D&D 5E (2024) Help me Houserule 5e Equipment & Items

[ART!]

Since your goal is more good things for PCs to do with their cash, might I suggest a focus on consumables, and designing them to maximize the action economy.

[...]Or some kind of armor attachment that works once but then has to be rebuilt at a cost (but has no action cost or works as a part of another action such as a grapple).

And that way the PCs are utilizing their gold into these consumables that get depleted as you adventure, so creating a nice natural gold sink to work from.

I'm reminded of the scene in Eaters of the Dead (the movie), where two characters have a duel of sorts and one of them has multiple shields at hand, so that when the other (very big) guy breaks the first guy's shield with his blows the first guy just grabs another shield to keep fighting.

 

[Li Shenron]

Some random comments...

• I am happy to steal things that Magic Items do, and move it over to "mundane" items. There's always been a lot of "Magic Items" that aren't all that magical. I even include +1 (etc) weapons in this! To me, that's always simply been a higher quality of craftsmanship. It's not mechanically (IMO) "magical" enough for a magic item, if you follow me. So when it comes to Armor & Weapons, I would like mundane quality rankings.

This shouldn't be too difficult. Go through the list of magic items and for each one try thinking of a non-magical explanation for its effects: biological, materials-based, or technological. It can be a fantasy explanation if you need, without qualifying as fully magic. A plant extract or an animal venom from the fantasy world might have a biological effect for example. If you also choose to go steampunk or tech-fantasy you have even more options to avoid magic for explaining wondrous effects.

• I am okay with it being ultimately more "video-gamey", but I don't want it to be TOO "video-gamey", if you get me. I want you to be able to buy stuff, but not to be bogged down in tons of stuff that you trash and replace.

Bogging down could be avoided by using encumbrance rules tailored to your needs (e.g. enforcing magic item "slots" per character).

• I'd like to bring the cost of things "toward the middle". I find the exponential curve of the cost of (primarily magic items) to be, frankly silly (You can buy a Warship, or an Army, for the price of some Magic Swords). OTOH, I really don't care, and have never had any players who care, about tracking copper pieces.

I don't see why you couldn't just use your prices.

• .

Goal #3: Do It Yourself Crafting

• Yes, I'd like a crafting system. 2024 D&D is close, maybe, to a working system, but I'm not sure I like things taking months and months at higher levels. Maybe.

I think that is usually one area of the rules which is always "pessimistically realistic".

You have to figure out your own times just like you figure out your own prices, to hit a good compromise for your games between the reasonable and the usable.

Goal #4: Healing, and systems like it.

• As part of my "stealing" Magic Items for Mundane Items, I'd like to come up with a simple system for Healer's Kits & Bandages and that sort of thing, that replaces (at least at lower levels) the "Healing Potion". Again, I'm not a fan of basic stuff that people can do in the real world jumping immediately to a magical fix. IF HP are not entirely "Meat Points" (and I'm okay with them being a - little - bit meat, they should be able to come back just as easily with some TLC as they do with some Strange Brew. Let's get some basic bandaging before we jump to slugging potions!

Mah... real life bandages have the purpose of stopping the worsening of wounds, which then heal more or less at the natural rate. But almost all damage in the game is instantaneous and doesn't worsen.

I think you just want non-magical healing of damage. You could introduce bandages as tools for gradual healing (speeding up the natural healing rate). But this requires some tracking of time that generally is not that fun in a tabletop as it is automatic in a videogame. Or you could consider some level of abstraction in the narrative as in "bandages applied within X minutes of the damage suffered, reduce the damage by Y".

 

[Stormonu]

I'm personally not against those things scaling without necessarily getting more expensive (within reason), because I don't see a problem with it - most other Actions scale by level simply because you get better at the task, why would you not get better at, say, throwing an Alchemists' Fire so that you do 2d4 instead of 1d4, or whatever, without having to buy a bigger flask? (Maybe you should ALSO be able to buy a bigger flask at various tiers to keep up with scaling).

OTOH, I don't want to wind up with it all being a "MOAR DAMAGE" - race, either.


Yeah, that'll be the trick.

It does bring into question - "If I can buy alchemist fire that does times X more than the base stuff, why can't I do that with a long sword?". The game currently handles the increase in weapon damage (or other improvements) via things like Fighting Styles, the Extra Attack ability, Monk martial arts and the like - rarely by simply ramping up the gear (there's exceptions, like Javelin of Lightning and Flame Blades, but usually it's just a +1 "magic" bonus that overall doesn't change a Longsword into a "buster" sword).

 

[ART!]

Some questions/thoughts:

• I think 5e is missing equipment (and lots more) because the designers seem to think mostly about combat, and forget the rest.

I feel like pretty much every "fix" 5E "needs" is because of this.

(I put that stuff in quotes because although it is how I feel, not everyone will agree, which of course is totally fine.)

 

[Kobold Stew]

What do you all think of items such as:

• Fire/Acid/Poison Arrows that do +1d4 typed damage.

Reasonable bonus, but is there a reason not to use them all the time? Maybe only usable 1/turn?

• Medium (also possibly Heavy) Armor "pads" that get rid of Disadvantage on Steath.

This is roughly the equivalent of a +1 magic item (Mithral). At that price, it's inexpensive (in that I'd choose to take it regularly).

• Shield "straps" that make it a Bonus Action to Don/Doff your shield.

Sure.

• Mundane items that mimic the effect of spells, such as Grease Bottles, or "chloroform"-like bottles that make Sleep-gas.

Priced at the level of an equivalent potion/scroll? Then it's just descriptive, and totally fair. Less, and you'd want to be sure it's not a strong spell.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Not equipment, but here's two combat things I would like to add (I put them into a game I ran pre-pandemic, but no one wanted them. I do, though):

1. Sap. Finesse weapon, 1 pt bludgeoning damage (but which would qualify for rogue's sneak attack). Mastery effect would be (unsurprisingly?) sap.
2. Buckler. Priced the same as a shield. +1 AC. Can be used untrained, but if trained in shields it keeps hand free for holding/climbing/somatic gestures.