D&D 5E (2014) Treasure Ammunition Doubt

[BoldItalic]

Is it magical because it is both colorless AND green?

I stole the idea from Chomsky, so it's respectable. He just made it up. Ppht. Anyone can make stuff up. Especially nonsense.

 

[pming]

Hiya.

My house rule: I roll a d20. That's how many +'s worth of ammo, rounding up. So if I get some +2 ammo and roll an 11, that's 6 arrows/bolts/whatever. Works out to, obviously, a max of 20 +1 ammo, or 10 +2 ammo, or 7 +3 ammo. Keeps the "more powerful stuff rare", but still gives a use. Oh, not sure if this is in the book or not...but once shot from an appropriate weapon, said ammo's magic is "spent"; so no recovering of magic arrows, even if you miss.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[abirdcall]

As a houserule, +X items are not magical, they're masterwork. Magical items always have magical properties, such as flaming. An arrow that is +1 more accurate to hit and deals 1 more damage than average is not magical. It's well made. An arrow that causes the target to become a harmless potted plant for 1d4 rounds, now that's magical. I have generally completely houseruled magic items from top to bottom.

As a simple rule of thumb: WOTC did a terrible job on their magic items and everything related to them.

I think the way 5e handles magic items is brilliant.

Having magic items without flat bonuses is part of the system. Something which you are all about. Having the option to have magic items with flat bonuses doesn't make a system terrible. It is specifically designed to make it easy for you to do exactly what you are doing.

 

[redrick]

+1 Ammunition appears on treasure table B, where you have a 5% chance of rolling it. Like most of what is on treasure table B, it is a single use item. (Looking quickly, it appears that you have about an 80% chance of rolling a one-use item from that table.)

A +1 weapon doesn't show up until Treasure Table F, making it a much more valuable piece of treasure.

Depending on how closely your DM uses the treasure guidelines and tables in the DMG, you should be rolling the lower table items earlier and more often.

And, of course, there's no "rule" on treasure distribution, so the DM can give out treasure however he or she wants.

 

[Sunseeker]

I think the way 5e handles magic items is brilliant.

Having magic items without flat bonuses is part of the system. Something which you are all about. Having the option to have magic items with flat bonuses doesn't make a system terrible. It is specifically designed to make it easy for you to do exactly what you are doing.

It was always easy to do what I do. It's no more easy in 5E than it was in any edition before it. That's why I'm still doing it.

That aside, there's no consistency to magic item effects or values, it's all over the place.

 

[Arvin Natsuko]

+1 Ammunition appears on treasure table B, where you have a 5% chance of rolling it. Like most of what is on treasure table B, it is a single use item. (Looking quickly, it appears that you have about an 80% chance of rolling a one-use item from that table.)

A +1 weapon doesn't show up until Treasure Table F, making it a much more valuable piece of treasure.

Depending on how closely your DM uses the treasure guidelines and tables in the DMG, you should be rolling the lower table items earlier and more often.

And, of course, there's no "rule" on treasure distribution, so the DM can give out treasure however he or she wants.

I understand your point, redrick, but when you use the term "single use item" to describe a potion, for example, we are looking to a bunch of "on combat use item", as the case of a 10 or 15 pieces of ammunition. Then the logic isn't compare 1 +1 arrow with a +1 longsword, but compare a +1 arrow with a potion of giant strength. In the second, seems like only one piece of ammunition can do barely nothing.

And last, of course DM can do anything he wants about treasure. My point here is just that give 10 or 15 ammos make more sense than just one, thinking about the hole system.

 

[Dausuul]

I'd be tempted to houserule magic ammunition as unbreakable. You'll only be able to fire it once during a combat, but you have a 100% chance of recovering it post-combat, regardless of a hit or miss. This would make getting a single piece of ammunition as treasure less disappointing.

I really like this idea. You only find the one magic arrow, but you get to keep it and use it whenever you really need to make the shot. Given how many arrows an archer fighter will shoot over the course of a typical combat, it's hardly overpowered.

"Arrow! Black arrow! I have saved you to the last. You have never failed me and I have always recovered you. I had you from my father and he from of old. If ever you came from the forges of the true king under the Mountain, go now and speed well!"

 

[S'mon]

Personally I'd make it a bundle. Alternative would be to make it reuseable, as real life arrows generally are - no reason a magic one shouldn't be more durable.

 

[CapnZapp]

I see no point in continuing discussing this with you, as you doesn't think the logic of the Wizards should be discussed. I already know the RAW since the first response to the post.

I will be happy to discuss WotCs logic or lack thereof!

But to do so, let's head over to that other thread, or start a new one.

If you would think I'm not interested in discussing this particular symptom of WotCs logic, or lack thereof, then, yes, you'd be right.

There are much bigger fish to fry than the number of ammunition found, mostly since it's so trivial to be generous and hand out d6 or twenty arrows at a time.

Cheers! And thanks!

 

[Uchawi]

It was always easy to do what I do. It's no more easy in 5E than it was in any edition before it. That's why I'm still doing it.

That aside, there's no consistency to magic item effects or values, it's all over the place.

I agree the DM can make magic whatever they want and it applied to any edition. But I preferred systems that actually attempted to explain how magic items are created and give some basis for why item A is more powerful than item B. What is brilliant about 5E magic items is from the developer's perspective where they basically state magic items is not assumed so we don't have to worry about it. That is one less thing they had to develop before releasing the game. So you have a magic system that is all over the place.