D&D 5E Magic Items in 5e... Lackluster?

[Joe Liker]

Let's not forget that this is a core book. In past editions, the crazy-weird stuff never came out in the core books, either. So anyone claiming that these items are boring is only highlighting his own lack of patience and ingenuity.

In fact, all you have to do is Google "D&D Marvelous Magic," and you'll find a pdf of a delightful BECMI supplement chock full of wacky stuff, most of which requires little or no effort to convert to 5e. And when I say "no effort," that's exactly what I mean -- a lot of these items break the rules of reality and narrative rather than game rules, so conversion is simply not necessary.

 

[Nebulous]

In fact, all you have to do is Google "D&D Marvelous Magic," and you'll find a pdf of a delightful BECMI supplement chock full of wacky stuff, most of which requires little or no effort to convert to 5e. And when I say "no effort," that's exactly what I mean -- a lot of these items break the rules of reality and narrative rather than game rules, so conversion is simply not necessary.

Barrel of Monkeys: When this barrel is
examined, the victim looking inside it must make
a saving throw vs. spells or be polymorphed into
a white ape (see D&D® Basic Set, page 25, and the
polymorph other spell, Expert Set, page 13 for
details). In addition, regardless of the results of
the saving throw, one white ape appears within
the barrel and leaps out, attacking anyone
nearby. Another white ape appears each turn
thereafter, until 100 of the creatures have been
created or until a remove curse spell is applied.
The barrel loses all its magical powers if moved
by hand, but may be transported by the use of
telekinesis


Aahh...sweet, sweet gonzo madness just for the sake of it.

 

[KarinsDad]

Except that your premise is patently not true. While an Oathbow is similar, because it increases the number of hits and the damage, the actual mechanics are very different. A +X item and an Oathbow will perform very differently in different situations. If you blur the distinctions to the extent you are proposing, you may as well just lump all damage increasing items into the same category and then complain that there's no variety.

The premise is basically true for the PCs. PCs do not know about game mechanics. As for a player, if different mechanics for the same basic results (i.e. better to hit and damage) the majority of the time is flavorful for you, that's fine. Just don't presume like you did that different mechanics makes an item cool for everyone. Different, yes. Cool and flavorable, not necessarily. Just something else to keep track of.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I'd love to see a 5e book of magic items that deviates from the default. For example, wands recharge at a different rate. Hand out some cursed items that give a big boost but all of a sudden the PCs discover the drawback, and they have to weigh the pros and cons to keep it or not. Another alternative...hand out Magic items way above the suggested level. Maybe a 3rd level character gets a ring of invisibility and another finds a Staff of the Magi. Could that break the game? Maybe, sure. Or, it could lead into a whole fascinating story arc of how to deal with the repercussions of having powerful magic that everyone else wants.

In my experience, this does not break the game. My current campaign started off with the players looting the body of the archmage whose army they had been a part of up until everybody but them died. Took them a little while to identify all the items, but by 3rd level they had a Robe of the Neutral Archmagi, Wand of Web, and Sword of Lifestealing. The only one which has significantly impacted play so far is the Robe of the Neutral Archmagi, which has served the dual purpose of modestly increasing the wizard's AC and attacks, and also preventing him from going full-out creepy evil necromancer (because if he does the robe will stop working). The Wand of Web got pulled out once early on during a fight with goblins, and the Sword of Lifestealing got pulled out to deal with a jackalwere that had taken 80+ HP of damage from regular weapons without blinking, but for the most part the character abilities have gotten a hundred times more screen time than their magic items. (This is great! It's why I came back to D&D with 5E: no video-game like magic item dependency.)

Giving low-level characters powerful magic items has had less impact on my campaign than my decision to let the barbarian tame a wolf (after beating its goblin masters to death with another wolf's unconscious body).

 

[Nebulous]

Giving low-level characters powerful magic items has had less impact on my campaign than my decision to let the barbarian tame a wolf (after beating its goblin masters to death with another wolf's unconscious body).

That's good to hear, and maybe that's a direction for me to take 5e. Don't sweat the small magic items or worry about level appropriate - incorporate the BIG ones and make them story based. And under no circumstances give anyone a pet wolf!

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

That's good to hear, and maybe that's a direction for me to take 5e. Don't sweat the small magic items or worry about level appropriate - incorporate the BIG ones and make them story based. And under no circumstances give anyone a pet wolf!

The wolf has actually been great. He tries really hard to keep it alive, to the extent that I'm going to let him invest free levelups from his character tree in his wolf instead of in a PC, although I've warned him that the wolf will get far less out of it than a PC would. (Extra 1d8 HP per "level", and occasional proficiency bonus boosts and/or Str boosts.) Actually my whole campaign is turning into Minion Madness. They've captured some hobgoblins and forced them to fight for them; at one point the PCs gave away some information which made the hobgoblins turn on them and try to kill them, so the PCs beat them unconscious (hobgoblins knocked out one PC and tried to coup de grace his unconscious body but kept missing it, hilariously) and tied them up again, but that experience still hasn't prevented the wizard (Nox) from trying to tempt one hobgoblin (Grindle) to the dark side by offering to take him on as an apprentice wizard, even after Grindle tried to kill him in his sleep when they were alone on a "hunting trip". (The turning point of that experience was where Nox let Grindle attack him several times while just talking at him, and then when Grindle finally tried to run off into the wilderness, Nox tripped Grindle, punched him unconscious, and then revived him with a natural 20 on a Medicine check. Grindle was like, "How did you do that?!? I thought wizards were weaklings!" and it was a turning point in that their relationship. At this point Grindle is still hostile but also actually listening to Nox's proposals. It's amazing how much effort he's investing in an NPC who still has only 11 HP and could die at any time.)

To make a long story short, my PCs collect NPCs and (hostile?) monsters like munchkins collect (cursed?) treasure.