You want to play a character that relies on magic items
You want the character to be roughly as strong as the other party members (...I hope?)
Let's not overthink this. Just build a level 1 character like normal and say your burning hands spell is from a big garnet ring on your finger, or your second wind is a Belt of Health. You can 100% do this by reflavoring, which avoids all the unwanted side effects of dumping items on a low level PC. As you level and gain more abilities you could be figuring things out on your own or be receiving care packages from home with new items.
This would actually really easily work for a sorcerer, whereas instead of inheriting your magic from some kind of generic lottery or laboratory accident, you literally inherited your magic like here's a bunch of trinkets Mother gave me that give me magic.
Would it be okay to have a level 1 character with a backstory as a rich spoiled brat?
Thats pretty much the Noble background with the right “personal characteristics” selected.
The young player wants to break free from their mundane life of bonbons and servants and go on adventures. Of course, they are equipped with all the toys, like a new batman on day 1 with access to all the gadgets:
If you can’t lose them and they give you the powers and abilities inherent in a normal 1st level character I’d call that fluff and let you go with it. Your “sorcerer” spells actually come from your special hat. As you learn how to use it, you can cast more spells. Fine.
If you -can- lose them or an enemy can take them, and you revert to a stat block commoner without them, I might allow you a slightly better ability than other characters to make up for the disadvantage. The better that ability, the more determined enemies would be to take your hat once they found out it can make anyone a sorcerer.
The the concern is balancing this extra attention you are getting from the DM vs the other players.
If other players in the party cry foul, the player invites them to their nearest mansion and equips them with everything they could desire (on loan of course).
No
You can start with 2d6 consumable common/uncommon magic items, and one common, one uncommon, and one rare attunable item to fill your slots. You won't have a class though (which will restrict your item choices due to attunement requirements) -- you will be a level 0 commoner, with straight 10s across the board in your stats regardless of your race, no class features, and no proficiency bonus (making skill proficiencies irrelevant).
I might allow a stat block commoner, equipped with Chainmail +1, Shield +1 and Longsword +1 that they are not proficient with or strong enough to wear properly. When the rest on the party bumps to 2nd, this character becomes a 1st level fighter but is only proficient in the weapons and armor he’s used and gets the stat bumps or feats/ abilities from his race, if any.
As the party advances, he’s always a level behind…. Gaining his class traits slowly and improving his stats or gaining feats as he advances.
I had a player in my game ask to play a character that had no skills and only a ton of money, and I told them 'no' because I did not know how I would motivate such a character in an sandbox, non 'save the world' setting.
Money is a great motivator to go on quests, seeking powerful magic items is a great motivator to go on quests, and I'm not fully sure how to manage a character who already has both.
RE: CharlesThePlant Being wealthy and having all the magic can be quite demotivating, even boring. So...
For someone in this situation, the idea of excitement, risk and adventure can be powerful motivators.
The idea of producing something of value and having pride in one's creation is a motivator.
The idea of helping others can be a source of great satisfaction and motivation in and of itself.
Accomplishments provide self worth, something you can't get with money and stuff.
tl;dr Money and acquiring (magic) stuff aren't the only motivators.
I would allow everything except the magic items. Its game breaking and would unbalanced and annoying to plan around.
You could make it so that parents see adventuring as beneath them. So they cut you off to a certain extent. Like, you can still have a bunch of money. And maybe you can try and steal something with your party. That could be fun.
If you wanna start overpowered i would suggest making a high level campaign. Not level 1
Available to level 1 PCs? Maybe be able to be found at some point, but that doesn’t mean you should be allowed to start with them. In my campaigns, no one starts with a magic item.
It references several Magic Items available to Level 1 PCs.
What other items could be added to the list?
One or two of the items, with no clear use in combat (lantern of tracking), might be found at first level. Even the weakest of the combat-related items won’t be found until around fifth level. And in both cases, the key word is found. Nobody gets to start with magic items.
Generally, the magic items I give to level one PCs are things like unsnuffable candles or quills of rainbow ink!
I had a player in my game ask to play a character that had no skills and only a ton of money, and I told them 'no' because I did not know how I would motivate such a character in an sandbox, non 'save the world' setting.
Money is a great motivator to go on quests, seeking powerful magic items is a great motivator to go on quests, and I'm not fully sure how to manage a character who already has both.
