I have a long history of generally disliking magic items beyond the basic Bag of Holding (it fixes logistics). The group I play with knows this, but I'm very alone in that opinion, so magic items in shops and as quest rewards are quite common. Two campaigns ago, I hated all the magic items I got. One campaign ago, my character died late into the campaign, and the replacement felt useless because everybody else had 3-4 powerful items while I had none. In the current campaign, I've been very happy with magic items not really existing, until we recently got some as a quest reward. I, playing a martial character, opted not to take any, letting the paladin have two as a result. Right now, things are still okay, but I fear that I will eventually become useless as items start to pile up more.
Is there any way to succeed as martial character without investing into magic items? I sincerely just hate the things and would like to play without, but I'm not about to push for them to be removed when the rest of the party likes them. For reference, I'm playing an unarmed fighter, and the rest of the party is rogue, paladin, warlock, cleric.
I have a long history of generally disliking magic items beyond the basic Bag of Holding (it fixes logistics). The group I play with knows this, but I'm very alone in that opinion, so magic items in shops and as quest rewards are quite common. Two campaigns ago, I hated all the magic items I got. One campaign ago, my character died late into the campaign, and the replacement felt useless because everybody else had 3-4 powerful items while I had none. In the current campaign, I've been very happy with magic items not really existing, until we recently got some as a quest reward. I, playing a martial character, opted not to take any, letting the paladin have two as a result. Right now, things are still okay, but I fear that I will eventually become useless as items start to pile up more.
Is there any way to succeed as martial character without investing into magic items? I sincerely just hate the things and would like to play without, but I'm not about to push for them to be removed when the rest of the party likes them. For reference, I'm playing an unarmed fighter, and the rest of the party is rogue, paladin, warlock, cleric.
It will be difficult to keep up because at some point most enemies have some kind of resistance to non-magical damage sources. That said, if your fighter is some utility (knocking enemies prone, for example) that can make up for a lack of DPR.
If you're not stopping at low level, then you'll need them, for three main reasons:
Many enemies will become either resistant or just outright invulnerable to your attacks.
Even the ones that don't will gain HP and AC, while your offensive stats plateau at around L4 or L6, meaning difficulty will just go up and up for you.
Your party will be increasing in potency from their magic items, making your contributions more and more irrelevant. Casters will be an issue for this regardless, but this will only increase that disparity.
Not accepting magic items will do two things; it will make you feel bad as you find that your character is a mere tag-a-along, and it will frustrate the party as they're constantly having to pull your weight for you and even save you...because you have a personal distaste for magic items in a game that has magic items as a major theme?
I have to ask... what's the big deal with this? And is it really worth the hassle?
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
As others have said, if you just don't like the aesthetic of some of your power coming from a special item then just take the mechanics of the magic item and flavour it as a new ability for yourself. It's mechanically the same (other than minor things like weight/resale-value/being stripped of weapons before entering a town. Those things will have to be dealt with some other way.
If you just don't like magic items and what they do and feel the mechanics they add aren't your thing then I think you need to find a group and DM that want to play that way, or find a new system, as they are pretty key to the game balance and power curve as levels get higher, and the DM would have to compensate.
As an unarmed fighter, unless you have 6 levels of monk or a magic item like the Eldritch Claw Tattoo, you will have issues in the higher levels like mentioned by others.
I would seriously consider talking to your DM and reflavoring magic items as mundane abilities. Can you get a magic dagger and see if you can flavor it so your unarmed attacks get the magic bonus?
What kind of item did you give up that the Paladin now has?
Many magical items are boring +1s to damage, to-hit or ability scores. Taking those should keep your character relevant mechanically while maintaining a minimal of magical shenanigans. Like, if you're wearing a ring of +1 AC, what does it matter? It literally does nothing but increase your AC by 1. Just pass on the Immovable Rod etc.
Accepting Bag of Holding for the convenience but disliking "Sword/gloves/whatever of +1 attack" would seem arbitrary to me if that is the case. Personally, I'd say items that "fixes problems" like Bag of Holding would be the first magic item to go if I were to cut down on magic items (like Goodberry for exploration or Tiny Hut, they can if allowed easily remove all effort involved).
