How often do you give/receive magic items in game? What is too much and too little in your experience?
Recently I have begun wondering when the threshold is reached turning joy at receiving an item into annoyance at having to choose between all your items again. Or simply when receiving a magic item feels less joyful than it used to feel. Does having a lot of magic items thrown in your face lessen the joy of receiving such items?
There is no "right" answer to this question. A party with little or no spell casters will be in need of more magic items to overcome non-magic resistances. A party with lots of casters, particularly artificers, shouldn't get as many, since they can replicate/create magic items with their spells. But in general, you should never give your players more magic items than they can use. If you give magic items willy-nilly, left and right, a +1 dagger around every corner, then all of sudden, you have nothing to give. If your players have everything they could ever want, then you'll have nothing but XP to give them later in the game. Never sell magic items in shops (Except maybe common items), never repeat items (No need for two or more +1 daggers), and never give Legendary items or Artifacts except as end-game quest rewards.
As a player in our current campaign, we just hit level 7 and nobody has all three attunement slots filled. And its fine, as it allows the PC's to use their class abilities. Once the players start finding magic items in the game, its natural they will want more. Be mindful not to escalate that more than needed. Once they find rare items, uncommon ones seem a bit weak. It never slows down, and the bane of GM's is when the party has acquired enough magic to outpace the CR of a normal encounter.
I respectfully disagree with 54MU31. If you only give players the number of magic items that they can use, then your players never get any choice about what they choose to use. This means that as DM you are basically choosing their equipment for them, which shouldn't happen. I personally prefer to give my players choices in their gear. There is definitely a danger in providing a lot of non-attunement magic items, and I think that next time I run a campaign, I will rule that almost all items (apart from a very few situational, party-helping items like a bag of holding or a driftglobe will require attunement to prevent the "I have five +1 daggers" issue.
I find that having magical items available for purchase at reasonable prices (in all honesty, unless you want to buy a house, there's nothing to spend gold on in D&D anyway after about level 6) is a great way of allowing players to customise their characters. When I say 'reasonable' I mean "A useful item probably costs almost all their money, or the whole party clubs together to buy it." It also allows players to 'fill in' areas where their gameplay is suffering. The only non-darkvision character in my party picking up goggles of night was pretty useful and not a choice I thought the players would have made, for example.
I enjoy seeing my players choose which items to attune to, and which they have to give up. I have a Barbarian player who is attuned to both his +2 spellcasting Greatsword that lets him fly sometimes, and also a +1 Maul that hits multiple enemies. They both have different uses. He had to give up a cube of force to be attuned to both, and that's a fun decision to have to make.
I would much rather play in a campaign where I got a lot of reasonable options to pick from, rather than always just using the best item that the DM gave me. Do I choose to wield a frost brand shortsword, a flame tongue longsword, or a +1 Greatsword? Is it worth me passing my necklace of adaptation over for a cloak of elvenkind?
I've been in games where magic items flowed like water, and where they were scarce and extremely difficult to get even uncommon ones. Both types were still fun games, where these decisions made that game fun. If you're in a game where magic is abundant then magic items are easier to come by but in a game where magic is rare they'll be more difficult to get.
For one DM he never awarded magic items - just lots of gold and if there was an item we wanted we could express interest and we'd either be able to buy it or in some cases go on a mini-quest for it. In most cases it was just buying it - if he was willing for us to have it, we part gold and get it, and if it was something he didn't want us to have it would not be available. As a wizard, I was very happy with this, because wizards need gold more than anything else for buying spells, inks, paper, components etc. It also meant we could be frivolous and get items that were just fun to play with (it's surprising how much fun a Decanter of Endless Water can be!). By the late levels we had our own floating sky fortress, a small military force, a pet wyvern, and over a million gold. Characters had their own downtime side-businesses which secured all the money we could need. We still adventured - it was no longer about the money, it was now about the glory and the fun of it. Oddly without the need of money or items, adventuring became more fun for us - we got to do a lot more things, show more creativity, and still have a challenging game.
