Source
r/AdventurersLeague•
ChanceTheKnight

Season 8 exclusive characters?

Question

I haven't been very active since Season 8 started, went from playing at least 4 sessions a week to once every other week and one Saturday a month. Thus, I have only been playing characters that did most of their adventuring pre-Season 8.

Anyway, my current characters have WAY more magic items than is possible for a Season 8 character. Level 3-4's with 2, Tier 2's with up to 5, my favorite character just hit 17th level and has 23, my one 20th has 14 or 15.

So my question is for prior who have played up to T3-4 in Season 8 exclusively. Is the mathematical limitation on Season 8 access to magical items leaving you feeling like those characters are underpowered or lacking in some way?

I'm to the point now that I'll have to build a new character if I play any more T1 and am concerned about playability of some builds with so few magic items.

Posted Dec 17, 2018, 4:45 PM UTC

342
wot-mothmoth•

My pre-S8 characters are the exact opposite. I have mostly played hardcovers with 6 or 7 at the table. Magic items are fairly rare when you play this way.

My Level 13 cleric has 5 magic items and one he got from playing an epic and one was a faction purchase. He does have something like 60 or 70k gold (much of it in diamonds for raise and resurrection.)

It definitely seems that S8 will allow more fairness and parity for Magic items.

7
ChanceTheKnightOP•

I'm quickly gathering that my experience pre-S8 is atypical. Thanks for your input.

2
PageTheKenku•

I actually like the buying of magic items (not the gold rule though), because in my games many new people join then leave, resulting in my highest level character (level 8) having 3 magic items, and the rest of my characters having fewer than that.

In previous seasons, I wouldn't have a magic item until level 6 or so.

I haven't played up to T3 yet, but I find my characters a little more powerful with getting more magic items, and less because of the gold rules.

4
ChanceTheKnightOP•

I agree with the item unlock/purchase changes. Having everyone on even ground is good for AL.

My concern is only about the number of purchases a character can make on their way to 20th level. As my experience with pre-Season 8 was having many more magical items than are possible now.

1
crashfrog•

Is the mathematical limitation on Season 8 access to magical items leaving you feeling like those characters are underpowered or lacking in some way?

No, it feels like how DnD is supposed to be played. What makes your character special (or what makes your build work) is what comes from his character feature selections, not from running a particular sequence of modules over and over again and cheesing all the best magic items from them.

Level 3-4's with 2, Tier 2's with up to 5, my favorite character just hit 17th level and has 23, my one 20th has 14 or 15.

I find this literally insane.

3†
ChanceTheKnightOP•

I'm not a fan of organized play at all, I play mostly home games now.

I find that with the strict character building rules in AL make a character completely dependant on magic items to be unique or enjoyable to play. It's my opinion that DnD is "supposed to be played" in a creative and individualistic way that can't be implemented in organized play.

Which part is insane? The 17th level character is silly because I played him at a table where I was the only player who didn't go to conventions all the time, so I'd get given a lot of magic items because the other players didn't want to up their MIC. But the 20th level character seemed pretty normal to me.

5
crashfrog•

It's my opinion that DnD is "supposed to be played" in a creative and individualistic way that can't be implemented in organized play.

I'm finding my AL games are entirely creative and my characters entirely unique. Moreso than in a lot of home games I've played since the overall familiarity with the game is a lot higher in AL than among the friends with which I'd play a home game. I have not encountered any respect in which I or anyone else needs a particular magic item to be "enjoyable" to play, and generally the players who have made the most effort to farm the most desirable magic items have the least interesting and unique characters because of it - they're just yet another half-elf Soradin smite-beast with whatever the hell that sword is from Straad or SKT or whatever (or at least they were until Season 8 took it away from them.)

My experience is that I'm bringing my most interesting characters to AL and most enjoying the characters I'm meeting there, too. I mean I'm not saying everyone there is top-notch, there's plenty of kids and cheesers and whatnot, but players have brought some really genuinely interesting characters to the table and my hope is that they feel I have, too.

0
ChanceTheKnightOP•

My experience with AL is completely the opposite. The people I play home games with are far better than the average AL player I've encountered.

I'm not suggesting that AL characters need SPECIFIC magic items to make them viable, only that they need the general bump in power/versatility to compensate for the mechanical limitations of AL.