I have a long history of generally disliking magic items beyond the basic Bag of Holding (it fixes logistics). The group I play with knows this, but I'm very alone in that opinion, so magic items in shops and as quest rewards are quite common.
…
Is there any way to succeed as martial character without investing into magic items? I sincerely just hate the things and would like to play without... For reference, I'm playing an unarmed fighter, and the rest of the party is rogue, paladin, warlock, cleric.
tell us more about your character, what’s their martial archetype?
battle master has some good unarmed options to control enemies: trip, push, grapple, parry etc
tattoos are good options to make your attacks magical (at our table tattoos are permanent) or talk to your DM about allowing magical gauntlets to overcome magical resistance when used in an unarmed attack (punched in the mouth with a magical armored fist - I’d rule that as ok at my table)
Regarding the character, it's a grappling build using Rune Knight. So far, has had all the problems associated with getting into prolonged melee fights, but has been doing the job well.
Regarding my distaste for items, it's one half not liking the way they break the game's fundamental math (in the case of +1's and the like) and one half disliking the feel that my character is only worth as much as whatever he is carrying. There were past cases where I was dissatisfied with items, but the golden range of items I like that wouldn't be gamebreaking is small enough that I'd feel bad trying to push for them. I'm on record as saying I don't want anything more than a Bag of Holding and Moontouched weapons (because resistances literally turn martials off without those after a certain point). I like to feel like the character is doing things, not that they just exist to carry around the thing that actually resolves a problem. Have never understood the draw of having something that plays the game for you. They feel bad to use regardless of what they are, and I'd rather just play characters with class abilities and the basic gear loadout.
So I could just shut up and use them, but that feels worse than just shutting up and not using them. I just don't want to become a liability because I didn't want a fancy helmet or something.
Unfortunately, tooling up is kind of just part of life. There is a reason that wars aren't fought by brawlers.
You could see about asking the DM to trade out your attunement slots for extra feats or class abilities. Kind of like the opposite of an Artificers expanded slots, but you may need to come up with some custom feats to keep it interesting.
The current edition of D&D sort of assumes getting magical items. It isn't as bad as the "Christmas Tree" problems with 3/3.5, but it is still an expectation of the game math.
There are options for playing D&D with differing levels of magic, but this would require everyone to agree, and for the DM to make some changes to opponents, like removing certain immunities/resistance.
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"Orcs are savage raiders and pillagers with stooped postures, low foreheads, and piggish faces with prominent lower canines that resemble tusks." MM p245 (original printing) You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
Regarding my distaste for items, it's one half not liking the way they break the game's fundamental math (in the case of +1's and the like)...
The game is designed with magic bonuses up to +3 in mind. They're not breaking anything unless your DM gives you a high bonus much earlier than one should realistically have it. Martials also fall behind casters quickly, and magic items exist to bridge that gap; that's why so many magic items have a martial focus. If you're not in a no/low-magic campaign, you will fall behind as you progress into higher levels. The only exceptions to this are maybe Artificers since they can make their own magic items, and Monks since they basically are magic items.
One of the pitfalls of 5e is the sort of binary reliance on magical items, particularly weapons. As many have already stated, monsters past a certain CR are almost always resistant to non-magical weapons, and eventually at very high levels that resistance becomes immunity. You as a character are expected to be able to deal magical damage in some way past a certain level as a form of your character's progression.
I think your sentiment about not wanting your character to feel like their only value is their items is valid. Perhaps you could talk with your DM about how they present magic items, or the effects of magic items, to you in a way that makes it feel earned beyond just "we defeated a boss encounter." For example, there are magical tattoos that help unarmed characters. Perhaps your character gets a tattoo like this through some ritual. It starts off mundane and inert, but is permanent and requires an attunement slot. The DM might secretly keep track of how often you play to a certain strength of your character, such as how many times you succeed at initiating a grapple. After a certain number of times, the tattoo "awakens", makes your unarmed strikes magical, and gives you a bonus of some kind. Maybe it has the ability to awaken a second time once you're at least a certain level and then have used your grapple/shove to aid an ally a certain number of times. And so on...
