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1 year ago ::
Nov 29, 2011 - 5:22PM
#1
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Date Joined:
Feb 22, 2011
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Our playgroup is starting up again this winter... YAY!
Our DM is a very close friend to all of us and we have two new members playing for the first time. double YAY.
Last campaign, the DM didn't provide us with many magical items. We searched retailers and asked people we met, but not much of anything. Talking to him before this next campaign I asked him about the subject. He said you must work very hard on quests to receive magical items. His first DM did this and it made a player feel the hard work was well worth it. I agree that hard work on a quest deserves something special.
How do I talk to him about allowing our characters to get magical items more regularly? Without much experience in the game (only one campaign played so far) how does a character acquire magical items the CHARACTER wants... not just one provided by the DM?
I ask this question because of all the builds I see online, many characters are well suited up with magical items very early on. Ones that are optimized for them. Are that available in your worlds?
Thanks for your help.
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1 year ago ::
Nov 29, 2011 - 5:38PM
#2
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Date Joined:
Dec 13, 2010
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As a DM I don't really bother giving out magical items. I hate the idea of extra damage or AC boosts due to some kind of magical enchanement. Every one or two quests however I make sure players find a wondrous item of some kind. I believe that wondrous items are more useful to players then magical weapons and armor.
I have handed out magical rings but as far as weapons and armor go, I rather the players take the Crafting skills and make those items themselves. There is more adventure in finding resources and creating the magical items for players then just finding some random sword.
Ask your DM for some more items, give him a list of items you and the group would like to find. If he doesn't bite to the idea of "hand outs" then take the crafting skills and make your own magical items.
Unless the DM is running some kind of story were magic is rear and secret he can't stop you from making your own items.
Just in case I failed to mention; I am playing D&D 3.5e.
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1 year ago ::
Nov 30, 2011 - 3:03AM
#3
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Date Joined:
Oct 28, 2010
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Our playgroup is starting up again this winter... YAY!
Our DM is a very close friend to all of us and we have two new members playing for the first time. double YAY.
Last campaign, the DM didn't provide us with many magical items. We searched retailers and asked people we met, but not much of anything. Talking to him before this next campaign I asked him about the subject. He said you must work very hard on quests to receive magical items. His first DM did this and it made a player feel the hard work was well worth it. I agree that hard work on a quest deserves something special.
How do I talk to him about allowing our characters to get magical items more regularly? Without much experience in the game (only one campaign played so far) how does a character acquire magical items the CHARACTER wants... not just one provided by the DM?
I ask this question because of all the builds I see online, many characters are well suited up with magical items very early on. Ones that are optimized for them. Are that available in your worlds?
Thanks for your help.
Which edition?
If you're playing 4e, and your DM is not either giving out magic items or using Inherent Bonuses, he really needs to learn the rules, because PC attacks and defences don't scale properly without one or the other.
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1 year ago ::
Nov 30, 2011 - 3:44AM
#4
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Date Joined:
Aug 18, 2007
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Hey,
Well, yes and no. 'Modern', optimised PCs will be significantly more powerful than PCs built out of the Player's HandBook, probably even with significantly lower-quality gear. Anyway, being 'underpowered' in any context only matters if you aren't having fun because the challenges you encounter are too tough, or because your teammates are outshining you.
Seperately, lots of optimised builds recommend the same few pieces of equipment, which can get a bit boring and 'devalue' magic items as something special. I guess your particular issue is actually because there is something 'cool' you would like to do that needs a particular item effect - in which case I'd suggest asking the DM to fold it into treasure, or to create a side-quest for you to go and find it. You may also wish to point out that rewards of gold have no practical effect if they can't be spent (but in a non-confrontational way). By the 'rule of cool', your DM will hopefully allow you the equipment you want.
Be cautious, however! It will be less fun for your fellow players if you are much more powerful than they (addendum: this doesn't really apply to leader and healer types, because the share-the-love nature of their powers tends to mean everyone's happy when they get a power-up).
Yours,
JMH
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1 year ago ::
Nov 30, 2011 - 8:45AM
#5
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Date Joined:
Nov 30, 2005
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It depends. I'll guess you are doing 4e, where those items are mandatory for the math to balance out (unless he is using variant rules?). I suggest you point that out, and explain that you love the idea of cool, powerful, custom, magic items, and you are totally down for doing quests for them. But youdo need the basic number fix items. I'd also push the inherant bonus variant rule. It gives you the +X bonuses you need to compete without items. I'd also look into being a ritual caster, and making my own magic items. Fun roleplay bit with your DM. Make magic items, and hide them in haunted caves and similar places. Explain its for future adventurers.
5e comments and thoughts all in one place. Check it out to provide feedback, mock, or steal ideas.
