D&D 5E Magic Item design?

[fireinthedust]

While planning for 5e games, I'd like to know how magic items are likely to be structured. Will we be seeing modifiers to attacks, armor, saves, or skill checks? Or are they expected to leave bonuses out, so high level characters will not be mandated to have magic items; and instead focus on abilities granted, including powers that are based on a character's proficiency bonus (just like how spells and attacks share the same modifier (ability plus proficiency) but have different effects)?

I know I could house rule everything, but let's face it: I just want to know RAW mechanics.


I think I could guess, based on the expected ability of a character of a given level to be able to hit a monster of that level. Like the Sphinx has its AC up, so could a non-magic-sword-wielding Fighter of the same level (iirc CR17) hit the Androsphinx, or is there a massive gap in difficulty that would need a +4 or +5 item bonus to compensate?

I'm not as numerate with statistics as I would like to be, so perhaps someone has already discussed this somewhere?

 

[SilverfireSage]

While planning for 5e games, I'd like to know how magic items are likely to be structured. Will we be seeing modifiers to attacks, armor, saves, or skill checks?

Probably attacks and armor, maybe saves, probably no skill checks. Although there's nothing stopping you from making exceptional magic thieves' tools.

Or are they expected to leave bonuses out, so high level characters will not be mandated to have magic items; and instead focus on abilities granted, including powers that are based on a character's proficiency bonus (just like how spells and attacks share the same modifier (ability plus proficiency) but have different effects)?

It'll be like AD&D: Magic items are super nice, but if you don't have any you can still be effective.

I think I could guess, based on the expected ability of a character of a given level to be able to hit a monster of that level. Like the Sphinx has its AC up, so could a non-magic-sword-wielding Fighter of the same level (iirc CR17) hit the Androsphinx, or is there a massive gap in difficulty that would need a +4 or +5 item bonus to compensate?

I'm not as numerate with statistics as I would like to be, so perhaps someone has already discussed this somewhere?

The androsphinx only has a 17 AC, which is less than a Hobgoblin's 18 with chainmail and a shield. Monster level doesn't scale by AC and attack anymore it scales by damage and hitpoints. A +3 sword is going to be really nice, but someone without a magic weapon is still definitely able to hit even the highest level monsters. This is the entire crux of D&D 5E: bounded accuracy.

 

[Mandragola]

I'll be interested to see if we get 4th edition's magic implements (+1 rods, holy symbols etc) in 5th edition. That would be needed if casters are going to keep up with people who bash things.

 

[fireinthedust]

Probably attacks and armor, maybe saves, probably no skill checks. Although there's nothing stopping you from making exceptional magic thieves' tools.

It'll be like AD&D: Magic items are super nice, but if you don't have any you can still be effective.

The androsphinx only has a 17 AC, which is less than a Hobgoblin's 18 with chainmail and a shield. Monster level doesn't scale by AC and attack anymore it scales by damage and hitpoints. A +3 sword is going to be really nice, but someone without a magic weapon is still definitely able to hit even the highest level monsters. This is the entire crux of D&D 5E: bounded accuracy.

AC17 is nothing. Many 1st level characters will be able to hit that easily with their main attack focus (ie: spells for a Wizard, etc.).

I found mention of magic items in the Basic kit, with a +1 weapon and +1 armor. If the high level monsters are so easy to hit (not one-shot, but at least hit), I don't think we'll need +5 items. In fact, there isn't really a place in the monster entries for critters wearing gear. That was a thing in 3e, dragons needing to wear things like cloaks of protection (which was so dumb).


Will we see formulae like the 3e model for how to build magic items? Or more like the 4e model?

 

[77IM]

From the playtest, magic weapons and armor top out at +3. Magic arms and armor can have special abilities, even at +0, but any item of +2 or better MUST have a special ability. Items of +3 generally require attunement, and function at +1 without it.

I think there were items that give +1 to all saves but am too lazy to check. There's also rings of resistance that give resistance to a type of energy damage. I haven't seen anything yet that improves save DCs directly. But there are things like headband of intellect which sets your Interest to 19.

 

[Andor]

Clearly +x weapons are in. However there is a design theme already clearly present in 5e that most abilities or items give new numbers, not modifiers.

So a codpiece of charisma is going to give you a Charisma of 19, not +4 to Charisma. This has the interesting effect of meaning stat boosting items are quickly obsoleted for primary stats and will usually be found helping secondary stats late in the game.

How this applies to skill boosting items, or if they even exist is unclear, but frankly skills are fairly weak in 5e so I'm inclined to doubt there is room for real abuse.

Frankly given a choice between an item that gave +6 to medicine checks and a beer, I'd take the beer.

 

[drjones]

I'll be interested to see if we get 4th edition's magic implements (+1 rods, holy symbols etc) in 5th edition. That would be needed if casters are going to keep up with people who bash things.

I don't know about that, weapons are only going up to +3 and high level spells already kick butt significantly. A high level wizards fireball may be saved against more often than a high level fighters sword swing misses, but the fireball still has the ability to put out a ton of damage.

 

[SilverfireSage]

AC17 is nothing. Many 1st level characters will be able to hit that easily with their main attack focus (ie: spells for a Wizard, etc.).

You're right, AC 17 is pretty low. Then again, that's exactly how the designers wanted it to be, so I guess that worked out huh? Like I said, difficulty isn't based on how hard something is to hit anymore, it's about how much damage it does and how much health they have.

I found mention of magic items in the Basic kit, with a +1 weapon and +1 armor. If the high level monsters are so easy to hit (not one-shot, but at least hit), I don't think we'll need +5 items. In fact, there isn't really a place in the monster entries for critters wearing gear. That was a thing in 3e, dragons needing to wear things like cloaks of protection (which was so dumb).


Will we see formulae like the 3e model for how to build magic items? Or more like the 4e model?

Probably no formula, since magic items are supposed to be rare and powerful. I'm going to guess anything over a +1 will require attunement, and any other abilities (firebrand etc.) will also cost attunement. Magic items will probably go up to a +4 for artifacts like the Holy Avenger, but the best a character will probably ever get is +3.

 

[Mandragola]

I don't know about that, weapons are only going up to +3 and high level spells already kick butt significantly. A high level wizards fireball may be saved against more often than a high level fighters sword swing misses, but the fireball still has the ability to put out a ton of damage.

Thinking about it, yes it seems you're right. I'm actually running an adventure (and will try not to use any spoilers) for a starting group and it does feature "caster items". Rather than giving the caster +1 to hit and damage they are more like 3rd edition wands, staves and so on. They let off spells and have charges. The difference is that they recover a few charges each day so they become a permanent part of a character's kit, unless he gets unlucky and it falls apart when it reaches 0 charges. You roll a d20 when it's out of charge and on a 1 the item stops working.

Under the current mechanics a +1 caster item, if it existed, wouldn't make a difference to saves. That's not calculated into the formula, which is just 8+stat+proficiency. I suppose the item itself could say it raised the DC though.

The adventure features at least one pretty high-level "solo" baddy. This thing has multiple attacks a round and a better +to hit and AC than you'd generally see, both by at least a couple of points. The striking thing is the damage it can hand out though - multiple attacks each doing bugbear-level damage and good at hitting.

While a party's AC and +to hit will go up only slowly, their hit points will still go up in a linear progression. That means higher-level bad guys need to be able to hand out serious amounts of damage per target to keep up. A spell like hex on a big nasty could make an enormous difference to how the fight plays out.

 

[Afrodyte]

I hope it features ways to make magic items that grow with the characters, such that at certain levels, new abilities come forth.