So I want some advice on how to do what i want.

[GameOgre]

I want magic items coming out of the Wazoo! I just love tons and tons of magic items! I don't want them to be rare and mysterious but instead to rain down all over the place!

Now I'm not saying my way is better or that i can't see some benefits to the other way. I don't want to start a debate on the subject, I would just like some help with how to do what I want(tons of magic items) in D&D 5E.

Off the top of my head it really does seem like I could just ignore the way 5E does things and give my party loads of magic and the bad guys as well and call it a day. I'm sure it would effect things but if the npc's and monsters had it as well......maybe it would even out? Maybe give monsters with no magic items a slight ac/damage boost and call it a day? Like a +2 to hit/ac and damage and be done.


Ok this next thing is a little larger as the magic item issue is already ignored in a large number of games (I think).

I really hate the spell limits. High level wizards and clerics getting so few spells is utter crud to me. Add to that legendary actions and auto making saves and it's just a nasty mess. What if i just use the old spell progression? Keep everything the same but back in a greater number of spells per long rest. Sure it will increase the power of high level wizards some. Maybe balance that out in other ways like being a little more into focus items and material components?

Looking at the 3.5 wizard spells per day table it really isn't that much more casting.


I do realize that these things will shift the balance some but I'm ok with that as long as it isn't too drastic.

 

[Inchoroi]

Um. Okay, I'm not saying this to start a fight or anything at all; I intend the following with respect!

What you want is 3.5 or Pathfinder. The above is not 5e. It is intentionally made the way it was to remove the caster supremacy thing, the Ivory Tower, which you seem to think is a feature rather than a bug (I decided a long time ago that it was definitely a bug, less so in Pathfinder as long as you don't play the basic martials from the core book). Personally, it's a bad decision, and I would highly recommend you stick with Pathfinder, as it does literally everything you want--and is designed to do it.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

That's really it. You can redesign things, make the casters more powerful, then make the warriors more powerful, then make the magic rain like the whole world is a strip club, then beef up the monsters to handle this, which will probably lead to more adjustments, etc.

Why not just play 3.5 or PF? They are made to be that way and are fine systems even if I find them to be cludgy.

But if you add more magic you are definately going to lessen the challange of the monsters, so you are right you are going to have to adjust that.

 

[Yunru]

Making it rain magic items doesn't upset the balance (too much), as long as it expands the power level sideways, rather than upwards.

 

[GameOgre]

Because Pathfinder is a rules insane heavy crunch game. I will not run it even though yes it does handle a few things better than 5E. It handles many many more much worse IMHO.

I knew when I made this post some would be like- just go play 3.5 or pathfinder ect.. but really guys just because WOTC didn't put more options in the DMG doesn't mean we can't make up or own and go from there.

For instance I refuse to believe that more magic items and a few more spells per day is going to make as large a change to 5E as making a long rest take 7 days and a short rest 24 hours.

I know my ideas will change the game some and I'm willing to look at those changes and fix them or maybe just shrug and deal with the changes.

 

[manduck]

In order to help you out, let me start off with a few questions. Why do you want to increase magic items and spells? What is it you're looking to accomplish? Is it more play style or to get a certain feel?

The catch is, if you increase magic across the board for everyone, then nothing in the game really changes. If PCs and enemies/monsters all get a drastic boost in magical gear, they still come out even. If all casters get access to more spells, the same thing happens. It's like what Syndrome says in The Incredibles, "When everyone becomes super, then no one will be". So you can make it rain magic items all you want, but it won't really change anything. So you end up doing lots of work on treasure just to get the same result as how the game plays normally. Unless you're just going for a certain really high magic feel to your game, in which case just make it rain.

5E has a kind of interesting approach to spells. Everyone can more easily access magic now (with things like Eldrich Knight and Arcane Trickster) but the number of spells is dialed back a bit, for balance. I don't play a lot of full casters myself, so I don't know how adding in spell slots would affect things over all.

So to sum up, don't make extra work for yourself if you don't really have to.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Henry]

Here's the trick - note that the highest attack bonuses someone could get is about a +16 (+5 ability bonus, +6 proficiency bonus, +3 magic items, +2 from exceptional bonuses like archery fighting style or barbarian strength) and note if whatever bonuses from magic that you give will push past this limit. Raise the opposition's defenses correspondingly, as well as their attack bonus. So, for

For PC attack bonus by vanilla core rules:
level 5: about a +8 (+4 stat, +3 prof, +1 magic)
Level 10: about a +11 (+5 stat, +4 prof, +2 magic)
Level 15: about a +13 (+5 stat, +5 prof, +3 magic)
Level 20: about a +16 (+5 stat, +6 prof, +3 magic, +2 from exceptional feature such as magic or class ability)

Would anyone care to check numbers on this? I could be way off.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

The best way to do the magical item bit is to give magical items to orcs and goblins and whatnot (loot is a good thing). It isn't literally true that every cannon fodder goblin in PF is carrying a potion (that it conveniently forgot to drink when the fight started), but it isn't that far off either. Lots of disposable magic items (potions and scrolls for everyone) will probably fit better than lots of permanent magic items in 5e (and I suspect that is how they will do Eberron and Planescape when they get around to it).

The scrolls would take care of the higher level casting issue as well (especially if they are "you must be this tall" [caster of X type who can cast Y level spells] to use them). It is still a big deal (especially with one shot scrolls), and it rewards higher level casters for being higher level.

 

[Mercule]

Early D&D (OD&D, 1e) was defined by the characters, themselves, not having so many abilities ... and instead the abilities coming from "magic items raining down." In short, a great deal of a character's extra power was defined by magic items.

This is a good point. In my 1E games, advancement was incredibly slow (we didn't use xp-for-gp) and it could take a year to hit 5th level, two to hit name level, if ever. Other than spells at the odd levels, very few classes got new toys as they leveled up -- even Fighters didn't change their attack bonus every level.

But... I had no problem handing out a holy avenger, staff of power, or even the occasional artifact to a 4th level PC. In fairness, I did that partly because I wanted magic items to be rare and hated the idea that the Paladin might discard the +1 long sword for a +3 long sword, then ditch that for the holy avenger. Still, it didn't break anything. Of course, I never worried about any sort of "recommended encounter difficulty" and just built my own, based on experience.

I'm concerned that later editions (3E+) might be a bit too tightly balanced for a specific rate of advancement to make that a simple thing, but we used to do it just fine.