RE: CharlesThePlant Being wealthy and having all the magic can be quite demotivating, even boring. So...
For someone in this situation, the idea of excitement, risk and adventure can be powerful motivators.
The idea of producing something of value and having pride in one's creation is a motivator.
The idea of helping others can be a source of great satisfaction and motivation in and of itself.
Accomplishments provide self worth, something you can't get with money and stuff.
tl;dr Money and acquiring (magic) stuff aren't the only motivators.
While yes, I agree with you, but this player specifically wanted to play a "rich d**che" who didn't care about anyone but himself, had no skills (no player class at all), and would only throw money at any problem. Essentially, to run it, they'd just need to hire a second character to follow them around and adventure for them, and they had no reason to risk anything because all they cared about was money (which they already had and therefore didn't need desperately enough to risk their life).
Basically, they wanted to play a quest-giver who was content to let other people do everything for them.
A character out on their first adventure taking a large number of extremely valuable magical items out into the wilderness without significant guards, what could possibly go wrong?
Legendary items are legendary, there's a decent chance they'd be recognized/tracked by the sort of people that would be interested in obtaining them. It would not be unreasonable for a CR15+ character to come after the party to obtain one. Even if the items are limited to uncommon, it wouldn't be surprising for the party to run into a group of bandits that would be a deadly encounter for level 10 characters.
I had a player in my game ask to play a character that had no skills and only a ton of money, and I told them 'no' because I did not know how I would motivate such a character in an sandbox, non 'save the world' setting.
Money is a great motivator to go on quests, seeking powerful magic items is a great motivator to go on quests, and I'm not fully sure how to manage a character who already has both.
RE: CharlesThePlant Being wealthy and having all the magic can be quite demotivating, even boring. So...
For someone in this situation, the idea of excitement, risk and adventure can be powerful motivators.
The idea of producing something of value and having pride in one's creation is a motivator.
The idea of helping others can be a source of great satisfaction and motivation in and of itself.
Accomplishments provide self worth, something you can't get with money and stuff.
tl;dr Money and acquiring (magic) stuff aren't the only motivators.
They aren't. Your rich spoiled brat could want to adventure out of a misguided sense of their own importance, the fact everything in life has been easy for them, or because they want to do good in the world.
And yet, level 1 characters don't start the game with magic items, so unless your DM says to you "Sure, have a lot of magic items" then it's all totally irrelevant. I don't think any DM, or table of players, would go for what you're describing.
If you want to play without a character class, you'll be a [monster]commoner[/commoner] and no amount of magical items are going to protect you from a breath weapon that deals 8 dice of damage.
Your DM has every right to say no. I'm not saying it's not a legitimate backstory, but the bigger problem here is expecting things because of the backstory. In particular, magic items are extremely powerful as a backstory feature. Most backgrounds give you a circumstantial benefit, such as free lodging in certain locations, the ability to live off the land, influence over certain people, etc. A magic item, depending on the item, can basically trivialize those benefits, especially if it comes with "I don't care about money" amounts of gold and resources available to your character. It's the same as having a character backstory where you have a bunch of people working for you- it's not necessarily a problem, but it can definitely make it hard for other players to feel involved if you try to solve every problem with magic items, hirelings, etc.
One problem I have with running 5e sometimes is that some players feel like they're playing a collection of magic items, not characters. DMs can always manage that by restricting the availability of magic items, of course, but you may have people you're playing with who don't want to just have a magic item to solve all their problems. I had a DM once give a rogue I was playing an artifact that turned him into a very powerful lycanthrope at will. It was a powerful (and should have been fun) item, but it didn't play like the character I made, turning a ranged rogue into a frontline tank. However, since the DM balanced encounters around using the artifact constantly, I couldn't actually play without letting the rest of the party take hits that they couldn't withstand.
Quite frankly, in most settings, even uncommon magic items are rare and expensive. Adventurers only come into such items because they find the corpses of other adventurers, defeat powerful enemies (who themselves usually only have a few magic items), and provide services for clients who are so desperate that they'd even part with something as rare and valuable as a magic item. In Eberron, where magic is more commonplace, some ancestral magic items might be fine, but if you let a character, via backstory, have access to that kind of power, then your other players have absolutely no power by comparison unless they similarly wander into a trove of magic items at level 1. Now, some DMs are very lenient with magic items, and so this might be more allowable for them, but I would NEVER give a level one a very rare or higher item.
