D&D 5E Starting Above 1st Level: Gear

[delericho]

Since 5e assumes that magic items are never required and are always a bonus, I generally take the view that characters of levels 1-4 start with the same gear as a 1st level character (per PHB), and that characters of levels 5+ may start with any gear they want... but must select from the PHB only.

(That said, if I was doing a one-shot higher level game, or especially if I were trying to playtest something for later use "for real", I'd probably equip each PC with one or two carefully selected magic items. I'm afraid I don't really have any guidelines for that - I'd do it on a case-by-case basis, and it's not happened yet.)

 

[Horwath]

DMG has that listed but the amount is very poor.

I dont know how much magic items I would give but it would be more that DMG suggested.
as for gold I would use something similar to next table;

lvl2 starting gear(SG) + 500 gp
lvl3 SG + 1500 gp
lvl4 SG + 3000 gp
lvl5 5000 gp
lvl6 8000 gp
lvl7 12000 gp
lvl8 17000 gp
lvl9 23000 gp
lvl10 30000 gp
lvl11 40000 gp
lvl12 50000 gp
lvl13 60000 gp
lvl14 70000 gp
lvl15 80000 gp
lvl16 90000 gp
lvl17 110000 gp
lvl18 130000 gp
lvl19 150000 gp
lvl20 200000 gp

 

[Mercule]

Give them a random treasure hoard for an 11th level encounter -- maybe one hoard for each character, if you're feeling in a 3e mood. You don't even have to roll the specific items, just come up with a pool of "points" for the party to spend: 3 rare, 5 uncommon, 8 common (or whatever the adjectives are).

 

[ExploderWizard]

I would just have the party roll on the treasure charts a few times after the characters are created.

You can do some pretty broken things if you chose magic items for your character.

Yeah I would go with a random distribution. If players know that they get to pick their own items then they will build characters around those items.

 

[feartheminotaur]

If you're converting: Our old 4e DM is coming back from deployment this summer and we're starting up a 5e replacement (it's what we all play, and our DM doesn't want to pay for DDI). We were 24th level, so we're starting at 16th. Given the HUGE amounts of magic we had (seriously, we had like hundreds of potions), the DMG table feels insufficient for a 4e conversion. The "high magic" column comes close...

Overall: I'm not a fan of the DM picks or random distribution because I think it kinda punishes the players ("Yeah, my barbarian would surely have held onto a Rod of the Pack Keeper") and forces them to make character creation choices they wouldn't otherwise make ("OK, any 12th level fighter has a magic weapon, but since I don't, I better be a wizard" or "I have this item, so instead of this ASI, I should take this feat, or class dip to get the most use out of it"). I've done several one-shot high level games and one where we started at 12th level. In all of them it was "build your PC after session 0, pick magic gear at session 1". That gave the DM to chance to ask stuff like "Oh, only 8 Intelligence on your wizard?"

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Same thing happened to me. After doing an advanced start in 4e, with player choice of magic items, I came to detest it very much. It made magic items feel so much more mundane. Not to mention, the jankery that went on with builds and optimization.

I would never let newly created characters pick their magic items personally. I am a bit off the idea since 4e. The idea of a character build built around an item, or the expectation of an item has always bugged me terribly. Having groups where the barbarian has 8str because he expects gauntlets of ogre strength is not for me. As a DM, I would get a general preference and pick from there e.g. Something to help me sneak, a weapon and an item with a cool movement spell.

 

[dmnqwk]

One suggestion is to roll up 1 treasure hoard for each level skipped, then combine all the items together. Next write a list of all items, with no hint of magical properties (for example, instead of writing boots of striding and springing, you'd write boots. For items which are obvious, simply label them wondrous item A, B etc)

1. At the start of the game, each player rolls a D20.
2. Proceeding with the player who rolled the highest, allow them to pick an item from the list.
3. The next highest player chooses one of the remaining items, repeating until everybody has picked.
4. Once everybody has an item, start the order again, until every item has been chosen.
5. Next, reveal what each item does to the players so they are aware of what they currently have for magical items.
6. Finally, total up the value of all gold from the hoards, divide by 5 (it's fair to assume 80% would cover expenses) and hand each player an equal share of the gold to purchase basic items from the PHB.

One thing to consider, is allowing each spellcaster up to X gold for expensive spellcasting components, such as 1000 gold bowls for heroes' feast. But that's not something you should feel is mandatory.

 

[Sunseeker]

They get to stay at the minimum a level 1 character would have, unless the game requires them to have more. I don't sell magic items in my game, so he has to earn them same way other players do: by killing bad guys, completing quests and looting it! Typically my games don't require any magical items so they're not missing out on anything.

 

[Tony Vargas]

There's no reason you couldn't give a starting nth level party the same gear as a starting 1st level party. The general idea of magic items in 5e is that they make you 'just better,' it's not like 1e, which had tables weighted towards magic items intended to make up for class disparities at higher level. There's not a strong wealth/level expectation nor RAW/build/optimization zietgiest 3.5 started rolling.

I agree with some of the above posters that starting characters with players choosing magic items, an idea that started with 3e and was used to great effect in 'builds,' could be problematic. Even though magic items were sometimes toned down from AD&D standards, being a bit less arbitrary and more based on what PCs could likely already do with spells, 'combos' with the many other player choices could just be too much. Similarly, while 4e items were a lot lower-impact, you still saw the phenomenon, even if the effect on balance was muted.

5e magic items can be real game-changers, just like they were in AD&D (though without the expectation of aiding class balance), so the DM should keep a firm hold on distributing magic items, even - perhaps especially - with PCs starting above 1st level.

 

[CapnZapp]

Yes, for a d20/Pathfinder player, the idea to start at, say, level 15 with no magic items at all is utterly inconceivable.

But it's quite doable in 5th edition.