We also had another game which began as 20th level heroes in charge of a nation. We didn't even have any money - because we ran a nation. Money was irrelevant, and we had our powerful items. If there was anything we needed - we could just request it and our people would get it, if available. It would take some time is all It was a blast. Our adventures were to save a nation, face epic threats, hopping to alien realms and efforts to secure services, aid, protection etc for our people during calamitous times. Despite the benefits with multiple legendary items, several very rare etc, and even multiple Epic Boons - we still faced incredible challenges and nearly TPK'd twice. One battle we even had to retreat and rethink our strategy to come back and try something different.
So consider put the responsibility on the players - ask them what magic items they want/need. Make judgements on when/if to provide it. If you're an experienced DM you don't need to worry about players getting OP - you're the god of gods, the one above all, there's nothing they can have/do that you won't be able to deal with. You could give them every item in the game 10 times over. You'll still be infinitely more powerful than them.
So if you're new, then perhaps be more limited - there are guides in the DMG about loot/magic item rewards. If you're an experienced DM : give them what they want within reason. Got a wizard? Take a look at what spells they have and give them some spells they don't and some gold for scribing. Got a sword-swinger? Give them better swords/shields/armour. Etc. Don't be afraid to homebrew either. Not sure? Just ask them what they want.
And I disagree 54MU31 about the daggers. So what if there's a dagger +1 around every corner? Make a joke of it. Shower the daggers upon them. They can't use them all, but that'd be fun to build a collection for the shits 'n' giggles. Maybe find lots of images online for different fancy daggers and knives and give/print them -- they will be able to literally view their growing collection.
If you want to provide more items but worry about handling the balance - potions. Potions for days. Potions to shrink, to enlarge, potions to nourish, potions to grow hair, etc. Lots of fun, minimal balance issues.
I will give them as may items which require them to Attune it at the listed cost as the Sane Magical Prices Guide suggests. I will make sure that between the characters they can buy 5 at any given time, and any major city will have them for sale in the area that Aristocrats live. They can only Attune three of them unless they are an Artificer.
I am all about giving people options, so long as they pay the price, and Attunment is the true cost that they pay for their choices.
I’ve found that as a general rule I don’t care about magic items past level 5 or 6. Most of what I want my characters to do they can do without magic items beyond items that boost their AC, Saving Throws, or Attack and Damage. Other than that I build characters that can do everything I want without any magic items.
D&D 3/3.5 edition didn't really cover how many magic items you could have at one time. I don't really remember for sure. In any cast, people went crazy with how many they could have equipped. One magic ring per finger, and on like that. Posted builds would have a ton of magic items.
5th edition got rid of a lot of the nonsense. You can now have as many magic items as you want, but any of them that require attunement, you can only equip 3 of them unless you're an Artificer, and they top out at 6.
D&D 3/3.5 edition didn't really cover how many magic items you could have at one time. I don't really remember for sure. In any cast, people went crazy with how many they could have equipped. One magic ring per finger, and on like that. Posted builds would have a ton of magic items.
5th edition got rid of a lot of the nonsense. You can now have as many magic items as you want, but any of them that require attunement, you can only equip 3 of them unless you're an Artificer, and they top out at 6.
Sure enough, it makes for hard choices.
When I begin a new campaign in about a year's time I think I'm going to stick attunement onto almost every item in the game. Anything that a character uses specifically for themselves in combat at least. Things like a driftglobe I'll probably leave without an attunement requirement. This fits my DM'ing style better, as I enjoy giving the PCs a lot of items (and the option to buy items) so that they get to customise their character through their choices, and don't feel like there's no option but to use that Longsword +1 even though they'd rather have a battleaxe simply because it's the only magic martial melee weapon they found. But I also don't like character running around decked out with 2 magic rings, 2 magic weapons, magic armour, three miscellaneous items and 2 attunement items they can't currently use in their bag.
