Thanks for the posts of the Magic items.


Hmm, looking at the Free PDF of the DMs guide, The one you can download from the Wizards site, I note it still uses + bonus items.
for example:

QuoteGloves of Swimming and Climbing
Wondrous item, uncommon (requires attunement)
While wearing both of these gloves, climbing and
swimming doesn't cost you extra movement. In addition,
you have a +5 bonus to Strength (Athletics) checks you
make to climb or swim.

Note it's +5, rather than say climbing or something at advantage.
so it seems they've not really walked away from offering items that add bonuses.

In addition to that, as we already know,there's still +1 swords, armor and so on.

It's just simpler to say an Elven cloak gives +5 to stealth and that seems to fit in with the design of 5E just fine.
That doesn't mean the ideas presented here are good ideas, I might use them anyway, or all of them, heh.

Quote from: Will;791669One thing I am committed to, in 5e, is avoiding the standard 3e/4eisms of magic items.


Personally, if I never, ever, ever see another fucking +1 sword again, I'll be happy. I want magic items to be WEIRD and interesting.

A magic sword of fading -- when invoked, you disappear for 5 seconds. I mean, TRULY disappear -- you don't exist for those 5 seconds. Nothing can affect you (though you also can't DO anything).

I like that all magic items should have some sort of story or background, sure it could at the end of the day be a +1 sword,

So for example:
The great Druid "Zarniwoop" placed it in a sacred pool on a full moon and imbued it with magic to combat the forces of darkness in the great Orc Invasion of the the Deep Woods of 2300.
10 such swords were made and have distinctive moon runes carved into the blades. For those who understand the Runic Language (Druidic perhaps), they can read the story of the sword's creation.
It's a +1 sword all the time, but on a full moon it glows as well as having a +1 bonus to hit and damage.

That sounds a lot more interesting than "It's a +1 sword", but at the same time the functionality of bonus items is still there.

Yeah, but personally I think 'in the end it's a +1 sword' is deeply uninteresting.

Apparently I am not the market, but thankfully there seems to be room in 5e to do it either way.

Quote from: Will;791811Yeah, but personally I think 'in the end it's a +1 sword' is deeply uninteresting.

Apparently I am not the market, but thankfully there seems to be room in 5e to do it either way.

There's no reason not to have it both ways.
DnD is very good in that way. If you want items to have unique special abilities, it's trivially easy to do that.
but if +1 item is good enough with some background and a cosmetic effect as well. That's all good.
And who knows, maybe the cosmetic effect is more than that.
Perhaps on a full moon when you're in the deep woods it has other abilities. such as some sort of Orc slaying ability or something.
cosmetic effects leaves a lot open for the DM later on if he so chooses.


It probably will actually be the case that I'll make up items with all sorts of strange abilities, but at the same time I'm ok with bonus items as well.
I'll always describe them in a unique way though, not just "Well you found a magical sword, it looks really sharp and is magical, oh and BTW it's a +1 sword" .

I've noticed that people often identify with and pursue the meaning behind cosmetic effects on magic items. So even though it doesn't really have a tangible game effect, the RP effect can be dramatic.

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;791650I know "magic shops" are regarded as the devil in some quarters, but for an Eberron campaign (especially the James Bond + Eberron campaign I'm prepping) they are part of the core assumptions,

There's nothing wrong with magic shops at all, if it's appropriate to the setting you're using.

Of course some people don't like them and expect will be running a campaign where they don't exist, which is totally fine.

But so is running a campaign where there's a magic shop on every corner.
As long as people are having fun, it doesn't matter at all. It's just a game.

I can imagine for example I'd have a lot of fun with a DnD game set in a Harry Potter setting where you can goto Diagon Alley and buy all sorts of magic items (if you have the Galleons) and it would feel perfectly appropriate.

Well, system matters.

If you are a melee sort in 3e and go for 'funky interesting magic items' instead of enhanced armor/weapons/cloaks/etc., you are cutting yourself off at the knees.

I think 5e nicely helps balance that stuff out.

Quote from: Will;791837Well, system matters.

If you are a melee sort in 3e and go for 'funky interesting magic items' instead of enhanced armor/weapons/cloaks/etc., you are cutting yourself off at the knees.

I think 5e nicely helps balance that stuff out.

I don't think that matters so much in 5E.
All classes have great options to progress equally and have decent abilities and powers.
I think in a campaign with very rare or NO magic items, a fighter can still do very well for example.

Alternatively, Funky/weird magic items in the right sort of campaign could be completely doable. It depends on the players and the DM really.

One thing I like about 5e's magic items so far is how terse the write-ups are again.

Quote from: danskmacabreI don't think that matters so much in 5E.
All classes have great options to progress equally and have decent abilities and powers.
I think in a campaign with very rare or NO magic items, a fighter can still do very well for example.

I'll confess I play favorites when it comes to magic item placement; I drop way more cool stuff for non-casters because I feel a need to even things out. We're talking plate armor that grants flight, bows that dispel magic, warhammers that provoke earthquakes, etc. I have yet to receive any complaints that I'm "impinging on casters' niches". It never seems to matter if you impinge in that direction.

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;791859One thing I like about 5e's magic items so far I'll confess I play favorites when it comes to magic item placement; I drop way more cool stuff for non-casters because I feel a need to even things out. We're talking plate armor that grants flight, bows that dispel magic, warhammers that provoke earthquakes, etc. I have yet to receive any complaints that I'm "impinging on casters' niches". It never seems to matter if you impinge in that direction.

I guess that's the difference between casters and non-casters.
Casters tend to excel in ability for a while and then once their stuff runs out, such as spells and so on.
So for a bit they can do all sorts of wacky stuff with their spells.

I've noticed that with the fighter, whilst at low level he doesn't that much in the way of special abilities and no spells (depending on your class path), they are consistently pretty darn good.
Good HPs, Good AC, Decent weapons and damage output.
Adding some well designed items with bells and whistles and interesting effects could bring them into the realm of being able to do some of the crazy stuff casters can do without unbalancing things.

A caster isn't necessarily going to be that bothered if not as much effort is put into caster items, as they have such great possibilities to do odd things with spells.

Still, I was think of putting in a "Wand of Wonder" for a laugh into my campaign as part of a treasure for a caster to use.

Hmm, I got something else wrong. That's what comes of skimming the rules in eagerness to run a game.

There's a character that's a Halfling Sorceror with Wild Magic path in my campaign.

Halflings reroll 1's on attacks, saves, Ability checks

However the Wild magic has the following ruling:

QuoteWild Magic Surge
Starting when you choose this origin at 1st level, your
spellcasting can unleash surges of untamed magic.
Immediately after you cast a sorcerer spell of 1st level
or higher, the DM can have you roll a d20. If you roll a
1, roll on the Wild Magic Surge table to create a random
magical effect.

I read this wrongly, assuming whenever the Sorceror rolls a 1 with a spell, or attack or skill (which it clearly does NOT say that).
However the Halfling rerolls 1s, so it never happened with the wild magic.

Of course, reading this properly it's a special roll that's made after casting any spell.

The Halfling lucky ability:

QuoteLucky.
When you roll a 1 on an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll.

Fortunately, as this ability is specific to Attack rolls and, ability checks and Saves, this special d20 wild magic roll after casting a spell (1st level and above) is exempt from the Halfling reroll ability.