I would only give a level one a magic item at all if I was properly bri- er, convinced that it was for the good of the party or if it was for backstory building (and not giving characters access to magic items at will, more of an "Yeah, you can have a common magic item because your backstory explains it a bit.") and I would never make one player the crux of how magic items were obtained. Rather I would try to make things equal (and not wait for "If other players in the party cry foul", at which point it's clear that all the other players are already frustrated) so that, for example, everyone could start with a single common (or uncommon if starting at a higher level) item, probably from a curated list. It's just going to cause drama amongst players, accusations of rampant favoritism, and problems with balance. D&D is not balanced around 1st level characters having very rare items.
In fact, most enemies, even at high CRs, are not balanced around having items- they might have benefits to challenge the party, but their spell save DCs, attack modifiers, and other attributes generally reflect an absence of magic items with a few exceptions. Giving a level 1 character a +2 equipment item immediately shatters balance, and there are rare and very rare items that do even worse than that. It would be a nightmare for the DM to balance, since level 1 characters are not durable enough to handle hits commensurate to their power equivalent with items, but would not be threatened by things that normally threaten level 1 characters if you let them load up on items. I once DM'ed a level 14 session for a WM server that let people have a ton of items (like, at least one chosen very rare and several rares per player) and they minced enemies that I wouldn't throw at an un-geared party. Letting players pick magic items further increases the power level of players- after all, a DM might give a player a very rare item that is good for their build, but not the best in slot. That's generally what official tables like the ones in the DMG/Xanathar's expect. A level 20 party could expect a total of roughly 20 major items (i.e. permanent, non-consumable items of high utility) and 80 minor items. That's a lot, but that also reflects the fact that those items are (at least RAW) random- you might not get items that are particularly useful for the party or ones that synergize with the party. No major rare or higher items are given until at least level 5, and even then there's certainly not enough to "[equip] them with everything they could desire (on loan of course)."
As a player, I would never even propose this to a DM outside of maybe a screwball one shot. It would completely trivialize any loot for the entire campaign since you start with all the gear you could want, and it would make encounters next to impossible to balance. Even if we started at level 20, I wouldn't suggest this. It's just too unfair to the DM and other players who have to work around the idea.
I would only give a level one a magic item at all if I was properly bri- er, convinced that it was for the good of the party or if it was for backstory building (and not giving characters access to magic items at will, more of an "Yeah, you can have a common magic item because your backstory explains it a bit.") and I would never make one player the crux of how magic items were obtained. Rather I would try to make things equal (and not wait for "If other players in the party cry foul", at which point it's clear that all the other players are already frustrated) so that, for example, everyone could start with a single common (or uncommon if starting at a higher level) item, probably from a curated list. It's just going to cause drama amongst players, accusations of rampant favoritism, and problems with balance. D&D is not balanced around 1st level characters having very rare items.
I have to admit, while I came down hard on OP's character concept, I also have a homebrew warlock subclass called The Relic that allows a character to start with a powerful sentient magic item -- although the item itself doesn't really do anything beyond granting powers to the character.
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I had a player in my game ask to play a character that had no skills and only a ton of money, and I told them 'no' because I did not know how I would motivate such a character in an sandbox, non 'save the world' setting.
Money is a great motivator to go on quests, seeking powerful magic items is a great motivator to go on quests, and I'm not fully sure how to manage a character who already has both.
RE: CharlesThePlant Being wealthy and having all the magic can be quite demotivating, even boring. So...
For someone in this situation, the idea of excitement, risk and adventure can be powerful motivators.
The idea of producing something of value and having pride in one's creation is a motivator.
The idea of helping others can be a source of great satisfaction and motivation in and of itself.
Accomplishments provide self worth, something you can't get with money and stuff.
tl;dr Money and acquiring (magic) stuff aren't the only motivators.
While yes, I agree with you, but this player specifically wanted to play a "rich d**che" who didn't care about anyone but himself, had no skills (no player class at all), and would only throw money at any problem. Essentially, to run it, they'd just need to hire a second character to follow them around and adventure for them, and they had no reason to risk anything because all they cared about was money (which they already had and therefore didn't need desperately enough to risk their life).
