D&D 5E DMG - breaking bounded accuracy already?

[keterys]

You do huh? I guess the rest of the players at the table with you don't have a say in the matter as to who gets the item?

They certainly might. That doesn't make it nontrivial.

Coordinating treasure with other people is very easy, once you've already taken the step of figuring out where that treasure is in the first place. The conversation could go something like "I'd like to play Adventure X so I can get treasure Y. I'd be happy to run Adventure A for someone else so they can get Treasure B from it. Deal?" Further, Adventurer's League has a treasure system which makes it very easy to snipe treasure. It's one of the things I actively dislike about it.

Obviously, these aren't problems at the tables of every D&D game. Never claimed they were. In fact, for the 3rd time, that's why I said "Depending on the campaign". It's not an affront against your campaign that you need to stridently defend against.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I jokingly said that when one of my players was trying to figure out the best stats he could have I told him I would put in a belt of magnificence (mini handbook 3e)... but it sets all stats to 17... yes even ones you had that were higher. I thought his head was going to explode.

 

[Sacrosanct]

For both good and ill, the random tables aren't generally how D&D works.

Published adventures determine what treasures a lot of DMs have, for starters. Whether they're a set piece of the campaign or one-off, they make a big difference. For example, I sat at a table with some people whose characters had gone through Phandelin and some whose characters had gone through something a bit stingy, and there was some resentment at the table when the melee beater guy whose only magic was a wand of detect magic or the shapeshifting druid whose only magic item was a headband of intelligence (it gave her a bonus to investigate at least) eyed the guys with 6 magic items each including armor, weapon, gauntlets of ogre power, and miscellaneous utility items.

I call Shenanigans.

The treasure (not counting potions of healing which are common consumables anyway) in that adventure includes:


potion of invisibility
+1 longsword
staff of defense
ring of protection
+1 battle axe
potion of flying
boots of striding and springing
wand of magic missiles
potion of vitality
+1 mace
+1 breastplate
gauntlets of ogre power
spider staff

So that's more like 2-3 items per PC, assuming they found everything. Which I am very dubious about because I've never played an adventure where the PCs found every single item in it. The gauntlets especially. you need a DC20 perception check and that's even after you have to know where to specifically look. The odds of finding those are extremely rare. Not without metagaming knowledge anyway.

 

[thalmin]

How does a person "retrain" a stat to be lower? I mean, other than lingering injuries.

 

[Quartz]

Then don't use them in your campaign.

Well yes, but it's the principle of it and the precedent they set.

 

[keterys]

I call Shenanigans.

You're welcome to, though it's not my name.

Sure there aren't two +1 rings of protection? I could've sworn we found two when I played it. I also have no idea how hard it is to find the gauntlets, but I can assure you that the group I was in found it without any metagaming. It is possible the DM was too lenient. I know that two characters in the group are good at perception.

Was it in the pool or the crevice? Those are the only two places I remember there being much that was hidden.

At any rate, the problem was more a question of "Nobody else wants it" loot distribution. The one character in the party I was in who used medium armor took the armor. And was given the gauntlets (fighter didn't care, monk was dex-based). And a weapon, to go with them (the 2 melee characters already had the axe and sword). I don't know the exact items on one of the two characters, though I know that the game moment was when both realized they were using identical Serpent Staff, Dragonguard, Gauntlets of Ogre Power. One also had a wand of magic missiles, Lightbringer, and 3 healing potions. No idea about the other beyond the first 3, cause I didn't care except in an academic "How does treasure work in Adventurer's League" way.

 

[keterys]

How does a person "retrain" a stat to be lower? I mean, other than lingering injuries.

Two primary ways:
1) In Adventurer's League, you can change any game mechanic aspect of your character up to 5th level. The ideal is that you show up at a game night, pick up a pregen sheet and play it, then later go back and fix it. "Well, this is a Charismatic rogue, but I want to be an Intelligent one and go for Arcane Trickster". So long as the character is still a legal one, good to go.
2) Talk to your DM. "Hey, I didn't understand how the game works and I'd really like to change this aspect of my character to make more sense for your campaign. Do you mind if I swap X and Y?" This is highly campaign dependent, but in the 4 different gaming groups I'm most familiar, that would have at least a 90% success rate. It'll always work for me, and my default is to DM 5E, rather than play, so there you go.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

How does a person "retrain" a stat to be lower? I mean, other than lingering injuries.

it is a campaign rule for the public play program, up to a level you can retrain anything... so if I am playing a fighter and at level 3 get a str X item I can perfectly capable of changing my stats... it is cheesy though

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

- Hey, I didn't understand how the gauntlets of ogre power works and I'd really like to change the strength of my fighter to get more than expected from my abilities. Do you mind if I swap a 15 for an 8?
- Yeah, I do mind. A lot.

 

[keterys]

Yeah, I do mind. A lot.

Exactly

Anyhow, that ship has more than sailed, and honestly I don't think there's that much to worry about the 19 stat items. They're not my ideal, but some folks like them, and the aberrant behavior they sometimes incite is fairly restricted to Adventurer's League for secondary stats, since a 20 in a primary and a different attuned item is still just great.

I do wonder if a couple years from now we'll have the Greater Headband of Intellect that does 21-29 or whatever.