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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 6409833" data-attributes="member: 2011">I think that magic item pluses are the "bad game design" du jour bandwagon. People jump on it because it sounds better to have flaming sword than a magical sword. How often does a flaming sword really get used for the fire aspect of it compared to the damage aspect of it? Given a choice between a +0 flaming sword and a +1 to hit and damage magic sword, I'd take the magic sword every time. Are you advocating for magical swords that do not have any bonuses at all, just their special ability?I know players who would love to get a +1 magic weapon in a magic light world. They don't need the Icepick of Death, they just want something that works for them.No doubt, 2E had the 4 books of magic items that was just so much stuff to wade through. Do I hand out the cool xxx, or the cool yyy, or the cool zzz item? 4E did not introduce the plethora of magic weapons and armor special abilities, it was just the version where item distribution no longer had tables of percentages, so DMs were encouraged to hand out anything that caught their fancy within a given set of "levels". No tables of 1% chance of finding this uber item. Also, magic items where put into the PHB and thrown into the faces of players. 3E Magic Item Compendium had 40 different types of magic armor. 4E Adventure's Vault had 100 different types (300 in the 4E compendium). So when one combines a long list of items with no good guidelines on rarity / chance of finding, it can become a problem.Now, an experienced DM can usually tell if a given magic item is a bit game breaking for a given group. Inexperienced DMs, not so much (our current new DM handed out a magic dagger that is too powerful for 3rd level 5E PCs since it allows for Moonbeam 3 times per day, so at the hint of a tough fight, that spell comes out).I'm glad that 5E is maintaining the common, uncommon, and rare aspect of magic items, combined with attunement.But the concept that players should not strive to acquire (via finding, creating, or even bartering) for as many magic items as they can get their hands on seems alien to D&D. Sure, magic rare campaign, few items. But there is nothing wrong with a given PC getting a new magic item every other level in some campaigns. Not every one of those items should be "super cool", some can just be a common item like a +1 sword.Nothing wrong with a common magic item. It seems more of an entitlement issue that a player would expect only cool magic items with a thematic power like you advocate than it seems that a player would expect some magic items.</blockquote>

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