D&D 4E Does the 4E Magic Item Compendium mean there will be no items in the 4E DMG?

[iwarrior-poet]

I have a sneaking suspicion that WotC has found yet another way to widen their revenue stream. They will not include any (or virtually any) magic Items in the DMG. They will instead be in an entirely different book---the Magic Item Compendium 1.

This is a bit frustrating since magic items have been in the DMG since first edition and have been an integral part of the game. What are folks supposed to do for the three months between the 4E DMG release and the Magic Item Compendium release? Do we really need to shell out $20-$30 more just to get the basic magic items?

 

[Lackhand]

Was that question rhetorical? Anyway, I'm going to try to answer it:
"No."

Why not? Because my guess will be that the Dungeon Master's Guide will indeed include magic items. I have a hard time imagining how they'd make page count, otherwise; even with starter town and starter adventure and an example of play, that's only replacing the pagecount lost when they nixed ethical (not moral!) alignment.

Now, it may well be the case that 'weird' items are changing homes. Wands, rings, magical arms and armors, and potions might remain behind in the DMG, while the Pipes of the Sewers, the Bags of Tricks, and the Rods of Rulership move over to the MIC.

I don't have nearly as glib an answer for that, and indeed, I suspect it may be the case. Just a gut hunch (ow! Mixed metaphor in my abdomen!), though.

 

[reutbing0]

What are folks supposed to do for the three months between the 4E DMG release and the Magic Item Compendium release?

This is only a problem if your assumption will prove to be true. To me that seems very unlikely. I'd also like to add that there are going to be magic items in the PHB as well.

 

[Green Knight]

This is a bit frustrating since magic items have been in the DMG since first edition and have been an integral part of the game. What are folks supposed to do for the three months between the 4E DMG release and the Magic Item Compendium release? Do we really need to shell out $20-$30 more just to get the basic magic items?

You know what's a bit frustrating to me? People inventing reasons to complain. It's beyond irritating. If you want to complain, then complain about something that you know for a fact is going to happen. Don't start inventing scenarios of things which may happen, irregardless of any evidence there may be to the contrary, only to start railing against your imagined offenses.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Maybe someone else will find the exact quote, but one of the designers in their blog when talking about magic items said that when they were coming up with a new method of creating magic items for 4th edition it sparked so many ideas that they didn't even have enough room in the DMG for them all and had to cut a large amount of them to make space.

My theory....they put them all in this book.

 

[Toryx]

I'm sure there will be magic items in one of the first released books (PHB or DMG). But I kind of wish they weren't going to be.

I'm so sick of magic items that I think it'd be fun to actually play some D&D for a while without any. I'll definitely not be picking up the Magic Item Compendium for even more magic items so soon after the initial release.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Some.

Not as many.

Because magic items are still part and parcel of D&D, even if they aren't a major emphasis of this edition.

 

[Grymar]

Look at the current SRD and MIC.

My guess is that you take the SRD and remove most of the Wonderous Items. Put them all in the MIC and that's what you are going to get. The base stuff (potion/scroll rules, the basic prices of +1 weapons and armor) will be in the DMG. The wonderous items and the cool effect weapons (flaming, frost, etc) will be in the MIC.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Because magic items are still part and parcel of D&D, even if they aren't a major emphasis of this edition.

Yeah, this is one thing I'd like to reinforce. People seem to think that magic items are going away or that you can run a campaign completely without them. All the comments I've actually seen from the designers on this issue tend to be more in the category of "Sure, a 20th level character is expected to have 4-6 magic items enhancing them and that the system takes this into account. However, they will provide a smaller benefit so that the guy over there who only has 3 magic items won't be completely useless. The system also won't assume 10 or more magic items like it does in 3.5."

 

[WayneLigon]

It would be awesome if they'd put the vast majority of the magic items into a seperate book. The DMG only needs a handful of the most commonly seen items: +n weapons, +n armor, two or three wands or staves, and maybe six or seven misc miagic items. Instead of having 1/2 to 1/3 of the DMG - which should be a book on how to run the game, create encounters, GM advice, etc - be a shopping guide, shove all that stuff into a seperate book for people who want all those items. I'd rather have two paegs of rules in the DMG that tells me how to make my own, then a seperate book for people who don't want to go through all that.