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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Uller" data-source="post: 716597" data-attributes="member: 413">You think these were _rolled_ with 3d6 where the average roll should be 10.5?   There should be as many rolls 10 or below as there are 11 or above (roughly)...These characters are good even by 4d6 standards!Anyway...this is a little off topic.  My point is that we DMs have always had the ability to make the characters we want...if we wanted an uberfighter villian back in 1e, we could give him an 18(95) str, a +3 Flaming Two-Handed Sword and a suit of +5 platemail without a second thought.  The players had to stick with their 3d6 generated character and be thankful for whatever the DM had the good graces to give them.  Now in 3e, the players have a lot of flexibility.  The DM controls the level of magic simply by adjusting the wealth guidelines up or down and the players can go off and make the character they _want_ and equip him the way they _want_ (within reason).    I like that.  I don't like 7-11 magic shops.  So I've struck what I consider to be a good balance to allow the players the flexibility to make the characters they want (while maintianing the flexibility I want for my NPCs) while keeping control on the magic items available:  Let them buy/trade items between adventures.  Limit what they can buy so you don't get any crazy items.   Crazy powerful items are left in the realm of special quests and what not.Sure...if your player has a fighter that specializes in a longsword, you could plop a +2 Keen Longsword into your game to reward him...but that really leaves a bad taste in my mouth.   What if he uses a more exotice weapon.  Maybe he is from a distant culture that favors using rapiers and it would be wierd for an NPC villian to show up with a rapier (and even wierder for one to just happen to be lying on the floor).   I want to outfit my NPCs the way I want without having to worry too much about what magic items the PCs need.  Of course I often drop in magic items that will be useful to the players...usually ones that will be helpful during the current set of adventures since the PCs won't have the opportunity to go back and trade or by magic items.  For instance, if they have to fight a monster with DR...there might be a weapon around that can overcome that DR.  It might not be an optimum weapon for the party fighter...but thems-the-breaks!I'm definately not advocating the 7-11 magic shop.   Like I said, buying/selling/trading magic items on a large scale is usually done between adventures in my game (when the PCs have several months or even years where presumably they would get opportunities to trade items).  During actual game sessions, magic venders are rare in my games and their stocks will usually be very limited (the village blacksmith might have a "special" weapon he keeps in the back...he probably doesn't even know its true value...great roleplay opportunity).Does this make magic mundane?  Sure, but no more so than having an elf or a wizard in the party.  Magic is mundane in D&D because the players have access to it and understand it.  For me, +1 and +2 magic items _should_ be mundane.   Their like Sting and other elven blades in the Hobbit and LotR.  Just about everyone's got one because a lot of them have been made.   Truly special items are more rare...which is why a +10 equivalent weapon costs 200,000gp!   If you control the level of wealth in your game, then such weapons will be unheard of or very very special.</blockquote>

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