Andy Collins: "Most Magic Items in D&D Are Awful"

[S'mon]

Andy Collins:
"Ultimately, we realized that the greatest factor influencing the likelihood of a particular magic item being used by a character came down to its cost."

Naw, this just shows how much they have the wrong end of the stick. The big problem is not pricing, but fungibility. If you can reliably sell the rarely-useful exotic item, and buy the routinely useful-at-staying alive item, that's what you'll do, because D&D players fear PC death. Most would sell a Helm of Underwater Action for a +1 sword, if they didn't already have such a sword. The only solution is not to have items regularly available to buy at all.

 

[hong]

Andy Collins:
"Ultimately, we realized that the greatest factor influencing the likelihood of a particular magic item being used by a character came down to its cost."

Naw, this just shows how much they have the wrong end of the stick. The big problem is not pricing, but fungibility. If you can reliably sell the rarely-useful exotic item, and buy the routinely useful-at-staying alive item, that's what you'll do, because D&D players fear PC death. Most would sell a Helm of Underwater Action for a +1 sword, if they didn't already have such a sword. The only solution is not to have items regularly available to buy at all.

Bah.

 

[hopeless]

Reg: Big Six

There was a link up there, you know.

You forgot Bags of Holding...

 

[S'mon]

How about "when's the last time you ALLOWED your players to sift through magic items and purchase them like it was Walmart?"

NEVER!

Is it to my understanding that the majority of D&D players purchase magic items like a candy store? I'm not talking about +1 weapons and potions, but do you let them walk through a metropolis and purchase the latest stock of "Rings of 3 Wishes?"

I always thought it was a DM's job to randomly scatter or introduce new magic items to the game via various methods besides random loot?

Eh, the 3e DMG tells the GM to make all items freely available, up to 100,000gp value in a Metropolis.

 

[Bagpuss]

That's the real problem, the GP limit of cities and availability of items. That and the need for the "Big Six", so even if you do give a magic item to the players that is a bit odd, they go and flog it to share the gold between the party, so they can improve one of their Big Six items.

The Savage Tide adventure path is interesting since for much of the adventure the outposts and villages only have gp limits of less than 1000gp. So the players are at last forced to work with what they find. I think I'll make more of my adventures wilderness adventures in the future.

 

[BryonD]

Andy Collins:
"Ultimately, we realized that the greatest factor influencing the likelihood of a particular magic item being used by a character came down to its cost."

Naw, this just shows how much they have the wrong end of the stick. The big problem is not pricing, but fungibility. If you can reliably sell the rarely-useful exotic item, and buy the routinely useful-at-staying alive item, that's what you'll do, because D&D players fear PC death. Most would sell a Helm of Underwater Action for a +1 sword, if they didn't already have such a sword. The only solution is not to have items regularly available to buy at all.

I think both sides of the stick are important.
And because in default D&D pretty much everyone does already have the +1 sword, Andy is looking at the correct end of the stick because it is the end with an issue.

 

[Greegan75]

I think it is kinda funny that the biggest argument about magic items in D&D right now seems to be about how much they cost.

 

[el-remmen]

Articles and discussions like this make me so glad I have completely divorced magical items from any kind of economy.

 

[isoChron]

Many magic items have become what monosodium glutamate is for food ... ubiquitious and unnecessary. The most memorable moments in playing D&D are about character actions, not magic item actions. Don't you want to say "my character saved the world/town" instead of "my magic item composition was optimal, so I could save the world/town". Is D&D less D&D when there are less magic items or less of the "big six"?

What about magic items that have a drawback. I'm not talking about cursed items but something like a cloak of charisma slightly lowering the skills disguise or hide.
Helmets that lower the chance to spot something (or listen to someone)....
what would happen if there would be only 1 slot for stat boosting items ?

Whatever DM's do to lower the influence of magic items, I think they all have the experience of finding an adequate encounter based on real party power instead of plain party level. So you are free to set limits where ever you want, just make it clear at the start of character building.
Just my point of view, of course.

 

[Psion]

Articles and discussions like this make me so glad I have completely divorced magical items from any kind of economy.

I don't think it's necessary to go that far... it's not a dichotomy. One can make the economy more limited without eliminating it entirely. To me, it's not rational to assume that magic items will never be bought, sold, or traded unless they are extremely scarce... but in D&D they are not.

At the same time, it's not rational to assume that unless items are mass produced and have an efficient distribution chain, they will have even and predictable availability or prices. And in D&D, the prevailing conditions in most campaigns suggest they could not.

So in my campaign, I have found it sufficient to:
1) Randomize availability of items
2) Make it difficult for PCs to sell items at their supposed cost. That way, they really have to think twice about whether the random item they found is really worth giving up for that shiny pair of Gauntlets of Ogre Power.