D&D 5E What magic items should you have for a given level?

[KarinsDad]

[MENTION=3424]FireLance[/MENTION] did a fantastic mathematical breakdown of this back in December.

He worked out what a party could get from the expected number of treasure parcels.

Then he assumed a 4 PC party and suggested a per PC per level breakdown following the charts that matched it:
[sblock]To translate this into a very even distribution of magic items over all 20 levels, I would probably go with the following approach:
1 common consumable every level from 1 to 5.
1 uncommon consumable every level from 6 to 10.
1 rare consumable every level from 11 to 15.
1 very rare consumable every level from 16 to 19.
1 legendary consumable at level 20.
1 uncommon permanent item at level 4, and another at level 7.
1 rare permanent item at level 10 and another at level 13.
1 very rare permanent item at level 16.
1 legendary permanent item at level 19.
[/sblock]
This is all his work, go read his original article: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...-of-quot-Typical-quot-Magic-Item-Distribution

So when do the common permanent items show up?

 

[ExploderWizard]

That response was pretty asshat.

Too many of you assume way too much. My question about this was due to a DISCUSSION with the DM actually. We wanted to gauge this kind of thing as we increase in level. Some of the players in the campaign have expressed a tad boredom with the lack of interesting loot and really bad xp they have been getting. We are lucky to get 200 xp if we are lucky in a session. Part of this is due to the face out party size is very large, with 7 people now, and the fact that we are playing a starter adventure still at lvl 5. I was trying to help the DM have an idea of how to gauge this sort of thing. He asks me for my opinion a lot because I have a lot of experience and I ahve DM'ed a lot.

I DM for a party of 7 (we had 8 at one point) and no 5E published adventure content that I am aware of is written for that. As an experienced DM you should make sure that this DM is aware of things such as party size and its impact on encounter challenges. With such a group, a DM who is uncomfortable adding content to account for group size should consider only running for smaller groups or something. A large party of level 5's in starter content? I can imagine not only the loot, but the actual encounters themselves are probably pretty weak. If you have a DM who is uncomfortable with any content creation or adjusting of published material then there isn't much that can be done. Perhaps if he/she posts and asks for such advice there are many here who would be more than happy to help out.

 

[Riley37]

DMs who ask for advice, speaking as DMs, will get help from fellow DMs.

Especially if they provide key context, such as whether their table's D&D is about "I fight monsters to get better items to fight bigger monsters", or whether it's about heroism in the sense of defending something that's worth defending, or something else.

 

[DMCF]

I gave my guys (Party of 7, level 2) a Javelin of Lightning two weeks ago and it has yet to be used! *facepalm*

It really depends on your play style. I'm also running Princes right now with a (different) group of 6 and there's various magical baubles in the first bit of the game. Despite that, my group has decided to try and tame/control a magically animated sword that is a creature and seem a lot more interested in that then anything else.

It's hilarious. All the other groups are moving on a few dungeons ahead of us but my group is stuck excavating the first cave in their first downtime because they think there is a magical control mechanism under the tomb. We're having such a great time that the pursuit of magical warfare has taken a backseat to a 38 lb halfling waterskiing in tow behind a sword.

That being said, do what you will for magical items. Be creative and have fun with it. If your DM doesn't allow it, I guess maybe you can volunteer to DM next time? Magic doesn't have to be OP. It can often be ridiculous, help move the story and provide plot points.

 

[Jaron Mortimer]

As has been stated, those charts do not exist in 5E. There are charts on what expected sorts of loot ranges your players should encounter at certain levels and those charts are tied to random item tables from which you could extrapolate the probability that a character might find a magic item and then turn that into a sort of base assumption on how likely a player is to have magic items at a certain level.

But there's no "You should have X magic items of Y quality by Z level." charts in 5E because in 5E the default assumption is that you probably won't have any magic items at all.

I believe there are also attunement limits.

Dear god.

Yes they do.

Page 38 of the DMG, as has been stated multiple times, gives good examples of what a character at said levels should be expected to have based on the magic level of the game in question.

You are 1000% expected to gain and use magical items over the course of the game: Nowhere near as many as previous editions, but they will be in there. Monsters would NOT be designed with flat-out immunity to non-magical damage if that weren't the case. I don't remember where, but there's an article out there that talks about how they expect any given PC to have around 8 magic items over the course of his career, not counting easily made consumables like potions and scrolls. Don't confuse "lack of built in magic item economy" with "expected lack of magic items". Also, don't forget that some things, like items made of special materials (Adamantine or mithral armor, for example) are now considered magic items in their own right.

And you're correct, you can only attune 3 magic items. Not all require attunement, but the best ones do.

