D&D General Weapons should break left and right

[Maxperson]

Oh, again, I totally understand why players do it. Heck, I probably do it to some degree when I am a player too. It's not like I don't understand the reasoning. I just don't like it very much.

Like, why buy winged boots (uncommon) when a Broom of Flying is faster, can work independently and doesn't have a time limit, all for the same price? Oh, and the Broom isn't attunement, so, you can save your attunement slots for other goodies. Or, a Carpet of Flying, which is Very Rare, meaning you can buy about ten Brooms of Flying for the same price.

So, gee, shock, all I see are PC's buying Brooms of Flying.

I agree with you in principle, but I'd buy the boots every time. Why? Because the broom has to be mounted. It's effectively a mount, which means you need to hold on to it like you would a horse. It's the size of a greatsword, which means you need to find a place for this extremely awkward item when you are just walking around doing stuff. People will notice you with it when you go places, so it might be forbidden inside. The broom can be grabbed and stolen if you send it off alone. As opposed to the boots, which you just wear and walk around in.

There are a lot more considerations than just how fast it the item goes.

Edited to add, you also don't look like some silly cartoon witch with the boots.

 

[Maxperson]

Maybe not the greatest example, as I would not consider a broom intrinsically less interesting than boots.

The more solid comparison would be "Do I buy a +2 weapon, or a +1 weapon with an enhancement that is only occasionally better than another +1?" And why buy an Arrow of Gazebo Slaying when you aren't really expecting to ever run into a Gazebo that you need to kill?

Random encounters + Murphy's Law?

 

[AlViking]

Oh, again, I totally understand why players do it. Heck, I probably do it to some degree when I am a player too. It's not like I don't understand the reasoning. I just don't like it very much.

Like, why buy winged boots (uncommon) when a Broom of Flying is faster, can work independently and doesn't have a time limit, all for the same price? Oh, and the Broom isn't attunement, so, you can save your attunement slots for other goodies. Or, a Carpet of Flying, which is Very Rare, meaning you can buy about ten Brooms of Flying for the same price.

So, gee, shock, all I see are PC's buying Brooms of Flying.

My house rule is that you need to keep one hand holding the broom. If you cast a spell with somatic components it's an acrobatics check.

That and I curate my list of items for sale, items that provide flight aren't available until higher levels.

 

[Maxperson]

My house rule is that you need to keep one hand holding the broom. If you cast a spell with somatic components it's an acrobatics check.

That and I curate my list of items for sale, items that provide flight aren't available until higher levels.

It's a mounted item that's thin and has no magic ability to keep you seated. There's no reason I can see to think that you could ride it hands free.

 

[Hussar]

It's a mounted item that's thin and has no magic ability to keep you seated. There's no reason I can see to think that you could ride it hands free.

Well, other than you're just adding house rules, but, sure, it's not a bad one.

But, again, totally missing the point. The point is that a broom, or boots, will ALWAYS be chosen over something interesting but less practical. And, broom or boots will be chosen over carpet, every time, for the same reason. Heck, even your reasons for choosing boots over broom had pretty much nothing to do with interesting and everything to do with practical considerations.

I do have to say though that this conversation has really cemented in my brain my new houserule for my next campaign - no DMG magic items. They simply won't exist in my next campaign.

Very helpful everyone.

 

[Deset Gled]

Well, other than you're just adding house rules,

The entire Monday-Friday thread, dude. Like, all of it. Over a thousand posts of it. Not a single part that isn't. The whole thing. The whoooooooole thing.

 

[M_Natas]

Looks good.

The only thing that seems really counterintuitive is that the base price doesn't apply to "standard", i.e. new out of a shop, but instead to "poor-worn", i.e. secondhand.

If standard would be the standard price, poor weapons would get too cheap, in my book.
But also I followed the wealth by level guidelines for the prices, which are crazy which makes weapon prizes if you want to stretch them over the first ten level extremely spread. That would be need to fixed, too.
But fixing 5e economy is a whole other thread, I would think ^^.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Edited to add, you also don't look like some silly cartoon witch with the boots.

A major reason to go with the broom. And remember, There's Room on the Broom.

 

[Maxperson]

Well, other than you're just adding house rules, but, sure, it's not a bad one.

There is no rule one way or the other, but I think it's more reasonable to think that someone is going to need to make effort to stay on a thin, moving stick. And given that it's moving a fair distance above ground, wise as well.

But, again, totally missing the point. The point is that a broom, or boots, will ALWAYS be chosen over something interesting but less practical. And, broom or boots will be chosen over carpet, every time, for the same reason. Heck, even your reasons for choosing boots over broom had pretty much nothing to do with interesting and everything to do with practical considerations.

Yep. Though I'd go with the carpet second. It's more cumbersome, but it can carry more. Sometimes the entire party. That said, before we got on this tangent I said that I agree with you in principle. I was just giving my reasons for picking the boots over the broom.

Players if given the choice, go for practicality over interesting. Though they will go for practical AND interesting over just practical if the practicality is similar.

I do have to say though that this conversation has really cemented in my brain my new houserule for my next campaign - no DMG magic items. They simply won't exist in my next campaign.

Very helpful everyone.

These are things I have tried with some success.

1. I've made magic items rare, and let the players know that. When players know that they aren't going to be finding a lot of magic items, they are much more likely to keep, use and appreciate the ones they find, even if suboptimal. That wasn't enough all by itself, though, which led me to number 2 below.

2. Because they are rare in my game, I blended them together to make better and more interesting items. Instead of finding a bunch of items like a broom of flying, an immovable rod, a sword +1 and belt of strength by level 5 or whatever, the group will find Storm Giant's Knife, a +1 longsword that grants 10 minutes of flight each day, broken up how the user chooses. It can be made to hover in place and it will not move until it's wielder commands it to come free, and once per day will raise its user's strength by +4 for 1 minute. This can take the owner's strength above 20.

The rarity plus making items interesting like that rekindled my jaded players' love for magic items. They got more excited about magic items than I've seen them in quite literally 25 years. At least the ones I've played with that long. The others were just the most excited I've ever seen them. For items like Rods of Lordly Might and whatnot, I don't mix them up with other items usually. They are powerful and interesting on their own.

 

[Lanefan]

Easily solved by making them unable to be made. Or just blow the prices up through the roof. Sure it has a price, but there are so few who can make it, and those really don't want to be bothered to make it, that the Flaming Sword you want is 50,000 gold.

I've long felt that the 5e prices were way too low already, so items in my game, when you can find them, are much more expensive than the DMG, and there's no regular chart for how much something costs. Wizard Chandly might charge you 50,000 for the item, but Wizard Monroviary really hates doing it, so he charges 110,000 for the same item.

IME the immediate and obvious risk of having variable pricing on magic items is that the players, in character as their PCs, will see and exploit the opportunity to buy low here and sell high there; and when it comes to making a very good living, trading in magic items that way is far less painful than field adventuring.

And if it's what the characters would do, then you gotta let 'em do it.

Solution, though admittedly very arbitrary: universal pricing on items. If a +1 longsword costs 2000 here, it costs 2000 everywhere.