D&D 3E/3.5 Assumed magic items for 3e characters
- Thread starter Chalice
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Herzog
Adventurer
I think he wants to know what the rules assume you spend that money on.
Like, fighters should make sure they have +1 weapon, armor and shield at lvl 3, and should have upgraded it to +2 once they reach lvl 6. (or something like that)
My suggestion would be to check the NPC's in the DMG. There are several 'standard' NPC's listed, including magic items, and I ASSUME they were outfitted with equipment that would be appropriate/assumed for a character of that level.
Like, fighters should make sure they have +1 weapon, armor and shield at lvl 3, and should have upgraded it to +2 once they reach lvl 6. (or something like that)
My suggestion would be to check the NPC's in the DMG. There are several 'standard' NPC's listed, including magic items, and I ASSUME they were outfitted with equipment that would be appropriate/assumed for a character of that level.
Jacob Marley
Adventurer
The Magic Item Compendium gives each magic item a level. Generally speaking, the level given provides the DM a useful guideline as to when a particular item is appropriate for the PCs (paraphrased from the MIC, page 226). This will probably give you the most useful insight as to when the designers thought any particular magic item should be allowed into play.
For example: +1 armors/shields are 4th-level items, +1 weapons are 6th-level items, +2 ability enhancements (i.e. Cloak of Charisma +2) are 8th-level items, and so on.
In practice, most of the items will come into play much sooner through item creation feats or just plain outright purchases in appropriate cities.
delericho
Legend
I'm not aware of any fixed guidelines, but I now go with the following guidelines:
When Creating New Characters:
When creating new high-level characters, I pretty much stick with the "big six" items - stat boosts, magic weapon, magic armour and/or shield, ring of protection, amulet of natural armour, cloak of protection. (And for Rogues, the "skill boost" items.)
Basically, stick with the "effective but dull" items. In general, I'd go for about a third on protection, a third on stat boost, and a third on offense (which for a warrior is a weapon; for other classes it varies of course).
When Assigning Treasure:
When assigning treasure, I generally take the Wealth-by-Level number for the current level and subtract it from the WbL number for the next level. Then multiply that by the number of characters in the party, and add about 10% (for disposables).
I then divide that by 3, and place about that amount of stuff in raw 'treasure' form - big piles of gold, jewellery, artwork, etc. Any magic items that the party cannot use also go into this category. All items are placed at their sale value, under the assumption that that's how the party will use them.
The remainder is placed as items for the party to (maybe) use. And here, again, I assume that they're going to sell them, so I double the budget to get an amount to assign.
But then I assign treasure deliberately avoiding the items that the players would choose if they were picking for themselves. So, there won't be any +1 holy long swords, headbands of intellect, cloaks of resistance or the like in their haul - if they want those items, they have to buy them themselves. Instead, they get technically-less-effective but probably more interesting items - boots of desperation, a crystal mask of dread, etc.
In theory, this then gives the players an intesting choice - they can either keep the items they get (nominally more valuable, but not optimised), or they can sell them on and buy up the "powerful-but-dull" items in their place.
(I should note that for NPCs I tend not to be too exacting in assigning the modifiers - rather than calculate every +1 here and there, I essentially build them with "inherent bonuses" switched on. So, the NPCs aren't dependent on having the powerful-but-dull items that I don't want to give out as treasure.)
When Creating New Characters:
When creating new high-level characters, I pretty much stick with the "big six" items - stat boosts, magic weapon, magic armour and/or shield, ring of protection, amulet of natural armour, cloak of protection. (And for Rogues, the "skill boost" items.)
Basically, stick with the "effective but dull" items. In general, I'd go for about a third on protection, a third on stat boost, and a third on offense (which for a warrior is a weapon; for other classes it varies of course).
When Assigning Treasure:
When assigning treasure, I generally take the Wealth-by-Level number for the current level and subtract it from the WbL number for the next level. Then multiply that by the number of characters in the party, and add about 10% (for disposables).
I then divide that by 3, and place about that amount of stuff in raw 'treasure' form - big piles of gold, jewellery, artwork, etc. Any magic items that the party cannot use also go into this category. All items are placed at their sale value, under the assumption that that's how the party will use them.
The remainder is placed as items for the party to (maybe) use. And here, again, I assume that they're going to sell them, so I double the budget to get an amount to assign.
But then I assign treasure deliberately avoiding the items that the players would choose if they were picking for themselves. So, there won't be any +1 holy long swords, headbands of intellect, cloaks of resistance or the like in their haul - if they want those items, they have to buy them themselves. Instead, they get technically-less-effective but probably more interesting items - boots of desperation, a crystal mask of dread, etc.
In theory, this then gives the players an intesting choice - they can either keep the items they get (nominally more valuable, but not optimised), or they can sell them on and buy up the "powerful-but-dull" items in their place.
(I should note that for NPCs I tend not to be too exacting in assigning the modifiers - rather than calculate every +1 here and there, I essentially build them with "inherent bonuses" switched on. So, the NPCs aren't dependent on having the powerful-but-dull items that I don't want to give out as treasure.)
Yes, reading about the "Big Six" was my most recent encounter with the idea, and the one that really opened my eyes to the fact that the entire system's balance (such as it is, some might say!) relies upon specific magic items being used by PCs, according to level.
D&D 3.0 might have been a little more transparent, in some ways: monsters with DR/+x being appropriate challenges for PCs of given levels, is an example I can remember.
Ability scores, AC, to hit, damage, saves... that is the crux of it, yes?
And I will look at the Magic Item Compendium, if I can find a copy, Jacob. Thanks, to you, and other posters who have replied.
D&D 3.0 might have been a little more transparent, in some ways: monsters with DR/+x being appropriate challenges for PCs of given levels, is an example I can remember.
Ability scores, AC, to hit, damage, saves... that is the crux of it, yes?
And I will look at the Magic Item Compendium, if I can find a copy, Jacob. Thanks, to you, and other posters who have replied.
delericho
Legend
Absolutely true.
Essentially, yes. There's the "cool stuff" that PCs can do, but the way the system is set up you're much better off picking one trick and then optimising fully for that, rather than picking up a bunch of interesting but unrelated gimmicks.
My advice, if you can find it, is to look for an OGL supplement called "Trailblazer". IIRC, that book breaks apart the math of 3e, and provides lots of solid advice as to what sort of bonuses characters "should" have at which levels.
Tequila Sunrise
Adventurer
Delericho has said most of what I was about to say.
I assume that PCs are supposed to have a full suite of full-plussed Big Six items by level 20. In fact I recently wrote a pdf of Loot Lite house rules that neatly demonstrate what I think PCs should have. (I use Method 1.)
RUMBLETiGER
Adventurer
Extradimensional storage space and the ability to fly come to mind.
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