Let's talk magic items, Veeky Forums

>Ockham's Hammer
You cheeky fucker.

I want to fuck that Arturia

>Ockham's Hammer
Top kek.

>"all good swords have a name"

I've always half wanted to play in a low magic setting where magic items were a big deal, and not temporary. If you got a magic sword it had a name and a history, which may or may not be famous. Then again, the easiest way to do that is Longsword +1 which I've always hated with a passion. "Sword that is easy to use" doesn't seem magical enough to me. I want to be stuck with my sword for a long time and then, unexpectedly, I'm face to face with Skrin's Vengence, the sword that turned the Evergreen Forest into the burnt wasteland it is after Skirn imitated a lumber jack with it because the Elves killed his wife. I want people to recognize it and be awed, and horrified, and amazed.

Problem being there's a fuckton of monsters after a certain level that are immune or resitant to nonmagical weapons, and there's also usually some dick who chose a caster so magic is pretty commonplace.

>give players magic items
>faggot player hoards them all to himself
>the other players are such pussies they never complain

>tfw no sequel that shows Arthur ruling

I usually have a build-their-own through their deeds method. They usually give me a rough idea of shit they're interested in having, and I'll drop hints that some of the treasure they find is special and can be interacted with in special ways.

Eventually they'll get a mostly functional magic item by level 5 and a fully unlocked magic item by level 10.

All the magic items in the world won't ever make the martial relevant.

Just go crazy and end campaign once everyone becomes bored.

I will often level magical weapons or family heirlooms with the player.

Is this a shitty way to do it? I feel like it works. Treating special weapons as a character in their own right is kinda fun.

Interesting how the OP is about magical items, including artifacts and othet such nonweapons, and you immediately try to start a martial vs wizzy argument. Get thee to a nunnery and choke on a shotgun, Skeletor.

Doesn't matter, martial will still be shit.

Also, I did give him good advice. Just go crazy and end campaign once it becomes boring.

Away with you.

That's not even good advice. If campaign becomes boring figure out why and fix it. "Going crazy" is a great way to alienate already distant players.
Nunnery, shotgun, choke, Skeletor.

Martials are still shitty.

Go wild, fuck the consequences.

If they're distant then they're probably already bored with your shitty campaign anyways.

Nobody becomes distant in a campaign that they're actually invested in after all.

You literally took my post, chopped it into phrases, IGNORED the bit where I said "fix it," played mix and match, and posted it as your own.

>but do jack all against anything that isn't an elemental.
What? Why? What makes the sharp stabby bit less effective?

Your first day on Veeky Forums I take it?

Face it, your game is on a downward spiral and the best course of action now is to fuck the shit out of the stewardess and just leave caution to the wind.

Perhaps it /doesnt/ have a sharp stabby bit, and just has something to kill elementals.

Or perhaps it's simply ill advised to use it for other purposes.

Like a staff made out of glass which will disrupt elementals ability to stay coherent, killing them.
Its a spear only against elementals, otherwise its a cathode ray tube that hopefully has a handle.

Depends on the game, setting and the tone.
It also depends on what magic items mean in the game. In later editions of D&D, for example, magic items are built into the core expectations of the game's mechanics.

Magic items are for non adventurers.

Adventurers get magic items, wishes, millions of gold and unique access to the greatest smiths, forges, and fabricators in the multiverse. Sometimes they even get to uplift mortals to godhood by forcing them to create weapons beyond those of legend.

Then I throw the biggest monsters and ridiculous scenarios at them and we see what happens.

Or maybe play a descent system and actually spend some time developing your setting. Do not announce you're going to run a game until you have an adventure ready and you feel it is worth playing.

I don't recall ever saying my game had problems. I've never had my players grow bored.
>is on a crashing plane
>decides to jerk off instead of try to correct the plan
That explains a lot of today's society.

I've never enjoyed power bloated games, though they are fun to read about.

My players are 4 dirty powergamers. One from experience, one from reading on the internet, one just thinks he knows what he's doing, and the last because of luck. They just want me to set up monsters and/or armies for them to knock down. It's easy on me, so I don't complain.

They just fought a Mature Adult Black Dragon that was also an Illithid Sorcerer. Two people almost died. They loved it.

Depends on the setting, I guess.

A) Your monsters are super fucking strong, varied and have magic powers?
B) Is your power as a player character going to skyrocket as you advance levels?

When you open a chest that magic shit had better spill out like you knocked over a crate of legos.

If your monsters are fucking crazy strong and you're mundane, you're going to get murdered.

If your character ramps up in strength and power significantly with a level up, you're going to find that everything is sort of useless shit a few levels in. You're getting powerful, your enemies are getting powerful, and you need gear that can keep pace.

The third option is that you sort of stagnate/increase incredibly slowly in power, the enemies remain dangerous but don't have nutty powers regardless of your level, and magic items are rare as hell. In this event, under no conditions do you want to go into combat willingly. You aren't exploring tombs or bobbing for magic baubles in dangerous vampire warrens. You're less of an adventurer and more likely a soldier protecting something or some poor bastard caught up in a forbidden one's plot.

