D&D 5E How Many Magic Items Are You Planning On Handing Out?

[ExploderWizard]

if I end up running a campaign, then I will treat magic items like I do in B/X. More dangerous places will have the better treasure and its up to the PCs to discover those locations and decide how much risk they are willing to take. Since XP will be treasure based, it shouldn't be a problem motivating them.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I don't want to hand out too many magic items in my 5E game, but I also think that players like to find cool magic items.

For the MiBG season, I gave out /no/ magic items in my playtest game, and, as advertised, it didn't seem to make it substantially worse - the players weren't always wishing they had items. OTOH, in Cult of Chaos, there were three dramatic items, and one of the players only started enjoying his character after he got the Chaos Blade...

Since items are no longer pegged to level, you can give out an item and expect the PC to keep it his whole career, rather than itching for an upgrade after a few levels.

Thus, if I were to give out items at all - and I may not when/if I ever get around to running a home campaign in 5e (my current campaign is 14th level after over two years, so it'll be a while before it wraps) - I'd probably aim for 1-3 items per character /over the life of the campaign/. I probably won't use consumables at all, except, perhaps, as the occasional plot-facilitator that you side-quest for and use immediately, I suppose. Maybe 'consumables' like lembas or astral mead or something, where they're magical trappings, but not really /magic items/ with important/powerful effects in game terms.

 

[Tormyr]

I am running a 5e conversion of Age of Worms and am handing out all the treasure that is described in the adventure path. This equates to about 3 items per person in a six person party by level 5. Some items are insignificant, such as the wand of shatter, some are useful such as the wand of healing word and some are great like the ring of protection or the +1 full plate. The one mistake I made early on and only realized in the last couple of weeks is that I should not have converted masterwork items to +1. That was just my inexperience and not realizing how prevalent the masterwork items were and how it was much too early for +1 items. I am not doing that any more, and I figure that the imbalance I introduced, while minor, will sort itself out in a few levels.

EDIT: in Legacy of the crystal shard, I rolled treasure off of the tables, and that worked out pretty well. Once in a while they picked up a potion or a minor item.

 

[Jeph]

I'll probably go with one-ish magic item per adventure site, in an open map sandbox play style. Which should work out to maybe one-ish magic item for the group per level, which works out to one-ish magic item per character around 6th level, maybe two or three per character as the game's wrapping up.

About half of these will probably be of the "+1 weapon or armor with a minor additional effect" style, and half will be one-off really weird and powerful but extremely limited / dangerous game-changers.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I'm not so much worried about whether they are required as what the assumption is in class balance and encounter design. A fighter with a magic sword, magic armor and a ring of protection will be much more powerful then a fighter without any magic items. It's helpful to know what the baseline expectation is so I can at least be aware of the fact that I am altering it if I decide to go low or high magic.

The DMG will supposedly have guidelines for how the level of magic items you choose will affect your campaign.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Not many until 4th or 5th level, then probably something like +50% to +100% of DMG guidelines if they exist as the PCs go up in levels.

 

[pickin_grinnin]

I tend to make permanent magic items - particularly weapons - pretty scarce. I want players to have to work hard to get them, and to appreciate what they have. It's the same principle as not overloading children with masses of toys at Christmas.

Limited use potions, scrolls, etc. tend to be a little more abundant in my campaigns.

I have noticed that a lot of players these days tend to have a video game / MMO mentality - do this, get to that level, and get an automatic reward. I don't run my campaigns that way. If I wanted that, I would just play MMOs.

 

[Wolfskin]

I plan handing out as few magic items as possible. It all depends on how true is the "PCs don't need magical items anymore to keep up with monsters as they level up" promise.

want players to have to work hard to get them, and to appreciate what they have.

My thoughts exactly. I want to make the prospect of unearthing a magic item exciting and unique, not something mundane.

 

[KarinsDad]

One thing that I tend to do is have monsters use many of the magic items that the PCs acquire. In the case of healing potions and other consumables, those consumables are sometimes used up in combat.

But it makes sense to me that only the rare magic item is found in a dragon hoard or a treasure chest. A lot of magic items are actually used by the bad guys before the good guys get their hands on them. This makes the campaign world feel a bit more plausible.

 

[Eirikrautha]

A better question might also be what kind of magic items will you give out as your rewards. By the end of 3.5 (and in Pathfinder even now), some of the mechanics conditioned players to not only expect magic items, but also to expect items that exactly fit their desires. With the reduced focus in 5e on magic items, will you be giving players items that fit their concept, or items that are more random or only partial fits? For example, if you have a great weapon focused fighter in your group and you roll up (or the module states) a +2 one-handed sword, are you likely to change it to another weapon that fits the fighter's feats?

Personally, I like the idea that you might have to make do with a less-than-ideal item because of its magic value. Considering that players won't have much of a chance of buying magic (in the base rules), this might mean they never get exactly what they want. But that could be a good hook. One of my best ever adventures as a player was a hunt for a Githyanki to get that vorpal sword that I coveted (and the consequences of that hunt)...