As a personal note, if you are in a campaign where your character dies and your replacement character comes in with zero magic items while everyone else has several, I see that as shortsightedness on the DM's part and nothing to do with you. I'm not saying I would have you come in at exactly the same power, but you definitely wouldn't be joining with just starting equipment/gold; that's designed for level 1.
Trying to make martial classes keep pace with opponents and arcane classes has always been an issue. Without magic items, or giving martials access to spells, a robust system of combat tricks and manoeuvres that give a martial class abilities on par with magical items would be cool.
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"Orcs are savage raiders and pillagers with stooped postures, low foreheads, and piggish faces with prominent lower canines that resemble tusks." MM p245 (original printing) You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
Is there any way to succeed as martial character without investing into magic items? I sincerely just hate the things and would like to play without, but I'm not about to push for them to be removed when the rest of the party likes them. For reference, I'm playing an unarmed fighter, and the rest of the party is rogue, paladin, warlock, cleric.
Regarding my distaste for items, it's one half not liking the way they break the game's fundamental math (in the case of +1's and the like) and one half disliking the feel that my character is only worth as much as whatever he is carrying.
There is no way to be more successful without magic bonuses and powers from magic items or other external sources due to the roots of your distaste for them. One solution could be Supernatural Gifts such as Charms or Blessings, , but then again whatever advantage or bonuses it would grant would be as guilty. Basically you don't want what makes martial character better and ask how you can be as better without bonuses and powers being worth as much as whatever you're possessing. Outside what your character is granting, any bonuses and powers inevitably have to come from external sources wherever it is be it magic items, Supernatural Gifts, charms, blessings, boons, tattoos, powers, etc
I'm on record as saying I don't want anything more than a Bag of Holding and Moontouched weapons (because resistances literally turn martials off without those after a certain point).
You could talk to your DM about getting homebrew or unusual items that aren't just bog-standard +1's. There's a magic sword in one module (I think ToA but I'm not 100 percent sure) that allows its wielder to speak Draconic, and that's all it does -- but it still counts as magical
One of the things that makes 5e so special, IMO, is the flexibility DMs have to create magic items that the party will actually appreciate and have fun with, rather than simply providing mechanical advantages. If you've soured on the latter, there are still plenty of options
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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)
5E assumes a certain power curve based on Bounded Accuracy while not having magic items dependency by necessity. One way to be more successful with a martial character sans external bonuses and powers from magic items is if the DM to use monsters and challenges with lower DCs, ACs and attack or damage bonuses. But this works better in a party that all do, having some characters in your party with magic items while you don't will result in you falling behind them. But such character should still be viable, especially if it can enjoy high stats or extra feats.
Have never understood the draw of having something that plays the game for you. They feel bad to use regardless of what they are, and I'd rather just play characters with class abilities and the basic gear loadout.
I started answering this about an hour ago, and my response got kinda long so I shoved it into this here spoiler box:
You could stay lower level and that'd probably be alright, but the game is built to become more magic-infused over time to allow you to perform greater feats. You could hypothetically get really creative and use a bunch of Acid (vial) or some other environmental means like rolling a boulder down a hill or dumping oil all over the creature and lighting it on fire with a torch. That'd even work pretty good against a Mummy Lord if you had the right materials.
But, eventually, you will run into things like: Androsphinx and Demilich that would probably splatter you well before those types of strategies would pay off. Or you get into situations where the fight is on a flat plane, you've no oil, no torch, no acid, and at best you're now just sitting there watching the fight.
I mean, you don't have to use a "Nevermiss Sword of Always Critical Hit" or "Amulet of Problem Solving" but at least something that gives you a fighting chance. Maybe sigils or gauntlets like the others have suggested.
