Magic Item Rarity List

KarinsDad · Dec 12, 2010

Has WotC come up with an official list of all common, uncommon, and rare items? The Compendium still doesn't list them.

I was thinking of just using an equation to figure it out:

Big 3 item with nothing but normal bonuses: common
Big 3 item with a single property, power, or modified critical: common
Non-big 3 item with a single property or power: common

Big 3 item with two properties, powers, or modified critical: uncommon
Non-big 3 item with two properties or powers: uncommon

Item with three or more properties, powers or modified critical: rare

But the problem with such a system is that a Floating Lantern becomes rare and an Obsidian Steed becomes common.

I'd prefer if WotC would just create a list and not do a generic "everything but these few common and rare items are uncommon" approach.

Marshall · Dec 12, 2010

KarinsDad said:
Has WotC come up with an official list of all common, uncommon, and rare items? The Compendium still doesn't list them.

I was thinking of just using an equation to figure it out:

Big 3 item with nothing but normal bonuses: common
Big 3 item with a single property, power, or modified critical: common
Non-big 3 item with a single property or power: common

Big 3 item with two properties, powers, or modified critical: uncommon
Non-big 3 item with two properties or powers: uncommon

Item with three or more properties, powers or modified critical: rare

But the problem with such a system is that a Floating Lantern becomes rare and an Obsidian Steed becomes common.

I'd prefer if WotC would just create a list and not do a generic "everything but these few common and rare items are uncommon" approach.

The official take WAS that any item that doesnt have a daily power attached to it is common.
They promptly threw that out and have moved on to "Rarity is whatever we decide to assign it"

It was a bad idea to start with and the way are implementing it makes it utterly irrelevant.

fanboy2000 · Dec 12, 2010

Forgive my ignorance, but what is a "Big 3 item"?

KarinsDad · Dec 12, 2010

fanboy2000 said:
Forgive my ignorance, but what is a "Big 3 item"?

weapon/implement, armor, neck item

The items that every PC needs to have in order to stay competitive (if not using inherent bonuses).

captainspud · Dec 12, 2010

I made a database of all current common items, which I'll be attempting to keep up to date. You can find it here:

Common Items

Smurtis · Dec 12, 2010

captainspud said:
I made a database of all current common items, which I'll be attempting to keep up to date. You can find it here:

Common Items

Very nice... i'll be using this =)

KarinsDad · Dec 16, 2010

I came up with the idea that our group should limit common items to those without powers.

From what I can tell, that's about 2 items out of 9 or ~22% (as opposed to the current ~3.5% common items). That would make ~7 in 9 items uncommon (or rare).

It makes the pool of common items large enough that the players have no problem crafting or purchasing unique (to other PCs) common items (and the DM has a lot of options for his 50% of all magic items are common to select from), and the rule is simple enough that it is unambiguous.

I will have to throw a few common items like Iron Armbands of Power and Staff of Ruin into the uncommon pool, but those "gotta have" items without powers should be few and far between for the most part. This rule even allows for a few common Wondrous items like a Bag of Holding.

MrMyth · Dec 16, 2010

KarinsDad said:
I came up with the idea that our group should limit common items to those without powers.

From what I can tell, that's about 2 items out of 9 or ~22% (as opposed to the current ~3.5% common items). That would make ~7 in 9 items uncommon (or rare).

It makes the pool of common items large enough that the players have no problem crafting or purchasing unique (to other PCs) common items (and the DM has a lot of options for his 50% of all magic items are common to select from), and the rule is simple enough that it is unambiguous.

I will have to throw a few common items like Iron Armbands of Power and Staff of Ruin into the uncommon pool, but those "gotta have" items without powers should be few and far between for the most part. This rule even allows for a few common Wondrous items like a Bag of Holding.

I think this is basically WotC's plan. Going forward, common items will be items without power, rares will be those with lots of stuff, and uncommons are everything in between.

But for existing items, they weren't really able to apply that universally, due to stuff like IAoP - so those and others got lumped in as uncommons as well.

I'm interested in seeing Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium when it comes out - I think that will finally give some solid evidence of what the new item design philosophy actually is.

KarinsDad · Dec 16, 2010

MrMyth said:
But for existing items, they weren't really able to apply that universally, due to stuff like IAoP - so those and others got lumped in as uncommons as well.

It's kind of funny. My young teenage daughter plays in our group and when we discussed the common item concept and I mentioned that only about 1 item in 30 is common with the current definition, she responded with "1 in 30 items are common? How's that common? I don't think that word means what WotC thinks it means.".

Sometimes kids see what adults do not.

MrMyth · Dec 16, 2010

KarinsDad said:
It's kind of funny. My young teenage daughter plays in our group and when we discussed the common item concept and I mentioned that only about 1 item in 30 is common with the current definition, she responded with "1 in 30 items are common? How's that common? I don't think that word means what WotC thinks it means.".

Sometimes kids see what adults do not.

Heh, well said.

Now, to be fair, even in a perfect system, 'common' is being used to denote availability in game, not presence out of game. Basic magic weapons are one item out of hundreds, but in the game world, might outnumber all other forms of magic weaponry combined.

But... yeah, the situation as it is now still needs quite a bit of tweaking. It might have been smooth if it had been the method they used from the start, or if they tried to present the new rules as an option rather than a new base standard, but as it is, the transition has definitely been rough.