@ad_hoc my players just got level 8 after about 12 months of play in weekly 3-4 hour games -holidays* & I believe their total pile if combined is something like
* I know this because it was shortly after moregraves misc was released
- a sunblade that is +1 rather than +2
- a +1 dagger
- a longsword made of an alloy that contains fernian shards that deals 4d4 fire damage (no slash, no plus). It's sheath reduces fire damage recieved by 1d4 & grants heat metal immune
- a longsword made of a mabaran shard containing alloy that does 4d4 necrotic damage. It's sheath reduces necrotic damage by 1d4 & grants immune to a necrotic version of heat metal if it ever exists.
- a +1 wand of the war mage
- two different 2 handed focus item that raises range of attack roll cantrips/spells by 50% & one adds +1 dmage to fire spells, the other +1 damage to cold spells (they might have a third poison/acid one, but never use)
- a set of glamoured plate armor
- a shield that grants the third benefit of shield master (dex save for half becomes for none)
- an orb that allows the user to cast chilltouch as a wizard, cleric, or sorcerer (not ever used)
- 2 maybe 3 +1 weapons
- a few potions of cure wounds that work like werecorpse describes, I've considered giving out charged wands like that but never have.
- a quiver of monstrousity slaying arrows with a d6 of ammo like those potions
- A repeating self loading heavy crossbow that conjures nonmagical bolts & can be used with extra attack
- a few 1 charge trinkets & maybe 1 or two wands with a few charges
- a wide assortment of mostly fluff things like a fire starting orb with functionality similar to a grill lighter
- 1-2 stat boosting items that work based on what the base ability score is. If base ability is 3-8 then+3, 10-16 then+2, 17+ then +1, I'll probably change ASI's to work like that next campaign coupled with a much lower stat array
- think that's it
the "I already got that" & "I don't need that maybe we can sell it" is a big frustration to giving out what I figured would be a cool but wound up being useless or not good enough to dethrone any of the party's 3 precious items caused by 5e's attunement slots in a longer game. You are also right about the seemingly arbitrary aplication of attune requirements.My main homebrew difference is to run games where level up is much slower than 5e rules. I dislike the 5e attunement limit (although I like the requirement to attune to an item to use it as a minor limitation) and prefer the 3e slot limit factor.
1. I find the decision as to which items require attunement and which don’t inexplicable making the intent of it being a limiting event not only non functional but irrational. Compare zero attunement Andre with +3 plate mail, +3 sword, a cape of the mountebank, goggles of darkvision and a wand of magic missiles to maxed out attunement Byron with his Boots of levitation, ring of jumping and sword of life stealing.
2. I want players to enjoy getting magic treasure. When I played in a normal Xp progress (though admittedly high magic item game) we found that once we got to 12th level we started to quite frequently find a fun cool attunable magic item that just didn’t quite make the grade so we either just carried it around waiting for a good reason to use it (rarely ever happened - my cleric carried around a ring of invisibility for 3 levels before the campaign ended. Never used it) or just sold it for a second cape of the mountebank or wand of magic missiles (items that don’t require attunement and thus are much more desirable at high level). I accept that the Christmas tree affect of earlier editions can make getting magic items a bit mundane, but getting items that should be fun but you can’t activate is imo worse.
So in answer to the question
1. I have made consumables better (a normal potion has a random number of sips in it - each time you sip from it you roll a d4 if you roll a 1 it was the last use otherwise there is a little bit left; if it’s a d6 potion when you roll a 1 it gets converted to a d4 from now on, Scrolls the same - the words fade but don’t always disappear- and most wands/staves etc though they can go up to d12.).
2. I use 3e slots as a limiter rather than attunement
3 I give out a lot more consumables (ie a Cape of the mountebank charged with a d4 like a potion)
4 I have a small amount of magic item trade
5 I tend to play with large groups (6-8 PCs) so items filter about the group
6 I’m a bit stingy as a dm when it comes to loot
7 I give out items with properties that grow with the character or are based on the characters power (ie cymbals that when clashed cast Thunderwave at a spell level equal to the proficiency bonus of the character using it)
* I know this because it was shortly after moregraves misc was released
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