Magic Item Rewards: How Do You Do It!?

[Christopher Delvo]

I haven't been on these boards in a long, LONG time. However, I remember the strong discussions that were had on these boards, and I was hoping to get some feedback on a topic that's been perplexing me, lately.

How do you, as players and GMs, like to handle magic items awarded in your games? This is kind of a three-part question, though, so I'll write each part individually, below.


1.) As a GM, what kind of magic items do you usually award to your players (consumables, weapons, wands, etc.), and how often do you usually award them magic items? Do you prefer your items to have charges, or to grant passive/at-will bonuses?

2.) As a player, what kind of magic items do you LIKE being awarded with (consumables, weapons, wands, etc.)? And how often do you like gaining new magic items? Do you prefer your items to have charges, or to grant passive/at-will bonuses?

3.) Would you prefer unique magic items that have a story/history to them (I.E. A sword forged by an ancient dwarven smith that can cleave through stone as if it were paper), or magic items with definitive rules that are easier to understand (+1 keen vicious longsword).

There is no right answer to any of these questions. I'm just looking to collect information, as I'm working on a blog post regarding this topic, and it's become a bit of an annoyance since I don't really know how the people at large feel about it.

Feel free to elaborate, if you like.

Thank you in advance for your feedback.

 

[Razjah]

1) This depends on system, players, and genre. If I am playing a FATE game, I can give some powerful one-shot effect like a potion that boosts strength to allow someone's base damage with a sword to bump from 3 to 5 or 6. Cool! In D&D I sometimes give consumable items to make sure the PCs have some method of dealing with an upcoming challenge. Overall, I prefer static items since they require less book keeping for everyone involved.

2) I hate consumables because as I player I'm always tempted to hang on to the item for a "worse situation" which means I'm level 10 with multiple cure light wounds potions still in my haversack. However, in a game like Savage Worlds, FATE, or a different lighter system, I can get behind some potions or rings or whatever with a one shot effect that can really help my character. In most D&D/PFRPG games I've played the potions tend to become a lot less effective once magic gear shows up. Bear's Strength doesn't stack with a Belt of Giant Strength, so why do I need those potions?

I like gaining new items more frequently when there is a "treadmill" of challenge ratings or difficulty. I want my character to feel like he got more powerful, moving from Orcs to Ogres and still needing a 12+ to hit even with a better sword and BAB doesn't make me feel like anything changed. But in a game with flatter math or a story with much rarer magic, I can wait longer between items. If I'm playing in a LotR style game, magic items are rare and very powerful, so I can understand not getting many throughout a campaign. But in typical D&D style, it's expected to get a lot even just to manage the expected wealth/PC power level via gear.

3) I much prefer story based items. I also dislike the mechanical reliance on magical items D&D and PFRPG use for their system math. It is also much harder to become attached to gear since it can be replaced so easily. I remember reading The Further Chronicles of Conan the Barbarian by Robert Jordan in high school, one story includes Conan checking out various weapons in a market. Nothing compared to his ancient sword. I want that! I want to find some fantastically awesome sword in some ruin/dungeon/dragon's hoard or taken from a fallen enemy or ally. A group of PCs find a matched set of magical swords becoming famous as the Scarlet Blades is a great story. Ditching those blades to some city vendor after slaying a dragon.... not so cool.

Oh, I also prefer story items because you can let players feel awesome by breaking the rules a bit more. A vorpal sword in D&D is considered too powerful for most low level campaigns. But if you allow a fourth level character to find a +1 vorpal sword, it becomes a pretty memorable experience.

 

[delericho]

All of what follows is specific to 3e. And, unfortunately, it was something I only hit on with my last 3e campaign - I spent more than a decade being not-quite-happy with the way I was handling treasure, and found the fix just as I left the system behind.

First thing: I use a house rule that 'found' gear is sold at 20% of the book value, not 50%. I then give out considerably more gear than would be indicated by the Wealth by Level table.

About a third of the treasure I give out is 'valuables' - mostly coin, but also artworks, gems, jewellery, etc etc. Oh, and any magic items the party can't use. That is, anything that has no direct impact on PC power falls into this category.

For the other two thirds I give out items, but skew these more towards the 'interesting' end of the spectrum. That is, magic weapons will invariably have some special property (keen, vicious, etc), as will armour, there are lots of wondrous items, and so on.

But what I specifically don't give the players is the very item they would have bought - they don't find belts of giant's strength or the holy longsword +1, bane vs evil outsiders, or similar items. I don't particularly have anything against the "Big Six" - they're just a bit boring.

(In particular with weapons the item will have one special property, and the value of that property will be within +/-1 of the item's 'real' plus. That's partly about balancing, partly about not overloading any single item with too much complexity, and partly just an easy and useful rule of thumb.)

This gives the players an interesting choice: they can sell the 'found' items and buy the optimised items for their class, or they can keep the 'found' items and thus have (nominally) more powerful treasure. Either way, it works out about the same.

I very rarely give out one-shot or charges items, except at fairly low level. When I do give such items out, it tends to be a scroll of some spell of considerably higher level than the party wizard can cast anyway - thus giving him that moment of 'cool' as he gets to cast a BIG spell at a key moment... once.

Oh, and as I alluded to before: I pretty much allow PCs to buy and sell items freely. The only real limit to that is that 20% resale price, which means they lose a lot (numerically speaking) by doing so.