“You and Your Magic Items” discusses the very real problem of how much gear makes the PC in D&D 3e. In earlier editions, you might have a boss magical item or two but the majority of your ability in a given area was from the character, not from magic plusses. 3e/3.5e reverses that to where at high levels the gear is what makes a character effective.
They say that they’ve fixed this in 4e – but that “only three magic items are important for your attacks and defenses to keep up with the escalating power of the monsters you face.” Frankly, I disagree with a design that requires any magic items to be competitive at your level. Anyway, the three are weapon, armor, and neck slot items. (Ah, how did we get along for 20 frickin’ years in D&D without official ‘item slots’? Oh, that’s right, just fine.) So basically your attack, armor class, and saves (“defenses,” in 4e-speak). In other words, everything except skills – sigh. It’s so frustrating to me that their design goals for 4e are so right, and their implementations are so wrong. It’s not worse than 3e but why squander an opportunity to improve it, especially when you clearly see what needs improving? 3/5.
