How to enforce low magic item count

[Infinite Monkey@Work]

Nice idea. It certainly bears thinking about. Hows about this:

Most magical weapons gain there powers from an 'interaction' between them, their wielders and the deeds performed with the weapon, which means that if someone else tries to use the weapon, even if they know what the original wielder could do with it, they get nadda. Only really powerful weapons of legend retain a portion of their powers once passed on, and even then the powers are not available unless the new wielder is aware of their abilities. Only a portion of the weapons powers are 'stored' in this case.

So for example, the duelists rapier used to be a flaming strike, keen, imporved critical rapier of biscuit making and house cleaning, but in the hands of the new owner it goes no further than a +1 flaming rapier until the duelists 'empowers' it with new deeds of their own.

 

[Chrisling]

Make it difficult, unpleasant, awkward, expensive or otherwise give the players a hassle when using many to most magic items.

The game that this was easiest with was Werewolf. Most of the bad guys had fetishes that were created with evil spirits, so the honorable, Gaia loving werewolves refused to use the Wyrm corrupted items.

In the D&D game I'm running, all items will have an alignment and will drain sanity from people who use them unless the alignment is the same as the item. (The players don't know this, yet.) It's crude, but I fully expect it to be effective.

Any number of tricks could be used. As other people mentioned, various sorts of attunment could do it, or somehow "charging" the PCs to use items (such as the items all being spirits and each one requiring regular and costly sacrifices to keep working, as an idea). Likewise, Byzantine level, skill or feat requirements could be placed on items -- and don't tell the players! ("Unbeknownst to Rolf the Barbarian, to use the Savage Mace of Withnow requires a person to be able to cast 3rd level divine spells and Knowledge (Religion) with 5+ ranks," or what have you).

 

[Someone]

If weapons grow with their owners then they might 'die' or loss power until 'Bonded' with a new owner. This might mean that once you have bonded with a weapon/suite of armor you can't bond with another. Use the familiar rules for changing.

I use this IMC and works. Actually, I use a more complicated set of rules, but this is more or less the idea.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Use masterwork weapons instead of +1 weapons. As a bonus, this frees up gold so all your NPCs can have potions of shield (just kidding about that--too unbalancing). However, giving an NPC a potion of Bull's Strength and a masterwork weapon is better than giving him a +1 weapon (it usually yields +3 to hit and +3 to damage).

You can also consider having your PCs fight opponents like the drow whose magical weapons are destroyed by sunlight. Guess the PCs won't be keeping those.

Also if it's magic that bothers you and you don't have a readily available magic market, you could give the really important bad guys (the ones that would normally have +2 weapons) adamantine weapons instead. Sure, they're marginally more valuable, but if the PCs can't sell them the extra value does them no good if they can't sell them and buy what they want. (Although they might melt the adamantium down and do something more useful with it. . . .)

Another possibility: give the bad guys stolen weapons. If the PCs find the Sword of the Righteous Monarchs which was stolen from the kingdom's crown prince 10 years ago, that's the kind of treasure that they can't exactly keep or sell. Sure, they'll get some kind of reward for returning it but if the sword is very valuable, it won't be as much as the sword is worth.

And one last possibility--make the weapons too hot to handle. I don't think I've heard of a party that tried to keep a Githyanki silver sword. Most groups know better than that and will happily part with it for a fraction of its value. If the bad guys are members of an assassins' clan that revere their traditional blades and would never rest while one was in enemy hands the PCs may very well get rid of the sword so that they're only facing the assassins their enemies can afford to hire rather than the entire clan who are all out for vengeance.

BTW: Mercy, a warhammer that only does subdual damage being used against undead (who are immune to subdual damage)--that's just cruel and unusual. . . .

 

[Ace]

Back when I was doing a 2e game I had a nify "limited magic item" solution.

What I did is assume that it cost 1 point of Con per permanent or rechargable magic item

This meant that almost every magic item was disposable-- Instead of a +1 sword the bad guy would have a sword that cast "magic weapon" on itself for x number of time

The problem you will face in 3e is that the characters effectiveness is tied to having a certain value of magic items. You certainly can limit the number of items but if you reduce the power level you will need to componsate.

