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Nov. 29th, 2015 12:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretThe biggest struggle I had in running a high level 5E game at Philcon had to do with magic items.
Magic items in 5E are completely rethought in substantial ways with regards to game balance. In general, in 3rd and 4th editions, there was an expectation in the math that players would have level appropriate magic items, that this was one of the things that equalized them against enemies. Along with this expectation came the pricing- magic items were priced so that they could be afforded by players of appropriate level, in addition to being seeded throughout dungeons. Magic items were commodified as an integral part of the adventurer economy.
5th edition, with its much flatter level curve, is designed so that magic items are not required to stand up against level appropriate enemies. A +1 weapon is still a powerful item even at higher levels. The general place of magic items in 5th edition is rethought commensurate with this change. Magic items are not actually priced in the DMG, they're not designed to be part of the adventurer economy, and the DM is encouraged to restrict the ability of players to construct magic items on their own.
Rather, magic items in 5E are supposed to be story seeds. They're supposed to be coveted and dangerous objects of power, like Anduril or the One Ring in Lord of the Rings, rather than merely powerful tools, as they are in Vance's Dying Earth or Lieber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories. The new 'attunement' rules go along with this- in order to gain the benefits of a magic item, one must not merely pick it up and start fighting with it. One must rather become acquainted with the weapon, channel some of your own personal energy into it, and in doing so take the risk that the weapon will be cursed and gain power over you.
I find these rules really exciting, and if I ever get to run a 5E campaign I think it'll be really cool to use magic items in this way, but these rules were a big problem for running a one shot high level adventure in the system, because the players were high level enough that you would expect them to have acquired magical weapons in their adventures, but I didn't want either the timesink to me or the distraction in game that fully fledged 5E magical weapons would have imposed.
In retrospect, upon rereading the magic item rules in the DMG, I have realized that there is another option in the rules which is better suited for what I wanted, which is the weapon quirks table. I could have given the players +1 or maybe even +2 weapons, but given each a roll on the weapon quirks table, which would have personalized the weapons in some minor, inconsequential but interesting way. This would have been, in effect, a lite version of the full fledged 5E magic items rules, giving magical weapons with some heft but also some story hook, and I think it would have been fast enough for me as a DM and fun enough for the players, without distracting from what was already a crammed 4 hour session.
Magic items in 5E are completely rethought in substantial ways with regards to game balance. In general, in 3rd and 4th editions, there was an expectation in the math that players would have level appropriate magic items, that this was one of the things that equalized them against enemies. Along with this expectation came the pricing- magic items were priced so that they could be afforded by players of appropriate level, in addition to being seeded throughout dungeons. Magic items were commodified as an integral part of the adventurer economy.
5th edition, with its much flatter level curve, is designed so that magic items are not required to stand up against level appropriate enemies. A +1 weapon is still a powerful item even at higher levels. The general place of magic items in 5th edition is rethought commensurate with this change. Magic items are not actually priced in the DMG, they're not designed to be part of the adventurer economy, and the DM is encouraged to restrict the ability of players to construct magic items on their own.
Rather, magic items in 5E are supposed to be story seeds. They're supposed to be coveted and dangerous objects of power, like Anduril or the One Ring in Lord of the Rings, rather than merely powerful tools, as they are in Vance's Dying Earth or Lieber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories. The new 'attunement' rules go along with this- in order to gain the benefits of a magic item, one must not merely pick it up and start fighting with it. One must rather become acquainted with the weapon, channel some of your own personal energy into it, and in doing so take the risk that the weapon will be cursed and gain power over you.
I find these rules really exciting, and if I ever get to run a 5E campaign I think it'll be really cool to use magic items in this way, but these rules were a big problem for running a one shot high level adventure in the system, because the players were high level enough that you would expect them to have acquired magical weapons in their adventures, but I didn't want either the timesink to me or the distraction in game that fully fledged 5E magical weapons would have imposed.
In retrospect, upon rereading the magic item rules in the DMG, I have realized that there is another option in the rules which is better suited for what I wanted, which is the weapon quirks table. I could have given the players +1 or maybe even +2 weapons, but given each a roll on the weapon quirks table, which would have personalized the weapons in some minor, inconsequential but interesting way. This would have been, in effect, a lite version of the full fledged 5E magic items rules, giving magical weapons with some heft but also some story hook, and I think it would have been fast enough for me as a DM and fun enough for the players, without distracting from what was already a crammed 4 hour session.