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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 5568890" data-attributes="member: 59082">I'm working on a house rule for our campaign and I'm trying to understand something. What do the rules assume a character has in terms of magic items at different levels?There are three main bonuses slots: weapon/implement (attack/damage), armor (AC), neck (Defenses). I would add a secondary weapon/implement in the roster of what a character is assumed to have as a base magic item "wardrobe." Actually, a character may have any number of wondrous items, potions, and other doodads, but in terms of bonused items that a character "must" have in order to stay competitive, it is 3-4 items; I'm saying 4, because many characters will have a ranged and a melee option.So if we every character, at least once they get into mid-Heroic tier, has at least these four basic items. But what do the rules assume the items' bonuses are at different levels? I can think of four rules that give us some kind of information:First of all, as we all know magic item bonuses go up every five levels so that items exist in "bonus tiers": +1 is levels 1-5, +2 levels 6-10, +3 levels 11-15, +4 levels 16-20, +5 levels 21-25, and +6 levels 26-30.Then you have the Inherent Bonuses optional rule whereby a characters attack, damage, AC, and Defenses go up one point every five levels, starting at 4th (+1), 9th (+2), 14th (+3), 19th (+4), 24th (+5), and 29th (+6).Thirdly, if you look at the treasure parcels in the DMG (pages 126-129), during 8-10 encounters which comprise a level of play, a party of five characters is assumed to have found 10 treasure parcels that includes four magic items: One four levels higher, one three levels higher, one two levels higher, and one one level higher. This means that it is assume that at least one character has a magic item four levels higher than they are.Finally, the rules for starting PCs at higher level (DMG, p. 143) recommend giving a PC three magic items, one below their level, one of their level, and one a level higher.All four of these rules give different information. On one hand the treasure parcels assume that during each level, a character in the party has an item four levels higher; assuming that the character getting that four levels higher item changes every level, it also means that there is someone with an item three levels higher. It would seem that in an egalitarian campaign, a PC would get that item once every six levels, right? But then the rules for starting PCs at a higher level are much more conservative - the highest level item is only one above.The Inherent Bonuses rule don't give us an idea of when a PC should get an item of higher level except in that they do tell us when a PC should have a bonus in ALL slots - that is, at the latest. So any thoughts on this? I'm basically wanting to make a chart of characters level 1-30 and see what bonused items are assumed at different levels.</blockquote>

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