How often do you give/receive magic items in game? What is too much and too little in your experience?
Recently I have begun wondering when the threshold is reached turning joy at receiving an item into annoyance at having to choose between all your items again. Or simply when receiving a magic item feels less joyful than it used to feel. Does having a lot of magic items thrown in your face lessen the joy of receiving such items?
YMMV To each his own, i personally believe in that too many magic items makes them more commonplace. Each magic items is generally a boon, but coming by one more rarely and having fewer over time makes them even more rewarding and appreciative IMO. I never been a fan of Monty Haul where treasure and especially magic items are given in excess in a campaign. I prefer fewer more powerful magic items than many more weaker ones. Magic items can't be purchased in most settelment but the largest cities for exemple. Over its long carrer, a character come to acquire a handful of magic items, and twice as much consumable ones so i carefully control and tailor magic items distribution in each of my campaigns.
I would customize the driftglobe so that if a character attuned to it they can control it mentally as a bonus action or a free action, including making it move/fly, and no one else can control it. That would make the attunement cost worth paying.
I think you should put in as many as you feel is right. And if your characters get waaayy overpowered, just up the difficulty of encounters (it might be hard but it's really fun to have lots of magic items (and your characters will love it!)). you could also put in a bunch of sorta useless ones too.
My group is 5th level and the most experienced player has been been reminding me repeatedly that they don’t have a magic weapon yet. There are maybe ten magic items in the party, but only a few weapons. I think the player believes they are owed a magic weapon suitable for their class by a certain level, and honestly I’m not on board with that.
My group is 5th level and the most experienced player has been been reminding me repeatedly that they don’t have a magic weapon yet. There are maybe ten magic items in the party, but only a few weapons. I think the player believes they are owed a magic weapon suitable for their class by a certain level, and honestly I’m not on board with that.
Ten magic items for a level 5 party is quite a lot, so they've been doing well (I am assuming a party of 4-5 players, so everyone has at least 2?). Personally I'd expect to have acquired a +1 weapon by level 5, but you're right, they're not owed one.
Do the other characters have magic weapons? If it's 1 player of 4 who doesn't and they're running into creatures that have resistance to nonmagical B/P/S damage then they might be feeling that they're ineffective. If they aren't meeting those creatures then meh. It does become hard to function effectively at a certain point if that's the case, though.
I agree that the main problem with a Martial Class not getting a magic weapon of some kind by level 5 is that you'll start running into enemies resistant to all non-magical damage around that level, and without a magic weapon or ability to cast spells that Martial Class character is basically just not having as much fun in combat as anyone else at the table. Of course, there are work arounds... there's the literal "Magic Weapon" spell that someone else in the party could cast to keep their heavy hitter in the game.
Personally, I'm of the mindset that if a player wants a magical weapon, they should have their character actively seek one out in-game. Even if you don't want to include magic shops in your world, maybe it's something they could look for... it's a good hook for a quest. Maybe a noble is offering a magic weapon as a prize for some kind of contest. Maybe there's a skilled craftsman in town that would be willing to create one, but requires some kind of task be taken care of... maybe they have a missing child, or something was stolen from them that they need in order to craft magic items in the first place. A player looking for a specific boon is always a good opportunity to guide them towards a specific event or quest... it could even lead to conflict. Maybe the local Thieve's Guild has something powerful they're willing to exchange if the player will accompany them as The Muscle on a heist or something.
Personally I've just been running players through published Adventures, and for the most part I just distribute the magic items detailed in those adventures. However, I do tend to adjust them a bit to better match my players' builds... for example, at an early point there was a +1 short sword in the adventure... but nobody in my party actively used short swords, and the only person who wasn't a dedicated caster was a Ranger who specialized in bow and arrow, so I swapped it for a +1 Longbow.
My group is 5th level and the most experienced player has been been reminding me repeatedly that they don’t have a magic weapon yet. There are maybe ten magic items in the party, but only a few weapons. I think the player believes they are owed a magic weapon suitable for their class by a certain level, and honestly I’m not on board with that.