At the same time I'd also like to point out that the game was technically developed to hamper magical classes to make up for this. There are magical items that do things like "summon # of (spell component) once per (amount of time)" because you're not supposed to be able to just cast most spells with a wave of the hand. As an example, while the fighter got this super cool weapon made of enchanted metal, the wizard got a toilet brush that summons a small pile of sulfur once every long rest. Now they can either use Fireball every long rest or they can discard the brush, use Fireball once and pray some sulfur randomly falls into their lap before they need to use it again.
Then you also have to consider that sulfur isn't the only component, many spells require multiple components, and suddenly the wizard wants a whole cleaning isle worth of magical brushes, sponges, and mops.
In this way, magical items are somewhat balanced. Obviously most people don't play with components but yeah the game is designed to have that aspect to it. The "Amulet of Problem Solving" type items aren't really what they had in mind so much as "Amulet of Allowing You to Use your Ritual once a month" and "mace of letting you hit magic stuff" specifically so you don't have to spend time every adventure session gathering materials and crafting 10,000 Acid (vial) or walking around a volcano scooping sulfur into jars.
Tldr: 5e RAW, in the long term puts a burden on your team to incorporate some type of magical enhancements on any character, not just martial.
This is perhaps the best edition yet if you want to have a character with few to no magic items, but it still assumes some. Without any at all as a martial, some fights will be outright impossible for you, and a larger number might be doable but will likely be highly tedious as monsters will have resistance, higher AC, and higher HP than your class features alone can keep up with. And that's just the offensive side, there are other enemies that will give you a really hard time if you have no defensive or utility items. No ability to teleport or fly for instance will make locking down your melee character very easy.
If you really want your character to have no magic items at all, I'd suggest asking your DM to reward you with some Blessings as quest rewards instead. Blessing of Weapon Enhancement applied to your fists is the first one I'd ask for, and would alleviate a number of the offensive issues for example. Then, look through the Wondrous Items from the DMG as well (focusing on Common and Uncommon to start with) and you'll likely find other effects that can be made into helpful blessings, e.g. Winged Boots.
That can be a fun challenge! It's important to remember that martial characters can still be effective without magic weapons. You can focus on building up their stats, taking feats that increase their damage output, and using non-magical weapons with special properties like finesse or versatile. You can also look into spells that buff your martial character's damage output, like the Hex spell. Finally, you can look into magical items that don't require attunement, like the Bag of Holding or the Potion of Hill Giant Strength. Good luck!
Regarding my distaste for items, it's one half not liking the way they break the game's fundamental math (in the case of +1's and the like) and one half disliking the feel that my character is only worth as much as whatever he is carrying.
So, is there a particuaklr reason why you accept the way a Bag of Holding fixes some things but you don't accept that other magic items fix other but similar problems? Because that's some cognitive dissonance right there. Especially since you play a class using magic abilities.
That said, magic items doesn't break the math any more than say, a bless spell or Action Surge do. As for your character being worhtless, well, you accept them being worthless at logistics enough that you feel perfectly fine "fixing" them with a BoH so why wouldn't it be OK to "fix" other percieved problems? Because it's not true at all that your character is "only worth as much as whatever he is carrying." A vorpal sword is worthless unless omeone wields it and a fighter is a lot better at wielding it than say, a lore bard. So there's really nothing to feel worthless about, YOU give the weapon worth, not the other way around.
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I have a long history of generally disliking magic items beyond the basic Bag of Holding (it fixes logistics). The group I play with knows this, but I'm very alone in that opinion, so magic items in shops and as quest rewards are quite common. Two campaigns ago, I hated all the magic items I got. One campaign ago, my character died late into the campaign, and the replacement felt useless because everybody else had 3-4 powerful items while I had none. In the current campaign, I've been very happy with magic items not really existing, until we recently got some as a quest reward. I, playing a martial character, opted not to take any, letting the paladin have two as a result. Right now, things are still okay, but I fear that I will eventually become useless as items start to pile up more.
Is there any way to succeed as martial character without investing into magic items? I sincerely just hate the things and would like to play without, but I'm not about to push for them to be removed when the rest of the party likes them. For reference, I'm playing an unarmed fighter, and the rest of the party is rogue, paladin, warlock, cleric.
