Personally, I must be running a much low magic campaign in comparison to that. I don't use a specific table, but more a balancing view for my group. E.g. from time to time they will come across better/good items that will likely to used on one of the characters. However, I try to ensure there's not too many sessisons where one character has items that are disproportionately powerful relative to others.
I did a quick tally, and in a 7 person campaign where most are level 7, they have a total of: 3 items i would consider major (armor and cloak with additional abilities/protections and a +2 weapon)
8 other items (smaller but handy things like ring of animal influence, wand of web etc.)
Currently 6 potions and scrolls between them - but they are starting to run low, having been in the wilderness for a bit.
Going by that table, I am wildly below :) But each item in the group has a story behind it - and I think that's quite important - at least in my campaign style.
I've used it more as a guideline for what *might* be available, as encounter loot or from a merchant. The items that my current party has are slightly less plentiful than what is suggested in table and nobody seems bothered by that. So, overall, I don't think I'll change how magic items are introuduced in my games.
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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
I dont use any guideline for expected magic items per level of any kind in my campaigns, preferring to go with my gut feelings based on the level of magic in it. In a medium to high magic campaign it could average that ammount while in low magic campaign it will be less than that, especially for minor items.
I don't use it either, it seems like incredibly low numbers to me. I run very high magic campaigns though. I've ran into a few people recently who seem to thing that this is set in stone, In one campaign that I am a PC in the DM has announced that based on this table, the party already has too many magical items, and they will not be receiving any more.
I view the table as more of a general guild line, and not a very good one, imo. It seems that including consumable things like health potions, and even cantrip scrolls, generally is a bad idea. One of the campaigns I am currently running there are no healers in the party at all. 4 PCs in the party and by 4th level they easily used 20 minor health potions, which I made readily available knowing that they did not have access to healing magic.
But after arguing with a few people, including the aforementioned DM about it I started to wonder about the balance issues involved in the party having a significantly larger amount of magical items. Per the Major and Minor magical items list in XGtE all + anything (+1-3) armor, shields, and weapons are listed as Major magical items. I am by no means a numbers guy, so I really don't know, but does a +1 to attack and damage really have that much of an effect over the course of an encounter, let alone an entire campaign? I tried to think about it in terms of my own rolls in combat both as a DM and a player. It seems to me that more often I am either rolling way below the AC or way above, and the amount of times that a +1 or even a +2 would have made a difference don't really seem that high.
But after arguing with a few people, including the aforementioned DM about it I started to wonder about the balance issues involved in the party having a significantly larger amount of magical items. Per the Major and Minor magical items list in XGtE all + anything (+1-3) armor, shields, and weapons are listed as Major magical items. I am by no means a numbers guy, so I really don't know, but does a +1 to attack and damage really have that much of an effect over the course of an encounter, let alone an entire campaign? I tried to think about it in terms of my own rolls in combat both as a DM and a player. It seems to me that more often I am either rolling way below the AC or way above, and the amount of times that a +1 or even a +2 would have made a difference don't really seem that high.
Depending on what kinds of enemies the characters are fighting, the ability to overcome resistance/immunity to non-magical damage can be much more significant than the +1 to attack and damage rolls.
Wondering how many DMs here use this table from XGtE. If you don't use it what do you use?
Magic Items Awarded by Tier
Personally, I must be running a much low magic campaign in comparison to that. I don't use a specific table, but more a balancing view for my group. E.g. from time to time they will come across better/good items that will likely to used on one of the characters. However, I try to ensure there's not too many sessisons where one character has items that are disproportionately powerful relative to others.
I did a quick tally, and in a 7 person campaign where most are level 7, they have a total of:
3 items i would consider major (armor and cloak with additional abilities/protections and a +2 weapon)
8 other items (smaller but handy things like ring of animal influence, wand of web etc.)
Currently 6 potions and scrolls between them - but they are starting to run low, having been in the wilderness for a bit.
Going by that table, I am wildly below :) But each item in the group has a story behind it - and I think that's quite important - at least in my campaign style.
I've used it more as a guideline for what *might* be available, as encounter loot or from a merchant. The items that my current party has are slightly less plentiful than what is suggested in table and nobody seems bothered by that. So, overall, I don't think I'll change how magic items are introuduced in my games.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
I dont use any guideline for expected magic items per level of any kind in my campaigns, preferring to go with my gut feelings based on the level of magic in it. In a medium to high magic campaign it could average that ammount while in low magic campaign it will be less than that, especially for minor items.
I don't use it either, it seems like incredibly low numbers to me. I run very high magic campaigns though. I've ran into a few people recently who seem to thing that this is set in stone, In one campaign that I am a PC in the DM has announced that based on this table, the party already has too many magical items, and they will not be receiving any more.
I view the table as more of a general guild line, and not a very good one, imo. It seems that including consumable things like health potions, and even cantrip scrolls, generally is a bad idea. One of the campaigns I am currently running there are no healers in the party at all. 4 PCs in the party and by 4th level they easily used 20 minor health potions, which I made readily available knowing that they did not have access to healing magic.
But after arguing with a few people, including the aforementioned DM about it I started to wonder about the balance issues involved in the party having a significantly larger amount of magical items. Per the Major and Minor magical items list in XGtE all + anything (+1-3) armor, shields, and weapons are listed as Major magical items. I am by no means a numbers guy, so I really don't know, but does a +1 to attack and damage really have that much of an effect over the course of an encounter, let alone an entire campaign? I tried to think about it in terms of my own rolls in combat both as a DM and a player. It seems to me that more often I am either rolling way below the AC or way above, and the amount of times that a +1 or even a +2 would have made a difference don't really seem that high.
Depending on what kinds of enemies the characters are fighting, the ability to overcome resistance/immunity to non-magical damage can be much more significant than the +1 to attack and damage rolls.
I use this table as a guideline but I definitely do not apply any type of consumable to the list.