D&D 5E How many magic items should a 4th. lvl PC have?

[Tony Vargas]

None.

I suppose it's one of the things I'm more enthused about with 5e: the idea that magic items are just frosting. They're not needed for the game to 'work.' That's almost revolutionary by D&D standards, since classic D&D & 3.x/Pathfinder depended upon magic items to make up the difference between casters & non-casters (to put it succinctly), and 3.x/Pathfinder/4e/Essentials baked magic items right into level progression (even if they did have an inherent bonus option).

5e, to the extent it's meant to have class balance and encounter balance at all, is meant to balance without magic items. That's pretty cool. You don't have to worry about giving 'enough' or the 'right' items - magic or otherwise. If your campaign background or story calls for an item, include it. if it doesn't, don't. If it no longer does, take it away or have it stop working. If you want to start characters at 3rd or 5th or 11th level, you can give them the same starting gear as 1st. Your players can play hard-bitten mercenaries working for silver pieces even at high level, or they can find a wondrous (monetary) treasure early on and be stinking rich their whole careers.

 

[Fildrigar]

There are actually quite a few in LMoP. I was a little surprised.

 

[Chocolategravy]

You won't be finding much from level 1-4 as it's accelerated leveling and it should only be a couple sessions to get through them. The rewards there are the levels. 4 or 5 is when you'll start finding more items as leveling is slower and the magic item are another way of rewarding success.

 

[TerraDave]

Scientific Answer:

About 1.

 

[Riley37]

There was another thread about gold being useless when not spendable on magic items. Reading all 50+ pages is not my recommendation, but here's one perspective:

A team of 4th level PCs should have at least as many magic items, as were owned, in total, by the following heroes:
Legolas, Gimli and Boromir; plus Odysseus; plus Conan; plus Fafhd and the Grey Mouser; plus Beowulf; plus the Seven Samurai, plus Sundiata; plus Robin Hood and all of his merry men.

If having even more magic items than that, would lead to more fun at the table, then go for more!

 

[SoulsFury]

My level 5 group all has a set of bags of holding, gifts from their dragon patron. I have given out at least one +1 item and a wand per character. However they have switched characters too, and items don't transfer, so at level 5, I still have characters with only the bag of holding. No one has complained yet. They even gave away an artifact because it worked out in game to give it away. I did not force them in anyway to do this. If your style of play needs magic items, then you should give them out... but if it doesn't, then don't. For 1500 gp, my players can buy a weapon made of meteorite ore that is +1 and acts as a magical weapon against creatures that have the tag needed, but it would show up as magical if you did detect magic. Its all about the campaign you are playing. There is no right answer.

In the game I play a character (the above group is one I DM), we are level 4 and my character has no magic items.

Disclaimer: At levels 1-5 I do give out as a DM, and have received as a player, potions of various types. I think with this edition of D&D, +1's don't show up until 5th and beyond, potions before that.

 

[KarinsDad]

Well, I took over as DM at the start of level 5 (our DM had other commitments).

But she decided that the game is more FUN if there are a lot of magic items. And since the DMG was not out, she created several items.

Our group has:

1) Ranger 2 / Wizard 3: Headband of Intellect, boots of jumping and falling (DM created item)

2) Bard 5: Wand of Magic Missile (which she has yet to actually use), Elemental ring (DM created item, changes ammo damage to elemental type, has charges), +1 studded leather

3) Cleric 5: Damage bracers (DM created item, +2 damage), two handed sword of life stealing (this has no pluses to hit or damage)

4) Rogue 5: +1 dagger (DM created item, also allows limited casting of Daylight and Moonbeam spells), +3 Bracers of AC (only stacks with Dex), bag of holding (this is a party item, he convinced the cleric to allow him to carry it ).

5) Fighter 5: +1 greataxe of giant slaying

6) Paladin 5: +1 plate armor, boots of elvenkind (the DM allowed me to pick two magic items when I created my new PC, one common, one uncommon, so I created a stealthy paladin in plate. When I took over, the previous DM took over my new PC)

7) NPC Ranger 3: None.
8) NPC Druid 3: None.

Plus a few potions. No scrolls yet.

The previous DM handed out all of these items except the sword which I handed out part way to 6th level. This means that the previous DM handed out 12 items from levels 1 to 4.


Interestingly enough, I haven't noticed that much of a difference with 13 magic items handed out for a party of 6 5th level PCs. The cleric does a tiny bit more damage. The fighter hits 5% more (but does the same damage with a +1 axe as opposed to a +0 greatsword). The dagger has seen use with Moonbeam. That has been the most effective magic item. The headband helps a little. But for the most part, the concept that 5E should be played with few magic items seems to be merely a preference. The game plays great with a lot of permanent items handed out.

I plan to continue to hand out anywhere from 1 to 3 permanent magic items per level for a party of 6. The players like it and what good is a bunch of magic items just sitting in the DMG and not being used?

 

[AngryOgre]

Well, my first question is, How many treasure hoards have you sacked?

Low and Standard shouldn't have a lot laying around just yet. A bunch of 1/use items are fine, but in those two styles by 4th level you shouldn't see too many.

High Magic? kinda depends again on the setting. In FR, if the party wanted items they'd seek a hoard to plunder in order to deck out in some random magic items. In something like Eberron, common magic items would be abound, uncommon and higher would be exceptionally rare.

but to get back to your question, how ever many your DM wants to give out. 5e should be able to function well with no magic items 1-20. It's a little bit harder but yeah.

 

[Sunseeker]

Depends on what the magic item does I guess. The edition doesn't assume everyone has +X weapons of smashing in order to succeed, so most magic items, at least the ones listed in the DMG, are ones that do special things in certain situations. Do you need special things in certain situations?

 

[Remathilis]

Well, according to the "creating characters at higher levels" chart in the DMG, it depends on if the game is low, standard, or high magic. A character at 5th level should start with the following:

Low: None
Standard: None
High: 1 uncommon item.

Plus 250 gp and starting gear.

Hope that helps!