In past editions, magic was handed out much more freely, so if they’ve played in older editions, that may be why. In 4th in particular, the game mechanics assumed you had a full array (weapon, armor, a neck item, there were a bunch of slots) of +1 items by about level 5. Then all +2 by level 10 and so on. Could be they have that mindset where they think they’ll start falling behind. You might let them know that in 5e you can still be effective at level 20 with the same longsword you started with at level 1. At least mathematically. There’s still resistances to overcome, of course, but that’s a different issue.
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How often do you give/receive magic items in game? What is too much and too little in your experience?
Recently I have begun wondering when the threshold is reached turning joy at receiving an item into annoyance at having to choose between all your items again. Or simply when receiving a magic item feels less joyful than it used to feel. Does having a lot of magic items thrown in your face lessen the joy of receiving such items?
Thoughts?
There is no "right" answer to this question. A party with little or no spell casters will be in need of more magic items to overcome non-magic resistances. A party with lots of casters, particularly artificers, shouldn't get as many, since they can replicate/create magic items with their spells. But in general, you should never give your players more magic items than they can use. If you give magic items willy-nilly, left and right, a +1 dagger around every corner, then all of sudden, you have nothing to give. If your players have everything they could ever want, then you'll have nothing but XP to give them later in the game. Never sell magic items in shops (Except maybe common items), never repeat items (No need for two or more +1 daggers), and never give Legendary items or Artifacts except as end-game quest rewards.
As a player in our current campaign, we just hit level 7 and nobody has all three attunement slots filled. And its fine, as it allows the PC's to use their class abilities. Once the players start finding magic items in the game, its natural they will want more. Be mindful not to escalate that more than needed. Once they find rare items, uncommon ones seem a bit weak. It never slows down, and the bane of GM's is when the party has acquired enough magic to outpace the CR of a normal encounter.
I respectfully disagree with 54MU31. If you only give players the number of magic items that they can use, then your players never get any choice about what they choose to use. This means that as DM you are basically choosing their equipment for them, which shouldn't happen. I personally prefer to give my players choices in their gear. There is definitely a danger in providing a lot of non-attunement magic items, and I think that next time I run a campaign, I will rule that almost all items (apart from a very few situational, party-helping items like a bag of holding or a driftglobe will require attunement to prevent the "I have five +1 daggers" issue.
I find that having magical items available for purchase at reasonable prices (in all honesty, unless you want to buy a house, there's nothing to spend gold on in D&D anyway after about level 6) is a great way of allowing players to customise their characters. When I say 'reasonable' I mean "A useful item probably costs almost all their money, or the whole party clubs together to buy it." It also allows players to 'fill in' areas where their gameplay is suffering. The only non-darkvision character in my party picking up goggles of night was pretty useful and not a choice I thought the players would have made, for example.
I enjoy seeing my players choose which items to attune to, and which they have to give up. I have a Barbarian player who is attuned to both his +2 spellcasting Greatsword that lets him fly sometimes, and also a +1 Maul that hits multiple enemies. They both have different uses. He had to give up a cube of force to be attuned to both, and that's a fun decision to have to make.
I would much rather play in a campaign where I got a lot of reasonable options to pick from, rather than always just using the best item that the DM gave me. Do I choose to wield a frost brand shortsword, a flame tongue longsword, or a +1 Greatsword? Is it worth me passing my necklace of adaptation over for a cloak of elvenkind?
This is going vary by game and DM.
I've been in games where magic items flowed like water, and where they were scarce and extremely difficult to get even uncommon ones. Both types were still fun games, where these decisions made that game fun. If you're in a game where magic is abundant then magic items are easier to come by but in a game where magic is rare they'll be more difficult to get.
