Zardnaar
Legend
One of the best things 5E done IMHO is dump the expected wealth by level system of magic items and the tread mill system of 4E. Either way no more buying magic items. A common comment about 5E these days is magic items feel magical again. We figured this out a few years ago when we went back to AD&D and retroclones in 2012 and before that with Pathfinder we had also dumped wealth by level guidelines and went back to AD&D ways of doing things if nt outright copies of AD&D magic items. I played AD&D with 3E onwards players not grognards and they enjoyed things like getting +3 frostbrands at level 5 or 6.
This of course is also a kick in the nuts for power gamers. Which I am fine with. Assume for a while that you could buy magic items in 5E. I suspect for the most part one would be reduced to around 3 weapons used (rapier, longsword, greatswords) with the occasional weapon sneaking in for certain classes (spears for monks, great axes for barbarians etc). We are not quite back to the variety of weapons one saw being used in AD&D but its not to bad. In 5E if a +2 spear turns up people seem to be likely to use it. Unless it was very powerful in 3E one would be more likely to sell said weapon and turn it into a deposit on a +2 whatever you want as most of the cost of a magic weapon was the enhancements on it not the actual mundane part itself. In 4E you just needed enough cash, a ritual and one hour to do the same thing no reason to even go back to town.
In my experience a side effect of this was that it turned D&D into D&D the Accounting. 4E aimed for balance at all costs it seemed and magic items were a little boring because of the narrow range of power and expected power by level. In 5E the magic is back with some powerful magic weapons available early in ones career up to and including a +2 intelligent Sunblade that you might get from level 3 or so in Out of the Abyss and the Elemental weapons available in Princes of the Apocalypse.
In 5E there are also a couple of feats widely considered to be overpowered if not out right broken. They are Great Weapon Fighting and Sharpshooter both of which enable -5 to hit and +10 damage. In theory a mins 5 penalty is a big issue but it does not play well with the advantage mechanic and classes that can get advantage such as Barbarians and Avenger Paladins along with spells. Sharpshooter has the added bonus of not being required to get up close (GWM suck at range) and the +2 archery style helps offset the -5 penalty. Combine with bless, bard dice, advantage granting spells to offset the penalty and there is not as much of a drawback at firing into melee vs a GWM getting caught out at range.
In my games you are probably not going to come across a highly magical great weapon or bow and finding a magical hand cross bow is probably not going to happen full stop. I am not going out of my way to screw a player over so if an adventure has a good two handed weapon in it (HotDQ for example) the PCs will get that, I am just not likely to change a weapon to something the PCs are specialized in. This is to limit rocket tag and power creep. For example a great weapon master PC can use the cleave part of that feat with a versatile longsword but can't use the -5/+10 part of the feat. If they come across something requiring a magic weapon to hit or resistant to non magical weapon that PC gets a choice of uber damage (half), maybe no damage, or consistent damage using an "inferior" weapon. As a DM I am not going to enable his best option all of the time. A PC trying to abuse crossbow expert+ sharpshooter combo is not very likley to find a convenient magical hand cross bow. Magical Polearms are also going to be rare.
In effect this buffs one handed weapons both because I am more likely to put in a holy avenger longsword than a great sword but also in the context of a prepublished adventure. HotDQ, PotA and OotA have a heavy amount of magical one handed weapons in them. So do other adventures such as Quests of Doom. If a PC is lagging in damage a bit (Valor Bard vs Fighter) I would be more likely to put in something to make the Valor Bard a bit better than the fighter. I also put in magical simple weapons as well such as spears and daggers. Putting a powerful magical effect on such a weapon rather than the "best" weapons.
I am also somewhat generous as well. I have no problems putting in things like Holy Avengers either (at say level 6-8) the difference is the PC getting that will still be using said weapon 10 levels later as I will not put in an upgrade for it. More powerful magic weapons also tend to be good aligned ones as well. This is to slightly discourage things like CN PCs being played like CE as I ban evil alignments at the game table as a general rule. I will also consider putting in a powerful magic weapon if someone rolls bad ability scores and keeps their PC. A 12 strength fighter with 10 con might find Gauntlets of Ogre Power and a +3 weapon a bit earlier than what they might be expecting. We use 4d6 drop the lowest and I try not to screw PCs over if they get a little hosed by the dice. My players have rocked up with PCs with ability scores in the 5-6 range.
If we were not using feats I would also let the magic items creep out a bit. In this scenario I would consider things like +3 great swords that the PCs could find at some point. Modern D&D (3E+) tends to have problems when you can stack feats and magic items together such as keen+improved critical in 3.0 or Frostcheese in 4E and bonus to hit weapons +SS/GMW in 5E. I would also be more willing to try and run a game to level 20 in a featless game. Of course if you want a powerful game throw in a few +2 two handed weapons, bows and hand crossbows and see what happens ( I don't recommend it but if you enjoy it go ahead).
