There is definately an issue of how to 'give' a powerful magic item. By the rules it would start at 13, which just doesn't always make sense. I think it is fair, however, for the narrator to give more powerful items as he/she feels fit, and just have the hero cement it with a key word. That is if during a scenario you obtain the Sword of Seven Winds, and it has "summon howling gale" 15W2, "blow away missiles" 5W, and "disrupt water" 15W, at the end of the session if the narrator wants the characters to be able to keep the sword, there is no reason you couldn't be allowed to cement it with a hero point and keep the abilities as such. Just like it takes one hero point to cement a mundane item of note, be it a nice gold ring or the Grand Blood Diamond of the Lost King.
I'm not advocating routinely giving powerful items away, and most should probably have at least some compensating cost--you get a repuation, someone else wants it, it marks you as a rebel, etc.
A note about augments, however. A +1 augment is actually just as valid at high levels as low ones. Without going into mathematical philosophy, just think about it this way:
As a youth you fought with the bully Harvar, and you both had skill 17 (17 vs 17). You become rivals, and years later meet in the tribal civil war. Now you both have skill 17W2.....which works out to 17 vs 17. In either case, a +1 or +2 augment has the same effect on the battle.
How I think you could compensate "passive" abilities like "sharpness 18" is by making them automatic, always happening. So the sword with "lightning blade" 18 can be used as a hand held lightning bolt, or after an action give a +2 augment. The sword with "Sharp" 18 can't really be used actively, but it always has that extra +2 augment, which is handy when you don't have all the time in the world for augmenting.
--Bryan
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