I’m in a round-robin DM’d game where each player DM’s for the group every level. We are trying to come up with a guideline for a range for magic item distribution so that nobody unbalances the game too much. I used some of the table probabilities from the DMG and some rough guesses to come up with this:
DM SHOULD GIVE OUT THIS MANY CONSUMABLE ITEMS TO THE PARTY: Common- 1 per player every level Uncommon -1 per party every level Rare - 1 per tier for each player Very Rare - 1 per tier per party
DM SHOULD GIVE OUT THIS MANY MAGIC ITEMS TO THE PARTY: Common - 1 per player every level Uncommon - 1 per party every level Rare - 1 per tier for each player Very Rare - 1 per player over the entire campaign Legendary - 1 per campaign
Having got my players to 6th level now, my sense is that your list is skewed too much to the lower levels. If you work out the math, by the time they are done with tier one -- they at level 5, starting tier 2, will have 4 common magic items, one uncommon magic item, and one rare magic item each (assuming a "standard" party of 4). Maybe one or two of them won't have an uncommon if you have a larger group. How do I work that out? Well, everyone has a rare item by the end of T1 by your list. Everyone gets one common item per level. And the party gets an uncommon per level, which is 4 uncommons by the end of level 4, and split evenly among a 4-PC party would be one per person. That is a LOT at level 5.
Also, you need to think about the advancing through tiers. If you are giving Rares out to each player at level 4 (tier 1), what is left to give them at level 16? I mean if your level 4s are walking around with a Necklace of Fireballs (Minor, Rare, according to XGE) and a Portable Hole, what are you going to give them as Rare items at level 8? Level 12?
I also don't like the idea of giving a party one Legendary item. Who gets it? How is it fair to the rest of the PCs that one guy gets 1 very rare and 1 legendary, but everyone else gets only 1 very rare? I think by the time they get to late campaign, every PC should have a signature legendary item that is his or her "thing" like the Paladin's Holy Avenger. They also should get it early enough that it's not like, "Here's your Holy Avenger... Cool! Now the campaign is over let's roll up new characters." They should get to use the thing.
I would argue that you should not evenly distribute this for each tier. Rather, the what you find in the tiers should escalate. For example, I might do something like:
T1 can get common/uncommon
T2 can get up to rare items
T3 can get up to very rare
T4 should get them to each have (well before 20) at least 1 legendary
That is how I would do it, rather than how you have it set. Then you can work on #s. XGE has more detail about this, but although I started using it, I have abandoned it as being much too hard to track, since I put items in the party sometimes doesn't find, or they divvy them up in ways that I did not expect... and they even swap them during adventures. I can't track all of that, especially with consumables ("here, I thought I'd need this potion but you need it more" -- and now I have to hit the spreadsheet... to much work).
Having got my players to 6th level now, my sense is that your list is skewed too much to the lower levels. If you work out the math, by the time they are done with tier one -- they at level 5, starting tier 2, will have 4 common magic items, one uncommon magic item, and one rare magic item each (assuming a "standard" party of 4). Maybe one or two of them won't have an uncommon if you have a larger group. How do I work that out? Well, everyone has a rare item by the end of T1 by your list. Everyone gets one common item per level. And the party gets an uncommon per level, which is 4 uncommons by the end of level 4, and split evenly among a 4-PC party would be one per person. That is a LOT at level 5.
Also, you need to think about the advancing through tiers. If you are giving Rares out to each player at level 4 (tier 1), what is left to give them at level 16? I mean if your level 4s are walking around with a Necklace of Fireballs (Minor, Rare, according to XGE) and a Portable Hole, what are you going to give them as Rare items at level 8? Level 12?
I also don't like the idea of giving a party one Legendary item. Who gets it? How is it fair to the rest of the PCs that one guy gets 1 very rare and 1 legendary, but everyone else gets only 1 very rare? I think by the time they get to late campaign, every PC should have a signature legendary item that is his or her "thing" like the Paladin's Holy Avenger. They also should get it early enough that it's not like, "Here's your Holy Avenger... Cool! Now the campaign is over let's roll up new characters." They should get to use the thing.
I would argue that you should not evenly distribute this for each tier. Rather, the what you find in the tiers should escalate. For example, I might do something like:
T1 can get common/uncommon
T2 can get up to rare items
T3 can get up to very rare
T4 should get them to each have (well before 20) at least 1 legendary
That is how I would do it, rather than how you have it set. Then you can work on #s. XGE has more detail about this, but although I started using it, I have abandoned it as being much too hard to track, since I put items in the party sometimes doesn't find, or they divvy them up in ways that I did not expect... and they even swap them during adventures. I can't track all of that, especially with consumables ("here, I thought I'd need this potion but you need it more" -- and now I have to hit the spreadsheet... to much work).