It will be difficult to keep up because at some point most enemies have some kind of resistance to non-magical damage sources. That said, if your fighter is some utility (knocking enemies prone, for example) that can make up for a lack of DPR.
Why do you dislike magic items? Do you also dislike technology like cell phones and computers?
Magic items are just detachable mechanics. If it's a matter of flavor, you can reskin a magic item as anything you like.
Is it just that you didn't get things you wanted to use? Maybe talking to the DM about methods of exchanging items is in order.
3.5e had a "Vow of Poverty" feature that kind of balanced with magic item progression, but it doesn't exist for 5e.
If you're not stopping at low level, then you'll need them, for three main reasons:
Not accepting magic items will do two things; it will make you feel bad as you find that your character is a mere tag-a-along, and it will frustrate the party as they're constantly having to pull your weight for you and even save you...because you have a personal distaste for magic items in a game that has magic items as a major theme?
I have to ask... what's the big deal with this? And is it really worth the hassle?
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
As others have said, if you just don't like the aesthetic of some of your power coming from a special item then just take the mechanics of the magic item and flavour it as a new ability for yourself. It's mechanically the same (other than minor things like weight/resale-value/being stripped of weapons before entering a town. Those things will have to be dealt with some other way.
If you just don't like magic items and what they do and feel the mechanics they add aren't your thing then I think you need to find a group and DM that want to play that way, or find a new system, as they are pretty key to the game balance and power curve as levels get higher, and the DM would have to compensate.
As an unarmed fighter, unless you have 6 levels of monk or a magic item like the Eldritch Claw Tattoo, you will have issues in the higher levels like mentioned by others.
I would seriously consider talking to your DM and reflavoring magic items as mundane abilities. Can you get a magic dagger and see if you can flavor it so your unarmed attacks get the magic bonus?
What kind of item did you give up that the Paladin now has?
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
Do you have the same issue with +1 items?
Many magical items are boring +1s to damage, to-hit or ability scores. Taking those should keep your character relevant mechanically while maintaining a minimal of magical shenanigans. Like, if you're wearing a ring of +1 AC, what does it matter? It literally does nothing but increase your AC by 1. Just pass on the Immovable Rod etc.
Accepting Bag of Holding for the convenience but disliking "Sword/gloves/whatever of +1 attack" would seem arbitrary to me if that is the case. Personally, I'd say items that "fixes problems" like Bag of Holding would be the first magic item to go if I were to cut down on magic items (like Goodberry for exploration or Tiny Hut, they can if allowed easily remove all effort involved).
tell us more about your character, what’s their martial archetype?
battle master has some good unarmed options to control enemies: trip, push, grapple, parry etc
tattoos are good options to make your attacks magical (at our table tattoos are permanent) or talk to your DM about allowing magical gauntlets to overcome magical resistance when used in an unarmed attack (punched in the mouth with a magical armored fist - I’d rule that as ok at my table)
Regarding the character, it's a grappling build using Rune Knight. So far, has had all the problems associated with getting into prolonged melee fights, but has been doing the job well.
Regarding my distaste for items, it's one half not liking the way they break the game's fundamental math (in the case of +1's and the like) and one half disliking the feel that my character is only worth as much as whatever he is carrying. There were past cases where I was dissatisfied with items, but the golden range of items I like that wouldn't be gamebreaking is small enough that I'd feel bad trying to push for them. I'm on record as saying I don't want anything more than a Bag of Holding and Moontouched weapons (because resistances literally turn martials off without those after a certain point). I like to feel like the character is doing things, not that they just exist to carry around the thing that actually resolves a problem. Have never understood the draw of having something that plays the game for you. They feel bad to use regardless of what they are, and I'd rather just play characters with class abilities and the basic gear loadout.
So I could just shut up and use them, but that feels worse than just shutting up and not using them. I just don't want to become a liability because I didn't want a fancy helmet or something.
Unfortunately, tooling up is kind of just part of life. There is a reason that wars aren't fought by brawlers.
You could see about asking the DM to trade out your attunement slots for extra feats or class abilities. Kind of like the opposite of an Artificers expanded slots, but you may need to come up with some custom feats to keep it interesting.
