D&D 5E How do you handle magic item churn in 5E?

[Prakriti]

My solution was to have the PC spend gold to level up. So they are constantly trying to sell the magic items so they can level up.

That works too. Training costs were a standard rule in AD&D and are still a variant in 5E.

 

[tetrasodium]

As soon as you have 4 good items, you've automatically put the fourth into conflict with the other 3. (Granted, if the party shares it only really happens when you hit (3*party members)+1, but same concept.)

The concept of "I'll keep the powerful items and not use the weakest items" doesn't go away if you use slots, it simply spreads it out.

And of course, "weakest item" is incredibly subjective. There's real reluctance to give up good defensive items, even when there's a new item that's rarity levels higher but offensive in nature.

You aren't wrong about the whole party thing, the slots & expected churn of things like +1/+2/+etc gear allowed Alice a greater safety net & did not require her to remember every magic item she ever gave the party in order to consider how a possibly forgotten doodad might interact with new ones or class abilities gained since when they go shopping N levels later. She also had some guidance on the kinds of bonuses that go into each slot
Table: Body Slot Affinities

Body Slot​	Affinity​
Headband, helmet	Mental improvement, ranged attacks
Hat	Interaction
Phylactery	Morale, alignment
Eye lenses, goggles	Vision
Cloak, cape, mantle	Transformation, protection
Amulet, brooch, medallion, necklace, periapt, scarab	Protection, discernment
Robe	Multiple effects
Shirt	Physical improvement
Vest, vestment	Class ability improvement
Bracers	Combat
Bracelets	Allies
Gloves	Quickness
Gauntlets	Destructive power
Belt	Physical improvement
Boots	Movement

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I personally wouldn't do that, but that's just me. Attunement is good! Hard choices are good!

Sometimes. Hard choices are definitely not a worthy goal in themselves, IMO.

 

[TwoSix]

You aren't wrong about the whole party thing, the slots & expected churn of things like +1/+2/+etc gear allowed Alice a greater safety net & did not require her to remember every magic item she ever gave the party in order to consider how a possibly forgotten doodad might interact with new ones or class abilities gained since when they go shopping N levels later. She also had some guidance on the kinds of bonuses that go into each slot

I don't think your arguments are supporting your thesis. I can see an argument that slots prevent unwanted stacking bonuses because bonuses of a type are in the same slot, but that doesn't seem like it curtails unwanted synergies between bonuses of different types. If anything, having more slots available just increase the possibility of unwanted interactions.

The point of a slot system is to curtail magical synergies in a system in which having a lot of magic gear is considered normal, like 3.5, PF, and 4e; indeed, in those systems planning out your magic gear is an additional layer of character building. Magical synergies in 5e are already diminished by dint of not giving out many magic items, and only being able to utilize 3 "good" (i.e. "attuneable") ones, if you want to further curtail 5e characters maybe you could only allow one handheld magic item, one worn item, and one other item. Proto magic slots, really.

 

[TwoSix]

Sometimes. Hard choices are definitely not a worthy goal in themselves, IMO.

Fair. For the play aesthetics I prefer, I enjoy hard choices in character build concept, tactical choices, and narrative decisions, to be more specific.

 

[tetrasodium]

I don't think your arguments are supporting your thesis. I can see an argument that slots prevent unwanted stacking bonuses because bonuses of a type are in the same slot, but that doesn't seem like it curtails unwanted synergies between bonuses of different types. If anything, having more slots available just increase the possibility of unwanted interactions.

The point of a slot system is to curtail magical synergies in a system in which having a lot of magic gear is considered normal, like 3.5, PF, and 4e; indeed, in those systems planning out your magic gear is an additional layer of character building. Magical synergies in 5e are already diminished by dint of not giving out many magic items, and only being able to utilize 3 "good" (i.e. "attuneable") ones, if you want to further curtail 5e characters maybe you could only allow one handheld magic item, one worn item, and one other item. Proto magic slots, really.

You only need to look at the number of really powerful wands in the form of cloaks and robes, bob can't wear the robe with armor & Cindy can't wear the cloak of stars with her cloak of elvenkind or a cloak of protection. The stacking rules provided a lot of safety nets for Alice that simply don't exist in 5e's 3 attune, take a quick summary of 4e's rules for it where they took that further. Now Alice is expected to make even more powerful magic items for her party while the churn safeguards & slot stacking/affinity safety nets are gone.

 

[Nebulous]

I just don't hand out magic items, simple!

I hand them out, but it is SLOW and mostly consumables. Anything that permanently boosts AC or To Hit honestly seems to break bounded accuracy pretty fast, past +1. YMMV

 

[Nebulous]

A while back when the party was hunting Glasstaff in Tresandar Manor they came across a crystal ball of scrying. I had it as a prop on a table in 3D, it looked cool, but then the wizard takes it and asks how do I use this? And then I realize I'd given him a 5th level Scry spell at 3rd level, and was like "Oh crap." HOWEVER, I added a few mechanics: A) the globe will slowly edge you to evil the more you use it, and B) Using it automatically instills 3 levels of Exhaustion.

With those two in place the wizard didn't abuse the item and used it sparingly.

 

[TwoSix]

You only need to look at the number of really powerful wands in the form of cloaks and robes, bob can't wear the robe with armor & Cindy can't wear the cloak of stars with her cloak of elvenkind or a cloak of protection. The stacking rules provided a lot of safety nets for Alice that simply don't exist in 5e's 3 attune, take a quick summary of 4e's rules for it where they took that further. Now Alice is expected to make even more powerful magic items for her party while the churn safeguards & slot stacking/affinity safety nets are gone.

Who's Alice, and how is she churning out magic items again?

Honestly, I think I need to know what your ideals are for how the magic item economy should look to get a sense as to what your argument is. I mean, I get the point that item slots prevent stacking (I played a lot of 3.5/PF/4e), but I'm not sure what's particularly problematic about 5e.

 

[tetrasodium]

Who's Alice, and how is she churning out magic items again?

Honestly, I think I need to know what your ideals are for how the magic item economy should look to get a sense as to what your argument is. I mean, I get the point that item slots prevent stacking (I played a lot of 3.5/PF/4e), but I'm not sure what's particularly problematic about 5e.

It's a common practice to use generic names that start with A B C D E etc. Alice & bob are the names I've been using the whole discussion. People love to point at 5e's oversimplifications as being designed to help get newer less experienced people like alice & bob into playing faster & easier with less things to worry about. That argument works against 5e when it's a case of rules that would have helped protect them from mistakes & recover from them if they were made.

5e's magic item economy flatly does not work because they are all too powerful & there are no longer any subjective dials that can be used.