Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
The guidelines aren't really relevant here. The fact is, the monsters are balanced for zero magic items per RAW, so guidelines or no, every magic item unbalances the encounters and the more items you have, the more unbalanced they get.For everyone saying "that's too many magic items", consider the 2024 magic items by level guidelines. By 18th level, the party can be expected – according to those guidelines from 2024 DMG – to have accumulated (not created) the following between them all during the campaign...
If split evenly between
- 19 Common items
- 29 Uncommon items
- 23 Rare items
- 19 Very Rare items
- 11 Legendary items
4 PCs, Edit: 5 PCs (sorry, misread OP) it works out to something like this per PC...
@ECMO3 's you said your PC had the following:
- 3-4 Common items
- 5-6 Uncommon items
- 4-5 Rare items
- 4 Very Rare items
- 2 Legendary items
So you'd need something like Edit: 11-13 potions & scrolls to be hitting those 2024 DMG guidelines for "the number of magic items a D&D party typically gains during a campaign."
- unknown rarity (1): Foresight Shortsword
- Uncommon Items (1): Cloak of Protection
- Rare items (2): Rod of the Pactkeeper +2, Vicious Dagger
- Very Rare items (2): Efreeti Bottle, Shield +3
- Legendary Items (1): Rod of Lordly Might
- ?? Potions & Scrolls
Based on what I know, that seems like you were maybe about par for the course with 2024 guidelines?
That many magic items was a problem that the DM apparently didn't account for.