D&D (2024) 2024 needs to end 2014's passive aggressive efforts to remove magic items & other elements from d&d

[Yaarel]

Since not everyone was around back then & plenty won't remember or have encountered it to even remember... Lets make it clear what kind of situation a player would really want to jump through those hoops to get bracers of archery on a necklace instead of bracers. That kind of situation is one where the PC for whatever reason managed to get something like bracers of accuracy from MiC or core dmg bracers of armor & the group wasn't ready to murder them in their sleep to give the bracers to a PC who actually needed them... those scaled from +1AC up to +8 AC. Bracers were probably a bad slot shift example because there aren't many bracers without expanding the search to include things like BovD MiC & other books loaded with magic items that I bet had a couple

I don't think that a player would have a very strong case to craft a slot affinity defying item after the GM squints skeptically & says "nahhhhhh I don't think that's going to fly these combined are wayy too good" just because a second player has craft magic:X. Even beyond that there was a second tool the GM had at their disposal that could be used to counter it in the form of bonus type conflicts.


Agreed, but the truly staggering combos tended to involve things like this fleshgrinding*, masterslaying★, sacred☆, profane☆ sword I pulled from an ancient character sheet used in a near-one shot silly "Bob's moving cross country in a couple months, lets send him off good" type game It was trivial to slap down craxy combos & the escalating costs of combined effects added up fast for all but the most minor of effects.

* It's on pg 111 in Book of Vilre Darkness. slapping down the crafting of things from that book was like a DC minus ten persuade for the GM
★This one was deep in the weeds on page 112 of the same book
☆I don't have whatever books these were in & don't recall the specifics of how I got around the "must be x alignment or it huts you" conflict other than the PC being a warforge made them immune to one iirc.

Heh, if you are warning me that magic items can become brokenly powerful if the DM isnt paying attention, then you are preaching to the choir, as they say.

No magic item happens unless I have thought about its flavor and purpose.

 

[Reef]

For me and my table d20 high fantasy style gaming includes a flow of magic items. To eliminate using encumbrance I always throw the party a bag of holding or two at session 0 or 1.

For us no magic items means a different play style, and then we don’t use d20/D&D.

There's a difference between 'no magic items' and 'no boring + items'. I'm not sure anyone is advocating dumping the magic item section. Just that for some of us, interesting magic items are more worthwhile than endless '+1, +2, +3' weapons and armor.

And I don't think anyone is seriously thinking that WOTC is dumping magic items, other than maybe the OP.

 

[Vikingkingq]

They stated they would add magic items for unarmed strikes and unarmored characters.

And that they would add more common magic items, too.

 

[Vikingkingq]

I like magic items when...
1) There's story, character, and history involved.
2) They present interesting new options - such as boots of flying for the human fighter.
3) They can be used to unlock a mystery to defeat a situation. ("We need to discover the Blessed Blade of St. Athanasius to defeat the wight.")

I don't like magic items when they're assumed/required to make the math of a game to work.

I agree. I don't mind a +X on an item that already does something cool, but a vanilla +X doesn't feel magical in the way that a Frostbrand or Flametongue feels magical.

 

[tetrasodium]

Heh, if you are warning me that magic items can become brokenly powerful if the DM isnt paying attention, then you are preaching to the choir, as they say.

No magic item happens unless I have thought about its flavor and purpose.

More demonstrating how much support the GM had in just slapping down crazy combo crafting ideas even before the extreme costs that could be involved with aiming for the silly broken stuff.

 

[Yaarel]

Harry Potter is a setting with many magic items. But most of them are level 0. Powerful items tend to be rare or nonportable, or in any case highly specialized.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

The concept of magic items will be one regulated to the dustbins of D&D history. It will be regarded the same as THAC0, thief skills, and percentile Strength. It's as pointless as outfitting your wizard with darts in the era of unlimited cantrips.
This is because you don't "need" magic items. It's not a part of character level progression. Your character already has cool abilities not tied to them. You can run a complete campaign without a single magic item reward or awarding a gold piece of treasure.
The play is the reward. The story is the reward. Adventures that can be played on autopilot while players focus on their solitary character motivations - that's the reward.
It's best to see D&D for the game it is and find something else to fill the niche of what it used to be.

I hate to admit it, but you’re right.

I pass up money and items because I am using all my new bells and whistles in my classes. It just does not hit the same.

As a blade pact warlock I can summon a +1 greataxe and spam illusions all day.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Total side note after reading the thread..,

There’s a lot of nod nod wink wink “…you know what they are tying to pull…”

No, I don’t. They made design decisions like every other edition did. What’s with the conspiracy allusions?

 

[Vaalingrade]

Are you talking about D&D as its own specific genre, or do you mean the fantasy novels that spawned D&D? Because I don't remember too many magic items in Conan, Grey Mouser, or Thieves' World.

I'm talking about contemporary fantasy. Like the genre that leads people to D&D so they can be disappointed by the DM's wishes to place pseudo medieval sadness with maybe a PC wizard somewhere.

 

[Vikingkingq]

Are you talking about D&D as its own specific genre, or do you mean the fantasy novels that spawned D&D? Because I don't remember too many magic items in Conan, Grey Mouser, or Thieves' World.

There were magic items in Conan - heck, there are two in the very first story alone - but they are a bit more akin to the magic items in Beowulf where being magical doesn't mean they never break or get lost or stolen. Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser's weapons are at least named if not explicitly magical. Not familiar with Thieves' World. And it's not like Tolkien is lacking for magic items, and that was part of the mix if not the dominant element.