D&D 5E Magic Items for individuals?

[EzekielRaiden]

What would be the default campaign assumptions used to assign values to properties? Should they produce several lists to fit different types of campaign?

Absolutely, if they're dead set on giving specific coin values to things. But there are cleverer alternatives that require less space.

For example: Create a set of terms that describe items. So, for instance, all items that allow you to float, fly, hover, etc. could be given the "flight" tag. All items that produce potable liquid (water, wine, beer, etc.) have the "drink" tag. Etc. Then, you include a section which details how items of a given tag influence, and are influenced by, the assumptions of a setting. Flight items are going to have deep effects on basically all areas of the game--and are pretty "flashy" as well, by which I mean their effects are "overt" instead of "subtle." A low-magic campaign might not have any such items at all--or, if any exist, they're more like artifacts (e.g. Hermes' Sandals) than anything else. "Drink" and "food" items (and, potentially, "shelter" items as well) are largely unimportant in a "high fantasy" campaign, but run counter to many of the assumptions of a "survival" campaign (e.g. Dark Sun)--so, again, such items may not exist, or are artifact-like (if anyone ever wanted to sell them, it would only be at fantastically expensive prices).

And then have a page or two dedicated purely to talking about different "kinds of economies" (for lack of a better term), and how those different ideas can support or undermine assumptions involved in various common campaign types (high fantasy, pulp adventure, gritty realism, environmental survival, pre-civilized/post-apoc, etc.)

You wouldn't need more than a word or two added to most magic items--words that should flow pretty obviously from their functions. A page to define the various tags, the aforementioned couple of pages to talk about the interactions with various campaign styles, a couple of pages about the "kinds of economies," and a page with rough advice for how to tweak the prevalence and value of items when they diverge from a given campaign's assumptions. Pad it out to 8 pages total for art, font crap, headings, etc. Hardly going to break the printing presses.

I know that if we sought deep detail on every niggly thing, the book would never be finished. But I literally threw all of the above ideas together in the span of perhaps 15 minutes--probably less. Surely, a SINGLE person, whose actual JOB is to make this kind of stuff, spending a whole day or two on the topic could EASILY produce actual rules to fit that limitation--to say nothing of a TEAM of people all thinking about it for a few days.

 

[Tony Vargas]

It's not like this issue is new. It was the same questions faced by 3E.

Nod. But 3e came up with some answers that 5e has already moved past. 3e magic items, for instance, mostly re-produced spell effects or did thing comparable to what spells could accomplish, so it wasn't that difficult to map items to levels. 5e, in evoking older editions has gone back to at least some items that go well beyond what spells do, making them problematic to just assume at a given level. Instead, it's gone the 'rarity' route. At very least, it'd make sense to exclude rare items for the pricing guidelines...

And since 5E has a similar gold to level ratio compared to 3E (reverse-engineered DMG treasure guidelines).

Or it doesn't, if you don't stick to those guidelines. 5e doesn't assume wealth/level or magic items, so 3e-style magic-item-pricing & wealth/level changes that assumption, and changes the game...

Anyway: your questions are valid, but they are after all only part of the job needing to be done. There's no reason we need to commit to specifics in order to even agree the job can be done or should be done.

I think questions like whether you want low-level items to become trivially available at high level, vs high level items being theoretically w/in reach even at relatively low level is a pretty fundamental one. 3e goes the former way, and that had a definite impact and specific feel. 5e needn't duplicate that decision.

But, there's certainly no reason wealth/level and magic-item pricing couldn't be done for 5e. There's no need to justify whether it 'should' be done, there are just things to keep in mind: - the game assumes magic item placement is primarily in the hands of the DM, that items make the PC that has them 'just better,' and so forth...