I give more magic items than I guess one is supposed, in part because I have my players interact with other adventures and creatures with those items.
I still use the Attunement system so my players are relatively frequently "upgrading" their equipment. This leaves them some perfectly good magic items but for their attuning requirements, that would be used, but instead now live dormant in storage, or are passed on to friendly NPCs.
I don't really want to invite criticism of the amount of magic in my game. That ship has sailed.
I just wonder if any other DM's and players face the same issue and how they deal with it.
When you say “deal with it” you imply there is a problem. What is the problem?
I would imagine they dropped some mundane items when they picked up the magic ones. Now they’re dropping magic one when they get better magic ones. No big deal. If your world is that magic-heavy, it stands to reason this would be a common practice. Frankly, it could be cool. What a baller move to be able to say, “No thanks, I’ve already got five +2 swords at home. You keep it.”
They could always just sell the extra magic items for cash. Or, perhaps utility items that require attunement could be given to a hireling or something, to use them when they are needed. Basically hired extra attunement slots. Or, if you don't like either option, magic items could be somehow disenchantable, the magic being drawn from them and stored, useable for crafting some other item.
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"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
I don't see a problem. The players keeping the items or giving them away is the best case scenario. Most would ask to cash out, which, if you're going by the standard assumptions in the DMG, shouldn't be a simple task due to difficulty in tracking down buyers and lack of standardized pricing.
I'd go so far as to say they're doing you a favor by keeping the items in storage. If they've failed to secure them properly (relative to the threat posed by organized crime in a magical world) they've given you the seeds for a new adventure to track down whomever stole their stuff and get it back.
My DM is currently generous with magic items. I have a locked chest "safely" tucked away in the basement of one of the other player's homes. I place "retired" equipment there. I haven't retired any magic equipment yet, but I can see that it will happen.
After beginning, with my Bard, I received a magic rapier that is +1, has the light property, and once per day can be activated for 1 minute to give out 2d6 lightning damage. It not bad for a level 2 Bard, when I got it. I'm still carrying it at level 4, and I'll be carrying it until something better comes along. But, before I received it, I asked a blacksmith to silver my original rapier. Now this rapier is gathering dust in my chest. So I've decided to make up a story for this rapier. When it was silvered, the Bard had his name engraved on the blade in the Forte. This changed the blade ever so little that when it is drawn from its scabbard "it rings." And it rings with a pure 'A' (432Hz back then) so that my Bard could tune his instruments by using the rapier as a tuning fork. So now, among the Bards he has met, they all speak of Cadenza's Rapier, which is becoming a renowned rapier among the Bard community even though mechanically it is no more than a silvered rapier of fine craftsmanship.
Later, I may give my retired weapons and armor to followers, provided the DM is OK with that. I am already training a farm boy to serve as a merchant caravan leader for me. I gave him a dagger recovered from one of our encounters and I bought him a tailored red shirt, one of the colors of my enterprise.
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
In our game, we have a Magic Town where they buy/sell magic. But the prices we get for selling are low and the prices for buying a very high. We know they are ripping us off, but it is better than nothing. Think 1/2 a reasonable price to sell a magic item and 4-10x a reasonable price to buy one. But we can use skills to affect the price - if you are good with those skills.
I've usually given players a way to, eventually, "trade" magic items they don't care about for ones they do. Since I generate loot with some randomness, or whatever the module says, it's pretty common for the players to end up with a bunch of things they don't care about. In my world, in a big city a major wizard's guild (or a seedy thieves' guild...) might have the sort of powerful things that might be traded for magic items. (i.e. other powerful items more tailored to what the characters actually would use)
Some people are wondering why I see this as a problem.
It isn't a huge problem. But I feel like it does take away from one of the pleasant things that can happen to a PC, and that is getting tangible rewards.. treasure. I know there are lots of other ways to reward players (fame, titles, coin). But magical treasure is a simple and effective way. So, as a DM who wants to provide those rewards (a) I need to keep escalating the power of such treasure (so they are willing to swap attunements) and (b) when I do provide better items the players have to "pay" an additional cost for that treasure (dropping their older items), this can be particularly onerous if I made the lower power items interesting from a story perspective, the McGuffin that they sought levels 1-10 or the family sword passed down generations.
All this could have been solved by limiting the number of magic items out there earlier, but then I wouldn't have been able to give those rewards.
