At what "level" do you give out "magic items"?

[demon_jr]

A thought crossed my mind after reading some of the replies from the "buying magic items" thread.

For your campaign, what level is appropriate for a PC to have a given magic item?

For example, in the case of weapons, I think some DMs make +5 weapons available around the mid-to-high levels (15th-20th) whereas some DMs and campaigns are played where PCs wield +1 weapons all the way to 15th or beyond.

I believe that magic item availability, in terms of what PCs own and possess, is determined by:

1. The type of campaign (high-magic, low-magic, no-magic)
2. The type of campaign the players want to play
3. The type of campaign the DM wants to run
4. The relative power of the foes the PCs must face.

I believe this can also equate to the "power-level" of a campaign.

For our campaign, I believe that the magical item possess by the PCs and made available by our DM has been decent. Although some of the bonuses are a bit low in my opinion, this is balanced by the fact the DM gives some cool special abilities that go along with each item.

The game balance has been kept and speaking for myself as a PC, do not really feel underpowered nor overpowered.

 

[Spatzimaus]

For me it's easy: If the player can make the item, they're close to the right level to find them.

To make a +1 sword, you need to be 5th level (to get the Feat); to make a +2 you need to be 6th. +3 is 9th, +4 is 12th, +5 is 15th.

Now, that's not to say that you WILL find them that early, since it'd be a sizable chunk of your net worth. You'd usually end up having one a level or two after this point. But if you're 15th level (200k gp in assets) and still only have a +2 sword (8k gp), you're well behind the curve. By that level you should be able to afford a +4 pretty easily (32k).

 

[dcollins]

Last weekend's version of the same topic: http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36041

 

[Crothian]

For me, I don't give treasure the party could need or even nessisiarly of the right power foir them. I place the right treasure where it should be. So, if the party is 5th level and manages to ransack the crypt of the dead King who has a +5 weapon, the party gets a +5 weapon. However, that's very rare, +5 weapons don't grow on trees (well, they can but that's a whole different topic). So, the party might have a powerul item or two levels before they should, but at the same token, they might have +2 weapons at 15th level due to bad luck or circumstances.

 

[Hannibal Barca]

Bump.