D&D 5E Is Treasure and Magic Items Important To You?

[Krachek]

For me, if the game experience is satisfying the urge for leveling or magic treasure reduce accordingly,

 

[hopeless]

Depends on the game you're running.
I like porting over older scenarios or get inspiration from say computer games, but boy I still have a lot to learn!
I had the party run into were rats thinking they wouldn't be much of a threat!
Serves me right for not double checking the stats first!
In retrospect I should have just downgraded their immunity to resistance instead!

 

[Necrozius]

Deck of Many Things is the best and I will not hear otherwise.

It's definitely the best source of comedic anecdotes on how players destroyed themselves / the campaign / the setting with LOL RANDOM effects.

 

[TwoSix]

It's definitely the best source of comedic anecdotes on how players destroyed themselves / the campaign / the setting with LOL RANDOM effects.

i.e. the best thing ever.

 

[Maxperson]

Another thread made me wonder about this.

5e doesn’t make either actually necessary. The only things that rely on money don’t need amounts anywhere near the kind of loot the DMG tells you to hand out, and the game is built so that magic items are purely a bonus.

So how about y’all? Have you run campaigns with little or no treasure incentive? What about campaigns without magic items?

For me, I almost never roll on a treasure table, and I’ve been reducing my usage of magic items in every new campaign. I’m starting to think that waaaay less is more, in terms of magic items. Or at least anything bigger than common magic.

So first, yes. Treasure and magic items are important to me. They're a way of measuring advancement other than just levels.

Second, while I have not run a campaign with little or no treasure incentive, I have played in a few. Certain campaign concepts involve parties of adventurers to whom those sorts of things aren't important. I'm in one now. We have some magic items, but my character would give his up for a good cause in a heartbeat. We typically give back any treasure offered for services needed, occasionally keeping a bit for expenses.

 

[J.Quondam]

The exceptions are the Bag of Holding and Deck of Many Things. Those I will never willingly give out in an adventure. shakes fist at them

A couple potential solutions:

• every bag of holding is really a finicky bag of devouring.
• replace the fabled Deck of Many Things with the slightly less-fabled Deck of Mini Things.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Treasure isn't very important to me but magic is. As the game has changed over the years, character abilities have grown in power, and that has resulted in gear being less significant. Since treasure primarily buys mundane gear -- and mundane gear is essentially unimportant in 5E -- I have little interest in treasure. However, I am very much interested in magic items. Magic items make the game...magical! In my next 5E campaign, I may even hand out fewer ASIs so +2 swords and gauntlets of ogre strength once again feel like game changers.

 

[SkidAce]

Thats a great point, and I agree, though I don't like tracking specific gold coins to accomplish that, anymore.,

Yeah it's a matter of taste and preference in world building, as well. I don't like presenting worlds wherein the past was better than the present, or where all the "cool stuff" are things no one knows how to make anymore, and prefer worlds where the magic sword that burns with the fire that forged it, glowing red hot and dealing additional fire damage, is something that the guy in the neighboring kingdom invented ten years ago. There is one of them, because your dad was the first person to ever commission one, and the method for making it hasn't been repeated yet. The occassional ancient relic is great, but I never make such things better than more modern inventions.

I like (and have both) in my main campaign world.

There are ruins from before my world's equivalent of the Dark Ages with various things and lost magics.
There are also several organizations making groundbreaking strides in new magic, as can individuals.

 

[Maxperson]

Deck of Many Things is the best and I will not hear otherwise.

I was playing in a game where we entered a room and there were about a dozen these giant plaques that were 6 feet by 3 feet and about 6 inches thick. I wanted to know what was under them so I flipped one over........................................and that was my draw from the deck.

 

[TwoSix]

I was playing in a game where we entered a room and there were about a dozen these giant plaques that were 6 feet by 3 feet and about 6 inches thick. I wanted to know what was under them so I flipped one over........................................and that was my draw from the deck.

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

 

[Xetheral]

Yeah it's a matter of taste and preference in world building, as well. I don't like presenting worlds wherein the past was better than the present, or where all the "cool stuff" are things no one knows how to make anymore, and prefer worlds where the magic sword that burns with the fire that forged it, glowing red hot and dealing additional fire damage, is something that the guy in the neighboring kingdom invented ten years ago. There is one of them, because your dad was the first person to ever commission one, and the method for making it hasn't been repeated yet. The occassional ancient relic is great, but I never make such things better than more modern inventions.

It's hard to invent new magic items with 5e's default magic item rules, because how long an item takes to make depends on its rarity! A unique prototype is going to be (by definition) at least as rare as the rarest item, so the production would take as long as the rarest items: 20,000 days (about 55 years)!

At least the Xanathar's rules bring that down to only a year for a prototype... but it adds in the requirement to face CR 19+ creatures.

(No I don't actually advocate interpreting the magic item creation rules that way. Just pointing out how silly they are.)

 

[Immoralkickass]

There's a difference between video gamey and gamey, and magic items is the latter. But its also fun, as long as its not just flat numbers boots like +1AC or +1 attack/damage. Its like getting a christmas present. You never know what you will get, and it allows for homebrew creativity, since its one of the very few instances where rule-breaking is acceptable. If you hate magic items, I am judging you because you hate fun.

Some days i feel like Immovable Rod is a great item, some days i need a flaming sword. Or an Immovable Flaming Sword. Now excuse while i put on my magic underpants.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Aww, darn! I like to think that I'm fun, just not a masochist (or sadist, depending on your point of view).

You are now officially entered into the list of Those Who Are No Fun.