I am contemplating a rule by which lower rarity 'attuned' items, no longer require attunement for characters once they reach a certain tier of play. Maybe something like:
Tier 1 and Tier 2 = RAW
Tier 3 = Uncommon items do not require attunement.
I dislike that idea. Eventually you get a ton of low level stuff. Instead what we do is every once in a while we find a magic item that does NOT have to be attuned.
We like to run older edition adventures (2nd, 3rd, etc.) Any magic item that the villains have is translated into 5e. But if there is no direct translation, such as a 'ring of invisibility with 3 charges per day', that means it does not have to be attuned.
We like to run older edition adventures (2nd, 3rd, etc.) Any magic item that the villains have is translated into 5e. But if there is no direct translation, such as a 'ring of invisibility with 3 charges per day', that means it does not have to be attuned.
That's a pretty weird criteria. Attunement should be based on limiting which effects can be stacked, who should have access to an effect, and avoiding exploits that involve passing the item around the party. Invisibility is already powerful effect (powerful enough to warrant concentration) and letting the party pass around the ring even more so.
I dislike that idea. Eventually you get a ton of low level stuff. Instead what we do is every once in a while we find a magic item that does NOT have to be attuned.
Isn't that roughly the same? The only difference is mine would depend on Tier.
It's not a criteria per se, it's actually up to the DM. But it is more convenient to think about attunement when re-writing a magic item, rather than whenever you get one.
And I find your have some strange criteria. Stacking is RARELY a problem for most things, and neither is passing things around. After all, stacking 2 rings of fire resistance still gives you fire resistance. Ogre Strength does not stack with Giant Strength. As for passing around a ring of invisibility, you take it off and you become visible and this one had 3 charges. Not that big a deal.
The main reason our players dislike attunement is you quickly fill up 3 slots and have to make choices about which item to get rid of. The wizard is not getting rid of Wand of the War Mage, nor his Ring of Protection (AC and saves!) That means only one slot to fill up.
I dislike that idea. Eventually you get a ton of low level stuff. Instead what we do is every once in a while we find a magic item that does NOT have to be attuned.
Isn't that roughly the same? The only difference is mine would depend on Tier.
Nope. You have been collecting low level magic items all along. They are nothing till you go up a Tier and you get an instant power upgrade that the DM is not prepared for. Suddenly those low level magic items you stop using all get added back on, and now the DM has to deal with it.
Our method, the DM has direct control over the magic items, and the power upgrades happen slowly. He sees the PCs becoming too powerful and corrects for it slowly.
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I give more magic items than I guess one is supposed, in part because I have my players interact with other adventures and creatures with those items.
I still use the Attunement system so my players are relatively frequently "upgrading" their equipment. This leaves them some perfectly good magic items but for their attuning requirements, that would be used, but instead now live dormant in storage, or are passed on to friendly NPCs.
I don't really want to invite criticism of the amount of magic in my game. That ship has sailed.
I just wonder if any other DM's and players face the same issue and how they deal with it.
When you say “deal with it” you imply there is a problem. What is the problem?
I would imagine they dropped some mundane items when they picked up the magic ones. Now they’re dropping magic one when they get better magic ones. No big deal.
If your world is that magic-heavy, it stands to reason this would be a common practice.
Frankly, it could be cool. What a baller move to be able to say, “No thanks, I’ve already got five +2 swords at home. You keep it.”
They could always just sell the extra magic items for cash. Or, perhaps utility items that require attunement could be given to a hireling or something, to use them when they are needed. Basically hired extra attunement slots. Or, if you don't like either option, magic items could be somehow disenchantable, the magic being drawn from them and stored, useable for crafting some other item.
"Ignorance is bliss, and you look absolutely miserable."
I was thinking of something like the latter... but wasn't sure a good way to manage it.
I don't see a problem. The players keeping the items or giving them away is the best case scenario. Most would ask to cash out, which, if you're going by the standard assumptions in the DMG, shouldn't be a simple task due to difficulty in tracking down buyers and lack of standardized pricing.
I'd go so far as to say they're doing you a favor by keeping the items in storage. If they've failed to secure them properly (relative to the threat posed by organized crime in a magical world) they've given you the seeds for a new adventure to track down whomever stole their stuff and get it back.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
My DM is currently generous with magic items. I have a locked chest "safely" tucked away in the basement of one of the other player's homes. I place "retired" equipment there. I haven't retired any magic equipment yet, but I can see that it will happen.
