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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 4124926" data-attributes="member: 58197">Yeah, my experience with 2E was that magic items were extremely rare and precious.  But my usual DM was a skinflint who hated to part with so much as a +1 sword.  Not that I'm complaining; even at the time it wasn't a big deal, more of an ongoing joke."I have PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER!  Can you spare 25 cents for a cup of coffee?"(Folks in my current group will recall my own skinflint habits, at least by 3E standards.  This is where that tendency came from, guys.)Yes, this is how it works in 3.X.  Hand out the expected wealth by level or watch the party suck, especially the melee warriors.  Don't think anyone is disputing that.  Those of us who hate Christmas trees are really hoping it works differently in 4E, and it looks like it will.Well, if you run official modules and hand out a bazillion crap items, then sure.Okay, now this is just ridiculous.  PCs can easily have several magic items apiece without feeling like they're loaded down with useless crap.  The important thing is to avoid handing out a lot of redundant items, and to encourage PCs to find clever uses for the stuff they have.Yeah, if you give out a dozen +1 longswords, the PCs will be looking to get rid of those.  So you don't hand out a dozen +1 longswords.  Instead, you hand out a couple healing potions, a decanter of endless water, a +1 dagger, and a deck of illusions.  The party wizard will probably take the dagger as a backup weapon.  The fighter will take the healing potions, since you can never have too many of those--especially when they aren't up for sale in every little hamlet.  The rogue will glom onto the deck of illusions for distraction purposes.  And any party that can't find a thousand and one ingenious uses for a decanter of endless water doesn't deserve to be playing D&D.Notice that you don't really have to worry about any of these items becoming obsolete, either.  The dagger will hardly ever see use, it's mostly just a bit of "cool factor" for the wizard.  The potions are single-use consumables, so by the time the PCs are high enough level that the potions wouldn't be useful, they'll be gone anyway.  And the deck and decanter are handy no matter what level you are.Or, once in a while, go ahead and give out a dozen +1 longswords.  The PCs obviously have no use for them, so they'll be looking for some way to offload them for a benefit.  The question is, offload them to whom, and for what benefit?  Maybe they arm the leaders of a small mercenary company, in exchange for a future favor.  Maybe they try and talk a local lord into giving them a base of operations in exchange for outfitting his household guard.  Or maybe they stash the weapons in anticipation of the day when they themselves have followers they want to arm.This is the 2E mindset; you don't have a handy store where you can just go and sell the items you yourself can't use, so you look for other ways to turn them to advantage.  Yes, this is "limited trade/barter," but it's a far cry from having magic item shops.Now, obviously, if you're going to load the PCs down with magic loot every adventure, this sort of thing gets old in a hurry.  You can only arm so many mercenaries, and you really don't need more than one base of operations.  But so long as a trove of +1 weapons is an extraordinary find, it can be a roleplaying hook instead of an exercise in bookkeeping.</blockquote>

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