This reasoning is flawed - you are saying I shouldn't distinguish between items that are important and not because any item can be made important - which implies that we should distinguish between the important and unimportant.
For the record, I am thoroughly in favour of treating any particularly special weapon or any other item of equipment as an ability. If your sword has a name, it can be an ability if you want.
> > Exactly why I don't like it! Mundane weapons are something I
>>want to simply ignore most of the time.
>
>So? No-one is going to beat you up for NOT using a weapon represented
>by an ability.
Yes. We are discussing the rules here, and I was pointing out a difference. No one is saying you have to do what I say, but if you don't want to hear other peoples opinions, best not to join mailing lists.
> >>A mundane item, or magically
>>>weak item, can become a powerful magic item through the expenditure
>>>of an appropriate (and fair) number of HPs.
>>
>> Thats the case now.
>
>And so the difference is... ?
There is a big difference between saying cool notable bits of equipment should be represented by an ability, and weapons and armour in general should be covered by an ability.
>
>>> In a medium power campaign, a warrior starts
>>>with a Weapon 17 (giving a ^3), but the player could choose to start
>>>with Weapon 1W (giving a ^4 -- a 2H sword, perhaps) or a Weapon 5w
>>>(giving a ^5 -- an enchanted weapon).
>>
>> And it would be a big waste of points! They have spent their
>>biggest ability in a way that is BOTH inefficient AND boring!
>
>And again, SO WHAT?
As long as you are only suggesting it as a mechanic for your PCs, no problem!
>If you don't WANT to spend the HP, or assign the
>Rating, no-one is forcing you. And besides, boring TO WHOM?
If 'my characters best ability is being well armoured' is your idea of really interesting, vive la difference! I can't see it catching on widely, though.
>It's no more a 'waste of points' than ANY
>narrow ability, and exactly the same as spending them on an
>'important' item - by spending the points, it BECOMES 'important'.
Not really - the suggestion was that most of the time such an ability would be used as an edge generating augment, and any ability that is mostly used as an augment is terribly inefficient. Yes, it can be used as a general defensive abillity, but so can many other things.
Cheers David
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