D&D General Chris just said why I hate wizard/fighter dynamic

[doctorbadwolf]

Item based classes are often requested. D&D designers in every edition avoided making them or quit after 1-3 attempts.

5e went the "Nonmagical items are low level" and "Everything is a spell or magic item" routes.

It wouldn’t need to actually be an “item class”. It’s just a feature that allows you to just have what you need to poison a favored enemy with a bane that turns thier regen or immunity to non magical weapons off for a time.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It wouldn’t need to actually be an “item class”. It’s just a feature that allows you to just have what you need to poison a favored enemy with a bane that turns thier regen or immunity to non magical weapons off for a time.

A little narrative for some tastes, but it can certainly work. It's just a step beyond the artificer idea of just having the tool you need.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

A little narrative for some tastes, but it can certainly work. It's just a step beyond the artificer idea of just having the tool you need.

Right. And like, if a group wants to track material components and arrows and the like, they can track poison ingredients too, I guess, but no reason it should require that.

 

[Oofta]

The vast majority of monsters have no resistance or immunity to nonmagical weapons. So the simplest solution to a campaign with no magic weapons is to not use monsters that are immune to mundane weapons. According to my filtering DndBeyond monsters only about 2% of monsters are immune, that number grows to a little over 10% if you include resistant.

So yes, your fighter can't directly harm Orcus. But is that type of fight really appropriate for a low magic campaign in the first place? If it is, have a fight with Orcus but throw in a bunch of minions perhaps coming in waves that the fighters have to hold off while the casters take out the demon. It could be an interesting and dynamic challenge.

 

[Eric V]

So the fact that 5e has magic items is proof that they are assumed, despite their claims to the contrary?

Well...the DMG is just under 30% about magic items. They may not be assumed, but that page count tells me they're heavily implied at the least.

 

[Oofta]

Well...the DMG is just under 30% about magic items. They may not be assumed, but that page count tells me they're heavily implied at the least.

I'm sure the vast majority of campaigns will use magic, that doesn't mean a world with no magic items is unworkable. You'd certainly have to adjust challenges, but I have to do that for every group anyway.

 

[Eric V]

One thing I wish the Ranger had been given as part of favored enemy is the ability to make “bane poisons” that bypass and reduce the immunities and resistances of the favored enemy type their made for, or shut down regeneration, or make it hard to teleport, etc.

And you’d be providing a tactical benefit for the whole team, not just yourself, so the fighter can kill Orcus without a magic sword because the Ranger made an elixir that makes a weapon “magical” for a while.

4e Essentials Executioner had something like that, no? Their "dailies" were the different poisons it could make.

 

[Eric V]

I'm sure the vast majority of campaigns will use magic, that doesn't mean a world with no magic items is unworkable. You'd certainly have to adjust challenges, but I have to do that for every group anyway.

...I didn't imply it was unworkable, did I?

 

[Minigiant]

A little narrative for some tastes, but it can certainly work. It's just a step beyond the artificer idea of just having the tool you need.

It wouldn’t need to actually be an “item class”. It’s just a feature that allows you to just have what you need to poison a favored enemy with a bane that turns thier regen or immunity to non magical weapons off for a time.

Sure. But some in the community get wired when you get a nonspell material resource that aren't purchased or gathered. It's why 5e HIPS is terrible.

 

[Oofta]

...I didn't imply it was unworkable, did I?

I'm just saying that most people will want to use magic items so therefore the fact that we have a lot of magic is not particularly relevant one way or another. In previous editions it was quite explicit that the expectation was that people will have +X weapons by level Y. It was baked into the math. That's no longer the case.