I have came up with a new idea in regards to death penalties. I know a lot of ideas have been thrown around recently, including Yoshi's, and I don't think anyone else has posted this particular idea yet, but if so I apologize in advance.

My idea incorporates the concept of death damaging equipped gear, but expands considerably on it as well.

What if each death were to damage equipped gear according to set parameters based on, for example, character rank, item rank, etc. Gear would also have the possibility to be damaged beyond zero, destroying it forever. I know this idea has been advanced before, but here is where the new twist comes in.

I know there has been some blow back about the destroying gear idea, because, let's face it, nobody wants to see a tricorne +3 destroyed due to a mistake or bad luck. But what if there were items you could apply to your most valued gear (similar to an enchantment) that would protect it from being destroyed in the event that durability drops below zero?

The item would only protect against gear destruction one time, and then you would have to reapply the item enchantment again.

These items would have to be rare, perhaps made from NM drops only by high level crafters, and then only if an HQ procs.

They might also have other restrictions placed on them; perhaps you may only protect a certain number of equipment at one time, based on character rank. Perhaps you may have to be a certain rank to even apply the enchantment to a peice of gear. Perhaps the enchantment expires after a period of time, and has to be applied again if the gear does not reach zero durability within a determined amount of time.

I think SE is smart enough to figure out restrictions that would keep these new crafted "equipment protectors" sufficiently rare enough that they do not become common enough to defeat the purpose of the gear destruction penalty.

I think that if implemented properly this could be very good both for the economy and give the high rank crafters another link to helping their counterparts in battle. The only drawback, and it could potentially be a major one, is if the items become common enough that everyone can always protect all of their gear, assuring that none is ever destroyed and defeating the purpose of the death penalty.

This is just a starting point really, maybe others can expand on the idea with ways to improve it, and how it could be implemented safely, without fear of the items becoming too common and defeating the purpose of the death penalty....