Common Magic Items

Common Magic Items in D&D 4E

Choosing magic items

I use the following method for giving out magic items:
1) I look at the theme a character is going for and whether
the magic item enforces that theme.
For example: doing massive damage per turn
                      be good in knowledge skills
                      be a sneaky thief
                      be good against certain type of enemies
                      enhance a favorite attack

2) The magic items used for attacks (weapons, implements) have useful properties and powerful powers.
Armors and the other equipment slots would be filled with
simple items that:

• increase defenses
• increase skills
• gives resistances
• enhances saving throws
• enhances healing surges or healing surge value

An explanation for the choices

First of all, I like the strength of a character to come
from a character, not from his or her magic items.
I dislike the character to be a figurative Christmas tree
to be effective.

There are enough powers for a character to choose from,
especially at higher levels.
I don't want to burden players with an overabundance of powers.
This should also speed combat.

These common items are not as exciting as rares with amazing
daily powers, but as I see them, they aren't supposed to be.
They are treasures and rewards, the players never
seem to mind those.

Shortage of common magic items

When Essentials came out, magic items were divided
in common, uncommon and rare items.
Common magic items have simple properties like described above.

Unfortunately, there aren't many common magic items.
An overview can be found here:
http://www.captainspud.com/4ecommons/

I suppose I can create my own common magic items,
unfortunately the character builder doesn't support
them.
Our group uses the offline character builder,
and we manage to work around some of the issues.
I don't have much experience with the character builder,
so a more in-depth discussion can be found here:
http://dungeonsmaster.com/2009/08/does-character-builder-limit-creativity/