The current edition of D&D sort of assumes getting magical items. It isn't as bad as the "Christmas Tree" problems with 3/3.5, but it is still an expectation of the game math.
There are options for playing D&D with differing levels of magic, but this would require everyone to agree, and for the DM to make some changes to opponents, like removing certain immunities/resistance.
"Orcs are savage raiders and pillagers with stooped postures, low foreheads, and piggish faces with prominent lower canines that resemble tusks." MM p245 (original printing)
You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
The game is designed with magic bonuses up to +3 in mind. They're not breaking anything unless your DM gives you a high bonus much earlier than one should realistically have it. Martials also fall behind casters quickly, and magic items exist to bridge that gap; that's why so many magic items have a martial focus. If you're not in a no/low-magic campaign, you will fall behind as you progress into higher levels. The only exceptions to this are maybe Artificers since they can make their own magic items, and Monks since they basically are magic items.
One of the pitfalls of 5e is the sort of binary reliance on magical items, particularly weapons. As many have already stated, monsters past a certain CR are almost always resistant to non-magical weapons, and eventually at very high levels that resistance becomes immunity. You as a character are expected to be able to deal magical damage in some way past a certain level as a form of your character's progression.
I think your sentiment about not wanting your character to feel like their only value is their items is valid. Perhaps you could talk with your DM about how they present magic items, or the effects of magic items, to you in a way that makes it feel earned beyond just "we defeated a boss encounter." For example, there are magical tattoos that help unarmed characters. Perhaps your character gets a tattoo like this through some ritual. It starts off mundane and inert, but is permanent and requires an attunement slot. The DM might secretly keep track of how often you play to a certain strength of your character, such as how many times you succeed at initiating a grapple. After a certain number of times, the tattoo "awakens", makes your unarmed strikes magical, and gives you a bonus of some kind. Maybe it has the ability to awaken a second time once you're at least a certain level and then have used your grapple/shove to aid an ally a certain number of times. And so on...
As a personal note, if you are in a campaign where your character dies and your replacement character comes in with zero magic items while everyone else has several, I see that as shortsightedness on the DM's part and nothing to do with you. I'm not saying I would have you come in at exactly the same power, but you definitely wouldn't be joining with just starting equipment/gold; that's designed for level 1.
Trying to make martial classes keep pace with opponents and arcane classes has always been an issue. Without magic items, or giving martials access to spells, a robust system of combat tricks and manoeuvres that give a martial class abilities on par with magical items would be cool.
"Orcs are savage raiders and pillagers with stooped postures, low foreheads, and piggish faces with prominent lower canines that resemble tusks." MM p245 (original printing)
You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
There is no way to be more successful without magic bonuses and powers from magic items or other external sources due to the roots of your distaste for them. One solution could be Supernatural Gifts such as Charms or Blessings, , but then again whatever advantage or bonuses it would grant would be as guilty. Basically you don't want what makes martial character better and ask how you can be as better without bonuses and powers being worth as much as whatever you're possessing. Outside what your character is granting, any bonuses and powers inevitably have to come from external sources wherever it is be it magic items, Supernatural Gifts, charms, blessings, boons, tattoos, powers, etc
You could talk to your DM about getting homebrew or unusual items that aren't just bog-standard +1's. There's a magic sword in one module (I think ToA but I'm not 100 percent sure) that allows its wielder to speak Draconic, and that's all it does -- but it still counts as magical
One of the things that makes 5e so special, IMO, is the flexibility DMs have to create magic items that the party will actually appreciate and have fun with, rather than simply providing mechanical advantages. If you've soured on the latter, there are still plenty of options
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)
5E assumes a certain power curve based on Bounded Accuracy while not having magic items dependency by necessity. One way to be more successful with a martial character sans external bonuses and powers from magic items is if the DM to use monsters and challenges with lower DCs, ACs and attack or damage bonuses. But this works better in a party that all do, having some characters in your party with magic items while you don't will result in you falling behind them. But such character should still be viable, especially if it can enjoy high stats or extra feats.
