Thoughts on reducing magic item landfills

[Majin]

In one of my older campaigns I introduced pommel gems as upgrades for current magic weapons used. They would be awarded to characters by powerful NPCs for special services and the like. They seemed to work pretty well.

 

[Desdichado]

The magic item situation of D&D is one of my pet peeves about the game. I prefer not to play that way, but I almost have to customize all the classes to pull it off. By the time I'm done, it's almost not really D&D anymore.

 

[S'mon]

I regard the +1 stuff that a lot of higher-level NPCs have as minor enchantments, there are thousands of such items in my campaign world. More powerful stuff (+2 & up) is considerably rarer. The 3e item costs support this - many +1 items are cheaper than nonmagical full plate, for instance. These +1 items are commonly traded for cash.

IMC PCs commonly power up their existing items, as allowed for in 3e, so once a duellist has had his rapier enchanted, say, he'll likely stick with it for the rest of his career, having further enchantments laid on it as cost and opportunity allow.

There are a few items, mostly artifacts, whose power grows along with that of their wielder, who must usually be bonded to the item in some way. These cannot be powered up normally, rather their existing powers manifest as the wielder gains in experience.

 

[S'mon]

Using some sort of 'spend your own experience to boost your items' system, it would also allow characters to inherit gear from their ancestors without either having something that's way too powerful ("Starting your career as an adventurer, son? Here, take my +4 Shocking Burst Keen Ghost Touch longsword!") or having something that will quickly become useless ("The balor seems unaffected by your uncle's trusty masterwork flail").

IMC I don't really mind some PCs starting with powerful heirloom items, depending on DM's whim & the character's background. This is particularly true for Fighters, who need good magic to compete with spellcasters. A 1st level fighter with a +3 sword is only going to have thieves kill him for it, though.

 

[The Forsaken One]

1 word that screws the whole point behind this thread up.




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SUNDER

 

[S'mon]

1 word that screws the whole point behind this thread up.
SUNDER

In 3.5e every +1 gives +2 hardness & +10 hp so sundering is very difficult for powerful items. And I believe items can be repaired for half their initial creation cost. IMC items hardly ever get sundered, anyway. The only items people destroy are those of opposing alignments.

 

[clark411]

The Leveling Magic Weapons / Armor from Dragon magazine worked well in my campaign. It allowed me to introduce +1 weapons that would become better if experience was invested in them. Players were able to get a feel for a weapon's potential based on how they looked... you could be sure that a really vicious looking scimitar would pick up the Vicious or Keen ability later on in the game perhaps.

Beyond that, my campaign setting had a finite amount of magic to it, so the closer mages came to creating a magical golden age, the more inevitable it's collapse was as magic syphoned into wands and wondrous architecture was being syphoned out of their ability to cast it.

That made for a good amount of weapon and armor reclamation and destruction efforts, as well as a ton of ruins to explore from all the previous civilizations that crumbled due to their connections to magic. Fun Fun.