User talk:Luigifan18/Helm of Stacking (3.5e Equipment)

Ratings

Eiji-kun opposes this article and rated it 0 of 4.

Sorry Luigi, but it seems clear that WHY same bonuses are designed to usually not stack has escaped you. The core concept behind the item, as is, is pretty broken and you've done yourself no favors in the way you've implemented it. Messing with the core components of the game is a bad idea. If your game really is concerned about the stacking thing, it would be far easier to pass a houserule at all bonuses are untyped, or dodge, or any of the stacking bonuses that exist. And I would be surprised if any DM actually permitted such.

Attacking Stacking

Oh dear, this is gonna be hard to balance. I'd comment more, but... I actually cannot understand how it's supposed to work. How I think it probably should work is "You can stack any bonuses up to a maximum of +X" where X is how you keep it from going insane because you applied +2 enhancement to Whatever x9999 times.

What exactly is it doing? -- Eiji-kun (talk) 22:00, 28 November 2017 (MST)

Ok, others explained it for me that it is "If you could benefit from BUFF, then you can benefit from BUFF x2... or x3/x4 for the other versions. Which I have to say is the wrong way to go about it since buffs generally are built with the idea that they don't stack and thus some buffs (cough cough Divine Agility cough cough Bite of the Anything) are quite high.

I do not think a +40 Dex is appropriate no matter how great your Greater Helm is, and it is clearly a far cry from x4 Grace for a "mere" +8 Dex. Nevermind if you go dumpster diving for xN bonuses of all different types. This was off the top of my head. It can get much much worse.

Yes, you would be way way better off fixing the maximum bonus you can achieve from any sources. That way even if you dumper dive for a dozen and one different types, or stack all the same type, you know you never are going to exceed 2, 4, 6, whatever number you set it at and then you can adjust prices accordingly because you know the theoretical limit. At the moment, a price (and balance) is impossible because there is no theoretical limit to the bonuses you can find. -- Eiji-kun (talk) 23:34, 28 November 2017 (MST)

Huh? Where did you get it explained to you? Though the explanation you received is pretty much correct.

Also, the current rules already encourage dumpster diving for bonuses of different types, because generally speaking, only bonuses of the same type are prevented from stacking. The purpose of the helm of stacking is to ease up restrictions on stacking, so you can, for instance, combine a temporary buff with an equipment-based one. But not too much, as the stacking rules exist largely to prevent players from endlessly buffing themselves. The greater helm only allows stacks of four for a reason — infinite stacks would just be insane. --Luigifan18 (talk) 11:06, 16 December 2017 (MST)

But that's not what you've done. Instead of replacing a dozen types with a single stacking type (the sort of thing a variant rule may do), you instead have that AND aforementioned dumpster diving. You've only added to the problem, not replaced it or made it better.

And with the wording it can be argued that this is x4 per bonus, so really you've made it four times as bad. -- Eiji-kun (talk) 14:17, 16 December 2017 (MST)

Yes, at the cost of a magic item slot (wearing this means you can't be wearing another helmet or binding any soulmelds to your crown chakra) and, because it's limited, it only eases restrictions. You still need to be tactical about applying buffs instead of mindlessly piling things on. Which was the point, really — to make it so, say, casting true strike as a character who already gets an insight bonus to attack rolls wouldn't be redundant, or allowing a drow to improve their innate spell resistance, or letting a vampire enhance their fast healing... essentially, letting characters get better at things they already have special boons for, without allowing things to go hilariously overboard. (Also, it is in part yet another in my long line of attempts to make it actually possible to succeed on Spellcraft checks for epic spells without being level 200 or something like that.) --Luigifan18 (talk) 16:17, 16 December 2017 (MST)

Placed my rating since, well, as above I don't think you're getting the point. That said I did have one other thing to add.

"...without allowing things to go hilariously overboard."'

How can you say that when Divine Grave and Bite of the X is right there. Those haven't gone away. -- Eiji-kun (talk) 16:41, 16 December 2017 (MST)