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Frustrated with 5E magic items
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<blockquote data-quote="Bacon Bits" data-source="post: 8011214" data-attributes="member: 6777737"><p>I'm running Age of Worms right now. My campaign is on COVID hiatus, but the party is currently level 4. What I did:</p><p></p><p>For gold, you can leave it as-is or divide rewards by 2-5. I wouldn't really sweat it, however. Once the party has bought the best armor they can for everyone who wants it, gold is mostly a narrative device until they get really stupid amounts of it (i.e., 50,000 gp or so).</p><p></p><p>If it's a potion or scroll, leave it or drop it entirely or turn it into a potion of healing. IMX, you'll know what to do.</p><p></p><p>Is it a wand or staff? Then remove it unless it's a major item. I don't out <em>good </em>wands or staves until the PCs are at roughly level 6 to 8, however. Currently my party has a wand that lets an attuned user cast <em>mage hand</em> at will, and spend 1 of 3 charges to cast <em>unseen servant.</em></p><p></p><p>Is it a magical weapon? If it was +1, +2, or +3, then make it a +0 item. If it was +4, make it +1. If it was +5, make it +2. That's the actual enhancement bonus, not the wonky abilities. However, I would never give out a plain weapon that only has an enhancement bonus. I think they're very boring. Currently the party has a +0 short sword that, when thrust into the ground during a long rest, anyone resting within 30 feet of the sword regains all spent hit dice instead of half. The party is without any healer and the campaign is pretty dungeon-crawly. So I wanted to make long rests a bit more efficient and spending hit dice during short rests a bit better.</p><p></p><p>Is it magical armor? Drop it, or make it a +0 item that does something minor. I've given out armor that lets the wearer spend a reaction to gain resistance to a critical hit, armor that can be donned and removed with a command word, armor that disguises itself, elven chain, mithril shirts, etc. If it was a really cool item, keep it. My PCs just don't need armor at the moment, however -- there's a naked barbarian, a wizard, and a warlock -- so I've just ignored most of the armor they might've found otherwise.</p><p></p><p>For wonderous items, I remove or replace most of them with something unique or interesting. Even if they're not that good, giving the players something fun and new is very enjoyable. I typically make sure they have a bag of holding or equivalent, and then I just have fun making new items that do strange things or fit the character who had them. It's particularly fun when the PCs come up with uses for them that I didn't envision.</p><p></p><p>For the most part I took items in the game as an opportunity to create my own items and give them out. I don't really care about the number of items, however. Attunement is quite a difficult restriction to overcome. Overall, it's made me an opponent of the 5e community's "don't give out magic" argument. What's the use of having all those cool items in the books and in my head if the players never get to use them? I'm using milestone experience. I'll just increase encounter difficulty if I really need to. Oh, no, combat got more swingy. Heaven forbid combat get more dangerous as players get higher in level.</p><p></p><p>I just think that finding things is one of the most fun aspects of the game, especially when you find things that you know you'll never find again in another campaign.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bacon Bits, post: 8011214, member: 6777737"] I'm running Age of Worms right now. My campaign is on COVID hiatus, but the party is currently level 4. What I did: For gold, you can leave it as-is or divide rewards by 2-5. I wouldn't really sweat it, however. Once the party has bought the best armor they can for everyone who wants it, gold is mostly a narrative device until they get really stupid amounts of it (i.e., 50,000 gp or so). If it's a potion or scroll, leave it or drop it entirely or turn it into a potion of healing. IMX, you'll know what to do. Is it a wand or staff? Then remove it unless it's a major item. I don't out [I]good [/I]wands or staves until the PCs are at roughly level 6 to 8, however. Currently my party has a wand that lets an attuned user cast [I]mage hand[/I] at will, and spend 1 of 3 charges to cast [I]unseen servant.[/I] Is it a magical weapon? If it was +1, +2, or +3, then make it a +0 item. If it was +4, make it +1. If it was +5, make it +2. That's the actual enhancement bonus, not the wonky abilities. However, I would never give out a plain weapon that only has an enhancement bonus. I think they're very boring. Currently the party has a +0 short sword that, when thrust into the ground during a long rest, anyone resting within 30 feet of the sword regains all spent hit dice instead of half. The party is without any healer and the campaign is pretty dungeon-crawly. So I wanted to make long rests a bit more efficient and spending hit dice during short rests a bit better. Is it magical armor? Drop it, or make it a +0 item that does something minor. I've given out armor that lets the wearer spend a reaction to gain resistance to a critical hit, armor that can be donned and removed with a command word, armor that disguises itself, elven chain, mithril shirts, etc. If it was a really cool item, keep it. My PCs just don't need armor at the moment, however -- there's a naked barbarian, a wizard, and a warlock -- so I've just ignored most of the armor they might've found otherwise. For wonderous items, I remove or replace most of them with something unique or interesting. Even if they're not that good, giving the players something fun and new is very enjoyable. I typically make sure they have a bag of holding or equivalent, and then I just have fun making new items that do strange things or fit the character who had them. It's particularly fun when the PCs come up with uses for them that I didn't envision. For the most part I took items in the game as an opportunity to create my own items and give them out. I don't really care about the number of items, however. Attunement is quite a difficult restriction to overcome. Overall, it's made me an opponent of the 5e community's "don't give out magic" argument. What's the use of having all those cool items in the books and in my head if the players never get to use them? I'm using milestone experience. I'll just increase encounter difficulty if I really need to. Oh, no, combat got more swingy. Heaven forbid combat get more dangerous as players get higher in level. I just think that finding things is one of the most fun aspects of the game, especially when you find things that you know you'll never find again in another campaign. [/QUOTE]
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