So I just ran my second session and since it was particularly rough I decided to be nice and reward magic low level magic items for each of my players, I have a sorcerer, cleric, and rouge and was wondering what I should give them I have the week to decide so I came to the sages of the internet.
Assuming they are level 1-3. I’d stick to common or usable items. Potions, scrolls kind of thing. The furthest I’d go is a +1dagger, but that would really be pushing it. Keep in mind, you need to be able to advance the feeling of treasure and it’s rarity. If you give them great stuff at low levels, there’s no way to turn it up to 11 when they get to higher levels.
Yeah they are level 2 right now they just beat wyvern tor with some adjustments to make it harder and they barely beat it so I wanted to reward them but I couldn't figure it out I am running LMoP btw.
Potions and Scrolls are right. Consider giving a Silvered or Adamantine (lol) weapon, magical ammunition (10 x +1 Arrows that lose their magic on use), or if you want to be really generous, a Wand with limited charges that don't reset (e.g. a Wand that can cast Scorching Ray 3 times, after which it's just a basic wand).
Don't give out permanent +1 weapons or other permanent items at level 2. Reserve those for level 5, otherwise it throws out the game balance quite a bit. A +1 weapon is like 2 points of STR/DEX.
There are lots of "fun but not powerful" common magic items (Hat of disguise, Cloak of billowing, that sort of thing) to pick from that I'd say would make for good choices. Honestly; I'm a bit of a fan of not "tailoring" what you give out QUITE to the degree some DMs do. IE: picking out things that are "meant for" individual members of your party. Sure; do that on occasion with actually powerful items, but if you just want to populate treasure, I'd say go wild.. It's almost more fun to just toss something random at your party and see what they do with it; worst comes to worst and none of them wants it, they can always just hawk it for coin and split it.
I agree with not giving out something at 2nd level that is permanent, unless it is fairly innocuous, but something you can think about doing is giving them an item now that can be expanded upon in later quests/as the PCs level up. My campaign has a wizard, blood hunter and rogue assassin, so I gave the wizard a staff, the blood hunter a rapier and the rogue some bracers at 5th level. They were decent as they were, but they are incomplete versions of what they were meant to be and as the party progresses they have to find what items are needed to complete them, then find/buy those items, then have someone cast the spells. At the end of this, the staff will add to the wizards AC and act as a ring of spell storing, the rapier will be a +3 rapier and cast a few spells out of it, and the bracers will add to the rogue's AC and poison her daggers 1/2 times a day.
It's also a great way to introduce one-shot adventures and keep the PCs from having 10s of thousands of GP...
Sorcerer - Ring of Evasion. Gives them additional defenses but only under very specific conditions. A good low-level magic item that could potentially be held onto for a full playthrough, but could be swapped for something more exciting at later levels.
Cleric: - Sentinel Shield. It doesn't drastically change gameplay, but advantage on Perception is extra helpful for the class that has high WIS, and advantage on Initiative is always helpful.
Rogue - +1 Dagger. Nothing too exciting... dealing a little extra damage with each attack isn't such a big deal, since a dagger is still only a d4 of damage, but it's more to give them a small but appreciable boost on their to-hit.
I would second the idea of giving useful but one use items if you aren't sure. I would avoid any +1 items, not only they going to make scaling at lv2 odd, they are also dull, there are a ton of low power items, there are some low power random generators if you need inspiration. If you do go down route of giving them customised items consider having the weapon impove over time this seems to have worked well for my last campaign. I seem to remember that LMoP is a bit sparse with items so be aware you will need to alter the encounters too.
I’d either give out consumable items or items that only work once per day. If you give out consumable items you may want to give out 2 or 3 per character.
This might also be a good opportunity to drop a plot hook - something that looks like a crummy magical toy, but its actually important to the campaign down the road.
Xanathar's Guide has a great chaptaer on Award Magic items especially for items to lower level players. If you have the book or digital edition I'd recommend checking it out.