2
Shufflebuzz•

The more varied experience you get with AL, the more you realize it's a spectrum. I've been in RP heavy games that would make Matt Mercer scream, "Get on with it, already!" and games completely absent of any RP.
Games where we try to fashion a campaign out of loosely connected modules; where players tailor their characters to work compliment eachother, and games that were "just a bunch of randos."

And there are all kinds of games inbetween.

The people I play home games with

You'll never see the volume of players in a home game that you can see in AL. Home games just don't have that feature. So you're seeing a very small sample of players in a home game.
On the other hand, the "better" AL players often get cherry-picked to play in home games, and so AL gets left with the chaff.

2
crashfrog•

I'm not suggesting that AL characters need SPECIFIC magic items to make them viable, only that they need the general bump in power/versatility to compensate for the mechanical limitations of AL.

I don't really see that AL has any "mechanical limitations" except PHB+1, which really isn't all that restrictive. You can "cosplay" as any race you want, after all.

0
MCXL•

I'm finding my AL games are entirely creative and my characters entirely unique.

You are an outlier. AL encourages mediocre cookie cutter builds, because the advancement is so limited and narrow.

2
Shufflebuzz•

And S8 exacerbates that.

3
crashfrog•

So many people playing Dungeons and Dragons without even understanding what kind of game it is.

-1
echofoxtrothotel•

This item availability change has caused pretty big power swings on some of my characters. I have characters just overloaded with items - including from previous season DM quests that literally granted items - and tier three characters with no magic items. Those characters will forever be way ahead of the curve or at the back of the pack. I'll be honest, the tier 3 with zero items was holding out to keep a low count to get easy wins on tier 3 items when item count was primary determiner of loot. It's fair to say I got what I deserved for trying to game the system like that.

But, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. There will always be players with better or more items than you, as well as players with worse or fewer. If we're only playing for raw power, I think this might not be the right game, ya know? It's a real concern but nothing gamebreaking.

3
ChanceTheKnightOP•

Eh, raw power doesn't really matter much, some classes are just in completely different worlds than others.

I'm just concerned about the typically underpowered classes/builds that are fun to play, but could be completely unviable without enough magic items.

0
echofoxtrothotel•

Yeah, luckily, it's a team game. A terrible character can still always take the Help action and benefit the party plus, one more body to absorb attacks! Nothing is unplayable.

2
ChanceTheKnightOP•

I didn't say unplayable, I said unviable. A character that can't survive an adventure isn't viable, not enough money to keep buying res spells.

I've played a lot of T3, and a little T4. Terrible characters die.

-1
echofoxtrothotel•

We'll just disagree. A character doesn't survive on its own. If you follow me around, eat attacks and give me advantage all day? I'm going to protect you. You'll survive. There is no such thing as a terrible character. Weaker or stronger, sure, but not objectively bad.

3
Lejaun•

My pre-season 8 Hexblade is a powerhouse, overloaded with magic items. I don't play him anymore because he is far better than season 8 characters. I don't play this character at all anymore. It's just not fun if other players aren't at a similar level.

My paladin, created just before season 8 and who never capitalized on magic items (playing mostly only after season 8 started) is much weaker than pre-season 8 characters. He is the only one I play now (I mostly DM). I prefer him because he makes me role play more, makes me come up with solutions rather than just having pure brute power like my hexblade does.

2
ChanceTheKnightOP•

This is basically what I was expecting. Thank you for your input.

1
Loskents•

you'll notice that current season characters don't have as many "useful" magic items. Almost all stuff taken will be directly benefiting the "build" Rarely will anyone splurge on a bag of tricks, a pipes of haunting, a ring of resistance, or other t1 and t2 knick knacks.

2
Olorune•

If anything, the old characters are way overpowered. I feel like with the current magic item count, content feels more balanced. Not a fan of the gold changes, I think they were a bit too harsh there.

1
Shufflebuzz•

If anything, the old characters are way overpowered.

From another point of view, the new S8 characters are underpowered.

Not a fan of the gold changes, I think they were a bit too harsh there.

Agreed.

4
ChanceTheKnightOP•

That's good to hear, thanks for your input. Do you play a T3-4 character with only the number of items you could purchase in S8?

0