No Random treasure !?!?...

[useridunavailable]

Thing is, by the core's implied setting, a metropolis like Waterdeep is definitely the exception. It's more like finding that one travelling merchant in the village of Auckney that has enough cash to buy the item off you, but he's only going to pay 1/5 market value for it.

Also, posting an ad like that in a metropolis: you don't think that advertising that you had such valuable commodities would make you a target for theft, B&E, or murder? Seriously, magic items are fairly small, light forms of great wealth, they'd be prime targets for the criminal underground, especially when magic is rare. That's why the people that devote their lives to merchanthood are the ones who trade the items - they have the connections and contacts to (relatively) safely resell the items without advertising (and getting stabbed and robbed).

Huh?!? Double-post, 48 minutes apart... accident?

 

[outsider]

Now we are just supposed to pick items that would excite your players and items they can actually use.

Wait a minute. How is the DM supposed to win if they have to give out appropriate items the players will use? I thought everybody knew the sign of a skilled DM is giving out useless magic items that nobody wants. Next thing you know, WotC will be telling me I shouldn't be looking for ways to screw over the players when they cast Wish!

 

[Zimri]

Wait a minute. How is the DM supposed to win if they have to give out appropriate items the players will use? I thought everybody knew the sign of a skilled DM is giving out useless magic items that nobody wants. Next thing you know, WotC will be telling me I shouldn't be looking for ways to screw over the players when they cast Wish!

Naw screwing over people who word wish poorly is a sacred cow. Miracle is sacrosanct however unless their deity is mischevious.

 

[Asmor]

Miracle is sacrosanct however unless their deity is mischevious.

A rogue walks into a bar, opens his belt pouch, and pulls out a tiny little piano. He then reaches into his bag and pulls out a a fairy, roughly a foot tall. He sets the fairy down, and it begins to play the piano.

A bard walks up to the rogue and says, "Hey, that's pretty spiffy. Where'd you get it?"

"Had a miracle spell cast to ask a boon of my god."

"You wasted a miracle spell on a piano-playing fairy?"

"No, but apparently I didn't enunciate well enough, so Olidimara gave me a 12-inch pianist."

 

[Lord Sessadore]

Huh?!? Double-post, 48 minutes apart... accident?

Haha, sorry about that. Internet is being dumb, I hit refresh and apparently it decided to send my post again *rolleyes*

 

[Kingskin]

I've been using wishlists for years, they're a good way of working out what players are interested in and a lot of players envisage their characters using particular items. That being said, they don't literally write a list of items and then get them ticked off one by one. It's more a case of talking over character concepts as they evolve and then fitting interesting items in with that.
More often than not you get whole adventures (or at least sidelines) coming out of the quest for a particular item and it gives a sense of achievment once they've got their grubby little mitts on something cool that fits their character.

I also use random items every so often, just to spice things up a bit and because quite often players will surprise you with novel uses for items that don't 'optimise' their character in some way. I don't need a chart to work out they've found a spinel or a folding boat. I just give them whatever takes my fancy from the list.

On a final note; I do find the whole idea of players 'happening' to find whatever items they want in the dirt-poor village of Urinal ridiculous. It just jars something chronic and, given an opportunity and a gullible GM, I'd exploit it like Nike on an Indonesian child.
Sneaky Git: So, can I find a Staff of the Magi while we're staying in Urinal?
GM: Sure, there's one propping up the bar in the Cow-Shaggers Arms, do you want to buy it from Donald, the lusty wench?
Sneaky Git: No, I'll wait until everyone's asleep and then nick it.
GM: Bugger.

 

[Malk]

I found that I've never really had to ask my players what they want. Through a combination of just paying attention to them/ them drooling over various magic items/ and just wanting to put some cool stuff in the adventures, I have just naturally tended to only have magic items that are useful.

Which is not to say that I have not placed items that were not apparently or immediately useful. Sometimes they would get something and just be confounded as to its purpose until at some later point a light would go off in someone's head and they would use this random item to completely break open some encounter or another.

 

[Kingskin]

Which is not to say that I have not placed items that were not apparently or immediately useful. Sometimes they would get something and just be confounded as to its purpose until at some later point a light would go off in someone's head and they would use this random item to completely break open some encounter or another.

Yeah, just recently we used a Robe of Useful Things to throw a boat at a bishop. GM didn't see that one coming. Neither did the bishop.

 

[Blustar]

I guess it just rubs me the wrong way because as a player , since I DM'ed a lot I used to try hard not to let my OOC knowledge affect what I did in a game. Now not only do the rules encourage OOC knowledge but almost seems to require it.

How do these PC's know all these magic items exist and with special properties and where to find them in the game? I mean how do they know about every single magic item in the PHB in the game if its a points of light setting and civilization is found few and far between?

Not only does my fighter PC know about an Holy Avenger, Lightning, Resounding, Lifedrinker, Terror, Thunderburst, etc. but his player is going to give me a list of one these weapons he wants...putting Magic items in the PHB I think is a big mistake. Now when a PC doesn't get a cool weapon (or whatever) they'll look directly at me and ask me why, John has one, and Ralph, but what about me eh???

As a DM I use the dice to "help" me decide what magic is available in a dungeon and keeps me from playing favorites. I mean low level stuff I could care less but a special magic item should be few and far between.

Wasn't the whole anti-3.5 rant include the fact that the PC's relied too much on magic items. Now 4ed also has a chart on how many magic items they should have by certain levels and at what values too. I guess dependency on magic items is here to stay in 4th edition too.

When I showed this to some of my friends we just laughed about it. Magic items in the PHB is just going to open up a can of worms that's going to be hard to put back in...

 

[RefinedBean]

I'm finally trying my hand as a DM, seeing how easy 4E is on DMs (3.X scared the bejezus) out of me, and so far I haven't had any problems incorporating items that my players would find useful.

I could see how it might be a problem if the villains of a certain campaign were very homogeneous, with little variability in class/tactics or what-not. But if that's the case, the PCs can probably be rewarded in different ways.

Really, random magic items tend to be a let-down as time goes by. Of course, for 3.X, random Wondrous Items are great since most characters can find them useful. 4E has plenty of wondrous items, neck items, waist items, hand items, etc. And pretty much all PCs of any class and race can get a use out of those as well.