For one DM he never awarded magic items - just lots of gold and if there was an item we wanted we could express interest and we'd either be able to buy it or in some cases go on a mini-quest for it. In most cases it was just buying it - if he was willing for us to have it, we part gold and get it, and if it was something he didn't want us to have it would not be available. As a wizard, I was very happy with this, because wizards need gold more than anything else for buying spells, inks, paper, components etc. It also meant we could be frivolous and get items that were just fun to play with (it's surprising how much fun a Decanter of Endless Water can be!). By the late levels we had our own floating sky fortress, a small military force, a pet wyvern, and over a million gold. Characters had their own downtime side-businesses which secured all the money we could need. We still adventured - it was no longer about the money, it was now about the glory and the fun of it. Oddly without the need of money or items, adventuring became more fun for us - we got to do a lot more things, show more creativity, and still have a challenging game.
We also had another game which began as 20th level heroes in charge of a nation. We didn't even have any money - because we ran a nation. Money was irrelevant, and we had our powerful items. If there was anything we needed - we could just request it and our people would get it, if available. It would take some time is all It was a blast. Our adventures were to save a nation, face epic threats, hopping to alien realms and efforts to secure services, aid, protection etc for our people during calamitous times. Despite the benefits with multiple legendary items, several very rare etc, and even multiple Epic Boons - we still faced incredible challenges and nearly TPK'd twice. One battle we even had to retreat and rethink our strategy to come back and try something different.
So consider put the responsibility on the players - ask them what magic items they want/need. Make judgements on when/if to provide it. If you're an experienced DM you don't need to worry about players getting OP - you're the god of gods, the one above all, there's nothing they can have/do that you won't be able to deal with. You could give them every item in the game 10 times over. You'll still be infinitely more powerful than them.
So if you're new, then perhaps be more limited - there are guides in the DMG about loot/magic item rewards. If you're an experienced DM : give them what they want within reason. Got a wizard? Take a look at what spells they have and give them some spells they don't and some gold for scribing. Got a sword-swinger? Give them better swords/shields/armour. Etc. Don't be afraid to homebrew either. Not sure? Just ask them what they want.
And I disagree 54MU31 about the daggers. So what if there's a dagger +1 around every corner? Make a joke of it. Shower the daggers upon them. They can't use them all, but that'd be fun to build a collection for the shits 'n' giggles. Maybe find lots of images online for different fancy daggers and knives and give/print them -- they will be able to literally view their growing collection.
If you want to provide more items but worry about handling the balance - potions. Potions for days. Potions to shrink, to enlarge, potions to nourish, potions to grow hair, etc. Lots of fun, minimal balance issues.
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I will give them as may items which require them to Attune it at the listed cost as the Sane Magical Prices Guide suggests. I will make sure that between the characters they can buy 5 at any given time, and any major city will have them for sale in the area that Aristocrats live. They can only Attune three of them unless they are an Artificer.
I am all about giving people options, so long as they pay the price, and Attunment is the true cost that they pay for their choices.
<Insert clever signature here>
I’ve found that as a general rule I don’t care about magic items past level 5 or 6. Most of what I want my characters to do they can do without magic items beyond items that boost their AC, Saving Throws, or Attack and Damage. Other than that I build characters that can do everything I want without any magic items.
Professional computer geek
D&D 3/3.5 edition didn't really cover how many magic items you could have at one time. I don't really remember for sure. In any cast, people went crazy with how many they could have equipped. One magic ring per finger, and on like that. Posted builds would have a ton of magic items.
5th edition got rid of a lot of the nonsense. You can now have as many magic items as you want, but any of them that require attunement, you can only equip 3 of them unless you're an Artificer, and they top out at 6.
Sure enough, it makes for hard choices.
<Insert clever signature here>
When I begin a new campaign in about a year's time I think I'm going to stick attunement onto almost every item in the game. Anything that a character uses specifically for themselves in combat at least. Things like a driftglobe I'll probably leave without an attunement requirement. This fits my DM'ing style better, as I enjoy giving the PCs a lot of items (and the option to buy items) so that they get to customise their character through their choices, and don't feel like there's no option but to use that Longsword +1 even though they'd rather have a battleaxe simply because it's the only magic martial melee weapon they found. But I also don't like character running around decked out with 2 magic rings, 2 magic weapons, magic armour, three miscellaneous items and 2 attunement items they can't currently use in their bag.