I like your list and I fully agree with the "don't give best items too late". It annoys me in DND campaigns and it annoys me in video games. To the point that in my campaign, using similar guidelines, I would even consider starting giving the "next tier" items at the last level of previous tier.
I would even consider starting giving the "next tier" items at the last level of previous tier
I don't disagree with that either.
There is a reason why they didn't delay getting 9th level spells to 20th level... because it would suck to hit level 20, and now that the campaign is over (assuming it is) you can never cast your best spells.
Same with magic items. I think as a DM it is worth custom-creating a nice legendary, super-awesome magic item for each character to have, and I would give them out over an adventure or two, or a dungeon or two (or what have you) -- not all at once -- around 15th-17th level, so that they have 3-4 levels to use the thing. Each.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
How many magic items does a DM give out?
I’m in a round-robin DM’d game where each player DM’s for the group every level. We are trying to come up with a guideline for a range for magic item distribution so that nobody unbalances the game too much. I used some of the table probabilities from the DMG and some rough guesses to come up with this:
Common- 1 per player every level
Uncommon -1 per party every level
Rare - 1 per tier for each player
Very Rare - 1 per tier per party
DM SHOULD GIVE OUT THIS MANY MAGIC ITEMS TO THE PARTY:
Common - 1 per player every level
Uncommon - 1 per party every level
Rare - 1 per tier for each player
Very Rare - 1 per player over the entire campaign
Legendary - 1 per campaign
Feats - Hermit Crab & Superhero Landing
Item - Alertness & Skeleton Key
Consumables should be more common, probably. Certainly more common that permanent magic items.
See Xanathar's Guide to Everything for recommendations: https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/xgte/awarding-magic-items
Having got my players to 6th level now, my sense is that your list is skewed too much to the lower levels. If you work out the math, by the time they are done with tier one -- they at level 5, starting tier 2, will have 4 common magic items, one uncommon magic item, and one rare magic item each (assuming a "standard" party of 4). Maybe one or two of them won't have an uncommon if you have a larger group. How do I work that out? Well, everyone has a rare item by the end of T1 by your list. Everyone gets one common item per level. And the party gets an uncommon per level, which is 4 uncommons by the end of level 4, and split evenly among a 4-PC party would be one per person. That is a LOT at level 5.
Also, you need to think about the advancing through tiers. If you are giving Rares out to each player at level 4 (tier 1), what is left to give them at level 16? I mean if your level 4s are walking around with a Necklace of Fireballs (Minor, Rare, according to XGE) and a Portable Hole, what are you going to give them as Rare items at level 8? Level 12?
I also don't like the idea of giving a party one Legendary item. Who gets it? How is it fair to the rest of the PCs that one guy gets 1 very rare and 1 legendary, but everyone else gets only 1 very rare? I think by the time they get to late campaign, every PC should have a signature legendary item that is his or her "thing" like the Paladin's Holy Avenger. They also should get it early enough that it's not like, "Here's your Holy Avenger... Cool! Now the campaign is over let's roll up new characters." They should get to use the thing.
I would argue that you should not evenly distribute this for each tier. Rather, the what you find in the tiers should escalate. For example, I might do something like:
That is how I would do it, rather than how you have it set. Then you can work on #s. XGE has more detail about this, but although I started using it, I have abandoned it as being much too hard to track, since I put items in the party sometimes doesn't find, or they divvy them up in ways that I did not expect... and they even swap them during adventures. I can't track all of that, especially with consumables ("here, I thought I'd need this potion but you need it more" -- and now I have to hit the spreadsheet... to much work).
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I like your list and I fully agree with the "don't give best items too late". It annoys me in DND campaigns and it annoys me in video games. To the point that in my campaign, using similar guidelines, I would even consider starting giving the "next tier" items at the last level of previous tier.
I don't disagree with that either.
There is a reason why they didn't delay getting 9th level spells to 20th level... because it would suck to hit level 20, and now that the campaign is over (assuming it is) you can never cast your best spells.
Same with magic items. I think as a DM it is worth custom-creating a nice legendary, super-awesome magic item for each character to have, and I would give them out over an adventure or two, or a dungeon or two (or what have you) -- not all at once -- around 15th-17th level, so that they have 3-4 levels to use the thing. Each.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Thanks! Great feedback. I appreciate it.
Feats - Hermit Crab & Superhero Landing
Item - Alertness & Skeleton Key