D&D General 5e, the least magic item impacted edition?

[Sacrosanct]

I was going through many of the older adventures from various editions, and it seems that 5e has a significantly lower amount of magical items in the published adventures than previous editions.

For example, in B/X and 1e, it seems there is an average of 29 magic items per module (it varies quite a bit, like Palace of the Silver Princess having roughly 10, while Keep on the Borderlands is pushing 40, and Temple of Death having 65!). But most are between 25-30, with roughly half of those being potions or scrolls.

5e seems to really have pushed the "magic" part of the game into class abilities, and away from magical items. Let's say a typical campaign in B/X starts with B2, goes to X1 Isle of Dread, then X4 and wrapping it up at X5. That puts the PCs at around level 8-9ish. In that one campaign, there are 141 magical items. how many are there in an equal 5e adventure path from levels 1-10? How many does HotDQ have? Rime?

Does 3e, known for its Christmas tree magic item lists, have more magic items per adventure than AD&D, or is TSR era D&D the king of magical loot?

 

[el-remmen]

I'm not sure. I have not run any strictly 5E modules. I do know that in every edition previous (including BECMI but not 4th, which I never ran) I have crossed out 90% of all magical items in modules.

 

[iserith]

Is it possible older versions of the game had more loot in the modules, in part, because you just weren't expected to find it all? What kind of savage searches for secret doors in a pit anyway?!

 

[Burnside]

As written, Rime of the Frostmaiden has a fairly generous amount of potions, scrolls, and wizard spellbooks but is quite stingy with everything else. I count 90 total magic items for a level 1-13 campaign - the majority are potions & scrolls. 24 of the magic items are in the last 2 chapters, which is pretty much the endgame.

In particular, most DMs will probably want to add a couple of magic weapons for martial characters. As written, there are exactly two: a +2 trident and a cursed berzerker axe. There is also only one suit of magic armor in the entire campaign (mithral chainmail).

In general I think the character abilities compensate for the paucity of magic items - and magic items in the hands of certain characters can be dramatically game-changing in a way that wasn't necessarily the case in past editions. However, fighters, rogues, barbarians, paladins, and rangers with no reliable means of doing magical damage can get screwed starting in tier 2 if you don't give them some magic weapons.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Is it possible older versions of the game had more loot in the modules, in part, because you just weren't expected to find it all? What kind of savage searches for secret doors in a pit anyway?!

I don't think so. I mean, yeah, there were some like that, but most could easily be found. It was kinda the point (XP for treasure). Granted, well over half of the magic items in TSR era D&D were consumables, largely placed in the module to counteract a "gotcha" moment. Like scrolls of stone to flesh because the adventure had a medusa in it. Also, there were a lot of monsters who were immune to non-magical weapons. not just non-magical, but at various tiers: +1 or better, +2 or better, etc. And lots of potions of healing because magical healing was not as available as future editions.

so it seems like TSR era was more of an arms race, and 5e is more "let's put all the magical powerz into the class design, and thus make them less dependent in the adventure which makes balancing harder.

 

[Sacrosanct]

As written, Rime of the Frostmaiden has a fairly generous amount of potions, scrolls, and wizard spellbooks but is quite stingy with everything else. I count 90 total magic items for a level 1-13 campaign - the majority are potions & scrolls. 24 of the magic items are in the last 2 chapters, which is pretty much the endgame.

I'm playing in it right now, and we are just hitting level 4. The only magic item we've come across is the lantern (doesn't really count), and the cauldron (also doesn't really count). No PC has any magical items yet.

 

[Burnside]

I've also noticed that even within 5E, the official adventures were more generous with magic items earlier on than the more recent ones are. Lost Mine of Phandelver is a bonanza in comparison to what level 1-5 characters can get their hands on in Tomb of Annihilation or Rime of the Frostmaiden.

 

[Burnside]

I'm playing in it right now, and we are just hitting level 4. The only magic item we've come across is the lantern (doesn't really count), and the cauldron (also doesn't really count). No PC has any magical items yet.

Your DM might be holding back some potions and scrolls tbh. As written, most of the starting quests include at least one potion or scroll in a pretty find-able area.

 

[billd91]

Yeah, I think that's believable. There's a lot less that's gatekept by magic items. You generally don't need magic weapons to hit creatures like in 1e/2e or bypass absolute values for damage resistance that were fairly punitive in 3.0. And the numbers game is made easier by magic, but is never out of reach for characters without it. Magic helps but the lack doesn't cripple in 5e, and I appreciate that.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I've also noticed that even within 5E, the official adventures were more generous with magic items earlier on than the more recent ones are. Lost Mine of Phandelver is a bonanza in comparison to what level 1-5 characters can get their hands on in Tomb of Annihilation or Rime of the Frostmaiden.

HotDQ is pretty sparse too, and it was one of the first adventures. Granted, it's been awhile, but outside of a super powerful greatsword that caused major balance issues early on, and a dragon's tooth dagger, I don't recall many magic items in that adventure that went all the way up to level 15.