for completing a dungeon. That's my guess.   I am hoping for some guidelines on creating magical items, boons at least. It is fun, if a tad frustrating, to design something and -hope- it is balanced. I would like to see what the designers know does and does not work. While the design process does have its flaws (things like the bloodclaw weapon do make it through), I feel like they have a good process, generally speaking. Your thoughts?
#2 aliothefool Sep 07, 2009 13:50:56	I'm pretty sure the article is incomplete. It talks about sections, but those sections don't seem to exist in the article. These previews appear to be general summaries of the actual content of the books, so I would guess that most, if not all, your concerns will be addressed.
#3 magmar2 Sep 09, 2009 18:45:50	From what I read and interprited from the article is the begining of legacy items in 4E. The legacy boon description seemed an awfull lot like the hounding of a legacy weapon/item.