|
...because one in particular is so extremely CHEESY that i'm actually a tad irate it's even in the game. granted, celestial fury, crom faeyr, and the holy avenger could be considered over the top already, but the lamest magic item of them all has to be the shield of balduran. for the bargain basement price of 30k gp, you too can make an entire race of otherwise incredibly powerful creatures completely impotent.
i have no problem with the idea of a beholder ray reflecting item, but it needs to be limited somehow. the price is one deterrent but a false one, as i have yet to play a game where i didn't have 100k at any point after the underdark. the -1 to STR is another pseudo-attempt to "balance" the shield, but when you consider vs beholders that are killing themselves your STR is as irrelevant to that battle as your CHA, and don't try to get me to believe you would bother equipping this shield any other time besides against the eye tyrants.
perhaps if it had been limited to 3 (or less) uses per day with a short duration i could see it as realistic. otherwise, this looks like something some powergamer created because he was getting waxed by the floating eyeballs.
and finally... "of balduran"? yet another clue that this item "is not like the others". balduran's cloak was never used in battle. are we supposed to think that ol' baldy had a need to fight, er... slaughter, beholders/gauths/eye tyrants? it just doesn't fit into the history. if balduran had any race-specific items it would've been something more relevant, like a water elemental or sahuagin, or anti-pirate thingy.
ah well, just wanted to rant. thank you, and good night.
|