D&D 5E Magic Items found during the game: How do you handle the "oh look, this random dungeon just happens to have that sword my character wanted."

[S'mon]

PCs and NPCs might have different stats and abilities, but that's a matter of convenience for the sake of bookkeeping. The fundamental reality of the game-world must be that PCs and NPCs are identical, because the concept of PC or NPC is not something that exists within the game world.

The concept of Feats is also not something that exists within the game world. And the rules don't model the world (not even in 3e!), they only model some of the on-camera interaction between the PCs and the world. It would be a pretty weird and impoverished world that was restricted to the rules in the books.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Right. The distribution of magical weapons throughout the world depends on whether that world allows for feats. If nunchaku are great with the right feat, and terrible without it, then you'll find more magical nunchaku in a world with feats than in the world without feats.

This is true if magical items are created on-demand within an economy that resembles the current economy. If you're running a world where most magical items are thousands of years old (relics of the Ermorian Empire before it was crushed by the rise of Xibalba), magic item distribution will resemble whatever was popular among Ermorian Augur Elders and their opponents. (Shortswords and lorica segmenta for the Ermorians, greatswords for the brutish Ulmishmen.) If you're running a world where most magic items are not deliberated created at all but are powerful echoes of great deeds, you might find a powerful enchanted frying pan with which a heroic washerwidow held off six orcish raiders long enough for all of her children to escape to safety before perishing herself (Cullanagh, Frying Pan +3 (1d4 +3) of Lifestealing, never gets dirty, grants wielder advantage on all Perception checks for hearing) just as easily as you'd find a magical polearm (Dailini, Halberd +1, favorite weapon of Legate Gaius Polycritus who commanded the palace guard for 20 years; it was said he spent more time alone with this weapon than with his own wife). In such a world, the unusual may be more likely than the commonplace to become enchanted.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

And the rules don't model the world (not even in 3e!), they only model some of the on-camera interaction between the PCs and the world. It would be a pretty weird and impoverished world that was restricted to the rules in the books.

True, but the part that determines how magic weapons work is something which is modeled with the rules, and they must work similarly whether on-camera or off-camera, because the camera is not a concept which exists within the game world.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Something I used to struggle with back during 3rd and 4th edition was basically the Christmas list of items they wanted. For somethings I would say the players needed to research the items and could possibly have them made, but I always hated then that random chest in some random dungeon just happen to have that item a player was asking me for. It all felt planted to me and really took the fun and mystery out of finding a new item. I never personally liked to find items that I needed for a build.

Characters who really want a give item should 'quest' for it. Don't go into a random dungeon, but one where such an item was rumored to be hidden/lost/created. Or research how to create one. Or earn a boon from some uberwizard/demigod/djinn/whatever and ask for the item.

How do you handle these things in 5th edition?

In theory, items aren't needed so it's moot. Just don't hand out items, or don't worry about whether players want the items you place. Magic items make you 'just better,' they're icing, you should be as effective as you have any right to be (for the choices you made) at your level without 'em. If your +2 Glaive-Guisarme of Brachiation doesn't fit your build/concept/sense-of-aesthetics/whatever it's still +2, and you can't argue with that making you better at slashing things under Bounded Accuracy.

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

If players want an item that suits their 'build', they better make a build dependent on common items (greatsword in Barbarian Altanis, say) and hope they get lucky.

That's something that should be explained during Session 0.

 

[S_Dalsgaard]

Which is really, really weird. If polearms are obviously the best weapon, then you'd expect that any NPC who crafted a magical weapon would choose to make a polearm.

Not that they are the best weapon for every situation, mind, but the distribution of magical weapons throughout the world should reflect the set of weapons that are actually used.

That is true, but considering the average soldier probably wouldn't have proficiency in polearms, unless he was a guard outside the royal castle or in a unit specialized in that weapon, there are more people in the world (at least in mine) that use swords than polearms. Soldiers and guards rarely chose their own weapons. If you take the guys that could actually afford to have magical weapons made, they are nobles who probably wouldn't want to sport a fancy halberd at the parade. I would actually think, that one of the most common magic weapons would be a rapier (if they are included in your campaign). As for adventurers, they are fairly rare and whatever magic weapons they commission will probably be a fairly small number compared to what nobles and other rich people commission (whether they need them or not).

Fortunately it isn't really a problem for me because I haven't had a polearm-wielding PC in my game since the late '80s (granted, I didn't play much from '95 to 2014, but still).

 

[aramis erak]

Something I used to struggle with back during 3rd and 4th edition was basically the Christmas list of items they wanted. For somethings I would say the players needed to research the items and could possibly have them made, but I always hated then that random chest in some random dungeon just happen to have that item a player was asking me for. It all felt planted to me and really took the fun and mystery out of finding a new item. I never personally liked to find items that I needed for a build.

How do you handle these things in 5th edition?

I have

• had the villains using the magic item
• Had the magic item holding back a curse (the Legend of Zelda method)
• Had them be inobvious.

 

[kalil]

I dont let the random dungeon contain specific items the characters want. I do one of the following things instead:

1) Let the random dungeon contain an item that is so cool that the characters could not even imagine wanting it (you wanted a Greatsword +1? Here, have an intelligent greatsword +2 that gives you a quest to hunt down the helmet and breastplate to go with it) or,
2) Let the quest to clear the dungeon earn a custom magic item rewards from the local wizard or,
3) Allow the sword specialized fighter that found a magic axe to retrain for axes as a downtime activity

 

[S'mon]

That's something that should be explained during Session 0.

4e D&D is the only edition that actually has "give players the magic items they ask for" in the books, so in that edition I tell them I don't use wish lists. If crafting is harder than RAW then I'll tell them that too. There's nothing in 5e about giving players items to suit their build, and I've never seen an issue with this in any edition. Apparently there are players playing 5e who expect to be given the magic items they want to suit their conception of their character, but this is the first I've heard of it.

 

[S'mon]

True, but the part that determines how magic weapons work is something which is modeled with the rules, and they must work similarly whether on-camera or off-camera, because the camera is not a concept which exists within the game world.

I can see there's no reasoning with you...

In 4e or 5e though, most NPCs don't use Feats, they have abilities assigned by the GM. NPCs may well
have particular abilities with certain weapons, abilities that are not in the PHB.