Basically, they wanted to play a quest-giver who was content to let other people do everything for them.
Yeah that's just an NPC. If someone pitched that to me, I'd say, "Oh, so you want to DM the next game? Cool, what level are we starting at?"
I wouldn't allow it. My games start with basic starting equipment. For a character like the one described, I would ask, "what did you take? And how did you lose it?" Then I might weave those items in as a reward(the bandit leader was going to have a +1 sword? Cool now that sword has noble boys family crest on the hilt. Ect.). His treasure then becomes an explanation of why this region has so many magic items in circulation.
Sidenote: I really liked one of the first suggestions of only letting them take consumables, it makes the power imbalance between players fix itself over time without making you avoid giving loot for Richie rich.
Edit: my low level games use starting equipment, from lvl 5ish starts or later all players get the same number and rarity of magic items
A thought that occured to me as an amusing reskin. Have them play an artificer but all their class abilities are magic items aquired from home instead of the result of tinkering... Kinda want to try that myself now.
Infusions are just special delivery, robodog is literally a magic guard dog protecting the heir to the fortune ect.
As a DM, I would be open to the original character concept. I would think of some kind of tradeoff, so like instead of gaining levels, you stay perpetually at level 1, but at least you get hit dice. When the other players gain a level, you get a new toy shipped to you from daddy: a more powerful magic item.
I would make sure other players were okay with it, though.
I have played a spoiled rich character, but one who didn't get any special toys at level 1. Like I don't think Draco Malfoy had any super OP magic items in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I just played the character rich to role play a spoiled brat, who didn't really want to go on the adventure, but he had to or daddy would take away his privileges.
i would say this doesn't break any rules purely on a theoretical level
not in any actual game
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if i say something inflammatory the intention is not to trigger an emotional response and the fact that it does so is purely accidental and I sincerely apologise if it does
i would say this doesn't break any rules purely on a theoretical level
not in any actual game
Quite a necro post but actually it does break rules, the rules clearly specify what starting equipment a player has based on their class and background. You have the option to replace that with a fixed amount of gold but that wouldn't help you get any magic items with the possible excettion of a single healing potion.
There are optional rules for extra equipment if you start at higher levels but for startin at level 1 anything you have above what you can get from character creation is against the rules.
I’m interested that nobody suggested restricting the character to Common magic items. There are quite a few in Xanathar’s guide that aren’t game-breaking. A Cloak of Billowing would seem to fit this wannabe hero rather well!
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This would actually really easily work for a sorcerer, whereas instead of inheriting your magic from some kind of generic lottery or laboratory accident, you literally inherited your magic like here's a bunch of trinkets Mother gave me that give me magic.
Thats pretty much the Noble background with the right “personal characteristics” selected.
If you can’t lose them and they give you the powers and abilities inherent in a normal 1st level character I’d call that fluff and let you go with it. Your “sorcerer” spells actually come from your special hat. As you learn how to use it, you can cast more spells. Fine.
If you -can- lose them or an enemy can take them, and you revert to a stat block commoner without them, I might allow you a slightly better ability than other characters to make up for the disadvantage. The better that ability, the more determined enemies would be to take your hat once they found out it can make anyone a sorcerer.
The the concern is balancing this extra attention you are getting from the DM vs the other players.
No
I might allow a stat block commoner, equipped with Chainmail +1, Shield +1 and Longsword +1 that they are not proficient with or strong enough to wear properly. When the rest on the party bumps to 2nd, this character becomes a 1st level fighter but is only proficient in the weapons and armor he’s used and gets the stat bumps or feats/ abilities from his race, if any.
As the party advances, he’s always a level behind…. Gaining his class traits slowly and improving his stats or gaining feats as he advances.
That could actually be interesting.
RE: CharlesThePlant
Being wealthy and having all the magic can be quite demotivating, even boring. So...
tl;dr Money and acquiring (magic) stuff aren't the only motivators.
I would allow everything except the magic items. Its game breaking and would unbalanced and annoying to plan around.
You could make it so that parents see adventuring as beneath them. So they cut you off to a certain extent. Like, you can still have a bunch of money. And maybe you can try and steal something with your party. That could be fun.