So I just ran my second session and since it was particularly rough I decided to be nice and reward magic low level magic items for each of my players, I have a sorcerer, cleric, and rouge and was wondering what I should give them I have the week to decide so I came to the sages of the internet.
Mythology Master
Assuming they are level 1-3. I’d stick to common or usable items. Potions, scrolls kind of thing. The furthest I’d go is a +1dagger, but that would really be pushing it. Keep in mind, you need to be able to advance the feeling of treasure and it’s rarity. If you give them great stuff at low levels, there’s no way to turn it up to 11 when they get to higher levels.
Yeah they are level 2 right now they just beat wyvern tor with some adjustments to make it harder and they barely beat it so I wanted to reward them but I couldn't figure it out I am running LMoP btw.
Mythology Master
Potions and Scrolls are right. Consider giving a Silvered or Adamantine (lol) weapon, magical ammunition (10 x +1 Arrows that lose their magic on use), or if you want to be really generous, a Wand with limited charges that don't reset (e.g. a Wand that can cast Scorching Ray 3 times, after which it's just a basic wand).
Don't give out permanent +1 weapons or other permanent items at level 2. Reserve those for level 5, otherwise it throws out the game balance quite a bit. A +1 weapon is like 2 points of STR/DEX.
There are lots of "fun but not powerful" common magic items (Hat of disguise, Cloak of billowing, that sort of thing) to pick from that I'd say would make for good choices. Honestly; I'm a bit of a fan of not "tailoring" what you give out QUITE to the degree some DMs do. IE: picking out things that are "meant for" individual members of your party. Sure; do that on occasion with actually powerful items, but if you just want to populate treasure, I'd say go wild.. It's almost more fun to just toss something random at your party and see what they do with it; worst comes to worst and none of them wants it, they can always just hawk it for coin and split it.
Bag of Tricks is always a great time. It also becomes much less useful over time, so it shouldn't unbalance things in the long run.
I agree with not giving out something at 2nd level that is permanent, unless it is fairly innocuous, but something you can think about doing is giving them an item now that can be expanded upon in later quests/as the PCs level up. My campaign has a wizard, blood hunter and rogue assassin, so I gave the wizard a staff, the blood hunter a rapier and the rogue some bracers at 5th level. They were decent as they were, but they are incomplete versions of what they were meant to be and as the party progresses they have to find what items are needed to complete them, then find/buy those items, then have someone cast the spells. At the end of this, the staff will add to the wizards AC and act as a ring of spell storing, the rapier will be a +3 rapier and cast a few spells out of it, and the bracers will add to the rogue's AC and poison her daggers 1/2 times a day.
It's also a great way to introduce one-shot adventures and keep the PCs from having 10s of thousands of GP...
Sorcerer - Ring of Evasion. Gives them additional defenses but only under very specific conditions. A good low-level magic item that could potentially be held onto for a full playthrough, but could be swapped for something more exciting at later levels.
Cleric: - Sentinel Shield. It doesn't drastically change gameplay, but advantage on Perception is extra helpful for the class that has high WIS, and advantage on Initiative is always helpful.
Rogue - +1 Dagger. Nothing too exciting... dealing a little extra damage with each attack isn't such a big deal, since a dagger is still only a d4 of damage, but it's more to give them a small but appreciable boost on their to-hit.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
I would second the idea of giving useful but one use items if you aren't sure. I would avoid any +1 items, not only they going to make scaling at lv2 odd, they are also dull, there are a ton of low power items, there are some low power random generators if you need inspiration. If you do go down route of giving them customised items consider having the weapon impove over time this seems to have worked well for my last campaign. I seem to remember that LMoP is a bit sparse with items so be aware you will need to alter the encounters too.
I’d either give out consumable items or items that only work once per day. If you give out consumable items you may want to give out 2 or 3 per character.
Professional computer geek
This might also be a good opportunity to drop a plot hook - something that looks like a crummy magical toy, but its actually important to the campaign down the road.
Xanathar's Guide has a great chaptaer on Award Magic items especially for items to lower level players. If you have the book or digital edition I'd recommend checking it out.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/xgte/awarding-magic-items