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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 9694748" data-attributes="member: 6877472">That's the rub isn't it?  5e is "sort of" designed around not needing as many magic items-some, like magic weapons, or saving throw boosters, do become necessary, items that enhance mobility or allow survival in crazy places like worlds that are on fire or deep beneath the sea for some adventures, but by and large, nobody "needs" a Staff of Power. Magic armor is needed at some point, when enemies start getting attack bonuses of +9 and up, but after so many levels of barely being able to hit PC's, I'm sure many DM's balk at the notion, lol. But WotC refuses to ever say at what points PC's should have certain items, as in previous editions, that bothered some DM's (mostly the ones who like magic items to be "special" or prefer magic-poor worlds) so now everything is up to the DM to balance.Whether it be Feats (well, pre 2024), multiclassing, magic items, or if your Familiar can use a Ring of Spell Storing.And the attunement system is a poorly designed safety valve, because it treats all items that require attunement as exactly the same.  As one reaches higher tier, the attunement requirements could come off weaker items, to keep the more potent ones in check (Staff of Power, Robe of Eyes, etc. etc.).Basically, the DM is told to "figure it out" and because that's a daunting task, many games have effectively made loot almost worthless.  "You find a 10,000 gp jade idol, encrusted with gems.  You find a Cloak of Arachnida or a Ring of the Ram."  In all cases, the most likely response a player will have is "neat".  Or maybe "eh, at least we can sell the idol for some Heroes' Feasts".Not the "WOW!" that such things really deserve.Now some may say, "But James, you have to have limits on items, or everyone will be wearing Cloaks of Displacement, Rings of Free Action, and dual-wielding Swords of Sharpness!" but I mean, those items only exist in the game by DM fiat, right?  Why isn't that a good enough limitation?  I mean that's how people did it pre-WotC, the only limits on items were sensical ones like not wearing two pairs of boots...well there's the two rings thing, I guess.So instead the game has hundreds of magic items that simply put, even if they did exist in the game, probably would never get used.  Bleah.Anyways, I'm derailing the thread, sorry.  I just miss the days when magic items were a thing players could treasure (hah), instead of throwing them on a loot pile and forgetting about them.</blockquote>

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