D&D 5E Would you let your player choose their magic items they get?

[The Green Hermit]

Before we started, I had them compile a wish list. When a pile of loot looks like it will fit, I will sometimes pull something from that list, but I don't tell them who I had intended it for.

 

[The Green Hermit]

If my players indicate that there's an item they really want, I will work its appearance and retrieval into the campaign unless it's ridiculous.

That's for major items. If they can't figure out how to make whatever minor items they find useful, I don't see it as my problem.

One of my characters decided that he had been given a quest to find a certain scepter (which may or may not exist) so I worked it into the story line.

 

[The Green Hermit]

The question is irrelevant since I mostly run adventures published by WotC in 5e. The players get the magic items in the adventure. End of conversation.

Even then, though, there are places that give a lot of leeway for treasure.

 

[Magister Ludorum]

In my games, magic items are like icing on the cake. Players know not to build characters around having a particular magic item. This was one of the hard "NO" things for me in 4e.

 

[The Green Hermit]

For me the Wishlist is horribly immersion-breaking, and indeed comes from an era when WoTC had lost sight of immersion as a goal of play. As a player I'd hate being asked to provide one OOC, and I'd get a squicky feeling in my tummy when something from my list turned up. OTOH I'm happy to provide an IC character background which includes mention of stuff like "his father's ancestral Flameblade, lost when he fell at the Battle of Gedden" - having that then turn up in world (probably in the hands of the BBEG) would be great.

The way I do it is at Session Zero. And those are the only wishlists I use. If your character dies and you have to create a new one? No new list. If somebody new joins up? No new list.

We are also playing a Level 1 - 20 campaign, so by the time something actually shows up in the loot, my players usually don't remember asking for it.

 

[Ath-kethin]

One of my characters decided that he had been given a quest to find a certain scepter (which may or may not exist) so I worked it into the story line.

It's such an easy way to work player desires and character goals/development into the campaign!That's the kind of player feedback and communication that's so beneficial to the game and everyone's enjoyment.

 

[Lanefan]

Wishlist or not, the fun part is when they find some key important item they're going to need later, don't realize its significance (and-or never bother to ask either in-character or out), and sell it off to some random buyer.....

The other problem with wishlists as a concept is the same as my problem with the concept of planned-out character careers in general: there's just too much faulty assumption-expectation involved that the character's going to survive long enough for any of it to matter.