Edit - An important point to make: The design philosophy with regards to magic items IS set up in a way that makes an uncommon, +1 magic longsword highly valuable to a character throughout his career instead of being cast off as "green rarity trash" later on down the line. Players DO get fewer magic items, and those they get are inherently more valuable than they have been in any previous edition.

 

[Jaron Mortimer]

My main goal on Enworld is to provide daddystabz with supporting material when he argues with his DM.

Therefore, I assert that a PC should have as many magical items, as the following characters from heroic fiction:

Odysseus, Beowulf, Robin Hood, Legolas/Gimli, Taran Wanderer, Inigo Montoya, and Sparrowhawk.

If having as many magic items as *each* of those characters doesn't feel like enough, then a PC should have as many magic items as *all of them combined*.

Just because I like to be a pain:

Odysseus
- Leather bag containing all the winds (except the north wind)
- the Moly plant, used to resist Circe's magic
- The Bow of apollo, though only at the end of the story.
Beowulf
- Hrunting, a sword
- Naegling, a BIGGER sword that allowed him to move freely in the water
- his chain shirt, made by Master Smith Weyland
Robin hood
- The Key to "The greatest treasure in all the land" ;-)
Legolas
- Essentially all elven swords in Middle earth are magical, and he has TWO of them.
Gimli
- I'd be willing to say his Axe, but I have nothing to back that up.
Inigo Montoya
- His father's sword is an excellent example of what a 5e Magic Sword should look like.

I'd say a better example should be Frodo. Over his adventures, he gains:
- Elven Short sword
- Mithral Armor
- Elven Cloak
- Phial carrying the Light of Eärendil
- Ring of invisibility and Ultimate Power (that's a bit much, but he still has it.)

This totally describes how items should work in 5e. You get something, it's a treasured item in your personal arsenal, and it feels special. Sting wasn't much more than a plain magic shortsword, but it was Bilbo's, and it was personal to him.

 

[Blue]

So when do the common permanent items show up?

You had me there. I'm paging through my DMG looking for any common permanent items so I can see what charts they are on.

Hat's off, well done.

 

[Riley37]

Just because I like to be a pain:

Well played, sir! You're engaging with counter-examples, rather than complaining about "asshat".

I agree with the part about PCs having *items they care about*. I don't recall anything about Robin Hood's bow being enchanted, or made from The Special Yew Tree that's Super Effective, or anything like that. On another hand, I imagine that it was balanced just right for his arm length and his height, that he tensioned the draw to just the right amount, and that if you took it away and left another bow in its place, *he would notice*. Taran Wander made his own sword. And so forth.

My main 5E PC, in Faerun, has three magic items. All three were gifts, and he wouldn't trade any of them for 10M GP or for a +3 Vorpal Sword, because each gift represents a relationship or accomplishment which matters to his story.

I mentioned Odysseus, but not Achilles, who gets a divinely-forged shield. Robin Hood's LG counterpart is Arthur, who gets Excalibur and its sheath. Boromir's horn might be enchanted. Aragorn has Narsil.

Just because I like to split hairs:

Odysseus had the wind bag rather briefly, same with the moly. Neither was in his "inventory" in Ithaka.
The bow which he uses to kill suitors isn't *enchanted*. But it's special; maybe minimum STR 18 to wield?

Beowulf wielded Hrunting. Perhaps it was a well-made sword; perhaps masterwork. Or maybe just balanced perfectly for him, in the same way that a bowler has their favorite bowling ball with the finger holes perfectly aligned.

Wait, Legolas has two swords? In the LOTR books, he fights with a knife, when he runs out of arrows or enters close combat. Perhaps movie-Legolas is a re-skinned Drizzle?

Gimli, though... Gimli could have picked up any axe from any competent blacksmith's shop and been just as happy and just as effective. If you want his axe to be magic, then I think that says more about your assumptions and biases as an RPGer, than it says about Middle Earth as Tolkien imagined Middle Earth.

Inigo Montoya's father made masterwork swords. There is an excellent scene in which Inigo gets magically guided. That isn't because the SWORD is enchanted. That's because he's using the sword to focus magical power which comes from... well, let's just say a source which originates outside the sword and which acts through it.

Bilbo finds a Ring of invisibility. True dat. It's a big deal. It's not "hey, now that I'm an adventurer like Thorin, I'm starting to get cool items, like the three magic items that Thorin has! When I level up again, will I catch up to the Standard Amount of Magic Items?"

At the end of LOTR, Frodo does not have the Ring; victory is *defined* in terms of not having the ring (and no one else having it either).

The glass of starlight is an awesome magic item. What would it do, in D&D terms? Enable casting of Moonbeam? Nope. It shines, and it renews life and hope, when hope is scarce. Completely consistent with the themes of LotR.

So, what are the themes, in the story told via the D&D game at daddystabz's table? and what magic items would express those themes, with equal beauty and wonder?