If you wanna start overpowered i would suggest making a high level campaign. Not level 1
This is the article that got me thinking about a Rich Spoiled Brat character:
https://www.cbr.com/dungeons-dragons-10-best-underutilized-magic-items-ranked/
It references several Magic Items available to Level 1 PCs.
What other items could be added to the list?
Available to level 1 PCs? Maybe be able to be found at some point, but that doesn’t mean you should be allowed to start with them. In my campaigns, no one starts with a magic item.
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
No first level character should be anywhere near most of those.
One or two of the items, with no clear use in combat (lantern of tracking), might be found at first level. Even the weakest of the combat-related items won’t be found until around fifth level. And in both cases, the key word is found. Nobody gets to start with magic items.
Generally, the magic items I give to level one PCs are things like unsnuffable candles or quills of rainbow ink!
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
While yes, I agree with you, but this player specifically wanted to play a "rich d**che" who didn't care about anyone but himself, had no skills (no player class at all), and would only throw money at any problem. Essentially, to run it, they'd just need to hire a second character to follow them around and adventure for them, and they had no reason to risk anything because all they cared about was money (which they already had and therefore didn't need desperately enough to risk their life).
Basically, they wanted to play a quest-giver who was content to let other people do everything for them.
A character out on their first adventure taking a large number of extremely valuable magical items out into the wilderness without significant guards, what could possibly go wrong?
Legendary items are legendary, there's a decent chance they'd be recognized/tracked by the sort of people that would be interested in obtaining them. It would not be unreasonable for a CR15+ character to come after the party to obtain one. Even if the items are limited to uncommon, it wouldn't be surprising for the party to run into a group of bandits that would be a deadly encounter for level 10 characters.
They aren't. Your rich spoiled brat could want to adventure out of a misguided sense of their own importance, the fact everything in life has been easy for them, or because they want to do good in the world.
And yet, level 1 characters don't start the game with magic items, so unless your DM says to you "Sure, have a lot of magic items" then it's all totally irrelevant. I don't think any DM, or table of players, would go for what you're describing.
If you want to play without a character class, you'll be a [monster]commoner[/commoner] and no amount of magical items are going to protect you from a breath weapon that deals 8 dice of damage.
Your DM has every right to say no. I'm not saying it's not a legitimate backstory, but the bigger problem here is expecting things because of the backstory. In particular, magic items are extremely powerful as a backstory feature. Most backgrounds give you a circumstantial benefit, such as free lodging in certain locations, the ability to live off the land, influence over certain people, etc. A magic item, depending on the item, can basically trivialize those benefits, especially if it comes with "I don't care about money" amounts of gold and resources available to your character. It's the same as having a character backstory where you have a bunch of people working for you- it's not necessarily a problem, but it can definitely make it hard for other players to feel involved if you try to solve every problem with magic items, hirelings, etc.
One problem I have with running 5e sometimes is that some players feel like they're playing a collection of magic items, not characters. DMs can always manage that by restricting the availability of magic items, of course, but you may have people you're playing with who don't want to just have a magic item to solve all their problems. I had a DM once give a rogue I was playing an artifact that turned him into a very powerful lycanthrope at will. It was a powerful (and should have been fun) item, but it didn't play like the character I made, turning a ranged rogue into a frontline tank. However, since the DM balanced encounters around using the artifact constantly, I couldn't actually play without letting the rest of the party take hits that they couldn't withstand.
Quite frankly, in most settings, even uncommon magic items are rare and expensive. Adventurers only come into such items because they find the corpses of other adventurers, defeat powerful enemies (who themselves usually only have a few magic items), and provide services for clients who are so desperate that they'd even part with something as rare and valuable as a magic item. In Eberron, where magic is more commonplace, some ancestral magic items might be fine, but if you let a character, via backstory, have access to that kind of power, then your other players have absolutely no power by comparison unless they similarly wander into a trove of magic items at level 1. Now, some DMs are very lenient with magic items, and so this might be more allowable for them, but I would NEVER give a level one a very rare or higher item.
I would only give a level one a magic item at all if I was properly bri- er, convinced that it was for the good of the party or if it was for backstory building (and not giving characters access to magic items at will, more of an "Yeah, you can have a common magic item because your backstory explains it a bit.") and I would never make one player the crux of how magic items were obtained. Rather I would try to make things equal (and not wait for "If other players in the party cry foul", at which point it's clear that all the other players are already frustrated) so that, for example, everyone could start with a single common (or uncommon if starting at a higher level) item, probably from a curated list. It's just going to cause drama amongst players, accusations of rampant favoritism, and problems with balance. D&D is not balanced around 1st level characters having very rare items.
