D&D (2024) DM's no longer getting crits on PC's

[CleverNickName]

Agreed; except in 5e there's a great big sword-of-Damocles question hanging over the whole arrangement: what can you usefully do with the rest of your items that aren't in your top three?

You can't by RAW sell them or - incredibly - trade them for other items. You could give them away, I guess, or just hang them over your fireplace or store them somewhere; or sacrifice them to the deities (but as they by RAW have no value, what's the point of that?), but none of those options are much fun.

Also, changing attunements does take an hour, so it's not like you can often go "oh hey, the dragon's lair is an underground lake, can I have a short rest to put on my ring of swimming?"

What generally happens in my experience is that players pick the best three items to attune to, and the rest just take up space on your character sheet (this was, granted in AL games, or I might have loaned some out or even given them away).

This isn't a new phenomenon. We used to joke about the mage carrying around a golf-bag full of wands and staffs way back in the B/X days.

I think it was at the all-time worst in 3.X Edition, when characters were expected to not only find magic items in treasure, but also purchase them at Ye Olde Magic Emporium in every town, and craft anything else themselves.

I never played 4E, but it seems that 5th Edition hit the right balance for us with the Attunement mechanic. I hope we never go backwards on that mechanic.

(looks nervously at the Artificer)

 

[Bill Zebub]

Although...call me crazy...what if attunement were by ability score, and you could attune as many items in each ability score as your modifier? Suddenly nothing is a dump stat.

Gauntles of Ogre Power? Cha, of course.

 

[Lanefan]

This isn't a new phenomenon. We used to joke about the mage carrying around a golf-bag full of wands and staffs way back in the B/X days.

In which case it's almost certain the DM wasn't enforcing the rules around items having to make saves every time their carrier failed against AoE damage e.g. fireball, ice storm, etc. Never mind that in some cases destruction of a wand had potentially disastrous consequences - anyone else remember Retributive Strike?

IME that's the big limiter - that items can so easily be destroyed. It's an easy-come easy-go system. The wonderful side effect is that it means the DM can place more new items and the PCs can thus find more of them.

I think it was at the all-time worst in 3.X Edition, when characters were expected to not only find magic items in treasure, but also purchase them at Ye Olde Magic Emporium in every town, and craft anything else themselves.

Yeah, 3e dialled a lot of things to eleven, this was one.

I never played 4E, but it seems that 5th Edition hit the right balance for us with the Attunement mechanic. I hope we never go backwards on that mechanic.

I'm not a fan of it, for two reasons: one, it makes items far FAR too easy to identify in the field (I'm a big supporter of the idea of item field-testing and of items being sometimes difficult or expensive to identify); and two, it often acts as too harsh a limit on one's options. I mean, hell, if I-as-character have gone through all the dangers and trials in order to acquire these things then for the most part I bloody well ought to be able to use them at my own discretion.

Want a low-magic game? Then at the DM level, don't give out so many - or any! - magic items. Don't ask the game to impose your limits for you.

 

[Lanefan]

Although...call me crazy...what if attunement were by ability score, and you could attune as many items in each ability score as your modifier? Suddenly nothing is a dump stat.

Hmmm...interesting.

How does this work if you have a negative modifier somewhere? Does a random one of your otherwise-attuned items get shut off?

 

[tetrasodium]

Although...call me crazy...what if attunement were by ability score, and you could attune as many items in each ability score as your modifier? Suddenly nothing is a dump stat.

Gauntles of Ogre Power? Cha, of course.

That might make an interesting bump for int if int mod impacted or defined attunement slots, but that crashes face first into the problem of 5e making the choice to crank the power on magic items
@Lanefan I'd say yea you deattune.

 

[CleverNickName]

Want a low-magic game? Then at the DM level, don't give out so many - or any! - magic items. Don't ask the game to impose your limits for you.

Nope, I don't want a low-magic game. Nor do I think that the attunement mechanic is "imposing my limits for me." I'm of the opinion that many of the magic items in 5E--as they are written--actually need the attunement mechanic to balance them and prevent certain game-breaking combinations. I think that making adjustments to the attunement mechanic, without also adjusting the magic items to account for it, would be a mistake.

I'm sure I'm in the minority--already we're seeing this mechanic get relaxed bit by bit--but that's my two coppers.

(continues to look nervously at the Artificer)

 

[Bill Zebub]

Nope, I don't want a low-magic game. Nor do I think that the attunement mechanic is "imposing my limits for me."

Spot on.

That bit about "Don't ask the game to impose your limits for you" was kind of astonishingly condescending.

 

[Reynard]

For my part, I don't think PCs should EVER be able to create magic items beyond scrolls and potions, and buying and selling them should be the subject of actual gameplay. Treasure rewards should go toward training and upkeep and retainers and fortresses and specialists and business expenses and ostentatious displays of your absolute badassitude.

 

[Bill Zebub]

For my part, I don't think PCs should EVER be able to create magic items beyond scrolls and potions, and buying and selling them should be the subject of actual gameplay. Treasure rewards should go toward training and upkeep and retainers and fortresses and specialists and business expenses and ostentatious displays of your absolute badassitude.

There's nothing I hate more than Ye Olde Magic Shoppe, and official price lists convey the impression that such shops should exist.

Even if the reality is that the game rains magic items, the idea that they are bought and sold like groceries repels me.

 

[OB1]

Nope, I don't want a low-magic game. Nor do I think that the attunement mechanic is "imposing my limits for me." I'm of the opinion that many of the magic items in 5E--as they are written--actually need the attunement mechanic to balance them and prevent certain game-breaking combinations. I think that making adjustments to the attunement mechanic, without also adjusting the magic items to account for it, would be a mistake.

I'm sure I'm in the minority--already we're seeing this mechanic get relaxed bit by bit--but that's my two coppers.

(continues to look nervously at the Artificer)

I'm a firm believer in the attunement mechanic, and go back and forth as to whether every magic item in the rare and above category needs to default to attunement. On the flip side, I strictly roll on the random treasure charts in the DMG, and if the players get lucky, well, I'm happy for them.

Also, I kinda like that the Artificer is the exception to the rule.

Finally, around level 18 I usually get the players to a true magic emporium in Sigil where everything under legendary is available off the shelf (at prices 3-4 times DMG recommended). Gives them something to do with all the gold they've accumulated and have some fun in the end game (which is always wild in my campaigns).