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From: lmaher@uokvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: Re: Evil Contest
Message-ID: <2400069@uokvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 17-Sep-84 19:27:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: uokvax.2400069
Posted: Mon Sep 17 19:27:00 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 25-Sep-84 05:46:30 EDT
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Nf-From: uokvax!lmaher    Sep 17 18:27:00 1984

I see my usage of xp as a shorthand for "experience received for
magical items" has confused some readers.  ep and xp are common
abbreviations for experience points.  Since in the "design an
evil character" contest you are limited to only (only?!?) 30,000
xp of magical items, it's worthwhile to consider the cost
effectiveness of each item.  Example:  A ring of 3 wishes costs
3000 xp (that means if you found the ring, you would get 3000
experience points.  But in this contest, it uses up 3000 of the
30,000 points you are allowed to allocate to magic items.
Clear?). A ring of multiple wishes costs 5000 xp for 2-8 wishes;
obviously you'll take one with 8.  So the cost/wish for a ring of
3 wishes is 1000, for a ring of multiple wishes it is 625.  But
you can get a luck blade with 5 wishes for only 1000 xp, at a
cost per wish of 200.  In addition to the 5 wishes, you get the
other benefits of having a +1 sword, +1 on your saving throws,
and all the benefits of an unusual (intelligent, reads magic,
disentegrates opponents in the pursuit of its conveniently-chosen
purpose, etc.) weapon, at no additional cost.

     Now most of the magic items are trade-offs.  By that I mean
that you can take one or the other, and justify either choice.
Which would you rather have, a cap of teleportation or a ring of
spell storing (both 2500 xp)?  It depends.  But some items are so
immensely underpriced that it would be foolish *not* to take
them.  Which would you rather have, a healing potion or a girdle
of storm giant strength?  Both are 200 xp!  You'd be foolish not
to take the girdle, if you're interested in creating a powerful
character.  Some chose not to because it wasn't in their
character conception - their resistance to temptation is to be
commended.

     Likewise, the cursed items do not have xp values (you don't
get experience for finding cursed items), so they are effectively
"free" to the designers in the contest (I know it isn't really a
contest, but I can't think of the proper term).  Dust of
Disappearance is also free, for some odd reason - I suspect a
typo.  Items such as a Scarab of Death, Necklace of
Strangulation, Rug of Smothering, et al. are extremely useful
when you know what they are, especially if you're a sneaky type
able to plant them on the victim. Instead of picking a victim's
pocket, place the Scarab *into* their pocket.  No matter how
powerful they are, they die (unless they find it in time).

     I actually statted up *4* entries to this contest, but only
used my favorite.  So I spent quite some time looking through the
DMG at the magic items, and I thought I'd mention the Girdle and
cursed items.

     Note that the most powerful and extreme choice would be just
to take 100 Ioun stones (the Green Prism that adds 1 level) and
be a 105th level everything.  Who needs any other items than
that?  (Actually, one of the characters I designed could kill the
105th level nasty in one round, maybe less.  But you don't want
to know about that!  And she was neutral anyway.)

	Carl, the mathematical assassin
	..!ctvax!uokvax!lmaher