After beginning, with my Bard, I received a magic rapier that is +1, has the light property, and once per day can be activated for 1 minute to give out 2d6 lightning damage. It not bad for a level 2 Bard, when I got it. I'm still carrying it at level 4, and I'll be carrying it until something better comes along. But, before I received it, I asked a blacksmith to silver my original rapier. Now this rapier is gathering dust in my chest. So I've decided to make up a story for this rapier. When it was silvered, the Bard had his name engraved on the blade in the Forte. This changed the blade ever so little that when it is drawn from its scabbard "it rings." And it rings with a pure 'A' (432Hz back then) so that my Bard could tune his instruments by using the rapier as a tuning fork. So now, among the Bards he has met, they all speak of Cadenza's Rapier, which is becoming a renowned rapier among the Bard community even though mechanically it is no more than a silvered rapier of fine craftsmanship.
Later, I may give my retired weapons and armor to followers, provided the DM is OK with that. I am already training a farm boy to serve as a merchant caravan leader for me. I gave him a dagger recovered from one of our encounters and I bought him a tailored red shirt, one of the colors of my enterprise.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
In our game, we have a Magic Town where they buy/sell magic. But the prices we get for selling are low and the prices for buying a very high. We know they are ripping us off, but it is better than nothing. Think 1/2 a reasonable price to sell a magic item and 4-10x a reasonable price to buy one. But we can use skills to affect the price - if you are good with those skills.
I've usually given players a way to, eventually, "trade" magic items they don't care about for ones they do. Since I generate loot with some randomness, or whatever the module says, it's pretty common for the players to end up with a bunch of things they don't care about. In my world, in a big city a major wizard's guild (or a seedy thieves' guild...) might have the sort of powerful things that might be traded for magic items. (i.e. other powerful items more tailored to what the characters actually would use)
Some people are wondering why I see this as a problem.
It isn't a huge problem. But I feel like it does take away from one of the pleasant things that can happen to a PC, and that is getting tangible rewards.. treasure. I know there are lots of other ways to reward players (fame, titles, coin). But magical treasure is a simple and effective way. So, as a DM who wants to provide those rewards (a) I need to keep escalating the power of such treasure (so they are willing to swap attunements) and (b) when I do provide better items the players have to "pay" an additional cost for that treasure (dropping their older items), this can be particularly onerous if I made the lower power items interesting from a story perspective, the McGuffin that they sought levels 1-10 or the family sword passed down generations.
All this could have been solved by limiting the number of magic items out there earlier, but then I wouldn't have been able to give those rewards.
I am contemplating a rule by which lower rarity 'attuned' items, no longer require attunement for characters once they reach a certain tier of play.
Maybe something like:
I dislike that idea. Eventually you get a ton of low level stuff. Instead what we do is every once in a while we find a magic item that does NOT have to be attuned.
We like to run older edition adventures (2nd, 3rd, etc.) Any magic item that the villains have is translated into 5e. But if there is no direct translation, such as a 'ring of invisibility with 3 charges per day', that means it does not have to be attuned.
That's a pretty weird criteria. Attunement should be based on limiting which effects can be stacked, who should have access to an effect, and avoiding exploits that involve passing the item around the party. Invisibility is already powerful effect (powerful enough to warrant concentration) and letting the party pass around the ring even more so.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
Isn't that roughly the same? The only difference is mine would depend on Tier.
It's not a criteria per se, it's actually up to the DM. But it is more convenient to think about attunement when re-writing a magic item, rather than whenever you get one.
And I find your have some strange criteria. Stacking is RARELY a problem for most things, and neither is passing things around. After all, stacking 2 rings of fire resistance still gives you fire resistance. Ogre Strength does not stack with Giant Strength. As for passing around a ring of invisibility, you take it off and you become visible and this one had 3 charges. Not that big a deal.
The main reason our players dislike attunement is you quickly fill up 3 slots and have to make choices about which item to get rid of. The wizard is not getting rid of Wand of the War Mage, nor his Ring of Protection (AC and saves!) That means only one slot to fill up.
Nope. You have been collecting low level magic items all along. They are nothing till you go up a Tier and you get an instant power upgrade that the DM is not prepared for. Suddenly those low level magic items you stop using all get added back on, and now the DM has to deal with it.
Our method, the DM has direct control over the magic items, and the power upgrades happen slowly. He sees the PCs becoming too powerful and corrects for it slowly.