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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6307453" data-attributes="member: 4937">While I agree with the value of the time, money, XP model, I don't think this perforce follows from removing it.First, because there is a granularity at which the rules generally cease to concern themselves.  One example of this is the degradation of an item through use and over time.  While its reasonable to assume that magic items are of exceptional quality and generally well cared for, there is no reason to assume that they aren't subject to the usual sorts of wear and tear objects suffer and don't normally degrade over time.  Metal rusts.  Wood, leather and cloth rot.  Unless steps are taken to ensure that all objects are almost immune to rust and other ravages of time, there is no reason to assume that every +1 sword that spends 1000 years underwater in a shallow saltwater bay remains a +1 sword or even a quality weapon.  Back in 1e most anything that would kill a high level player would probably smash, burn or disintegrate his possessions along with him.And while we've come a long way from the 1e era where you could reasonably expect to lose half your magical items to various disasters, even in 3e there is a limited chance that when one fails a saving throw one of the items goes with it.  Moreover, I'm not sure I entirely agree with your assertion that no one is ever motivated to destroy a magical item.  Weapons will still get sundered.  Items will be swallowed whole and if not immune to acid and physical damage, then digested.  Adventurers will fall into lakes of lava, or be hurled bodily into the negative elemental plane.  Unattended items will get set on fire.  Evil artifacts will get destroyed by good guys, and bad guys will seek to destroy items dedicated to good.  An item that is made of mithril or adamantium that isn't of immediate use to its new owner will get slagged down and recycled into the reagents for making an item more suitable to the new owners needs. Honestly, I've never felt D&D was able to really justify the abundance of magical items it typically presents.  This was especially true of 1e, where if the NPCs were following the same rules as PCs and we really were keeping track of the rules regarding items getting busted, we might expect only a few dozen or a few hundred magical items in existence across the whole world at any given time.</blockquote>

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