YMMV To each his own, i personally believe in that too many magic items makes them more commonplace. Each magic items is generally a boon, but coming by one more rarely and having fewer over time makes them even more rewarding and appreciative IMO. I never been a fan of Monty Haul where treasure and especially magic items are given in excess in a campaign. I prefer fewer more powerful magic items than many more weaker ones. Magic items can't be purchased in most settelment but the largest cities for exemple. Over its long carrer, a character come to acquire a handful of magic items, and twice as much consumable ones so i carefully control and tailor magic items distribution in each of my campaigns.
I would customize the driftglobe so that if a character attuned to it they can control it mentally as a bonus action or a free action, including making it move/fly, and no one else can control it. That would make the attunement cost worth paying.
Professional computer geek
I think you should put in as many as you feel is right. And if your characters get waaayy overpowered, just up the difficulty of encounters (it might be hard but it's really fun to have lots of magic items (and your characters will love it!)). you could also put in a bunch of sorta useless ones too.
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My group is 5th level and the most experienced player has been been reminding me repeatedly that they don’t have a magic weapon yet. There are maybe ten magic items in the party, but only a few weapons. I think the player believes they are owed a magic weapon suitable for their class by a certain level, and honestly I’m not on board with that.
Ten magic items for a level 5 party is quite a lot, so they've been doing well (I am assuming a party of 4-5 players, so everyone has at least 2?). Personally I'd expect to have acquired a +1 weapon by level 5, but you're right, they're not owed one.
Do the other characters have magic weapons? If it's 1 player of 4 who doesn't and they're running into creatures that have resistance to nonmagical B/P/S damage then they might be feeling that they're ineffective. If they aren't meeting those creatures then meh. It does become hard to function effectively at a certain point if that's the case, though.
I agree that the main problem with a Martial Class not getting a magic weapon of some kind by level 5 is that you'll start running into enemies resistant to all non-magical damage around that level, and without a magic weapon or ability to cast spells that Martial Class character is basically just not having as much fun in combat as anyone else at the table. Of course, there are work arounds... there's the literal "Magic Weapon" spell that someone else in the party could cast to keep their heavy hitter in the game.
Personally, I'm of the mindset that if a player wants a magical weapon, they should have their character actively seek one out in-game. Even if you don't want to include magic shops in your world, maybe it's something they could look for... it's a good hook for a quest. Maybe a noble is offering a magic weapon as a prize for some kind of contest. Maybe there's a skilled craftsman in town that would be willing to create one, but requires some kind of task be taken care of... maybe they have a missing child, or something was stolen from them that they need in order to craft magic items in the first place. A player looking for a specific boon is always a good opportunity to guide them towards a specific event or quest... it could even lead to conflict. Maybe the local Thieve's Guild has something powerful they're willing to exchange if the player will accompany them as The Muscle on a heist or something.
Personally I've just been running players through published Adventures, and for the most part I just distribute the magic items detailed in those adventures. However, I do tend to adjust them a bit to better match my players' builds... for example, at an early point there was a +1 short sword in the adventure... but nobody in my party actively used short swords, and the only person who wasn't a dedicated caster was a Ranger who specialized in bow and arrow, so I swapped it for a +1 Longbow.
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In past editions, magic was handed out much more freely, so if they’ve played in older editions, that may be why. In 4th in particular, the game mechanics assumed you had a full array (weapon, armor, a neck item, there were a bunch of slots) of +1 items by about level 5. Then all +2 by level 10 and so on. Could be they have that mindset where they think they’ll start falling behind. You might let them know that in 5e you can still be effective at level 20 with the same longsword you started with at level 1. At least mathematically. There’s still resistances to overcome, of course, but that’s a different issue.