D&D 5E Guess Who Wants to Pay Top Platinum for Your Magic Items! (Tyranny of Dragons question)

[Riley37]

I am taking a turn as DM, while the previous DM takes a break. As it happens, he loves to throw magic items at the party, so although we only played out the first three (publicly available) chapters of HotDQ, in his last session before going on break he also passed out Haazirawn, even though we never played out the full available-for-purchase chapters which, if I infer correctly, include the defeat of Rezmir. The certificate for the Staff of Fire says that it's attunable by bards, so the party bard is having a party with it, though the DMG version is attunable by druids and not by bards.

The party agreed to hand Haazirawn over to faction contacts for destruction, on the understanding that it was evil and dangerous. Whether they get any kind of reward for doing so, is now up to me. Do you have advice on that specific item, Haazirawn? Would a faction with a suitable expert, which Identified Haazirawn, say "nah, no need to destroy this, use it against Tiamat's minions and have fun"?

 

[Staffan]

The problem with the magic items in premade adventures is that they probably won't fit your character concept. Or even worse, mechanically clash with things like feats and class powers, making them an albatross.

Getting a magic longsword is nice and all, but if nobody in the party uses longswords, then it's only use is as a form of currency. The worst "fit" is magical medium armor, not even all the people who can use it want to use it.

Remember that in 5e, there is little to no benefit to specializing in specific weapon types. There's no Weapon Focus feat chain going to waste, or the even more specializing Weapon Training class feature from the Pathfinder fighter. What specialization exists is generally broader in focus - "two-handed weapons" rather than "greatsword", "one-hander + shield" rather than "longsword", and so on. So your dwarf might be using a mundane battle-axe now, but would he keep using that if offered a longsword +1 instead?

 

[Uller]

The rules allow for downtime crafting of magic items that give requirements: gp, time, character level, spells, etc. I allow my players to purchase certain common magic items (particularly healing potions since the only "healer" we have is a edit: paladin) at a cut rate when ever they are in town. During longer periods of down time I will allow them to craft magic items. They can replace time or spell requirements with more gold (case by case basis for how much, but generally each will increase cost by 50%).

So...if they want to buy a +1 Longsword but don't have time, then 750gp...If they have time to craft it, then 500gp. I allow them to sell magic items for 20% of the value.

Why? Because some of my players are just not interested in other down time activities and it makes gold useful and interesting to them. At 5th level, they have 3 permanent magic times that are useful to them (two are used by one character) and one that is not useful to any of them (+1 Battle Axe that does max damage to constructs) and have found 450 gp each. They've spent some on living expenses, better armor, a few healing potions and spells. Three of the PCs have not spent much money at all yet. Once they finish their current adventure they will likely have 2 or 3 more permanent magic items that may or may not be useful and maybe another 200-300 gp each. At that point they will be at or close to 6th level and will likely have several months to a year of down time (or more). What's wrong with trading/selling/buying/crafting magic items so that all or most characters have at least one useful or interesting magic item or maybe pooling their money to have an item useful to the entire party?

As DM I have complete control over what items they can access, how much they can sell an item for, etc. It's not going to unbalance the game. In fact it makes it more balanced if the items found so far happen to fit one character more than others. I could have them "quest" for an item but table time is limited so going on side quests for uninteresting or non-plot items is a significant distraction. Most importantly it makes my players feel like like gold is a reward worth taking risks or spending effort to get.

At some point I also may just allow gold to be traded for XP during down time to "train"...maybe the character that has a ton of gold but no magic items would like to gain a level a little faster than the others. Seems fair. Over time it will balance back out.

For HotDQ/RoT...it certainly seems reasonable between the two to allow this sort of thing and maybe later during RoT. As long as the DM keeps it under control.

 

[Riley37]

For HotDQ/RoT...it certainly seems reasonable between the two to allow this sort of thing and maybe later during RoT. As long as the DM keeps it under control.

*sigh*

Did I mention that I am asking *specifically* for advice in my ToD game, based on experience of others who have either played or run in ToD, and that there is already a general-case thread with 50+ pages at last count?

If you allow magic item creation during downtime, then WHICH MAGIC ITEMS HAVE YOUR ToD PCs CREATED?

Is there perhaps an incentive I could offer, to elicit *what has worked for others who play or run ToD*?

Would it help if I put "Tyranny of Dragons Question" in the thread title?

 

[Uller]

*sigh*

Did I mention that I am asking *specifically* for advice in my ToD game, based on experience of others who have either played or run in ToD, and that there is already a general-case thread with 50+ pages at last count?

*sigh*

If you don't like advice someone has given you, you are free to ignore it. This is the internet.

 

[Astrosicebear]

I am taking a turn as DM, while the previous DM takes a break. As it happens, he loves to throw magic items at the party, so although we only played out the first three (publicly available) chapters of HotDQ, in his last session before going on break he also passed out Haazirawn, even though we never played out the full available-for-purchase chapters which, if I infer correctly, include the defeat of Rezmir. The certificate for the Staff of Fire says that it's attunable by bards, so the party bard is having a party with it, though the DMG version is attunable by druids and not by bards.

The party agreed to hand Haazirawn over to faction contacts for destruction, on the understanding that it was evil and dangerous. Whether they get any kind of reward for doing so, is now up to me. Do you have advice on that specific item, Haazirawn? Would a faction with a suitable expert, which Identified Haazirawn, say "nah, no need to destroy this, use it against Tiamat's minions and have fun"?

I would say the zhentarim would trade for it or pay outright saying they could use it rather than see it destroyed.

The Lords alliance would pay for it or trade mercenaries or such for its use.

The order of the gauntlet would want it destroyed and won't pay.

Other factions word be interested or not at your discretion.

If they do destroy it reward them with something cool they can all use. Like a bag of holding. If just one sells or trades at least make sure they get a magic weapon.

 

[Leatherhead]

Remember that in 5e, there is little to no benefit to specializing in specific weapon types. There's no Weapon Focus feat chain going to waste, or the even more specializing Weapon Training class feature from the Pathfinder fighter. What specialization exists is generally broader in focus - "two-handed weapons" rather than "greatsword", "one-hander + shield" rather than "longsword", and so on. So your dwarf might be using a mundane battle-axe now, but would he keep using that if offered a longsword +1 instead?

My barbarian has a magic battleaxe, which he never uses, because it's not a heavy weapon. There is also a spare longsword +1 in the group, because the rogue can't use it and the fighter is dex focused. I have to say, it is quite annoying when thinking about them sitting there, gathering dust. Heck, nobody even bothered to attune to the longsword, because it would have counted against their cut of treasure.