D&D 5E Magic Item Costs in 5E

[SilverfireSage]

Maybe, maybe not. It depends on what the local troubles are. Remember 5e returns us to having some monsters which cannot be hurt without magic weapons. 10 archers with +1 longbows would be much better than a single +2 anything.

There is very little in the monster manual that is immune to damage from non-magical weapons. If the town is being attacked by a demi-lich (which is the only thing I can see after a quick runthrough) they would probably be dead regardless if the local militia had magic weapons or not.

 

[Kraydak]

This.

In my Pathfinder game, I lamented that NPCs are loaded with junk +1 items, potions, and scrolls that the team rarely uses and instead sells at 1/2 value. They replied with "Sure, but then I buy exactly what I want with the gp."

It takes the wonder out of items and reduces them to another widget.

Statements like this always make me sad. There is no wonder in (owned, IDed) magic items. IDed magic items are a set of rules written down on a character sheet. Or to put it differently, a magic item is like a smart-phone: awesome the day you get it and play with its new features (the IDing process)… and a basic utility tool from then on out. If you want wonder, it is in the not-in-the-PC's hands/not yet IDed items that will be in the next loot haul. But a system that caters to that wonder has to be fairly random: from a wonder perspective, if you know what the present is, it doesn't matter if it is gift-wrapped or no. Of course, if your system is random, you need a catch-up mechanism for people who get unlucky, be it a large supply of not-quite-1st-tier items, or a thriving magic item market.

Just never try to design a magic item system around owned items being sources of wonder. You will fail, and it will cause problems. Not that this keeps people who should know better from trying: it has been a holy grail for nearly 40 years now (how old is D&D?) without even the slightest hint of success.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Just never try to design a magic item system around owned items being sources of wonder. You will fail, and it will cause problems. Not that this keeps people who should know better from trying: it has been a holy grail for nearly 40 years now (how old is D&D?) without even the slightest hint of success.

Says who?

Part of the fun of being a DM is creating magic items with abilities that help maintain that sense of wonder. You aren't going to be able to do that with stock items all with known properties. The key to maintaining that sense of wonder for magical items is to keep the full power and capabilities of them a secret until they are unlocked in play. Never let an information gathering spell discover everything.

An item that still has secrets to reveal is a wondrous item of magic.

An item with fully understood functionality is simply a piece of equipment.

Players are unlikely to sell off or trade away items that have undiscovered properties. As the DM if you sprinkle such items in as treasures and make the emergent properties exciting and somewhat unexpected, then you will be able to have magic items in play that still feel very magical.

 

[Tormyr]

Says who?

Part of the fun of being a DM is creating magic items with abilities that help maintain that sense of wonder. You aren't going to be able to do that with stock items all with known properties. The key to maintaining that sense of wonder for magical items is to keep the full power and capabilities of them a secret until they are unlocked in play. Never let an information gathering spell discover everything.

An item that still has secrets to reveal is a wondrous item of magic.

An item with fully understood functionality is simply a piece of equipment.

Players are unlikely to sell off or trade away items that have undiscovered properties. As the DM if you sprinkle such items in as treasures and make the emergent properties exciting and somewhat unexpected, then you will be able to have magic items in play that still feel very magical.

Back when we were starting our 3.5 conversion adventure path in April under the September playtest rules, there was a +1 short sword near the beginning of the AP. I decided to roll properties of the sword from the tables in the play test. The sword mumbles and the hearer can catch snippets of conversation was one of the properties. This has grown over the last 5 months. The sword's owner is a slightly deranged elf fighter who suffers from PTSD. The sword started taking on a bloodthirsty personality to match its owner. Later, it became a fully sentient weapon and blasted someone else who tried to pick it up when the fighter had fallen. This week, when the party is on a peace mission and they are betrayed, it will try to compel the own to kill the betrayer, which will set the party back in their peace negotiations, and the fighter will have to exert her will over the sword.

This was not what I had envisioned when I first described the sword, but the continual revelation of the sword's nature (almost as a constant NPC) has been great for everyone at the table.

 

[Hatchet Man]

100 soldiers reclaiming magic items

I wonder how a more real-world approach to plunder, taxation, WMDs (weapons of magical destruction) etc would fly in D&D.

Stuff like a nation says that any magic items recovered in its borders are owned by the nation, cannot be sold or transferred, and may be subject to reclamation if misused.

And with bounded accuracy, a hundred soldiers can actually back up such rules.

The problem with this is that about a 3rd of them are not coming back. especially since it is gonna become common knowledge that the wizard with the magic staff has a tendency to cast fireballs on people who come asking for stuff. its easy for the first guy to send a hundred men, not so much for the second guy.

 

[keterys]

The problem with this is that about a 3rd of them are not coming back. especially since it is gonna become common knowledge that the wizard with the magic staff has a tendency to cast fireballs on people who come asking for stuff. its easy for the first guy to send a hundred men, not so much for the second guy.

Fireball doesn't kill that many of them, the wizard has a fair chance of dropping before he acts, and it'd be really awful for that wizard if they had any method whatsoever of counterspelling on them. Even a single use.

It's trickier with a complete band of adventurers, but the point still holds. The country with armies, spies, control of borders, influence with other adventurers, etc? It does pretty well.

People can own grenades in the real world, and that's awful and scary, but the cops can still take them down. And when the cops can't, it can escalate to the actual army.

 

[76512390ag12]

We can assume the army has a cadre of specialists, wizards, clerics, paladins. Any arsy refusenik in a tower would have a serious arsenal facing him or her, and if required the state wouldn't hold back from nuking from orbit, it's not only the only way to be sure, but it has value as pour encourager les autres.

But that's always the dichotomy between the liberal individualist modernist view we have of D&D fantasy as opposed to the likely outcome of either a traditionalist communal society, or even a modernist corporate world which happens to run on magic and oracles and not electricity and silicon.

 

[Larac]

I'd love an item creation system which requires rare components (like gems or herbs) an specific spells rather than a money-based one

I use the old stuff from the EQ Table Top as a guide.

It has metal types and Gem types that give effects.

Also I use something like the Earth Dawn idea, say when the Pally hits 3rd and is a full Paladin, the church gives him a weapon and armor.
As he uses them to follow his/her oath and help the Diety it is blessed by avatars and increases. Sometimes it might be given a Temp. power foreshadowing the need.

Or when the Dwarf Fighter finds a lost Axe of the Clan, it may become more as worth is proved.


Many ways to make them more than just the stats.

 

[CapnZapp]

My group have finally come round to starting a write up of d20ish pricing rules for 5e.

I'm still amazed and dismayed I need to do this myself. Over 6 months in, and noone has already done this...?!