In fact, most enemies, even at high CRs, are not balanced around having items- they might have benefits to challenge the party, but their spell save DCs, attack modifiers, and other attributes generally reflect an absence of magic items with a few exceptions. Giving a level 1 character a +2 equipment item immediately shatters balance, and there are rare and very rare items that do even worse than that. It would be a nightmare for the DM to balance, since level 1 characters are not durable enough to handle hits commensurate to their power equivalent with items, but would not be threatened by things that normally threaten level 1 characters if you let them load up on items. I once DM'ed a level 14 session for a WM server that let people have a ton of items (like, at least one chosen very rare and several rares per player) and they minced enemies that I wouldn't throw at an un-geared party. Letting players pick magic items further increases the power level of players- after all, a DM might give a player a very rare item that is good for their build, but not the best in slot. That's generally what official tables like the ones in the DMG/Xanathar's expect. A level 20 party could expect a total of roughly 20 major items (i.e. permanent, non-consumable items of high utility) and 80 minor items. That's a lot, but that also reflects the fact that those items are (at least RAW) random- you might not get items that are particularly useful for the party or ones that synergize with the party. No major rare or higher items are given until at least level 5, and even then there's certainly not enough to "[equip] them with everything they could desire (on loan of course)."
As a player, I would never even propose this to a DM outside of maybe a screwball one shot. It would completely trivialize any loot for the entire campaign since you start with all the gear you could want, and it would make encounters next to impossible to balance. Even if we started at level 20, I wouldn't suggest this. It's just too unfair to the DM and other players who have to work around the idea.
I have to admit, while I came down hard on OP's character concept, I also have a homebrew warlock subclass called The Relic that allows a character to start with a powerful sentient magic item -- although the item itself doesn't really do anything beyond granting powers to the character.
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
Yeah that's just an NPC. If someone pitched that to me, I'd say, "Oh, so you want to DM the next game? Cool, what level are we starting at?"
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
I wouldn't allow it. My games start with basic starting equipment. For a character like the one described, I would ask, "what did you take? And how did you lose it?" Then I might weave those items in as a reward(the bandit leader was going to have a +1 sword? Cool now that sword has noble boys family crest on the hilt. Ect.). His treasure then becomes an explanation of why this region has so many magic items in circulation.
Sidenote: I really liked one of the first suggestions of only letting them take consumables, it makes the power imbalance between players fix itself over time without making you avoid giving loot for Richie rich.
Edit: my low level games use starting equipment, from lvl 5ish starts or later all players get the same number and rarity of magic items
A thought that occured to me as an amusing reskin. Have them play an artificer but all their class abilities are magic items aquired from home instead of the result of tinkering... Kinda want to try that myself now.
Infusions are just special delivery, robodog is literally a magic guard dog protecting the heir to the fortune ect.
As a DM, I would be open to the original character concept. I would think of some kind of tradeoff, so like instead of gaining levels, you stay perpetually at level 1, but at least you get hit dice. When the other players gain a level, you get a new toy shipped to you from daddy: a more powerful magic item.
I would make sure other players were okay with it, though.
I have played a spoiled rich character, but one who didn't get any special toys at level 1. Like I don't think Draco Malfoy had any super OP magic items in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I just played the character rich to role play a spoiled brat, who didn't really want to go on the adventure, but he had to or daddy would take away his privileges.
i would say this doesn't break any rules purely on a theoretical level
not in any actual game
if i say something inflammatory the intention is not to trigger an emotional response and the fact that it does so is purely accidental and I sincerely apologise if it does
Quite a necro post but actually it does break rules, the rules clearly specify what starting equipment a player has based on their class and background. You have the option to replace that with a fixed amount of gold but that wouldn't help you get any magic items with the possible excettion of a single healing potion.
There are optional rules for extra equipment if you start at higher levels but for startin at level 1 anything you have above what you can get from character creation is against the rules.
I’m interested that nobody suggested restricting the character to Common magic items. There are quite a few in Xanathar’s guide that aren’t game-breaking. A Cloak of Billowing would seem to fit this wannabe hero rather well!