fourthmensch
First Post
D&D is an extremely equipment-intensive game. Magic items are not simply a luxury or an enhancement, they are necessities, especially as one progresses to higher levels. Many monsters have very high ACs, damage reduction, or other special powers that virtually necessitate a fair stock of magical items. The DMG acknowledges this with the NPC tables, in which each class has a level breakdown for the appropriate arsenal of equipment that any given NPC should be expected to have.
After a while, this starts to bother me on several levels.
1. Every NPC has a +2 stat booster, a ring of protection, an amulet of natural armor, and magical weapons. I have tried to work around this by giving NPCs a more diverse arsenal, which is 1) time consuming for me, and 2) it unquestionably leads to NPC opponents who are less effective and therefore less threatening. Without the standard magical items, they are too easy to hit, have too few hp, have spell DCs that are too low, etc.
2. It is extraordinarily difficult for me to preserve the mystique of magical items. Because of #1, my players have gotten used to assuming most rings are of protection, most amulets are of natural armor, etc.--and even then, when they find more exotic items, the mystery is only an analyze dweomer away from being revealed. This seems far too mechanical for my tastes; however, I see no easy solution.
3. This prevalence of magical equipment leads ineluctably to the Magic Bazaar effect. Because the PCs naturally harvest the equipment from their fallen enemies and then eventually want to sell it. I cannot for the life of me find a satisfying way of handling these transactions of massive amounts of magical items. If they are difficult to sell (I make NPCs unwilling to buy, for example, or try to prevent them from visiting areas with enough liquid assets to afford to buy, etc), then the players become frustrated--and justifiably so, since they earned that treasure with their sweat and blood, and they deserve the rewards. If I try to retain some measure of versimilitude--forcing the PCs to visit various vendors, who only purchase items of interest to them--then this is not only frustrating to them, but time-wasting as well, since I am forcing everyone (including me!) to go around like merchants instead of adventuring. If, on the other hand, I make the process too easy, then it gets the game back to the action, but with weird and awkward transactions with people who, for no particular reason, say, "sure, I'll buy everything in your three bags of holding."
4. Somehow the thought of these mercantile side-trips occurring at all irks me, since it strikes me as so incongruous. Heroic adventurers racing against time should not be making all these forays here and there in order to sell every last knickknack that they scavenge, like battlefield opportunists, off of every fallen enemy. And yet, I know that they have to in order to afford the items that will help them survive the next round of heroic adventuring.
I don't really have a point to all this... its kind of a little frustrated rant, I guess. What I would like, ideally, is to lessen the importance of equipment, so that the PCs (and players, more importantly) have no problem felling a dozen foes and then racing on to the scene of the next action without picking them clean, feeling very heroic all the while. But it seems to be a fundamental assumption of the D&D system.
Any thoughts? Do others find they have the same experience, and the same reaction? Has anyone altered anything about they way that they play, or handle treasure, or anything else, that helps to ameliorate this problem? I would love to hear any suggestions, because I am plumb out of ideas.
After a while, this starts to bother me on several levels.
1. Every NPC has a +2 stat booster, a ring of protection, an amulet of natural armor, and magical weapons. I have tried to work around this by giving NPCs a more diverse arsenal, which is 1) time consuming for me, and 2) it unquestionably leads to NPC opponents who are less effective and therefore less threatening. Without the standard magical items, they are too easy to hit, have too few hp, have spell DCs that are too low, etc.
2. It is extraordinarily difficult for me to preserve the mystique of magical items. Because of #1, my players have gotten used to assuming most rings are of protection, most amulets are of natural armor, etc.--and even then, when they find more exotic items, the mystery is only an analyze dweomer away from being revealed. This seems far too mechanical for my tastes; however, I see no easy solution.
3. This prevalence of magical equipment leads ineluctably to the Magic Bazaar effect. Because the PCs naturally harvest the equipment from their fallen enemies and then eventually want to sell it. I cannot for the life of me find a satisfying way of handling these transactions of massive amounts of magical items. If they are difficult to sell (I make NPCs unwilling to buy, for example, or try to prevent them from visiting areas with enough liquid assets to afford to buy, etc), then the players become frustrated--and justifiably so, since they earned that treasure with their sweat and blood, and they deserve the rewards. If I try to retain some measure of versimilitude--forcing the PCs to visit various vendors, who only purchase items of interest to them--then this is not only frustrating to them, but time-wasting as well, since I am forcing everyone (including me!) to go around like merchants instead of adventuring. If, on the other hand, I make the process too easy, then it gets the game back to the action, but with weird and awkward transactions with people who, for no particular reason, say, "sure, I'll buy everything in your three bags of holding."
4. Somehow the thought of these mercantile side-trips occurring at all irks me, since it strikes me as so incongruous. Heroic adventurers racing against time should not be making all these forays here and there in order to sell every last knickknack that they scavenge, like battlefield opportunists, off of every fallen enemy. And yet, I know that they have to in order to afford the items that will help them survive the next round of heroic adventuring.
I don't really have a point to all this... its kind of a little frustrated rant, I guess. What I would like, ideally, is to lessen the importance of equipment, so that the PCs (and players, more importantly) have no problem felling a dozen foes and then racing on to the scene of the next action without picking them clean, feeling very heroic all the while. But it seems to be a fundamental assumption of the D&D system.
Any thoughts? Do others find they have the same experience, and the same reaction? Has anyone altered anything about they way that they play, or handle treasure, or anything else, that helps to ameliorate this problem? I would love to hear any suggestions, because I am plumb out of ideas.