I started answering this about an hour ago, and my response got kinda long so I shoved it into this here spoiler box:
You could stay lower level and that'd probably be alright, but the game is built to become more magic-infused over time to allow you to perform greater feats. You could hypothetically get really creative and use a bunch of Acid (vial) or some other environmental means like rolling a boulder down a hill or dumping oil all over the creature and lighting it on fire with a torch. That'd even work pretty good against a Mummy Lord if you had the right materials.
But, eventually, you will run into things like: Androsphinx and Demilich that would probably splatter you well before those types of strategies would pay off. Or you get into situations where the fight is on a flat plane, you've no oil, no torch, no acid, and at best you're now just sitting there watching the fight.
I mean, you don't have to use a "Nevermiss Sword of Always Critical Hit" or "Amulet of Problem Solving" but at least something that gives you a fighting chance. Maybe sigils or gauntlets like the others have suggested.
At the same time I'd also like to point out that the game was technically developed to hamper magical classes to make up for this. There are magical items that do things like "summon # of (spell component) once per (amount of time)" because you're not supposed to be able to just cast most spells with a wave of the hand. As an example, while the fighter got this super cool weapon made of enchanted metal, the wizard got a toilet brush that summons a small pile of sulfur once every long rest. Now they can either use Fireball every long rest or they can discard the brush, use Fireball once and pray some sulfur randomly falls into their lap before they need to use it again.
Then you also have to consider that sulfur isn't the only component, many spells require multiple components, and suddenly the wizard wants a whole cleaning isle worth of magical brushes, sponges, and mops.
In this way, magical items are somewhat balanced. Obviously most people don't play with components but yeah the game is designed to have that aspect to it. The "Amulet of Problem Solving" type items aren't really what they had in mind so much as "Amulet of Allowing You to Use your Ritual once a month" and "mace of letting you hit magic stuff" specifically so you don't have to spend time every adventure session gathering materials and crafting 10,000 Acid (vial) or walking around a volcano scooping sulfur into jars.
Tldr: 5e RAW, in the long term puts a burden on your team to incorporate some type of magical enhancements on any character, not just martial.
This is perhaps the best edition yet if you want to have a character with few to no magic items, but it still assumes some. Without any at all as a martial, some fights will be outright impossible for you, and a larger number might be doable but will likely be highly tedious as monsters will have resistance, higher AC, and higher HP than your class features alone can keep up with. And that's just the offensive side, there are other enemies that will give you a really hard time if you have no defensive or utility items. No ability to teleport or fly for instance will make locking down your melee character very easy.
If you really want your character to have no magic items at all, I'd suggest asking your DM to reward you with some Blessings as quest rewards instead. Blessing of Weapon Enhancement applied to your fists is the first one I'd ask for, and would alleviate a number of the offensive issues for example. Then, look through the Wondrous Items from the DMG as well (focusing on Common and Uncommon to start with) and you'll likely find other effects that can be made into helpful blessings, e.g. Winged Boots.
That can be a fun challenge! It's important to remember that martial characters can still be effective without magic weapons. You can focus on building up their stats, taking feats that increase their damage output, and using non-magical weapons with special properties like finesse or versatile. You can also look into spells that buff your martial character's damage output, like the Hex spell. Finally, you can look into magical items that don't require attunement, like the Bag of Holding or the Potion of Hill Giant Strength. Good luck!
So, is there a particuaklr reason why you accept the way a Bag of Holding fixes some things but you don't accept that other magic items fix other but similar problems? Because that's some cognitive dissonance right there. Especially since you play a class using magic abilities.
That said, magic items doesn't break the math any more than say, a bless spell or Action Surge do. As for your character being worhtless, well, you accept them being worthless at logistics enough that you feel perfectly fine "fixing" them with a BoH so why wouldn't it be OK to "fix" other percieved problems? Because it's not true at all that your character is "only worth as much as whatever he is carrying." A vorpal sword is worthless unless omeone wields it and a fighter is a lot better at wielding it than say, a lore bard. So there's really nothing to feel worthless about, YOU give the weapon worth, not the other way around.