The other two threads on magic items made me write a long response which made me think it ought to be its own thread… so here goes:
It’d be nice if magic items were a built-in part of the power balance.
As an example (tweak it however you want, this is just a rough draft)…
You have one "concentration point" per level (so 1 at level 1, 20 at level 20). (Or make them scale like proficiency bonuses if you prefer, it doesn’t matter what the actual number is, as long as it starts low and gets higher)
When you concentrate on a spell, it takes up some of your concentration points (the more powerful the spell, the more it costs). If you have enough points for it, you can actually concentrate on multiple spells. But a spell of the max level you can cast takes up 100% of your concentration.
Fighting styles, rage, unarmored defense, steady aim and all that jazz also require concentration points. They compete with spell concentration too. You can still be a gish, you just can’t concentrate on the best ever fighting style and the best ever spell simultaneously. You can do half-and-half.
And then we come to magic items. Those also take concentration points. If you don’t spend the points, the magic blade is just an inert piece of metal. You haven’t dominated it, mastered it. You’re too distracted focusing on a spell or a style or whatever else. There are no attunement slots, this mechanic replaces that.
In the case of very powerful sentient magic items, such as (but not necessarily limited to) artifacts, if you don’t sink enough concentration points into controlling them, they might control you. The One Ring is a cursed item for anyone but Sauron, who is the only one strong enough to control it.
This mechanic also opens up the door to scalable magic items. You pull Excalibur out of the rock all right, and surely you’re set for life with this thing. You won’t ever need any other weapon. It’s the best ever. But you may only be able to use it up to a +1 weapon for now. When you grow stronger, you might be able to allocate enough points into it to unlock its +2, then +3 power.
So you can pick a mid-level magic item and also concentrate on a mid-level CME and wack foes on the head. Or you can pick up a non-magic weapon (or simply not concentrate on unlocking the full power of your magical weapon) while concentrating on a maxed level (for you at least) CME. The choice is yours.
Either way, it’s built into the core system. The system truly doesn’t care if you have magic items and even if you do, whether you actually use them. Your max power is still capped by your max concentration. Maybe the magic weapons help you last a bit longer when you’re out of slots to concentrate on your own spells… but increased lasting power does not equal increased max power.
Thoughts?
I guess I'm confused about the reason for this post.
Magic items are a built in part of the adventuring party power balance in 5E and 5.5E.
Xanathar's Guide to Everything has a section title 'Awarding Magic Items' starting on page 135, and multiple tables showing magic items starting with the 'Magic Items Awarded by Tier' on page 135, followed by 'Magic Items Awarded by Rarity', again page 135.
There is even a sidebar titled 'Behind the Design: Magic Item Distribution' on page 135 of XGTE that specifically states,
"The DMG assumes a certain amount of treasure will be found over the course of a campaign. Over twenty levels of typical play, the game expects forty-five rolls on the Treasure Hoard tables, distributed as follows:
- Seven rolls on the Challenge 0-4 table
- Eighteen rolls on the Challenge 5-10 table
- Twelve rolls on the Challenge 11-16 table
- Eight rolls on the Challenge 17+ table.
Because many of the table results call for more than one magic item, those forty-five rolls will result in the characters obtaining roughly one hundred items. The optional system described here yields the same number of items, distributed properly throughout the spectrum or rarity, while enabling you to control exactly which items the characters have a chance of acquiring."
These assumptions are made for a party of 4 players. They are not made for individual players, because D&D is a cooperative roleplaying game, not an MMORPG computer game.
I'll make my age old argument that nothing in D&D suggests that there is, or needs to be, "balance" between player characters in an adventuring party. All there needs to be, or players should have a reasonable expectation of, is the perception of balance between the adventuring party and the external encounters that the party is expected to face during a gaming session.
The word 'balance' appears in the Dungeon Master's Guide 15 times, and the Player's Handbook 7 time, and never once in reference to interparty character classes or subclasses. The word 'balanced' appears 1 time in the Dungeon Master's Guide, and 3 times in the Player's Handbook. In the DMG it refers to Zoltana Lhazs' ability to balance interests of forces both inside and outside of her nation. In the PHB it appears in the sidebar below, and twice in the index referencing the sidebar below.
The sidebar on page 36 of the 5.5E Player's Handbook reads as follows, "A Balanced Party - The classic D&D party comprises a Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, and Wizard. Those four classes have the longest history in the game, but more importantly, they bring a balanced mix of capabilities to adventures. You're welcome to use that party setup or modify it using these guidelines:
Cleric. Replace with Bard or Druid.
Fighter. Replace with Barbarian, Monk, Paladin, or Ranger.
Rogue. Replace with Bard or Ranger.
Wizard. Replace with Bard, Sorcerer, or Warlock."
It is my belief that too many players and DMs spend way to much time being envious of the class feature differences between classes and way too little time learning how to cooperate with other players and play the actual game.
A fighter does not need to know how to cast one single magic spell to contribute to an adventuring party. A wizard does not need to own a single weapon to be able to contribute to an adventuring party. There does not need to be a magic item "balancing" system for D&D between player characters in the same adventuring party. There does not need to be a power "balance" between player characters that are on the same team. This is a fools errand, and largely a waste of time.
