D&D 5E Frustrated with 5E magic items

[jayoungr]

Sounds like a good solution!

If you do go with 3E levels of equipment, just be prepared to buff up your encounters a lot. Magic items can make a pretty huge difference to a fight in 5E, as I found out when I let my players go magic item shopping in my first campaign. (They all bought winged boots, and about 15% of the planned encounters suddenly became trivial.)

 

[NotAYakk]

If you do go with 3E levels of equipment, just be prepared to buff up your encounters a lot. Magic items can make a pretty huge difference to a fight in 5E, as I found out when I let my players go magic item shopping in my first campaign. (They all bought boots of flying, and about 15% of the planned encounters suddenly became trivial.)

If you treat "magic item shopping" as another treasure parcel, with a random (or selected) set of items they can find for sale (maybe more if they make better checks/complete adventures to get access to them), this problem sort of goes away.

"I bought the best items in the game at this price point" is way, way, way stronger than "I bought the items I could find for sale that didn't suck for the price". In a game like D&D, width of options is power.

 

[jayoungr]

If you treat "magic item shopping" as another treasure parcel, with a random (or selected) set of items they can find for sale (maybe more if they make better checks/complete adventures to get access to them), this problem sort of goes away.

I dd make them roll to see what they could find and how good the price was. I also restricted items from "rare" onward in frequency. But winged boots are only an uncommon item.

 

[NotAYakk]

I dd make them roll to see what they could find and how good the price was. I also restricted items from "rare" onward in frequency. But winged boots are only an uncommon item.

Sure, but all items should be restricted in frequency.

You should see more winged boots than rarer items on average, but a roll to find them should find 1 of them.

Then each item gets a random price within the range (I am tempted to discount consumables significantly). Sometimes you'll find great deals, sometimes crappy ones. Sometimes a +1 dagger will cost a few gp less than a flame tongue pike.

Once you say "you can buy unlimited number of X" or "any item from a long list", you are magic-marting, and that is a huge power increase. Choice is power, and saying "buy any number of uncommon items" is probably a bigger power upgrade than handing them a single random legendary weapon for free.

 

[jayoungr]

Sure, but all items should be restricted in frequency.

My point is that even stuff that seems relatively harmless at first glance can have a huge impact on a campaign, so the OP should plan for that if giving out the same quantity of magic items as a 3.X campaign would have. Even if they're scaled back in strength.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

If monsters were very real you'd be spending some of that money on the best anti monster equipment available, and a market would emerge. So I don't think using real world analogies really solves anything.

Right, so in D&D world you should want to buy cool magic items AND all the stuff you want in real life.

In which light, given how D&D characters behave, I think their largest expense should be lawyer's fees.

 

[der_kluge]

I have magic items be tradeable rather than buyable (always at a disadvantage to the players), allowing players to get rid of items they have no use for in exchange for something they might.

Same. Eventually, the players in my game will come to know that there's an old elf in the coastal Elven village that runs an "antique store" which is really a front for a barter-only magic item shop.

 

[NotAYakk]

Same. Eventually, the players in my game will come to know that there's an old elf in the coastal Elven village that runs an "antique store" which is really a front for a barter-only magic item shop.

Even there, you should roll randomly for what treasure the Elf has to trade. Have items "age out" and new ones show up every few weeks.

And, naturally, next to none of it is on premises. He just knows people offering stuff.

Magic Item Merchant Mechanics:
The elf has 5 item "slots". You roll for it on a level-appropriate table. Fill 4 of them to start.

Every week, roll 1d6 for an item that ages out (on a 6, roll twice more, exploding).

Then, every week, roll 1d6 for a new item to arrive (on a 6, roll twice more, exploding), replacing any item in that slot.

If a month or a bit more has passed, roll 1d6 to see what item(s) haven't been replaced (same method as above), then replace every other item, leaving 1 slot blank.

If significantly more than a month passes, just restart it with 4 random items.

---

If the players buy out the merchant, it takes weeks to restock. So this isn't a source of unlimited items, it is just a source of some variety and customization.

When you get a consumable, consider having 1d6 of them instead of 1. Decide on a case by case basis.

 

[der_kluge]

Even there, you should roll randomly for what treasure the Elf has to trade. Have items "age out" and new ones show up every few weeks.

If I did something like this, it would be my luck that I'd roll a Portable Hole, or something else game-breaking like that. I'm much happier actually deciding before-hand what he has, so I have control over what the players have access to. Because I learned a long time ago that certain "benign" items like rings of invisibility, portable holes, and a few other items like that, are just really problematic, and I'd rather not deal with them.

 

[NotAYakk]

I mean, the Ring of Invisibility is legendary. So unlikely to show up early on, and as it is a swap shop they will have to swap a legendary item for it.

Portable Holes are rare, so could show up earlier. And yes, they can change the game, but the "change the game" from items should happen slower than the change the game from spellcasters getting higher level spells.

At level 5, spellcasters can (with resources) fly. A single flying item doesn't break the game, but having one for everyone could warp it.

By level 11, everyone flying isn't all that unusual; at level 13, Paladins get Greater Steeds, Bards can get it at 11, a 5th level fly slot targets 3 creatures, moon druids have flying dinosaurs, polymorph at level 9 lets you change an ally into a flying dinosaur, etc.

PCs will have to swap a +2 sword (or similar rarity item) to get that portable hole as well (plus commission fee!)

In short, personally, I'd embrace the chaos. Even if I hand-crafted items for adventures, having a source of random items they can purchase would be fun, from the DM's side.