I like to think of the second scenario as "Getting Shreked." All your character wants to do is curl up in a small hut in the middle of the swamp and be left alone, but forces conspire to drag them out, kicking and screaming. They adventure to get back to their swamp.

I base them off of something that already exists, make it underpowered, and give it one little nudge of strength. There, balanced magical item.

>Implying that massive faggot is me

>implying I'd ever say something that stupid

Kill yourself.

I like using double-edged magic items with very specific or conditional effects in lieu of just handing out weapons with a flat +X. Like a sword that blazes hotter with each subsequent round, causing additional fire damage to both the target and the wielder, or a sword that glows in the presence of certain enemies, ala Sting.

I might tack on a +X bonus if I want to raise the strength of the item, but I find discrete effects much more memorable and players can sometimes put them to creative uses especially if they find a way to overcome the disadvantage later.

go read a book instead of watching Disney dreck

>Give every player magic weapons to start my campaign
>Some are heirlooms, some were found on previous adventures, every item has a story
>They come by better items as they campaign goes on
>Still use their old ones

Made me proud. I handle them pretty realistically or, rather, about as realistically as you could for magic bullshit. I'm not making them available at a store, that's stupid. They're either in the hands of other adventurers/noble families or they're lost/sealed away in a dungeon/shrine/whatever. No random generating, all of 'em get an origin and a purpose behind why they were made.

...

Usually by giving them magic items with charges. The mostly just sit in their inventory until they need a hail mary. Good way for them to prevent a tpk, gives player agency, and they don't have to hope that the dm cheats the dice roll in their favor against whatever archevil their fighting.

If your already in game and it's an issue with an op item, take it away from then.
It broke, theives, the god/wizard/puppies want it back, all magic stooped working etc. Opens up new narrative too.

>run 3.5 forever
>get to play in a game of 5e
>max 3 magic items per player
>super happy with this change

Seems aight so far.

I always like underpowered-looking artifacts that the players neglect.

Manual of Many Topics
>Artifact
>A book with 100 pages.
>To use it, flip to a random page while thinking of a topic (roll 1d100).
>If the page with that number has not yet been filled, that page becomes saturated with knowledge about your topic of choice.
>If the page has already been filled, the manual snaps shut and refuses to pry apart for 24 hours.
>Reading a filled-in page allows you to take 20 on an untrained Knowledge check involving the corresponding topic.
>Destruction:
>Draw on each blank page in the blood of a virgin giant that yet lives.
>The book becomes a text of mediocre quality, full of difficult-to-follow discussions about each topic originally asked of it.
>Grants a +1 bonus to any related Knowledge check after half an hour of study.

I've actually had a group try to destroy this book in the middle of combat after discovering that the giant they were fighting was social awkward and never had a girlfriend.

Magic weapons come in two flavours. One, you can choose to attune yourself to your weapon and enchant it with minor effects that have situational malus as well.

For instance at tuning yourself to a flaming sword would draw on your body's heat to fuel it, so you would initially feel cold and if overused could progress to hypothermia.

Or a sword that was keen and gives a boost to crit range would in turn dull your wits while using it.

A weapon that had bonuses to hitting or damaging a certain demographic would make you more irritable or suspicious of said demographic, or make them extremely uncomfortable in your presence without knowing why (unless you're waving a weapon at them, in which case it switches over to hating and wanting to kill you even moreso).

This also means the enchanted weapons aren't transferable. It's a regular whatever in someone else's hands.

The other ones are weapons that have been forged with larger, more permanent sacrifices. Sword of true strike? Hundreds of people were crippled with palsy and loss of fine motor control. Flaming sword? Some dude was burnt to death ritually and slowly while the enchanter was psionically linked to him so he could guide not just the flame but also the concept of burning into the blade.

Etc. So they're much rarer since you either have to surrender a lot of yourself or even more of other people in order to make it. They tend to be slightly more powerful and not have malus associated.

Oh, and there are legendary weapons that have been used consistently for so long that they grow sentient but not sapient. Since they ARE weapons this usually is due to a lot of killing so they're usually pretty dark too. There's that occasional one that was used to kill a God or served as an executioners axe, or is just the simple walking staff inherited from your master and his master before him that is now an ur-staff that perfectly forms to your grip and is un breakable and master crafter for all intents.

That can kind of backfire though and cause resentment. I know the couple times it happened to me I was pissed because here I finally got a cool-tier item that wasnt just +1 or whatever and it has this huge flaw that makes it halfway unusable.

So destroying it turns it into Veeky Forums?

I could see this being kind of broken though. Boots that help you stealth? When not sneaking you attract attention. Shield that lights up in the dark? Provides shade in the light. It's a fun system, but a clever person could work it to have two positive effects.