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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 1439780" data-attributes="member: 2067">Well, the simple answer is that it doesn't always make sense. If I clear out a den of dire wolves, I'm not expecting to find a +1 sword in their cave. Nor am I expecting to find a pile of gold...but if, say, I find one half-chewed suit of enchanted leather armor that's worth the amount of treasure I'm supposed to get from this encounter, I can turn it into something useful back in town.Similarly, magic items are also usable by the enemy...magic items in the adventure usually make the adventure a bigger challenge because that +1 longsword is also useful to that goblin barbarian who's charging down the corridor at you, and you're only going to get it if you pry it from his cold, dead hands. And if your party has all the +1 longswords they need, they can then trade it in for something worthwhile. There's also variance, and region. Magic items can be baught-and-sold, but the nearest place that sells the expensive items you want is a week away from this tough frontier town next to the dungeon. You can introduce unique magic items, magic items with a history, and magic items with significant campaign-building power (that +1 longsword the goblin is wielding is a part of history, forged by the dwarven smiths when they ruled the world long ago). And the wilderness or dungeon is not a great place to re-equip.....the enemy monk just sundered your favored weapon, and you've got a sacrifice to stop before sunrise, are you going to bother to hike back three days to town to get a weapon, or just take the flaming dagger from the skeleton's bony grasp and use it as best you can? And, best of all, versatility. While you can insert magic items into dungeons, you no longer *have* to. You can insert a priceless portrait of a long-lost queen instead, and have no fear that when the PC's give this back to the family for their thousands-of-GP reward that they won't be screwed over in terms of power. You can make the gem fragments in the hearts of dire wolves that have been mutating them into the treasure, and still not worry about the wizard who decided to specialize in two-weapon-fighting finding a decent quarterstaff to wield. So if there is no reason to insert magic weapons into the adventure other than 'it makes sense,' it's a good thing -- it means you don't have to come up for a reason why, say, a nest of cockatrice was sitting on hundreds of gold peices. They could just have been incubating a single gem as an egg, and the party would be no weaker for it.</blockquote>

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