We have a player in our group that doesn't always show up, but he hasn't properly left yet. Rather than get rid of his character, he is involved in sessions when he does turn up, and when he's not there, we play without him but assume (for story purposes) he was involved in the combat.

This player has a ring of protection granting him a +1 AC. Because he doesn't turn up to every session though, another player (the AC19 tank) is asking to take it from him, but this will unbalance what I have distributed so far. Each player has magic items distributed out so that each can play a fairly balanced role in the party, but I think that this will shift it too much to the tanks favour.

If he has the extra AC, he's already hard enough for me to hit, but that's his job. I don't want to increase the enemies just to cater for this tank, nor do i want to put a special enemy in every fight that counter balances the AC of this player (ie a spellcaster that targets saves instead). Am I being harsh if I deny the transfer of the ring to the other player.

Bear in mind this tank already has a magic warhammer (grants an additional damage dice on a crit) and a magic shield. To me i feel like he is power gaming, rather than taking the relaxed nature that the group had as playing for fun. He joined when the original player first started becoming flakey so hasn't been in the campaign for too long.

Honestly, there is no reason to allow.

If the player actually leaves, the character becomes an NPC, why would someone just give away a magical item? Bc he is not with the party anymore?

This is not a video game, it's not just a slot on a character inventory. You magical item distribution was made in the assumption of more characters, there is no reason whatsoever to allow this.

Quote from Tlawrence84 >>

Am I being harsh if I deny the transfer of the ring to the other player.

 Nope not only you're not, but you're being consequent with your game if normally that character would not lend his magic ring to others. 

You can always explain all your reasons to the player and she should accept your decision.

The character with the ring does have a very selfish personality. I also gave it to him as he wasn't too familiar with the rules or playing the fighter to the abilities he had, so it let him play as he wanted to. Where as someone who really understood the abilities they had may have found their character was a bit OP'd!

Thanks for the replies so far, this is my first campaign (although it's about 8 months in so far), and I wanted some confirmation on my decision before I feel bad, or to understand if I was wrong!

If it's going to make the game worse, not only are you not in the wrong for saying no, you're actually duty bound to say no. The number one rule that should be guiding every decision you make as DM us, "Will it make the game more fun if...?". Sounds like it wouldn't make it more fun (or would necessitate artificial enemy rosters designed to negate the ring, rendering the ring pointless anyway) which breaks immersion and just doesn't help.

I can see why he is asking and I don't blame him, but your role here as DM is to say no. Or you could say yes and make it cursed. That could make.things interesting, but it depends whether your campaign would be enhanced by it or if it would just distract.

A PC items are the PC STUFF. Except during Adventure League when a magic item is a "Story ITEM" aka plot device. So unless the group agreed magic items were shareable in Session 0. No the tank does not get it.

Yeah, don't give that to the tank, what I'd do is make it into an adventure hook. The ring gets stolen by a group of goblins led by a were raven! They go down into the sewers to evade the players. Once the players get down there give them a serious case of 'raised stakes' adventure, have them find out a bunch of cultists are plotting to flood the city with plague rats (raised stakes) is in the making and have the tank choose between trying to chase those goblins or save the city.

After he chooses chase the goblins, (all players make the selfish choice here, don't be surprised) let the goblins alert the Cultists by accident! Big Fight, the party can end the fight by causing a flood of sewage to drown a bunch of the Cultists (ew) close part #1, 

Part #2, After those Goblins! Have it turn out that the players find a storage room where the goblins had been keeping a ton of magical loot they'd stolen, but oh noes! They've been robbed! Time to work with that mysterious Wereraven! Now we're in a detective story, gotta follow the clues (with Goblin help) to find out that the Goblins think the ring was stolen by the Cultists who got drowned in sewage (ew) close session #2.