TLDR
Magic items shuold be used to either balance the game or enable the play style you want to play rather than be some sort of assumed feature.
This of course is also a kick in the nuts for power gamers. Which I am fine with. Assume for a while that you could buy magic items in 5E. I suspect for the most part one would be reduced to around 3 weapons used (rapier, longsword, greatswords) with the occasional weapon sneaking in for certain classes (spears for monks, great axes for barbarians etc). We are not quite back to the variety of weapons one saw being used in AD&D but its not to bad. In 5E if a +2 spear turns up people seem to be likely to use it. Unless it was very powerful in 3E one would be more likely to sell said weapon and turn it into a deposit on a +2 whatever you want as most of the cost of a magic weapon was the enhancements on it not the actual mundane part itself. In 4E you just needed enough cash, a ritual and one hour to do the same thing no reason to even go back to town.
In my experience a side effect of this was that it turned D&D into D&D the Accounting. 4E aimed for balance at all costs it seemed and magic items were a little boring because of the narrow range of power and expected power by level. In 5E the magic is back with some powerful magic weapons available early in ones career up to and including a +2 intelligent Sunblade that you might get from level 3 or so in Out of the Abyss and the Elemental weapons available in Princes of the Apocalypse.
In 5E there are also a couple of feats widely considered to be overpowered if not out right broken. They are Great Weapon Fighting and Sharpshooter both of which enable -5 to hit and +10 damage. In theory a mins 5 penalty is a big issue but it does not play well with the advantage mechanic and classes that can get advantage such as Barbarians and Avenger Paladins along with spells. Sharpshooter has the added bonus of not being required to get up close (GWM suck at range) and the +2 archery style helps offset the -5 penalty. Combine with bless, bard dice, advantage granting spells to offset the penalty and there is not as much of a drawback at firing into melee vs a GWM getting caught out at range.
In my games you are probably not going to come across a highly magical great weapon or bow and finding a magical hand cross bow is probably not going to happen full stop. I am not going out of my way to screw a player over so if an adventure has a good two handed weapon in it (HotDQ for example) the PCs will get that, I am just not likely to change a weapon to something the PCs are specialized in. This is to limit rocket tag and power creep. For example a great weapon master PC can use the cleave part of that feat with a versatile longsword but can't use the -5/+10 part of the feat. If they come across something requiring a magic weapon to hit or resistant to non magical weapon that PC gets a choice of uber damage (half), maybe no damage, or consistent damage using an "inferior" weapon. As a DM I am not going to enable his best option all of the time. A PC trying to abuse crossbow expert+ sharpshooter combo is not very likley to find a convenient magical hand cross bow. Magical Polearms are also going to be rare.
In effect this buffs one handed weapons both because I am more likely to put in a holy avenger longsword than a great sword but also in the context of a prepublished adventure. HotDQ, PotA and OotA have a heavy amount of magical one handed weapons in them. So do other adventures such as Quests of Doom. If a PC is lagging in damage a bit (Valor Bard vs Fighter) I would be more likely to put in something to make the Valor Bard a bit better than the fighter. I also put in magical simple weapons as well such as spears and daggers. Putting a powerful magical effect on such a weapon rather than the "best" weapons.
I am also somewhat generous as well. I have no problems putting in things like Holy Avengers either (at say level 6-8) the difference is the PC getting that will still be using said weapon 10 levels later as I will not put in an upgrade for it. More powerful magic weapons also tend to be good aligned ones as well. This is to slightly discourage things like CN PCs being played like CE as I ban evil alignments at the game table as a general rule. I will also consider putting in a powerful magic weapon if someone rolls bad ability scores and keeps their PC. A 12 strength fighter with 10 con might find Gauntlets of Ogre Power and a +3 weapon a bit earlier than what they might be expecting. We use 4d6 drop the lowest and I try not to screw PCs over if they get a little hosed by the dice. My players have rocked up with PCs with ability scores in the 5-6 range.
If we were not using feats I would also let the magic items creep out a bit. In this scenario I would consider things like +3 great swords that the PCs could find at some point. Modern D&D (3E+) tends to have problems when you can stack feats and magic items together such as keen+improved critical in 3.0 or Frostcheese in 4E and bonus to hit weapons +SS/GMW in 5E. I would also be more willing to try and run a game to level 20 in a featless game. Of course if you want a powerful game throw in a few +2 two handed weapons, bows and hand crossbows and see what happens ( I don't recommend it but if you enjoy it go ahead).
TLDR
Magic items shuold be used to either balance the game or enable the play style you want to play rather than be some sort of assumed feature.
