D&D 5E Why is "Frost Brand" rarer than "Flame Tongue"?

[Jer]

But no, the damage capabilities of this powerful legacy weapon (it's a +2 eager keen rapier of swiftness) are just too sweet. So naturally he burned a life saving destiny point to reroll the failed DEX check (he has like 22 Dex) in order to save his sword, and if he had failed that (failing two 4+ rolls in a row) in his own words, "he would have dived after it".

Priorities.

My favorite cursed items are the ones where you trade real power for the curse. I love having a player with a PC with a cursed item that is clearly going to get that PC killed struggling with getting rid of the cursed item because it's just too good an item to get rid of. It's great - you can even make it trivial for them to remove the curse (taking the power with it of course) or ditch the item and they'll hang on and roleplay it as if they were Elric doomed to carry Stormbringer because they just can't give up that sweet, sweet extra +2 bonus or that extra die of damage or whatever even when the sword periodically tries to kill them.

 

[Khisanth the Ancient]

It is probably just because feathers burn pretty easily

Ah, OK.

The Big Book of Magic Item Creation I *would* like to see would be one in which each item had one page and the "recipe" was really more of a mini-adventure. That is, a list of rare items to collect, difficult conditions to be met (e.g. rare astronomical events), and other hoops to jump through. Plus a chapter with ideas on where such recipes could be found.

In other words, a Big Book of Adventure Hooks.

That would be just fine (or better?) as a 3rd party supplement. WotC doesn't have to make it.

Yeah, that would be cool.

2E had magic item creation rules like this.

I've seen people online say that that was dumb, because nobody would make a simple item like a +1 sword if it involved quests and stuff, but I don't think that really follows. To me the whole concept of a world with tons of dungeons and ruins full of treasure and magic items implies that in a past age the civilizations were wealthier and more magical.

So people back in the age of Netheril (FR) or Istar (Dragonlance) or in the early age of magic after Rajaat discovered it but before the Sorcerer Kings destroyed everything (Dark Sun) or whatever probably had better ways to do it.

 

[Ancalagon]

Well +1 swords would be made because they are easier to make than more powerful magical weapons...

 

[Khisanth the Ancient]

Well, I suppose there's that. But really... who doesn't love fried chicken!

Sword +1, Poultry Fryer. This longsword is +2 and inflicts an additional 2d6 fire damage against creatures with a natural fly speed. Any flying creature killed by this sword is fried to perfection and tastes exactly like chicken.