Part #3, (last one, I swear) After the Tank digs through dead bodies and wades through knee deep poopwater, they'll figure out that the ring wasn't there! Everyone go back to the Inn to wash off! The guy who actually owned the ring gets taken aside by the innkeeper and introduced to a flustered young lad, turns out, the Innkeepers son stole the ring off of its actual owners nightstand that morning and his father found out, cue the heartfelt apologies and the ring being safely returned to its actual owner. By way of compensation the Innkeeper tells the Tank, "Oy, yeh bruv, my missus worked for an artificer made those a dime a dozen, would yeh like to buy mine off me? I don' much need it anymore and I could use 100 gold a bit more."

At least that's what I'd do, as DM we gotta take the Table Gold where we find it. If a player has strong feelings for something that's in-game, work with it, if possible. 

Hope this helps!

I'd leave the ring with the player who attends occasionally, it belongs to their character not to the group... but I'd also avoid giving out specific magic items like that to 'balance' the group. Let the group be unbalanced; let them distribute loot as they want to; let them find random stuff that you didn't intend by rolling it on tables. I would hate to play in a campaign where I felt that the DM was effectively designing a 'magical item loadout' for my character, thereby taking my choices away from me.

Thou shalt not covet thy fellow players stuff!

Seriously though, ownership of the kit that you have given to the PC is firmly in the jurisdiction of the the player who actually created said PC. If another player wants that piece of kit, it's between the two PCs/Players. Once it's in the world and on the table, it's too late to call it back. 

Your comment about how hard it is to hit one of your PCs has been answered in numerous threads. I would caution you to not target a single PC, but instead to challenge the entire party. Physically separating the party, controlling movement on the battlefield, mixed encounter types (melee, ranged, magic), environmental effects all can be used to mash them to bits. I would also point out that all of the magic items were put in play by you or by your permission. If you've overdone it, maybe lay off the loot for a bit to balance things out some.

Quote from Sanvael >>

I would hate to play in a campaign where I felt that the DM was effectively designing a 'magical item loadout' for my character, thereby taking my choices away from me.

I do appreciate what you mean in this comment, but also different groups will have different playstyles. In my campaign, 2 of the players are very new, and the one with the ring doesn't really understand his character and how all the features work together all that well. He's more there to join in and just have fun, so for us this works. Although I think he's permanently leaving now though and everyone else has got to grips properly with their characters and the rules, so future magic items will be random for them to sort out, no more tailoring. I found it helped with such as new group so we could all find our feet and just play to what we enjoyed.

Had this happen. My ruling is if a character has to leave then their items go with them unless it's story related. Story related items are the only things that are left for the others as that's all a character would leave. 

Unless a character leaving the group has an in character reason to parcel out their magic items (retiring to a peaceful civilian life, owing a debt to another party member, etc.) I usually have retiring/leaving party members keep at least some of their gold and items. After all, just because their player leaves, or switches characters, that character still exists in the world. It's not just a matter of balance (though that certainly can be a concern)- it's also a matter of storytelling that makes sense in the world.

You shouldn't just take and give items from one PC to another. That player earned the item for their PC. If the player quits, the PC quits with all of their loot.

**Unless it is essential for party success.

Ok I am going to approach this a different way and say the tank having an extra point of AC in no way cancels out the impact of the party being down a whole player in encounters situations. You mentioned that you run him even if the player is away, effectively as an NPC, so at the moment that is an extra action, reaction, bonus action a turn that the party will lose vs a simple increase of 1 to AC, the odds are the tank will be taking on extra damage anyway as your monsters actions are now distributed amongst 3 say rather then 4.

The Party loot is just that the Parties, I am running a game for 8 players and they are constantly swapping items about between each other sometimes one player might be fully stocked up with lots of magic items, other times they might spread them around. It doesn't break the game when this happens because the party as a group have these items. 

Now the player that comes and goes, I would say if you are writing him out without him being around then have a think about the impact to the party of being 1 player down in combat and maybe consider allowing the ring to be passed on, or roleplay the character is going to need it because they will now be on their own, but if the player returned and decided to have the character die in a blaze of glory (as one player did in a campaign of mine) then you would need to accept that the body could be looted and all that gold, armour, weapons and magic items would be distributed. You have given the party a magic item, if the player wants to hand it over there isn't a lot you can, or in my opinion, should do about it. An alternative tell the party the character insists he get paid for the magic item so he is heading off with extra coin in his pocket and not just an item down. That way you can empty the party coffers, especially if you make the cost being asked for far more then the player who wants it has forcing the remaining party members to decide if they combine finances to buy that thing, or want to keep money for something else. 