I gave it out as a magic item once. My campaign survived it, barely. That was the last time I used it. I love to improv and have to come up stuff on the fly, but that magic item is just too much chaos for me.

Deck of Many Things is the best and I will not hear otherwise.

"Key: a rare or rarer magic weapon with which you are proficient appears in your hand. However, it is 10% the size of a normal version."

A couple potential solutions:

• every bag of holding is really a finicky bag of devouring.
• replace the fabled Deck of Many Things with the slightly less-fabled Deck of Mini Things.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

I am currently running a remixed version of Dragon Heist that requires the Deck of Many Things to open the treasure vault. The player characters are running around Waterdeep trying to find the individual cards to assemble the Deck. At the climax of the campaign, the characters will draw from the Deck. If all goes as planned, total mayhem will ensue, and the campaign will end in spectacular catastrophe.

 

[Bacon Bits]

The exceptions are the Bag of Holding and Deck of Many Things. Those I will never willingly give out in an adventure. shakes fist at them

Huh. I can't imagine not running a campaign where one of the first items the PCs got was some form of Bag of Holding. Nobody at our table wants to track encumbrance, and the bag gives us a great excuse to never bother with it.

My latest version was:

Tomb of the Necromancer

This miniature obsidian sarcophagus is small enough to be held in one hand or carried in a pocket. The outside of It is decorated with golden skulls that have rubies for eyes. Upon opening the Crypt, a rumbling is heard and felt in the ground, and a massive sarcophagus bursts through the floor and slams on the ground spreading loose grave soil all around. The sarcophagus appears in any space adjacent to the user that can contain it. The large sarcophagus is 5' x 5' x 10'. It otherwise matches the miniature sarcophagus in appearance. It can easily be opened like a chest by whomever opened the miniature sarcophagus. Objects can freely be placed into and removed from the sarcophagus once it has been opened. When the lid is closed, another rumbling is heard and felt, and the sarcophagus slowly digs itself back into the ground. Any grave soil left behind vanishes in 1 minute. No permanent damage is done by the sarcophagus to area it appeared in.

The Tomb can be called upon freely twice each day, refreshing between midnight and 3 am, as long as the Tomb is not called upon in daylight. Calling upon the Tomb in daylight, or calling upon the Tomb a third or subsequent time both exact a blood price. The user must expend a Hit Die to call a Tomb in this case.

I wanted something that gave the PCs storage, but was a little less convenient than a Bag of Holding. The Crypt gives a lot of storage space, but is limited in how often you can use it, and calling on it is not as subtle as reaching a hand into a bag. The item intentionally doesn't tell you what happens if you try to put a living creature inside it. However, it is called the Tomb of the Necromancer.

As for a Deck of Many Things, I think I've only ever seen one campaign survive it.

 

[Blue]

That's like telling a poor man he shouldn't have any trouble with banks charging overdraft since he hasn't got any money in the first place.

No it's not. The complaint about 5e, so trying to assign fault to the rules system, when the DM was going outside what 5e recommended.

It's like getting a speeding ticket and complaining about the gas station that sold the fuel. Just because without the fuel the car couldn't have gone fast doesn't change the fact that it's the driver's choice to go that speed. Place the blame where it belongs.

We got roughly 1-2 treasure hoards each level. If you think that's outrageous an outrageous number of items for mid-level,

"I" don't think anything - don't try to make this a difference in opinion. Wizards published a breakdown of what's expected per tier in Xanathar's on page 135 that being exceeded.

Now, you mention there only be 3-4 PCs when I mentioned the assumption it was 5 PCs since you referenced that earlier. Since the Xanathar's charts are per party, that's more items per level. At the end of 16th level the you're supposed to have 14 major items for the party - so 4.67 each for a 3 person party or 3.5 for a 4 person party. At the end of 10th the party as a whole is expected to have 7 uncommon and 1 rare item - having 4 items just for one character at 10th would equate to a 2 person party.

So, what level were you at when you had 4 attunement items? And did you have any additional major magic items?

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I am generous with encumbrance rules to the point that bags of holding are almost unnecessary - I don't want people to have to bean-count, and mostly overlook what PCs are carrying, unless they try to take a statue with them, multiple sets of armor, or something that just strains disbelief too far. My issue is that people with bags of holding will then absolutely travel around with multiple suits of armor, try to fit that statue in it, and hoover a dungeon room bare just because they can.

Huh. I can't imagine not running a campaign where one of the first items the PCs got was some form of Bag of Holding. Nobody at our table wants to track encumbrance, and the bag gives us a great excuse to never bother with it.

 

[Bitbrain]

Reply to OP.

Yes, magic items and treasure are important to me as a player, but even more so as a DM.

Nothing makes me happier as a DM than handing each of my players a 3x5 card detailing their newly acquired magic item and watching their eyes sparkle with glee.

 

[Lanefan]

I gave it out as a magic item once. My campaign survived it, barely. That was the last time I used it. I love to improv and have to come up stuff on the fly, but that magic item is just too much chaos for me.

There's no such thing as too much chaos.

My current (long) campaign has had about four of them so far, maybe five. Never mind that some PCs have learned who the artificer is who made some of the Decks they've encountered...meaning if they want another one all they have to do is go through an entire adventure to get to the guy, then give him a big wad o' cash and ask him ve-ery nicely. He is a lich, after all...

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

My current (long) campaign has had about four of them so far, maybe five. Never mind that some PCs have learned who the artificer is who made some of the Decks they've encountered...meaning if they want another one all they have to do is go through an entire adventure to get to the guy, then give him a big wad o' cash and ask him ve-ery nicely. He is a lich, after all...