D&D 5E (2024) Martial Magic Items Thoughts?

[Maxperson]

So you have a clash between game expectations of wild-west loop dropping

Magic lassos?

 

[Maxperson]

What I think a majority of players are seeking is a comfortable synthesis between the two, where you keep the excitement of random loot drops, but characters can still utilize those drops to eventually outfit their character according to their vision. ARPGs like Diablo and Path of Exile excel at this approach, but D&D just kind of nibbles at the edges with magic item crafting rules in a DM-focused addendum, rather than a robust player-facing toolkit for turning unwanted loot into wanted powerups.

As a serious answer, I do just that. I randomly roll about half the magic items and select the other half myself with what I think one or more PCs might like that also fits the fiction.

 

[Warnavick]

Unless you meant that the patch is removable, and so you can take it off the greataxe and stick it on your dagger? If that is the case, then it solves the versatility issue. Whether it’s a nice enough flavor of magic for a fantasy setting, I don’t know.

There could be other similar variants of this solution too, e.g., magic comes from a gem on the hilt of a weapon. You can pay a blacksmith to scavenge the gem from a weapon and install it on a new one, and that costs less than enchanting from scratch. So it’s not as pedestrian as a sticker, and carries inertia, but still achieves the transferability goal.

An example of this is in Pathfinder 2e. The game has magic runes inscribed on magic weapons and armor as the basis of nearly all magic properties. Those runes can be transfered to a new item of the same category so weapon to weapon sort of thing. The cost of transferring the magic of these runes is cheaper then getting a new rune. There are some other restrictions of course ,but its usually pretty obvious when those apply. Such as you can't have a vorpal rune on a blunt or piercing weapon.

 

[CreamCloud0]

Why do you say that the designers assume that such resistances will just be bypassed in one way or another? There's no point in giving a monster a resistance at all if you're going to assume that it does nothing.

because i don't think it was their intention that all martials would forever be doing half weapon damage against a notable percentage of higher level monsters?

 

[Maxperson]

because i don't think it was their intention that all martials would forever be doing half weapon damage against a notable percentage of higher level monsters?

It's not their intention that they forever do half damage. Nor is it their intention that they never do half damage. Nor is it their intention that they do half damage half the time. They have no intention in this regard.

They designed the monsters without magic weapons being taken into consideration. Add them in. Don't add them in. Hand them out like candy. Give half the martials magic weapons. It's entirely a DM decision with DM intention as to how often they do half damage.

 

[TwoSix]

As a serious answer, I do just that. I randomly roll about half the magic items and select the other half myself with what I think one or more PCs might like that also fits the fiction.

I go a little further; I drop a ton of consumables and weaker attunement items (enough so that 3 attunement slots is a real limitation). Then, as the game progresses, the players find NPCs/boons/special locations that will let them gain stronger items, but usually at the cost of several of their weaker items. The overall scope of the actual item is driven by the player, but there's a fair amount of randomness around the edges, depending on the items used.

 

[Quartz]

Most of the weapons are longswords, which is fine if you use that, and disappointing if you don’t…

It's not difficult for a GM to turn a longsword into a spear or warhammer or whatever.

But weapons are set in stone (well, in metal).

IIRC there used to be (in 3E) a special quality called 'Any' which allowed a weapon to change its size.

There is a dichotomy there… either armor should be fitted (and too bad if you ain’t a dwarf on the taller side, or a chubby human, or whatever, because that armor ain’t fitting you!)

There was mass-produced plate armour in the late middle-ages, called munition armour.

 

[ECMO3]

That is fine in the abstract but does not necessarily make sense nor solve the deeper issue…

The proposal is similar to tomes and manuals which are consumable and grant +2 to a stat.

In 5.5E manuals are no longer consumable, they recharge after 100 years.

This means your Elf can potentially use one 9 or 10 times.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Sure, but this is a case where the game is following the audience. Players want their martial types to specialize in a weapon, because most martial exemplars in fictional inspirations also utilize a chosen weapon. And 5e, at its core, is about enabling player vision for their characters.

So you have a clash between game expectations of wild-west loop dropping, where you have a lot of randomized drops a la Diablo or roguelikes, and players are expected to adapt to the dropped items, and the curated character expression of bog-standard 5e.

What I think a majority of players are seeking is a comfortable synthesis between the two, where you keep the excitement of random loot drops, but characters can still utilize those drops to eventually outfit their character according to their vision. ARPGs like Diablo and Path of Exile excel at this approach, but D&D just kind of nibbles at the edges with magic item crafting rules in a DM-focused addendum, rather than a robust player-facing toolkit for turning unwanted loot into wanted powerups.

It's worth noting that in video games you tend to get a lot of dropped loot - it's okay if only 1/20 dropped weapons matches your subclass, since you'll be getting 100+ weapon drops by the time yo reach endgame. A 1/1000 chance of getting the exact weapon you want is just more play time.

In 5e DnD (according to XGE), you rarely get more than 5 permanent magic items - if you can't use one, you're stuck for several levels, which feels pretty bad.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Sure, but this is a case where the game is following the audience.

I don't really care why it is the way it is.

That it is this way is all that really matters to me.

(That said, the rest of your analysis is good and I generally agree.)