D&D 5E (2014) CoS: light on magic treasure? (spoilers)

[hastur_nz]

I don't remember any of my players ever genuinely complaining on a lack of magic, or a lack of cash and/or ability to buy anything. I think one of the Fighters had made himself a blacksmith so that helped him get decent armour mid-game, i.e. he'd already thought ahead when making his character. One or two took a while to get a magic weapon, but that was part of the challenge and was a lot of fun.

By the end, the group had all the key magic items, which was more than enough to wallop Strahd.

Before then, they had plenty of easy fights, and a few potentially really tough ones where their equipment or lack thereof wasn't really a factor either way.

 

[pukunui]

I don't remember any of my players ever genuinely complaining on a lack of magic ...

One of them harped on about the lack of a magic weapon just about every session, though ...

... or a lack of cash and/or ability to buy anything.

It would've been nice to have had the money (and time) to craft more than one healing potion with my herbalism kit, but other than that, I didn't feel the need for any extra money or equipment. And my PC ended up with both the holy symbol and the icon, which was enough for me.

 

[hastur_nz]

Indeed, but that was mainly because all the other melee types had a magic weapon by then; that player did have good spells (bard), so wasn't exactly useless, it was all good fun. Eventually he got a magic weapon, which IMO shouldn't be expected.

That's the way CoS works - you are in Barovia, there are some 'legendary' items hidden away for you to collect to help defeat Strahd, and anything else you get should be viewed as a real bonus. If people don't understand that, they probably don't understand the kind of campaign that CoS is supposed to be