The problem of keeping magic items scarce...

[transcendation]

Okay, I've got this problem. To keep my campaign from getting out of hand, I've made magic items rather scarce. Maybe one out of ten thousand characters have one.

The end result of this design feature is that as my players accumulate magic items, they are by default more decked than anyone else.

This has resulted in them slaughtering opponents in encounters, who almost always have fewer magic items than the PCs, thus allowing them to accumulate new magic items with ease.

The solution seems to be to have decked-out NPCs running all over the place, but I fear that will cause a veritable flood of magic items into the PCs hands.

What can I do?

 

[Stalker0]

First off, are there "Problem" items that are causing your worries? aka, some uber item the party has? If they just have more basic bling, more enemies can help to clear that up. Use more monsters, as they don't normally need items to be scary. If its an uber item, then it might be time to take it away from the party. Only do that if its truely a problem though, and you might talk with your party about it out of game.

 

[Tonguez]

1 Templates to add extra goodies to NPCs that cannot be taken away

2 Items of Legacy that will only work if the character (PC/NPC) has the right combination of Cha, Skill and Bloodline - for everyone else its jus a mundane item

3. Null Magic zones, Ethereal Filchers etc

 

[Kunimatyu]

What can I do?

Use monsters as enemies instead of PCs?

Really, you don't have terribly many good options here. D&D3.5 is meant to be played with continuous magic item acquisition (whether from bad guy equipment or actual loot). Even then, if you only use monsters, you're going to have to make sure that their capabilities match the PCs sans tons of magic gear, reducing the overall party EL.

As someone who's tried this before, basically, you're in a lose-lose situation. Your best bet is to switch to Iron Heroes(IH baddies don't have gear, so they're viable options, BUT their token abilities get out of hand on the DM side) if you want something completely compatible with your 3.5ed stuff. If you want to branch out just a little farther, try True20, where gaining magic items simply isn't a factor in character advancement, unlike D&D3.5.

 

[Michael_R_Proteau]

A quick question...if magic items are so scarce, how is the party getting htem? If they are scace, they are not available for sale, so thye cannot be buying htem. If they are getting them in treasure hordes, you can control the flow of items then, and anything available to the party would be available to other adventurers, of course that means they are not scarce. If they are creating them, well then, the party will suddenly become inundated with people either wanting the party to sell them and willing to pay ridiculous sums for them (scarcity drives up market prices), trying to steal them form the party (or kill them and take their stuff), or trying to capture the party to lear how to make them (since if magic items are scarce then item creation feats should be rare too.

If it is just a case of magic items being scarce for everyone except the party, well then you have set up the recipe for the results you are having. You have 2 options really-make them scarce for everybody (which requires you to somehow remove the party's stuff and that may lead to hard feelings) or remove the scarcity of magic items from the world to even the playing field, but that defeats the initial intention you started out with.


If you really want a campaign with magic item scarcity, then it has to be scarce for PCs as well as NPCs to keep things challenging. You really cannot pull of the scarcity gambit if you are going to allow just the PCs (or just the NPCs) to havefree access to items while everyone else doesn't.

-M

 

[Kunimatyu]

Okay, I've got this problem. To keep my campaign from getting out of hand, I've made magic items rather scarce. Maybe one out of ten thousand characters have one.

The end result of this design feature is that as my players accumulate magic items, they are by default more decked than anyone else.

This has resulted in them slaughtering opponents in encounters, who almost always have fewer magic items than the PCs, thus allowing them to accumulate new magic items with ease.

The solution seems to be to have decked-out NPCs running all over the place, but I fear that will cause a veritable flood of magic items into the PCs hands.

What can I do?

Oh, I missed one other easy idea - just up the levels of your opponents! NPCs are already over-CRed by the rules .

For example, if you had four 10th level characters, instead of having them fight a level 10 wizard, have them fight a level 14 wizard. Guaranteed to up the challenge factor by a lot!

 

[Old One]

Solutions:

1) Squad of heavily-armed guardsman in Imperial Livery show up. "Ahh...thank you for liberating the property of the Grand Duke's son from these evil villains. Turn the blade/wand/stave/ring over and you will see the Duke's sigil. Please take this bag of gold and the Grand Duke's thanks for the return of these items.

2) Knock on the door. "Good adventurers, it has come to the attention of the Royal Seneschal that you have been most fortunate in recoverying many items of quality from your enemies of late. We are perplexed, however, as to why you haven't paid the requisite surtax on such goods, as clearly stated in his Majesty's Edict LXVIII. Now, please be so good as to present all items for inspection."...some time later..."Yes, well that will be 10,000 gold florins, plus interest and penalties compounded over 3 years for a grand total of 22,000 florins...to be paid immediately. Failure to do so will result in immediate confiscation of such goods as to satisfy the debt to his Majesty's treasury."

3) As noted above, bonded items, legacy items, racial items and alignment items all work well - as does using monsters or other creatures that really on skill instead of DMG recommended magic items.

4) If the PCs are becoming known throughout the land for their stash of magic items, they will be on every thieve's guilds hit list, be seen as a threat by the authorities or perhaps even draw the unwelcome attention of otherworldly beings.

~ OO

 

[Nifft]

Be more creative in life-limited items.

"The knot of thistledown around the half-elf's finger is magical! It radiates Abjuration and Enchantment, and... Spellcraft check?" *dice rolling* "Ooo, nice roll! It appears to have been kissed by a Dryad, creating a Ring of Protection +2 which also grants a +2 bonus on Bluff and Sense Motive checks. You suspect that if you remove the thistle ring carefully, it may retain its potency for a full week!"

Other items could crumble over time, or could sprout, or could hatch.

Use and give out more items with charges, or single-use items like potions & scrolls.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Gez]

Items with charges, or even single-use. Less magic backpacks, more magic arrows. Less magic armors, more magic potions.

As a result, the PCs will get to either keep their magic items (and not use them) like a bunch of mad collectors until encumberance rules kick in, or they will not be much more magically equipped than the NPCs they face.

Added bonus, this reduce the magic loot since every potion or wand charge that the NPC had the time to use is one that the PCs won't be able to claim for themselves.

 

[Particle_Man]

Am I the only one that thinks that these would lead, inevitably, to "party attacks and tries to kill guardsmen or tpks trying" and "party attacks and kills seneshal and his guards or tpks trying"?

Solutions:

1) Squad of heavily-armed guardsman in Imperial Livery show up. "Ahh...thank you for liberating the property of the Grand Duke's son from these evil villains. Turn the blade/wand/stave/ring over and you will see the Duke's sigil. Please take this bag of gold and the Grand Duke's thanks for the return of these items.

2) Knock on the door. "Good adventurers, it has come to the attention of the Royal Seneschal that you have been most fortunate in recoverying many items of quality from your enemies of late. We are perplexed, however, as to why you haven't paid the requisite surtax on such goods, as clearly stated in his Majesty's Edict LXVIII. Now, please be so good as to present all items for inspection."...some time later..."Yes, well that will be 10,000 gold florins, plus interest and penalties compounded over 3 years for a grand total of 22,000 florins...to be paid immediately. Failure to do so will result in immediate confiscation of such goods as to satisfy the debt to his Majesty's treasury."