This is especially important for armor

I think what I would do (since I was considering doing the same thing) is use the power components optional rule in the DMG

Basically no items are made with XP. Instead certain ingrediants are required. Making permanent items requires some pretty rare stuff. most enemies will have charms and Talismans---

FREX instead of a +1 sword give a
Charge Sword A MW sword with a gem in the handle thats casts 3 charges of Magic weapon. It cost about the same but would be disposable.

 

[Mobius]

One good move I did was to give every single magic item its own history and raison d'etre. With charged items, it gives the DM the option of requiring some research before the item can be used (password, etc.). With regular items, the 'proper' use might only be found out through the same research.

At bare minimum, having a history for an item allows the DM to have people from the past of the item coming back to claim it now that it is brought back to the light of day - or for people who are upset at its original theft to come back and take what is theirs.

 

[S'mon]

As far as NPC CRs go, if the PCs have magic and the NPCs don't, giving the NPCs CR 3/4 their level, rounding UP (so no difference at levels 1-3) ought to work for most PC classes, I think. NPC classes are already only about 3/4 as powerful (Commoners 1/2 or less), for them I use 3/4 round DOWN but that may be a bit generous if your PCs are well-equipped.

 

[jollyninja]

i have some rules you might like. they make magical items a little less candy like. these rules apply to any items not created specificly for the character such as those found or taken from enemy corpses.

i make the wielder pay half the original xp cost to activate a magical item's powers though he need not meet any of the criteria to create the item in the first place. i work out a progression for higher powered items so that their powers can be unlocked slowly over time. i have given all magical items a verry basic level of sentience due to the fact that the creator put a small part of himself into the item. if the item's creator would not have created the item for the character, it may not work for him and if the item does not want to work, there are few means of forcing it (use magic device for example).

magic items require the xp as a fuel to continue their existence so some are purely mercenary by nature working for any that will pay the price while others (holy or the like) will only work fully or at all for certian people. most want their wielder to be strong as his achievements also gain his items noteriaty so most will not allow the wielder to go down levels or become to reliant on the item. some will not be picky though, draining levels to activate themselves and letting characters stunt themselves, growing more reliant on the item to keep up with their comrades.

i think you get the idea. it keeps the party from selling alot of the items they find because they are less useful to people and a price must be paid to use them. i usually compensate with more coinage for treasure.

 

[fba827]

Well, a couple of things I would have said have already been mentioned:

the minor villans and what not are not using permant magic items but rather temporary ones (ie the weapon /armor is only magical because it was enspelled, they drank a potion, had an ally cast a spell, or used a scroll prior to the meeting -- presumng they were expecting something)

For the major villans (in addition to the above) given that they are _major_ antagonists to the PCs (and having magic weapons "grow" with the person that wields them) chances are that the villans' weapons/magic items are opposed in purpose to what the PCs would use. anti-good weapons (if your PCs are good and the villans are evil), weapons that illicit hate or destruction, etc...

obviously, if this gets overused, it would be annoying.. but it just seems logical that if the PCs weapons/items are growing with them based on their deeds and personalities that the antagonists weapons/ietms would be doing the same. Further, if the PCs and antagonists actions are opposed to one another, the strengths and purposes of these items would be equally opposed since they grew in opposing directions...

(i'm half asleep, sorry if that doesn't come out right).

 

[Painfully]

You could have very particular ways of imbibing weapons with magical powers and then require an enchantment component (a powerful caster) to help prolong the weapon's powers.

e.g., a greatsword is used to kill a red dragon. The blood of the dragon empowers the sword with anything from flame damage, to extra bonuses vs. dragonkind, to wounding, or any combination of them. Let those powers gradually diminish unless enchantments are placed to "preserve" the essence that was gained from the magical blood that enchanted the sword. A wizard that preserves a vial of dragons blood might be able to give the magic of the sword a kind of "booster shot" of magical essence.

DM's can control what powers are given the weapon, how long the powers last, and whether they will be able to maintain the sword's powers. Even artifacts can appear powerless until the right activating trigger comes along to "turn on" its powers. It's a great way to use knowledge skills and get away from the silly "identify" spell. And the knowledge is only one part of a series of things needed to create, activate, maintain, or even destroy a magic item.

Let this be how magic weapons are created and one begins to understand how special it is to have one!