D&D 5E A single +1 armor for a level 10 party

[JacktheRabbit]

Magic items are intended to be rare and iconic in 5E, not something we assume everyone has. Sit down with the DMG, go through the recommendations on treasure and then randomly generate appropriate treasure for a 5 PC party over all 20 levels. You'll end up with an average that approaches what you see in XGtE.

Whether PCs can find a market to use money to buy items is up to the DM, but it is not necessary.

So - yeah - one rare magic item for a party at 10th level does seem ok.

And in 6E they may be candy again.

Who cares. Do what you want and enjoy the game. It only really matters if you mix Wizards printed material and homebrew material as the former is balanced around the rather meager amount of magic given and can quickly become too easy if during your between module sessions the party gains too much gear.

Oh and by the way "MOST" players like cookies. Magic items are fun cookies, far too many DMs commenting here seem to only consider what they want. I do not see many people commenting about balancing loot around what they players enjoy.

 

[Mirtek]

So that guy with the already highest AC took the Ring of Protection??? There is a word for that kind of player....

Sensible? It saves the most party ressources (aka healing/hp) there is an "AC sinkhole" and AC increases don't matter as long as they don't get you out of said hole. So giving the Ring of Protection to the lowest AC character is often a total waste of ressources, giving it to the highest AC character nets the most benefit for the party (although that is also only true up to a certain threshold).

It makes total sense to leave the AC of the lowest AC player as it is and distribute AC items among those who benefit more until you have collected enough of those to lift said player out of his AC hole, then you can give them to that character all at once.

 

[ad_hoc]

It was the party decision, I thought as the DM that they would give it to one with a lower AC. That taught me about not giving out magic armor. The 22AC was ok and it worked fine, but I was not giving him magic plate. He had the other +1 AC from the fighter style.

I think it really depends on the dynamics.

At my table I would bet it would go to the character with the lowest AC. The fighter has a very low chance of being knocked out of a fight, while a character with a low AC can go down very quickly. This can create a death spiral.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

I think it really depends on the dynamics.

At my table I would bet it would go to the character with the lowest AC. The fighter has a very low chance of being knocked out of a fight, while a character with a low AC can go down very quickly. This can create a death spiral.

At one of my tables, the party gave the ring of protection to the war cleric, despite him already having the highest AC. They wanted to protect their healer.

 

[ad_hoc]

At one of my tables, the party gave the ring of protection to the war cleric, despite him already having the highest AC. They wanted to protect their healer.

The toughest character is the character who is likely to go down last. I'm not saying it is wrong to give it to a high AC character, it's an extra power boost either way. The party should do what they feel is most fun.

Personally I would prefer to give it to the character who is most likely to be the first one down.

 

[The Old Crow]

I think it really depends on the dynamics.

At my table I would bet it would go to the character with the lowest AC. The fighter has a very low chance of being knocked out of a fight, while a character with a low AC can go down very quickly. This can create a death spiral.

I started coveting Rings of Protection in earlier editions when I played Fighters for the save bonus. I think the DM always assumed that the someone like the wizard would get it, but it beats +1 armor any day. Much better to have regular armor of choicwe and a +1 ring than magic armor of some type +1. A front line warrior can always use +1 to a wisdom save, and all other saves too. The two items aren't in the same league.

 

[jgsugden]

And in 6E they may be candy again.

Who cares. Do what you want and enjoy the game. It only really matters if you mix Wizards printed material and homebrew material as the former is balanced around the rather meager amount of magic given and can quickly become too easy if during your between module sessions the party gains too much gear.

The game is designed with a certain balance in mind. You are free to imbalance the game by exceeding expected treasure levels based upon recommendation, but it has ramifications. A lot of people complaining about the balance issues in the game are the PCs walking around with legendary magic items at 10th level.

Oh and by the way "MOST" players like cookies. Magic items are fun cookies, far too many DMs commenting here seem to only consider what they want. I do not see many people commenting about balancing loot around what they players enjoy.

By giving fewer items, you make them more special. When they're more special, you get more out each 'cookie' that you find. That is the magic item philosophy of 5E - make magic items feel special again.

Additionally, Magic Items are a form of cookie for PCs, but they are not the only cookies on the menu. There are other, often less physical, ways to give players cookies, such as crafting the story around their actions, giving them opportunities for meaningful places in the fantasy world (knighthood, land owners, titles, etc...), etc...

Still, WotC recognized that people wanted more 'cookies' of the magic item variety and addressed it in XGtE with more common items that are fun, but not powerful. You can also 'drop' consumables, especially ones that are not straight from the book, to add some fun magic items to the game without drastically upsetting balance. They did this, rather than suggesting that we just give out more items, because there is a reason to avoid just giving out more items - balance.

 

[delericho]

Sensible? It saves the most party ressources (aka healing/hp) there is an "AC sinkhole" and AC increases don't matter as long as they don't get you out of said hole. So giving the Ring of Protection to the lowest AC character is often a total waste of ressources, giving it to the highest AC character nets the most benefit for the party (although that is also only true up to a certain threshold).

Pretty much this. Although it should probably go to the character who is attacked most in the party. That is probably the character with the highest AC, but that's not guaranteed.

 

[Yunru]

Watch out when the Paladin picks up a Ring of Protection: Hitting their saves instead just got a whole lot trickier.

 

[CTurbo]

I took his post as the Fighter just took and kept the ring. If it was a party decision, it makes much more sense. We have all played with that guy who keeps the random magical item just because they found it even if it would benefit the whole party better for another player to have it. I can understand the party's decision to give it to the Fighter although from my experiences, it would have gone to the lowest AC character first, or possibly the character with the lowest hp.

It reminds me of the time when my party was made up of several races with darkvision and one human. I gave them Goggles of Night expecting the human to get it, but another player kept it instead. So sure now one character could see twice as far in near darkness, but they still had one character that needed a torch all the time instead of having a complete party with night vision.

It's the whole do we buff our strengths to silly levels or shore up our weakness argument.

Clerics are usually the exception when it comes to AC/save boosting things. My 20AC Tempest Cleric already had the highest AC in the group and the group still insisted I take the ring of protection despite me trying to give it to the Rogue or Sorcerer. Obviously, you want to do any and everything to keep the Cleric up, and that makes sense, but up to that point, my character was the only character to have never been dropped, while the Rogue and Sorcerer were always going down. Ok maybe not ALWAYS, but they did go down easily when they WERE targeted.



Also, I think it's always a great idea for a Dex character to max Dex asap. Having a 20 Dex is an EXTREMELY powerful thing. Even for the full casters.