D&D 5E I want more Magic Items in my games...

[tglassy]

I have a question regarding magic items.

I love magic items. They're awesome. I mean, who doesn't want to toss out a random card from the Deck of Many Things? But how often do you actually find one?

But I also don't want to just start a high level campaign simply so I can start throwing out magic weapons. I want to start from the beginning, and I want to have high level loot.

Same goes for monsters, for that matter. I'd like to start a game from level 1 (or level 0, in the case of one of the games I'm starting here). But that means it's goblins and mephits at first, and they won't get to the really, really good monsters until...well, never, cause let's be honest, going from level 1 to level 11 in a play by post likely takes YEARS.

I don't want to take years. I want to play a game where i get to see what the characters do with a Deck of Many Things and Vecna's Eye. And where they have to kill a lich to get it. But I want to start at level 1.

So, what would be the problem with sprinkling magic items like candy all over the place, if the monsters are of a higher caliber than the characters could handle without them (Including monsters that had, and used, magic items themselves)?

 

[cbwjm]

I don't think there would be a problem. It will increase the power of the PCs, but since you would be throwing bigger threats at them it should balance out nicely.

As for levelling, you could let the players know that after each dungeon/story arc that they will be levelling instead of tracking XP. That will keep them running up the levels fairly nicely assuming the PbP game keeps up momentum.

 

[aco175]

No, there is nothing wrong with this, you say that the power of the challenges will rise to balance it. The main point is that it is your game and if you and your players are having fun than go with it. I have played in campaigns before where the low level characters received powerful items, a-la the cartoon D&D. The game I played in lowered the items going forward to balance this, but if you play with more, than that works too.

My only point to bring to your players is to get them to buy in as well. It can be fun, but it cheapens the value of items if they come too easy and the players need a bigger, more super item to compete with each other and the NPCs in your world.

 

[kbrakke]

No problem doing this at all, I have basically done a similar thing to this. In my Eberron campaign we have gotten to about 2 years and 4 months. They have gone from level 6 to level 27 and have great deals of magic items. As a DM you just have to consider these magic items when designing encounters. With lots of magic items you should consider all monsters more fragile than they are as many of them rely on weapon immunity or resistance to get their high defensive CR.

My only words of caution are don't give out many AC boosting items or resistance/immunity items. My general philosophy is that the game has never been made less fun by the players doing damage. However if only some of the players have defenses outside the norm, it can be harder to fairly challenge them. Additionally if they go too far above the default highest AC (21) then the monster manual monsters cease to be threatening (Without using what I think are excessive numbers. I'm sure 30 Erinyes could threaten them, but I don't want to run that battle). So keep defensive boosts to a minimum but feel free to dish out fun items as you see fit. Also ignore the encounter building guidelines and just see what you can do. Magic items will allow characters to kill things above their suggested rating, if the players are even marginally interested in optimizing they will be able to do some silly things. So just see what works.

And naturally if you want to start at 1, but end at high levels in a shorter time fame just use milestones for levels or give very large quest rewards. My personal feeling is that this desire would work best with a game focused around the players as heroes, large set piece battles, and little to no random encounters or unexpected explorations, but I am not you or your group. I'll bet someone has made this style work with a low-plot hexploration game and would be able to better speak to it.

 

[Lanliss]

Your first encounter should be a single Goblin, using a half dozen different magic items. Show them what true terror is.

But yes, it shouldn't be a problem. In a less joking tone, you might honestly be able to consider giving a good percentage of the enemies magic items as well, to make them more interesting to fight. Troll= scary, but a Troll with Slippers of Spider walking, and Gloves of Missle Snaring? Not something I would want to fight.

 

[tglassy]

Ha! I love it!

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Having the enemies have magic items is great! They will love their magic items so much more if they first have to survive them!

 

[GX.Sigma]

So, what would be the problem with sprinkling magic items like candy all over the place, if the monsters are of a higher caliber than the characters could handle without them (Including monsters that had, and used, magic items themselves)?

#1: The game will get really complicated really fast, because everyone now has a bunch of extra things to remember and keep track of.

#2: It might be a bit harder to judge monster threat level, since you can't rely on the DMG's encounter building math.

#3: That's it.

 

[S'mon]

There's no problem with having more magic items. My 5e Varisia campaign has basically Pathfinder levels of magic items (absent the fast crafting), and works fine. I do recommend sticking with the Attunement rules if you want to avoid the Christmas Tree effect.
If you're rolling for items you could use 3e or PF rules rather than 5e default rules for item frequency.

 

[S'mon]

I don't see any general problem with using a wide variety of monsters; 5e monsters tend to have low CR and a mid level group can handle pretty much any solo monster except a few Legendaries. But I'm not sure 1st level is the best place to start for a PBP, I'd recommend 3rd so PCs begin already competent. Either that or
fast ad hoc levelling, say 1>2 after 1 fight, 2>3 after 2 more fights.