D&D (2024) DMG 5.5 - the return of bespoke magical items?

[EzekielRaiden]

Put it in real world terms. Charlie Francis Ivan & Jeanne all hit the west coast☆ of Florida in 2004 over a similar period of time & that was freakishly unusual in the extreme. People really underestimate how huge florida is when it comes to hurricanes hitting the state somewhere.

Spoiler: flipphone guy summary

The critical part is that the next 240ish months since then were not filled with that same level of rapid fire devastation for that region of florida's west coast. If the pace of storms hitting that region over a couple months continued, nobody would live therewithin a year or two & it would be soured clear by now. What you are suggesting far exceeds that sort of improbability & veers into territory where statements like "Yea they probably made a bad choice building a city in the caldera of an active volcano where those toxic fumes would kill people every time the wind shifted"

☆Directly or after crossing from the east coast they hit the same general area.

Could the characters of LotR take fifty days off to make a magic item?

Could the characters of the recent D&D movie?

Could Xenophon have done so while on campaign with Cyrus?

Characters have lives full of adventure. They aren't normal. They don't live at the pace normal people live. They have that not-actually-Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."

Yes, if they were normal people leading normal lives, 50 continuous, uninterrupted days would be a cakewalk. Adventurers are not normal.

It really isn't that hard to find something that will interrupt the work for a couple days every few weeks, and that's enough to derail the work.

 

[tetrasodium]

Could the characters of LotR take fifty days off to make a magic item?

Could the characters of the recent D&D movie?

Could Xenophon have done so while on campaign with Cyrus?

Characters have lives full of adventure. They aren't normal. They don't live at the pace normal people live. They have that not-actually-Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."

Yes, if they were normal people leading normal lives, 50 continuous, uninterrupted days would be a cakewalk. Adventurers are not normal.

It really isn't that hard to find something that will interrupt the work for a couple days every few weeks, and that's enough to derail the work.

You've given two works of fiction & a historical figure from 431BC (ie ~2500 years ago). The role of GM & player are effectively under the authority of the same author in the first two examples & It is likely that the 2500 year old bones are dust by now making the answer no.

There's a difference between an event of note interrupting and endless events of note

 

[CreamCloud0]

The first thing I note is that there is a "barrier", a huge jump, from going to the uncommon to the rare level. An uncommon magical item takes 10 days to craft, and 200 gp. This seem... preeeety reasonable. Unless your campaign is either extremely quickly passed or very gold-starved, this is not an unsurmountable obstacle.

However, a rare item takes 2000 gp to craft and 50 days. The time seems like a real barrier to me, in most campaigns it would limit the great majority of item crafting to uncommon.

i feel like the actually important cost to making a magic item is the gold, and perhaps special materials, so if you can fund and source those i don't see why a rare items should take five times as long to craft than an uncommon one.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I think you should mix it up as DM. I'm not against dropping something for a class on occasion but you shouldn't never drop a cleric item even if there are no clerics in your group. Clerics are common and they make items so it seems illogical none would ever drop.

It can drop with the intention of being sold for its full gp costs, but I'm not going to act like it's treasure that means anything to the party.

 

[GreyLord]

Could the characters of LotR take fifty days off to make a magic item?

YES!!! Between the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Gandalf literally can spend decades making whatever he wants, if he was under the D&D rules.

Could the characters of the recent D&D movie?

Between when the little girl is born and they start their adventure, living in the village. They do a few heists, but overall...YES! They have a few years there.

Could Xenophon have done so while on campaign with Cyrus?

Okay...maybe not.

Characters have lives full of adventure. They aren't normal. They don't live at the pace normal people live. They have that not-actually-Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."

Yes, if they were normal people leading normal lives, 50 continuous, uninterrupted days would be a cakewalk. Adventurers are not normal.

It really isn't that hard to find something that will interrupt the work for a couple days every few weeks, and that's enough to derail the work.

I think it is dependent on the pace of the adventure. Some may have the time, others may not.

 

[the Jester]

It's cool when you actually get the cool items and not, say a holy symbol in a group with no cleric, weapons no one can use or one use consumables no one ever wants to 'waste'.

A magic item no one in the party wants is an opportunity to make allies by gifting it; an opportunity to make money by selling it; an opportunity to get something of value by trading it; etc. Just because you don't have a cleric doesn't mean there is not a cleric willing to promise a free resurrection in return for it.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Could the characters of LotR take fifty days off to make a magic item?

Yes. Beyond what another poster has said, 17 years pass between Bilbo's party and Frodo leaving Bag End, they spend two months in Rivendell, and another month in Lorien. In fact, they do make a magic item during their Rivendell downtime, as Narsil is reforged into Anduril during that time in the book.

 

[ezo]

Yes, if they were normal people leading normal lives, 50 continuous, uninterrupted days would be a cakewalk. Adventurers are not normal.

You do know the days can be interrupted, right, and don't have to be consecutive?

And you only need 8 hours per day to count as a work day. With 24 hours in a day, you spend 8 travelling (any more and you risk exhaustion in 2014... 2024 I don't know), 8 working, and 8 resting.

It would be really easy to craft magical items just as part of the time taken while on a journey.

LOL, right now my PCs are travelling by boat, so they aren't even exerting themselves and could "work" on crafting while enjoying their cruise.

So, downtime makes more sense IMO, but you don't even need it RAW.

 

[Vaalingrade]

A magic item no one in the party wants is an opportunity to make allies by gifting it; an opportunity to make money by selling it; an opportunity to get something of value by trading it; etc.

Or I could just give them an item that would be fun.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Are people being serious arguing that the 'game' of LotR would force the players to play through the entire 17 years of nothing between the prologue and the actual action? Or the decades between the Hobbit and the trilogy?