Odd values from UA

[Halaster Blackcloak]

I was looking at the pricing of items in Unearthed Arcana the other day. Some of those values are whacked out!

A ring of multiple wishes is valued at 20,000 gp, while a ring of elemental command is 25,000 gp?

A rod of alertness is listed at 50,000 gp, while a rod of security is only 30,000 gp and a rod of resurrection 35,000 gp. Seriously?

A sword +4 defender is 15,000 gp, a sword +5 defender is 18,000 gp, but a sword +6 defender jumps to 30,000 gp.

Just seems a little odd how they calculated things.

And has anyone ever handed out a holy avenger +6 or a sword defender +6? The highest level weapon I've ever seen in any of my campaigns in 35+ years has been a +5 holy defender. It's hard to find even a single +6 weapon in the Deities & Demigods books, owned by gods!

[Tarrax Ironwolf]

The highest plus weapon in my post Monty Hall days was +2. Prior to that, well lets just say that even the gods were green with envy at some of the weapons my friends had. Hey, what can I say, I was a preteen. And treasure was cool!

[Mira]

I never used anything higher than +5, and those were artifacts. No way would I even consider the existence of +6 weapons. Only the Sword of Kyuus (not sure of the name) was +6, and I never put that into anything.

Magic still had a tendency to go overboard though, I remember a game where our characters were offered the chance to become demi-gods. Most refused since the loss of power was just too much... (I went ahead and did it, because I wanted to retire the character anyways, but demi-gods as written in that module were pathetically underpowered)

Mira (Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity)

[Beowulf]

Super powered magic items are really tempting for nOOb DMs but as everyone knows they create more problems than they solve. A powerful item is an easy McGuffin for lazy DMs but the problem is that you have to keep topping the last one and you have to deal with those items in the game. How do you challenge players that have magic to rival the deities of the game?

Likewise it's hard to put a gp value on magic items. How many campaigns really have "Ye Olde Magic Store" to buy and sell enchanted baubles? Obviously if your world is a very magic-rich one such places might exist or even be commonplace. But in other worlds a +1 sword would be rare enough to be noteworthy and a +3 item might be famous. There wouldn't be enough magical loot lying around to stock the shelves of a store in a world like this.

That said to me part of the appeal of AD&D is that the worlds are magical, so I do like to have a fair amount of magic items. Not to the point where they're common but I don't think it's fun for players to go for months and years of real time without ever coming across a magic item.

[Halaster Blackcloak]

I'm moderate with magic items. I could never enjoy another Monty Haul campaign, even though the singular one I ever ran was relatively well balanced and tons of fun for the time we played it. We just ran out of the ability to make the game interesting and challenging after awhile.

I prefer more balanced games where magic it more rare, but not excessively rare. No magic shops in my games, although there may be an odd store in some out-of-the-way place, a very plain and broken down old shop, where you just might be able to find something special every now and then.