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

[Dausuul]

Potential areas of concern:

• PCs will become more powerful relative to monsters. To keep things challenging, you will need to use more and bigger monsters; if you award XP by the book for monsters killed, this will cause your party to level up very quickly. You may wish to scale back XP awards, or use story awards instead.
• Depending on the items you hand out, many obstacles that would otherwise pose a challenge will be swept aside by brute magical force. Be aware of this when planning adventures.
• Without bonus spells for high stats, the 3E spell progression is stingier at low levels (but much more generous at high levels). So you will be reverting to the "linear fighter, quadratic wizard" model: The fighter starts strong and advances at a consistent pace, the wizard starts weak and becomes godlike. I would suggest consulting your players to be sure they're okay with this, and try to set your campaign in a level range that gives both classes some time in the sun.

Here's a thought: Since you are planning on showering the PCs in magic items anyway, why not use that as your balancing tool for high-end casters? If you give out lots of high-end magic weapons, armor, and utility gear, while being more restrained in giving out staves and such, it will help the fighters keep pace with the wizards.

 

[MonkeyWrench]

Don't listen to the naysayers; do what you think will be fun for your game. In our group, we made the item attunement limit equal to proficiency bonus and it worked out great. Monsters will definitely need a boost though, so be ready to adjust hp, AC, to hit, and any resistances/immunities as needed based on the PCs' capabilities.

5e isn't some finely balanced, delicate machine where changing one part will throw the rest into chaos. It's robusta and can tolerate a lot of variation from the base rules.

 

[Satyrn]

I don't think you need any help. Just do it and see what happens. The magic item part will be fine if they spread out evenly enough among the players.


The wizard spells may cause some resentment among players, though. But really, if you're raining down wands and rods and such upon them, they won't need those extra spells so you probably don't need to bother.

 

[BoldItalic]

DM: Please choose 100 magic items from the DMG and give them to your character.
Players: Are you kidding?
DM: No, go ahead, pick anything you like.
Players: Cool!
DM: For this next adventure, you will be defeating the evil overlord and wrenching the Oblong of Wonder from his dead hands.
Players: Nah. We have six Oblongs of Wonder already.
DM: There's 10,000gp as well.
Players: Nah. We all have Amulets of Unlimited Wealth.
DM: Okay, guys, see you next week.

 

[Yunru]

DM: Please choose 100 magic items from the DMG and give them to your character.
Players: Are you kidding?
DM: No, go ahead, pick anything you like.
Players: Cool!
DM: For this next adventure, you will be defeating the evil overlord and wrenching the Oblong of Wonder from his dead hands.
Players: Nah. We have six Oblongs of Wonder already.
DM: There's 10,000gp as well.
Players: Nah. We all have Amulets of Unlimited Wealth.
DM: Okay, guys, see you next week.

DM: Please choose 100 common magic items from the DMG and give them to your character.
Players: Are you kidding?
DM: No, go ahead, pick anything you like.
Players: Cool!
DM: For this next adventure, you will be defeating the Tarrasque before it devours the capital city.
DM: There's 10,000gp as well.
DM: Okay, guys, see you next week.

 

[Satyrn]

DM: Please choose 100 magic items from the DMG and give them to your character.
Players: Are you kidding?

This player: Sweet. I take 100 Decks of Many Things.
DM: Are you kidding?
This player: I draw ALL the cards.

 

[hejtmane]

I found that I give my guys one really good magic item custom (They enjoy that more than a lot of magic items) and then anything else I add is usally fluff stuff usually like armor that weighs less faster to put on etc but gives no AC bonus. Temporary magic items like a special one type use rune that may heal or magic potions. Break out the robe of many things or an old school bag of holding. Maybe a rod with 2-3 charges. Making it rain but not giving out + to hit + ac stuff all over the place

 

[discosoc]

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.

What you choose to believe has no bearing on reality, but anyway...

If you want to make magic items more common, you can use the method I'm using:

1. weapon bonus to hit and damage are not magical; they are "masterwork." So a sword +1 is not a magical sword, but something that can be crafted by someone with the right talents. They should still respect the level range expectations, though, so a sword +3 wouldn't show up in a gnoll dungeon at level 4. What this does is frees up the magic item system to be more... magical.

2. Give magic items unique properties like extra flame damage, glows in the presence of an enemy type, causes rage, enhances a saving throw while held or worn, heals the user with each crit, deals aoe damage on a crit, never sinks, transports the owner to the astral plane while they sleep, grants immunity to a condition, reveals invisible objects and hides normal objects while unsheathed, etc..

This method means you can have crazy magic items that break rules, without the expectation of magic items having to have hit and damage bonuses. This keeps the core combat mechanics balanced in terms of the "bounded accuracy" math behind the game design. It also keeps the group from getting a ton of the same crappy "magic" items over and over, because there's nothing really fun about finding your 15th longsword +1; it's just going to be vendor trash.

 

[The_Gneech]

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.

The advice about 3.x/PF is kind of misleading anyway, because soooooo many of the magic items in there don't do anything but tweak the math. Really almost anything you get until 3rd level in those editions is a thing you already have +1, and not really "magic" at all.

So my advice would be, from the sound of your original post, to try starting at 10th level. Have the characters stranded on the Isle of the Ape or something and all their gear lost at sea, but then stock the adventures with the kind of stuff they would have found if they'd played levels 1-10. Sim salabim, they get magic (item) rain, and you don't break the system! Or at least, no more than D&D always breaks starting around 10th level.

-The Gneech

 

[I'm A Banana]

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.

Okay then. Give out more magic items, and let high-level casters use more spells. Do it one at a time, keep a close eye on it, and stop when it feels like "enough." If monsters start getting weak, give 'em +1's to AC/Attacks/Save DC's / +5 to damage/hp until it feels right again.

I mean, it's bog simple to do, in the end, and you seem like you got a good sense of the balance needing to be re-adjusted, so good luck, and let us know how it goes!