Scarloc, I think I may have explained badly as you've misinterpreted what I've tried to get across. The tank is effectively a replacement to the character who is leaving, although he turns up occasionally (like once every 5 sessions or so), so we don't have a problem with being a player down. The campaign started with 4 players, we had an overlap of about 2 weeks with 5 players when we knew the other player may be leaving, and now we predominantly carry on to play with 4 players.

Also when I say "He's there", that's purely for story purposes, we don't physically run him as an NPC or party controlled player, we still only play with the 4 other players in combat but for story purposes when he does turn up, we treat it as if he was involved in the combats and discussions. This just negates the "well while you were sleeping or off shopping, let me fill you in with what we've done". All experience is handed out as 4 players in the combat, his character continues to level as the others do.

I agree with you about if the player wants to hand it off then there isn't much I can, or should do about it, although that sits completely out of character for him.

The last session went well though, and the tank is happy with not receiving the ring. He picked up some plate armour which he has been aiming to get for a while now anyway, and the ring would have only increased his AC even more!

Just ask the guy who doesn't show up if he could lend the tank the ring. It isn't rocket science.

We occasionally have someone who doesn't show up.  We get the okay from the character to run him/her by committee.  (the group decides what he does)

We haven't had a point where they denied the group running the character, but if they did.  At that point you decide if the session happens or not. (two missing means we cancel the session)  If they decide we cannot then we go forward without the character and we may generate a new character to temporarily step in.  If that player doesn't show up often and also refuses to let the group play his character.  

Yeah..  Those are steps towards removal from the group.  Life interrupts games.  That's a given.  The group should make an effort because life happens to everyone.  If no effort is made or someone is too busy (whatever the reason).  Then it's time to part ways.   Even if they are good friends.  Either that or you can drink raw lemon juice every time you try to play.

That isn't my cup of tea.

Of course because its lemon juice.

One of my current games I have 8 players, there is one who when he started we knew would need to disappear for extended periods at times due to his shift patterns, I try and time large combat runs that will last several sessions to match when he is or isn't available so he can be easily written out (he is a wood elf who needs ot go into the forest to do "stuff"). If a player is not going to be able to make it or if he is out mid combat then they either make a copy of the character sheet, or unassign it, and another player will nominate to run the character in their absence, I have a few caveats I place on this. 

jaegured characters can not be used to scout ahead, pick locks, search for or disarm traps. 
In non combat situations I roleplay the character as an NPC saying what I feel would be appropriate or recounting information they might know the person controlling them does not roleplay for them. 
If the player has been absent during a long rest (sessions do not automatically start or end with a long rest) and they have spells abilities they can select at the end of a long rest, for instance a cleric, then I allow them to swap spells around at the start of the next session they join, as long as none of the spells they remove are spells that have already been cast by the person jaeguring them. 

I agree with what has been said here. Individual characters have their own stuff, if one member leaves, he takes his stuff with him generally, unless there are narrative reasons for it to happen a different way.

Now if you're killing off the PC, then maybe there would be precedence for the rest of the party to loot the body. Though if he gets killed away from the rest of the group, it would be easy to say that whoever slayed that PC looted the body. Maybe that ring shows up some time down the road when the part extracts vengeance or something. 

It's a little concerning that you are this concerned about a fairly low tier magic item though, especially in an 8 month matured campaign. While AC is very powerful, don't be too afraid of an AC tank. If you want to deal damage to a high AC character, hit him with stuff that requires saves instead. 

I know that you said that you don't want to adjust your combats too much. But just adding a minion or two can be a good compromise. Letting a tanky martial class soak up a couple of lower tier mobs with high AC, while the "real" encounter is going on is a good way to make that AC tank feel like he's useful while not letting him dominate every encounter.