As for preventing someone coming up with the \"perfect\" configuration, how about adding a quality property to weapons and armor. What I mean is, something different than everyday combat damage (which can most likely be repaired by a smith every once in a while), something more like the natural wear and tear of equipment. This quality rating would be fairly high when the item is brand new (and possibly affected by the experience of the smith that created the weapon) and would deteriorate fairly slowly over a long period of time (several months, likely). A lower quality rating would affect damage (for weapons), defense (for armor), and the cost to repair the item. So you could use the same item for a long time, but would most likely come across a newer item to use instead. I realize this would probably be a pain to code and may not make much sense, but could add an interesting new aspect to the game.
