D&D 5E Magic Item Creation in 5E

[billd91]

By changing the base assumption of the classes, and increasing the variety of potions.

Fighters will not be "equipment-based" anymore, but they will be able to improve their prowess in combat for short amounts of time through the use of potions, oils, and other temporary magic items.

A quicksilver potion will make a weapon perform as a +1 silver weapon for 1 hour, for example. Essence of Fire, when applied to a blade, makes it a flaming weapon for 1 minute. Using Dwarven Oil to sharpen your blade will briefly make it a keen +1 weapon. Anointing your dagger with holy water = holy weapon for 1 round. So on and so forth.

I'll admit, it's not for everyone. But I think this house-rule will "fix" a lot of the problems I've had with magic items in 3.5E. Time will tell.

I can certainly empathize with wanting to get rid of a succession of oddball ways to cobble synergizing gear together. And I think use of potions/oils to put the odd effects of weapon enhancements temporarily on weapons will probably work well.

I would suggest also restricting wands, making them a lot more expensive relative to potions, or getting rid of a whole lot of offensive spells to reduce the power of wizards. Reducing magic items a bit will keep some things out of their hands like persistent defenses. But unless you're prepared to cut them back more, they'll have a lot of tools at their disposal that fighters and rogues can't compete with. Take flying for example. Wizards get the fly spell pretty easily, but at least winged boots and a few other magic items can be wielded by fighters to equalize things out a little bit. Remove the winged boots and that really cuts down a fighter's potential to fly as regularly.

One other idea is the use of weapons and armor with pluses. Those can easily be reskinned (as masterwork nearly is) as varying manufacturing secrets or materials, giving you ways to still allow martial characters to have special persistent advancements. The fortification property of armor is also another good candidate for this treatment. They're all subtle effects and easy to have in low magic setting, particularly if you don't have too many variations on them. Take, for example, Thieves' World's Walegrin character. In Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn, he's on a quest to recover the secret of Enlibar steel - a secret formula for the metal that makes for better weapons. That could be equivalent to a +2 weapon but not actually magical. Food for thought anyway, and one of the reasons I've always liked + weapons in my D&D and would like to see them continue into 5e (to draw this side topic of conversation back around to the point of the thread).

 

[CleverNickName]

A friend of mine used to do that, after killing a Black Dragon we were able to craft items from it... 5E Magical Items should be created by rituals. Stronger items should need rare items and circunstances to create, such as solstices, heart of mountains, etc...

I could get on board with item creation rituals...it makes a lot of sense, especially for story-driven games. Magical items in fantasy novels have excellent stories about how they were forged in the heart of volcanoes or carved from the teeth of dragons.

But, like others have said, it would be too easy to hobble the martial-based classes if magic items are too scarce. The 5E rules would need a way to compensate for the lack of magical firepower at low-to-mid level. That's why I would like to see a larger selection of disposable "potions" that can be used to anoint a weapon and give it a temporary boost.

Wizards get the fly spell pretty easily, but at least winged boots and a few other magic items can be wielded by fighters to equalize things out a little bit. Remove the winged boots and that really cuts down a fighter's potential to fly as regularly.

True, but the party could always purchase a potion of flying or similar item. I can see how a fighter might need to fly on occasion, but being able to fly at will? That's epic magic, the stuff of gods and ancient myths...not something you buy at the store or make in your basement.

One other idea is the use of weapons and armor with pluses.

*snip*

That could be equivalent to a +2 weapon but not actually magical. Food for thought anyway, and one of the reasons I've always liked + weapons in my D&D and would like to see them continue into 5e (to draw this side topic of conversation back around to the point of the thread).

I do too, and I really hope they stay around. I would rather have a variety of non-magical ways to improve gear instead of a list of magical ones, even if the difference is merely cosmetic. Adamantine weapons and armor are excellent examples of this treatment...I'd love to see a larger list of special materials in 5E.