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/28835423/Krusks_5e_Design_Goals?sdb=1
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1 year ago ::
Nov 30, 2011 - 10:20AM
#6
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Date Joined:
Jun 30, 2008
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If you are playing 4E you either need to be getting magic items, using inherent bonuses, or changing all the monster defenses, HP, and attack bonuses.
As long as he is using inherent bonuses or adjusting the monsters it is fine that he is only occasionally handing out items. 4E in general is designed around PCs getting useful stuff. It doesn't have to be every specific item on the list, but they need something to help them out.
I would ask him up front what he is doing and go from there. Does he have a lot of experience running 4E past early heroic?
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1 year ago ::
Nov 30, 2011 - 11:31AM
#7
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Date Joined:
Oct 11, 2007
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Also, make sure that the DM knows your characters. One of the premises in 4th edition is that characters find narratively interesting magical items. So you should expect to find items that the party can use. Previous editions were much more random in distribution. It really is pretty dispiriting for a party to find plate armor when the heaviest that anyone can wear is chain, or a wand that boosts fire effects when the only wand users have no fire powers, or a magic shield when the only character who can use it has a very nice magic full sword and has spent two feats to be better with it. Sometimes you can "fix things" via transfer enchantment, but not always.
As a GM, I track what items I've handed out and which characters have them. I look for who has the lowest level items in particular slots, and choose items which will help them in those slots. I keep track, on the spellcasters, with what implements they use and their dominant spell effect types, and for the weapon users, which weapons. I don't always (or even that often) give out the "optimal" items, and usually no more than one "optimal" item per character per tier. When I see that a player really likes a given item that they have, I will often have the item get more powerful rather than give them a new item. As a player, I don't mind too much if I get an item which will take a level of retraining to use most effectively, but I really don't like ones that would take more.
As a side note: 4th edition items tend to do only one or two (related) things, and many of them only do special stuff on crits.
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1 year ago ::
Nov 30, 2011 - 11:40AM
#8
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Date Joined:
Jul 21, 2004
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Are you finding that you actually NEED the items? If the DM knows what he's doing and isn't on autopilot in every other aspect of the game, you can do fine.
[N]o difference is less easily overcome than the difference of opinion about semi-abstract questions. - L. Tolstoy
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1 year ago ::
Dec 01, 2011 - 8:05AM
#9
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Date Joined:
Apr 16, 2009
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You need the magic items, or inherent bonuses, or for the DM to delevel encounters by approximately the enhancement bonuses you should have.
Inherent bonuses are really the better way to go there. (Usually the recommendation when using inherent bonuses is to cut the number of magic items in the treasure parcels in half.)
I love the flexibility of not having to upgrade items. And if you don't NEED to find another magic weapon for the enhancement bonus, there's no automatic preference for the weapon slot over, say, the foot slot. Usually the recommendation when using inherent bonuses is to cut the number of magic items in the treasure parcels in half. Plus it's really good for the multiple-weapon/implement character. (I've played a character who uses two melee weapons AND a bow.)
Given that the DM doesn't like items chosen for their enhancement bonuses, I say mostly forget them. But pick out a few magic items for flavor or characterization (but don't go above the enhancement bonuses you should have) and identify them to the DM as the sort of thing you'd like to find. (AKA "wish list". Notice the complete lack of a guarantee that you'll find anything, let alone everything, on your list.)
My bard is at level 7 in a campaign with inherent bonuses and has: weapon level 2, implement level 4, armor level 3, boots level 3, cloak level 2.
(She also has a houseruled, non-magical but somewhat expensive, harp. Bard rituals require expensive musical instruments as foci, and there's a serious disconnect between the list of values required for those foci and the list of values of musical instruments that exist in RAW.)
"The world does not work the way you have been taught it does. We are not real as such; we exist within The Story. Unfortunately for you, you have inherited a condition from your mother known as Primary Protagonist Syndrome, which means The Story is interested in you. It will find you, and if you are not ready for the narrative strands it will throw at you..." - from Footloose
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1 year ago ::
Dec 03, 2011 - 7:30AM
#10
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The question I would ask is it the style of world or is it the preference of the DM and the world still feels like magic items are common and monsters face require magic items to hit at all or to defeat damage reduction. No magic items in Westeros is a big differnece than no magic in Forgotten Realms.
If it is a game mechanic problem talk to him about game balance.
If it is the style of the world then remind him there are other explinations for incredible weapons other than magic. The weapons could be made of superior materials that grant bonuses. It could be made by superior craftsmen who know techniques most weaponsmiths do not. For instance this means your fighter might find a suberbly made (masterwork), mithril (inherent bonus from material), the nigh on legendary craftsman who made it knows a method of folding the metal so it is lighter, stronger and able to hold an edge (keen). That might yield a completely mundane +2 keen weapon with a unique appearence (like damascus steel). This is completely reasonable in a low magic setting if that is what he is shooting for. This leaves the oportunity for the once in a dragon's generation for the +3 Holy Ghost Touch Warhammer of Vicious Thundering.
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