Matt Colville’s Strongholds and Followers

[doctorbadwolf]

I backed the Kickstarter but haven't read the PDF thoroughly yet. I like that it attempts to find a use for gold in 5e and that it addresses mass combat.

I mean, magic items and high level spell components aren’t cheap.

 

[Retreater]

I mean, magic items and high level spell components aren’t cheap.

Except there's no guidelines at all to buy magic items and it's pretty much specifically disallowed by the RAW and no official content I've seen indicates a setting where this can happen.
And really, does anyone ever get to a high enough level to cast those spells? Official adventures suggest the game ends at 11th level.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Except there's no guidelines at all to buy magic items and it's pretty much specifically disallowed by the RAW and no official content I've seen indicates a setting where this can happen.
And really, does anyone ever get to a high enough level to cast those spells? Official adventures suggest the game ends at 11th level.

I think each of these statements is untrue, actually.

There are guidelines in the DMG and Xanathar’s Guide To Everything for buying magic items.

Buying magic items is explicitly allowed, with the “catch” that it’s up to the DM whether an item can be found for sale, and what price it might have, and whether you’d have to also do someone a favor to even get “in the door”.

Those two sources, and the new Eberron book, directly indicate that “this can happen”. Eberron is explicitly a world where you can buy common and many uncommon magic items from a Cannith licensee Crafter’s Guild crafter or merchant. Or commission a piece from an Artificer, or buy one from a collector, etc.

Data shows that most games end around level 12-14. The APs tend to end before that, but nothing about that suggests that the game ends at those levels.

Spells aren’t even cheap at low levels.

Augury requires 25g worth of specially marked items for divination. Chromatic Orb requires a diamond. Find Familiar requires 10g In incense every time you summon your Familiar by casting the spell (including changing it’s form), etc. Continual Flame costs 50g every time. Magic Mouth 10g/cast. Clairvoyance uses a 100g focus. Glyph of Warding burns 200g/cast. Magic Circle 100g/cast. Non detection 25g/cast.

Revivify cost 300g in diamonds, per casting. You either have it ahead of time, or your friend stays dead.

Leomund’s Secret Chest costs 5050g. That’s a popular one, in my groups.



It adds up, if you actually track it.

 

[schnee]

Except there's no guidelines at all to buy magic items and it's pretty much specifically disallowed by the RAW and no official content I've seen indicates a setting where this can happen.
And really, does anyone ever get to a high enough level to cast those spells? Official adventures suggest the game ends at 11th level.

It's not specifically disallowed at all. It's just not supported by official rules that quantify everything to make it a default in places like Adventurer's League.

Look, whatever 3e brought to the table, the crafting rules caused a lot of trouble. It enabled, validated, and enshrined min/maxing like never before, since it had recommended wealth by level, easy crafting, and clearly-priced items. Now, magic items were no longer rare; just an additional 'tax'. 4e tried to fix that from another direction and failed also. So, now, magic items are intended to be 'rare' and 'special' again.

In the DMG, they explicitly encourage you to make crafting part of an adventure plot point, so it becomes adventure fodder, and the magic item they want is rewarded in lieu of the treasure they would have gotten adventuring in a standard way. So, instead of being manufacturers, the players are adventurers.

You want that kind of world? There's plenty of home brew. Or go write your own. Nobody's stopping you.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It's not specifically disallowed at all. It's just not supported by official rules that quantify everything to make it a default in places like Adventurer's League.

Look, whatever 3e brought to the table, the crafting rules caused a lot of trouble. It enabled, validated, and enshrined min/maxing like never before, since it had recommended wealth by level, easy crafting, and clearly-priced items. Now, magic items were no longer rare; just an additional 'tax'. 4e tried to fix that from another direction and failed also. So, now, magic items are intended to be 'rare' and 'special' again.

In the DMG, they explicitly encourage you to make crafting part of an adventure plot point, so it becomes adventure fodder, and the magic item they want is rewarded in lieu of the treasure they would have gotten adventuring in a standard way. So, instead of being manufacturers, the players are adventurers.

You want that kind of world? There's plenty of home brew. Or go write your own. Nobody's stopping you.

But also, the DMG has rules for buying and making and selling magic items, and XGE has even better rules for it.

 

[dave2008]

Except there's no guidelines at all to buy magic items and it's pretty much specifically disallowed by the RAW and no official content I've seen indicates a setting where this can happen.

As noted by others, there are guidelines in 2 different 5e WotC products.

And really, does anyone ever get to a high enough level to cast those spells? Official adventures suggest the game ends at 11th level.

This is clearly false, 5e WotC AP's so far w/ level:

RoT: 15th lvl
PoA: 15th lvl
OotA: 15th lvl
CoS: 10th lvl
SKT: 10th lvl
DotMM: 20th lvl

 

[bedir than]

It seems I'm one of the many that are stuck in "not getting the proper email" loop. I get some, but not all of their communication. That they suggest people go to discord or a subreddit rather than communicate through Kickstarter has been extraordinarily frustrating. That I have to sign up for their store, which tells me I'm not qualified despite Kickstarter saying that I overpaid by a dollar and change is also frustrating.

While the product may wind up worth paying for, the customer service experience is horrible.

 

[Parmandur]

Except there's no guidelines at all to buy magic items and it's pretty much specifically disallowed by the RAW and no official content I've seen indicates a setting where this can happen.
And really, does anyone ever get to a high enough level to cast those spells? Official adventures suggest the game ends at 11th level.

The adventures don't suggest the game ends at 11th level; most people stop playing around 11th level, so the market for higher level content is limited, and therefore less explored. It is further limited by the fact that people who do play higher and higher level want material more focused towards their characters specifically, which is basically impossible to make a mass market product for.

 

[5ekyu]

The adventures don't suggest the game ends at 11th level; most people stop playing around 11th level, so the market for higher level content is limited, and therefore less explored. It is further limited by the fact that people who do play higher and higher level want material more focused towards their characters specifically, which is basically impossible to make a mass market product for.

Agreement, in part, that by the time my games have reached even mid-tier-2 they are always highly customized and at best "official modules" are used like junkyards and thrist stores for useful parts i can incorporate,

It would be more useful for 7th+ for products featuring say a dozen or more challenges that have (re)usable maps foes etc with a half dozen of hooks each. Save me some encounter prep without wasting a lot of time on more global setup and story, i already got that.

Think like say Sprawl Sites (old Shadowrun Mapbook) but with say 3 different sets of foes at three tiers and ideas each (fewer maps of course.)

Sorry for going tangent there.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

It seems I'm one of the many that are stuck in "not getting the proper email" loop. I get some, but not all of their communication. That they suggest people go to discord or a subreddit rather than communicate through Kickstarter has been extraordinarily frustrating. That I have to sign up for their store, which tells me I'm not qualified despite Kickstarter saying that I overpaid by a dollar and change is also frustrating.

While the product may wind up worth paying for, the customer service experience is horrible.

I can’t attest to email woes as I got the email update. The update which is also on the Kckstater page and has a video with instructions on how to download:

Here's Anna to esplain how you can get your PDF.

https://www.useloom.com/share/17c921f1d2b948df8334990c9d272cdd

The shop also contains simple instructions at the top of the screen.

I honestly think they did as good a job as they could have at preempting issues.

I could be wrong but based on the Kickstarter comments, I’m thinking the “many” are the ones that did get the email. There are not “many” complaints considering over 28k people supported the project.

That said, make sure your payment went through. The accounting that you can view doesn’t necessarily mean you paid, if you look closely. I, too, overpaid by a dollar, but I had to update my card to make it work - but that was on me b/c my old card was hacked.