D&D (2024) Uncommon items - actually common?

[Kurotowa]

If we're spitballing what world evolves out of the D&D rules... one idea I've had cross my mind is that if PC rules are for PCs and PCs are exceptional, what if the three item attunement cap isn't universal? Maybe most NPCs with weaker magical auras can only attune to one item at a time. Heck, maybe for some of them it's zero items.

That would explain why all these common magic items don't require attunement. They're meant for general use, and the general population can't handle the high end stuff. It'd be like trying to run an iPhone off a couple of AAA batteries.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

Nothing says the two have to be mutually exclusive.

You can still have a world with Good and Evil, with mystical and magical creatures, etc. but where magical items are not common and prevalent in the world so that Joe Smith the blacksmith can save up for a potion of healing in less than two months.

The 2024 DMG now supports my vision of my own campaign setting. Two of my players want to be arcane crafters. And the new DMG provides rules for my world to support fulfilling their fantasy. My campaign isn't even as magic heavy as BG3, where every other blacksmith has something magical. They'll have to deal with specific types of people/vendors to get access to magic items that they don't create themselves.

Some Uncommon magic items will be purchasable in the big cities. +1 sword? Yup. Bag of Holding? Yup. Enspelled Staff of Animate Dead? Nope. Holy Avenger? Nope.

 

[pemerton]

Falls, farm animals, animal attack.

I've seen plenty of injuries that were bad without costing the limb or would cause a life-long impairment in the timeframe of the game's implied setting.

I don't want to push the point too hard - just that, at least in standard versions of D&D's rules, no injury that can be healed by hp recovery alone causes a risk of life-long impairment.

 

[ezo]

The 2024 DMG now supports my vision of my own campaign setting.

That's great for you!

Two of my players want to be arcane crafters. And the new DMG provides rules for my world to support fulfilling their fantasy

5E has always had rules for crafting magical items. First in the 2014 DMG and then in Xanathar's. This is just another iteration.

Some Uncommon magic items will be purchasable in the big cities. +1 sword? Yup. Bag of Holding? Yup. Enspelled Staff of Animate Dead? Nope. Holy Avenger? Nope.

While for my game it is: Some Uncommon magic items will be purchasable in the big cities. +1 sword? Nope. Bag of Holding? NOPE! Enspelled Staff of Animate Dead? No way! Holy Avenger? Hell to the Nope!

This is precisely the sort of thing I don't want. "Ye 'ol Magic Shops" are horrible things IMO.

But hey, you do you, right?

 

[Vaalingrade]

I don't want to push the point too hard - just that, at least in standard versions of D&D's rules, no injury that can be healed by hp recovery alone causes a risk of life-long impairment.

But we're not supposed to use HP as an example of how the rules aren't physics for some reason.

Also, they could be holding on to the potion to pass down to a descendant who turns out to be a Chosen One by actively choosing the completely diegetic job of 'Rogue', goes to Rogue Academy, minors in Thief and is awarded with extra meat on their corpus that the potion can revitalize as a result.

 

[pemerton]

But we're not supposed to use HP as an example of how the rules aren't physics for some reason.

True.

Also, they could be holding on to the potion to pass down to a descendant who turns out to be a Chosen One by actively choosing the completely diegetic job of 'Rogue', goes to Rogue Academy, minors in Thief and is awarded with extra meat on their corpus that the potion can revitalize as a result.

Now that's more like it!

 

[kigmatzomat]

That's exactly right! That is the purpose of those magical objects in the world.

If a commoner has the money, and they have the acumen and access to invest in such resources, they may just do that. But if they don't have the money, or have other financial obligations or money sinks (family, debts, setbacks, drinking, gambling, or other entertainment), it's a moo point. It's outside of their reach, or it they just don't see the value compared to anything else they think they need their money for.

Commoner doesn't mean pauper. Unskilled laborers live at the ragged edge, but skilled workers earn 2gp/day, so the 50gp items are 1 month wages. They only need 1gp/day to live, so if they save 2-3 months they can afford these things, which save them more money in the long run, meaning they can buy even more of them over time.

What is a skilled worker? Well, obviously crafters (smiths, woodworkers, jewelers, alchemists, herbalists, brewers, distillers) and "paper pushers" (cartographers, calligraphers) but also the "common" artisans, like cooks, cobblers, carpenters, masons, painters and potters.

This isn't "the 1%", it's more like 20%, where each skilled worker has a couple unskilled helpers (dish washers, fire stokers, vegetable peelers). Meaning the unskilled likely work part of the time in the light from Continual Flame, near a chef who has a Heward's Spice Pouch, or a calligrapher/cartographer with an Illuminator's Tattoo, or minstrals with Instruments of Illusion or Wands of Conducting.

It's really easy for a Player to know the "rules" of a world and whiteroom metagame it. It's another when the table acknowledges NPCs don't have the same "system mastery".

The "system mastery" here is basic economics. Humans have established a solid grip on that for like 4,000 years. (The Ur Compaint Letter :Complaint tablet to Ea-nāṣir - Wikipedia) Banking and usury has been around for a loooong time.

Also commoners have to be careful if they have something small and valuable that unscrupulous folk may covet. It could be quite easy for all that value to disappear because they are an easy target/mark with a big payout.

Again....1 month's skilled wages. It's like stealing an 80" TV or a MacBook Pro from a lawyer's house. It doesn't break them, but it makes them mad. Possibly mad enough to offer a reward/bounty.

Rich-people-justice is also "system mastery" that humans figured out several thousand years ago.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

"Common" in practice means "(almost) universal." Perhaps "Stock"? As in, anywhere you have even the slightest possibility of a general store, a common item is almost certainly there. Simple mundane weapons and armors, for example. The only exception to this might be some of the more boutique magic items that don't have any powerful effects, but probably wouldn't be sitting on the shelves of every village's general store.

"Uncommon" likewise practically means "fairly common." It isn't guaranteed, especially in outlying villages, but if you can get to a proper town with multiple streets etc., you'll probably find uncommon items.

"Rare" actually means something like...."Limited"? That is, "rare" implies that it's quite scarce, but that's not really in keeping with the actual availability for PCs. But "uncommon" seems a bit too weak. "Limited" has a good middle ground for connotations, but I'm not married to it.

"Very Rare", "Legendary", and "Artifact" all probably mean more or less what they should, though you could arguably drop "Very Rare" down to just "Rare" and nothing would really change. Both "Legendary" and "Artifact" tend to be unique or of a very small fixed quantity (e.g. two matched swords, a set of twelve plate armors made for the legendary Knights of the Palace, etc.) "Artifact" just has stronger setting implications and, generally, implies a mostly-indestructible item with truly vast powers.

 

[SkidAce]

I'm pretty sure 5.5 has explicitly told us we're not supposed to care any of that. The game is only about the "heroes" and their crazy adventures.

I disagree.

 

[SkidAce]

Its a goal, dude. An ideal. Nitpick all you want, I'm still going to strive for setting logic and verisimilitude.

I agree.