How will the designers (or the players) deal with magic item influx due to PC death?

[Irda Ranger]

All PCs are thieves anyway. And murderers. What do you think entering the evil temple and killing it's guards and taking it's stuff is all about? The game is designed that way (and yes, there will be a boatload of people protesting that this does not happen in their games, ...).

You can't steal from or murder an Orc or evil cultist, Lieutenant. They don't have legal rights.

 

[HeinorNY]

BoE and BoP FTW.

 

[WyzardWhately]

You can't steal from or murder an Orc or evil cultist, Lieutenant. They don't have legal rights.

What's that from?

 

[Stogoe]

Battlestar Galactica, of course. The good one.

 

[Andur]

First see, you are very wrong in the real world, much less a fantasy one. If you think inheritence is a long standing practice, or for that matter even legal in most of the world, you are sadly mistaken.

Items that the PC brought with him from his homeland are one thing, something they picked up yesterday is quite another.

As far as the OP, I don't think there needs to be a hard and fast rule, but several suggestions on how to handle treasure and encounters in general should be covered in the DMG.

For me it is pretty easy, I run low/no magic anyway...

 

[DM_Blake]

All magic items have a very low level of intelligence. To control a magic item, you need to meet one of these criteria:

1) Have it attuned to you at the time it is first sold,
2) Have it re-tuned to you, which costs money and a month of time (normally represented in the cost of buying used magic items - which actually cost less than new magic items because they are used, but that savings is eliminated by the cost of re-tuning),
3) Be an active member of the group that defeats the prior owner and "wins" the magic item over.

Hence, when a player dies, his items were not won over by the new player or party, and go inert. You can pay to re-tune them, and wait a month, but odds are you will prefer to just buy new items and have them tuned to you right away, and the party will sell the old items for 1/2 their value (causing the new owners to spend time an resources to get them refreshed to the point where they can be resold in a month).

So, I can kill a guy and use his stuff. Or even, my friend who is in my group can kill a guy and I can use the dead guy's stuff.

But if my friend dies, I can't use his stuff?

You had me up til then. I already do that with certain kinds of magic items. I absolutely do that with rings of regeneration - the magic of regeneration requires weeks of attunement to use it (regardless of whether you loot if off a corpse you just made dead, or find it in a tomb, or take it off of your buddy's still-warm corpse) - this way you can't have one ring of regeneration and pass it from PC to PC so that everyone can fully heal between fights.

I don't mind expanding my narrow list of attunement-required magic items to cover all magic items. That would be an interesting flavor idea for a campaign world. I would work some fluff into it, that you have to name the item, and keep it next to your skin for 66 hours, and rub it daily with blood and tears (OK, I'm making this up - but there would be some kind of ritual). That might be interesting.

But, I cannot see that kind of attunement rule being suspended because I happen to be in in the same group as the guy who killed and looted the magic item.

That would be too weird.

 

[hong]

So, I can kill a guy and use his stuff. Or even, my friend who is in my group can kill a guy and I can use the dead guy's stuff.

But if my friend dies, I can't use his stuff?

PCs are special, because their stuff binds when they pick it up. There is a precedent for this sort of thing.

 

[Syrsuro]

I dunno. I don't see the problem.

A PC dies. His stuff is picked up by the party.

A new PC joins the party. Whether this PC comes in at first level or comes in at the same level as the party, he is underequipped. Coincidentally by the same value as the dead PC's equipment.

The party either gives him the old PCs stuff OR they sell the stuff to buy him some basic gear appropriate for the level (assuming any sort of magic economy exists) OR they are greedy and the new PC dies as well because he is underequipped.

And if your party doesn't recognize that the third option is not in their own best interests, perhaps a karmic lesson is in order.

It is, imho, really only a problem is you let the new PC come in already equipped with magic items.

Carl

 

[neceros]

This is assuming the world doesn't have magic item shops. Do we know what the default is going to be? Is there no place to purchase magic scrolls or potions? Can you not go to the local temple and donate money for their priest to bless you? Or go to the mage guild and pay for a mage to teleport you somewhere? Assuming these things will exist, why won't shops that carry magic items? We really don't know the default yet.

But even still... You don't need a magic store to sell a magic item. I am sure a place that sells mundane weapons would offer money for a magic weapon. Also, there is bartering as well. Trade a magic sword for a magic ring or cloak or shield or armor.

Pretty sure I remember something about there being no magic shops. In fact, I remember them saying that most PCs loot and gold will go directly into making magic items, because they can't find any to buy.

Think it was a pod cast.

 

[Dausuul]

I would say the new character comes in with the basic +X items for his level and nothing else. And maybe have some kind of RP benefit if you bury your friend with his gear.

Fortunately, the drastic reduction in magic item stacking means the DM is freed from any need to carefully monitor wealth by level. The important thing will be making sure the +X items are level-appropriate. Beyond that, if the party gets a little extra magic stuff--eh, whatever.