D&D 5E Awarding One Magic Weapon only to each player in a campaign

G'day, folks!

I was just thinking of my process of awarding magic items in my 5E homebrew, and I realised that my approach to magic weapons had changed, partly as a result of the changing editions.

While in previous editions there'd be lots of magic weapons lying about (so many guards armed with +1 swords), the approach of 4E and now 5E has changed that. As a result, I'm considering how in a campaign I might only award one magic weapon EVER to a player.

It's not a hard-and-fast rule. More like a guideline. But, instead of granting a +1 sword, which gets abandoned for a +2 sword, then a +3 sword, etc., the weapon I give out is significant (in lore or abilities) and new magic weapons just don't come along. A player might end up with a +1 bow and a flametongue greatsword, for instance, but the idea of abandoning an old magic weapon for a better one mostly goes away.

With the weapons not being disposable, it means I should pay more attention to detailing them. Not saying that I will, of course. Best laid plans and all that.

Is this how you do it? Or are weapons replaced more in your games?

Cheers!

I go both ways (sound dirty). I give out plenty of little magic items that are not special or unique within the context of the setting, but I also have items that are and those items often grow with the character. I like the idea of named items that have history and are tied to the world and the character and I don't really like the idea of those being tossed into a closet to collect dust. I basically write them to grow in power at the tier changes (levels 5, 11, and 17). That doesn't mean that the item level's up at exactly those moments, but it is near that level range when the item will evolve.

One of the best innovations of the 5e DMG (in my opinion) was the "Special Features" (pp. 141-3) for otherwise generic magic items.

It's such a great idea for easily adding lore and unique properties to +1 swords.

Unfortunately, I have not seen it in play nearly enough.

I go for the middle road. PCs find about 6 items per PC and can afford to buy 4 or so more.... but they're not guaranteed to find a single weapon with a plus associated with - much less a +1, then a +2 and finally a +3.

Half the items the PCs find are randomly rolled up. Whatever they find, they find. If they can't use it, they can try to find a way to trade it - maybe for an item, or maybe to achieve a party objective. The other half of what they find are items I create that will be fun additions to the game. They may be useful, they may have drawbacks... For example, I recently added a pair of boots to a game that turn into stilts. Also, once per day they can convert into a 20 foot tall, 5 foot wide tower... but the boots are attached tot the PCs feet and the tower - immobilizing them.Lots of uses... but some risk, too.

They get enough gold to buy items, too, if that is how they elect to spend coin. Common items are easy to find. Uncommon take a little effort. Rare items require real effort and are often entirely unavailable (I determine a list of potentially available items at the start of the campaign using a random generator tool). There are also a few top tier items availale in the world ... but buying them is rarely possible. They're special.

I wouldn't want to have less items in the game. Getting one item every other level or so is about right. It gives them time to be appreciated. However, it also keeps a touch of that historic feeling from early D&D ... and that yu feel when opening a good Magic pack ... where you add something cool to your character's stry.

Hjorimir said:

I go both ways (sound dirty). I give out plenty of little magic items that are not special or unique within the context of the setting, but I also have items that are and those items often grow with the character. I like the idea of named items that have history and are tied to the world and the character and I don't really like the idea of those being tossed into a closet to collect dust. I basically write them to grow in power at the tier changes (levels 5, 11, and 17). That doesn't mean that the item level's up at exactly those moments, but it is near that level range when the item will evolve.

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I like to do this too. And giving the more potent items quirks is fun too.

My Barbarian used a magic battleaxe for a bit before he got a magic greatsword.

Also right now we are playing a secondary campaign where most of the party got moontouched shortswords to fight undead who would have been otherwise resistant to our normal weapons. Save for tone guy who got the same battleaxe as a hand-me-down.

So I'm all for temporary magic items used at the end of t1. Though they aren't necessarily disposable. It's just an awkward moment in the overall campaign where characters are more or less forced to perform with less than ideal circumstances

MerricB said:

While in previous editions there'd be lots of magic weapons lying about (so many guards armed with +1 swords), the approach of 4E and now 5E has changed that. As a result, I'm considering how in a campaign I might only award one magic weapon EVER to a player.

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If you go by the distribution in the DMG, I know many player who would be happy if they never get a magic weapon. The distribution for 5e is sooo much flatter.

Here's a thread where they work out what you should be getting levels 1-20.

It then codifies it, breaking it up four ways, to give guidelines:

1 uncommon permanent item at level 4, and another at level 7.
1 rare permanent item at level 10 and another at level 13.
1 very rare permanent item at level 16.
1 legendary permanent item at level 19.

That's 6 items over their entire 1-20. Many characters not focused on weapon combat would probably be happy to get something else instead.

Last campaign I was a player, we were just shy of 12th and we had my +1 weapon, and a +2 with some other ability for the paladin - in a party of 4. Very little magic armor as well, just our paladin.

I once wanted to do something like @Hjorimir described, but it was part of a broader campaign concept that never got off the ground. The idea came about in the early months of my transition from 4e to 5e. I was harboring some preferences from the earlier edition, and the evolving weapon concept was meant to combine the paucity of magic items in 5e with the expected magic item power levels of 4e.

I'd still like to do something like this, but it's going to have to stay on the back burner for awhile. Just launched a new campaign a couple months ago, and it's not really appropriate to include such items for that table.

Regardless, I will second his suggestion. I do think it calls for special narrative treatment and player buy in, so I would approach my players about the idea before pushing these weapons on them.

As to replacing magical weapons in my current and previous campaigns, I tend to be rather stingy with them so there isn't much replacement going on. At some point in their career (I design most campaigns to run from level 1- or 3-15), each PC is highly likely to acquire a +1 weapon or a +0 weapon with some perks, usually between levels 5-8. It's a crap shoot whether I'll seek player input, choose randomly, or make an educated guess about what they'd like. +2/+3 items are so rare and inaccessible they might as well not exist, but it's not off the table if a player has little or no interest in the largely utility-based magic items that constitute the majority of my world hoard.

I provide largely random magic items, interfering mostly to remove items that I just don't want to deal with. With weapons, I roll based on the table in the 1E DMG, which heavily favors swords (especially the longsword). In my last campaign, the paladin with polearm mastery asked if he was ever going to get a magic glaive, and I gave him the odds of it (~0%). He decided to spend most of his downtime researching the formula to create magic weapons so that he could make his own +1 glaive.

I provide minor, simple magic and "masterwork" items on a fairly regular basis. The players may toss some of these, that's fine, magic items are often in lieu of raw gold treasure. I provide occasional "powerful" magic items that I do not intend for my party to replace, though I'm not always perfect at figuring out their wants and needs. But these items may not appear to be as super cool and powerful as they are at first glance, so sometimes they get tossed too.

Some players, I've found, just like to keep the stuff they loot. Some other players are happy to get that one item they really want. I've been both of those players so I like to try to find a middle ground. Maybe Bob the Fighter has a half-dozen generic +1 weapons, while Sue the Ranger has one Special Longbow with Cool Qualities. Neither may be happy if they were stuck playing the way the other enjoys.

More often than not, I like to award custom items. Players go on some quest, find the Ancient Forge and use its last few charges to create their "perfect weapon".