OotA Magic Items AL Legality *spoilers*

[Byakugan]

We never even went to Grakelstug. We found our loot at the conclusion of Blingdenstone. Some of our DMs took to replacing random magic item rewards with non-random magic item rewards MOVED from other parts of the adventure. Early groups that skipped ahead or went really fast through the modules get to keep their randomly rolled, cert-less magic items. Maybe some GMs think that is unfair and arbitrary? Most players are not going to complain when a DM hands them a cert. Especially if they've never read the module, or are one of the majority of players who have never seen the AL FAQ. We can't be the only place where people did something like that. If they made certs it must be OK to be in the module, right?

If you build it...they will loot.

 

[Tyranthraxus]

My group is 2/3 into Neverlight grove having been convinced by Stool to take him home. However hes pretty scared now and wants to leave. Im undecided if he will stay with the characters or go with Basidia.

Sarith is just about to Scanners over the wall. When I left last game they had just arrived at the Garden of Welcome (and can you believe no artists has drawn it yet? I wanted to horrify them!). Not one magical item yet either because Ive only run the sidequest of the webs. When Sarith dies, there will only be Shuushar and Stool left, so no natural way to get to the Gnome City. They will go to Grackle next assuming the Drow party laying in wait dont get them first.

 

[Byakugan]

My group is 2/3 into Neverlight grove having been convinced by Stool to take him home. However hes pretty scared now and wants to leave. Im undecided if he will stay with the characters or go with Basidia.

Sarith is just about to Scanners over the wall. When I left last game they had just arrived at the Garden of Welcome (and can you believe no artists has drawn it yet? I wanted to horrify them!). Not one magical item yet either because Ive only run the sidequest of the webs. When Sarith dies, there will only be Shuushar and Stool left, so no natural way to get to the Gnome City. They will go to Grackle next assuming the Drow party laying in wait dont get them first.

We had a ton of players the night we did neverlight grove. DM basically condensed it down so we could get escorted to the Garden. Only had 1 big fight, heavily truncated, but it was rough for us at mostly 3rd level at the time. That place is pretty scary. We decided (briefly) to go inside...eeeek!

 

[Steve_MND]

Any games like this should always operate under the "if you don't want it in the game, don't put it on the table" maxim. Assume anything that is in a legal scenario WILL get into the hands of the players to some varying degree. Whether or not only "a few" or "a lot" of people manage to get them, they WILL be introduced into the campaign. The hardbacks in particular are often very awkward in AL, for the very reason that they were never written with AL in mind, and the fact that a lot of otherwise influential magic items are okayed by the mere virtue of them being written into the hardback(or even supplied with honest-to-god certs) is something the Admins may want to review going forward.