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For attunement and progress in the attunement from 3 to 9 you could also add rarity levels to that as well for instance you can’t attuned to a very rare item at level three but you could at level nine
Number 11: Equip your monsters with the magic item you want to give out. Can't defeat the Orc Warchief with his Rod of Lordly Might? Well perhaps it's not the right item for the party, yet.
Absolutely. Why is a +2 axe of smiting not being wielded by an appropriate foe? Why does the evil wizard have a wand of meteor storms sitting in his chest? They would be using these. Legendary and wondrous items may be buried in some long forgotten tomb or some such but your enemies should be wielding the powerful items that are the players rewards
I actually did this in our last session. The enemy knight had a circlet of blasting (reskinned as a bracelet) in case the players moved away. The sneaky enemy had boots of elvenkind, and the kobold sorcerer had 3 potions of healing, and had used 1 so the party got 2.
Yeah, been doing this for years. Never have a treasure chest with tonnes of gold and a +1 Sword in it. It makes no sense what-so-ever. Put the sword in the hands of the tribe/clan/warband leader. Give a wand of Magic Missiles to the tribe's mage ... and make them use it to hurt (not destroy just hurt, well maybe destroy, destroy-ish) the players. Two things happen. 1) The players see the items in action and WANT them all the more. Something gained in battle like this is always appreciated more and never call it a Short Sword +1, it's Grendar The Mighty's Sword ... don't tell them it's a +1 sword tell them it's shinier than the other swords and it stings a little more when it cuts you ... you tell them it's +1 after they get it from Grendar's cold dead hand and if you want to add stuff to it later (like Dragon Detection or whatever you can just do it) 2) The fights themselves become more fun, not just challenging but fun ... if the players can't kill (or at least don't think they can kill) Grendar The Mighty maybe the rogue can sneak up behind her and relieve her of it before combat begins ... cue disguises and distractions and lots of sneaking around ... fun. Special case ... Potions of Healing ... why wouldn't most orcs (or whatever) in a tribe have one of these? If they get hurt they drink them and heal up ... if the characters can kill them quickly before they can drink their potion then they can get access to the healing ... again more tactics, more fun. For example poor Grog died in round two of the combat, everyone can see the small potion on the chain around his hacked neck ... so now the players and the rest of the baddies are fighting over his body so they can get the potion for their side. The barbarian grabs Grog's foot, a big orc grabs his arm, we have a tug-of-war in the middle of a battle ...
I agree for this approach with the best items, but just like the players once the attunement slots get used up, weaker items get put back for safe keeping or distribution to a lieutenant or something later as that becomes an option.
There are a lot of decks you can use. You can have fun letting them think that it’s a DOMTs, then when they draw cards and the result is much less than they expected, you tell them “you don’t think I would give you that at this level, do you?”. This allows for some fun and tension but also teaches them that you’re not going to unbalance the world in their favor.
Was just planning to give my players the Rock of gravity detection. When you let this magical object go, it detects the direction of the gravity field by following it until it finds something that stops it.
Hilarious. I'm inspired to make a dungeon room based on the Pokémon type game arrows of one direction floor tiles. Where as the gravity in the room is all over the place and you have to chose the right pathway or fall hard and possibly into a pit or other trap. Then maybe a button at the beginning one person might have to stay at that reverses each "mote" of gravity.
I'm sorry but a rock of gravity detection as you described it sounds way too overpowered. I would scale back just a little bit. They maybe sometimes it doesn't fall toward the largest mass with the largest gravitational pull. Maybe put a curse on it. Sometimes it flies from your hand and Strikes the nearest person.
You should make them buy it at the Minatorium Emporium. Where they can also find such things as the Invisible Ring and the Leek-Proof Cloak. - Yeah, I'm a 1 For All fan too!
I'm a fan of items that grow with players, as opposed swapping out items. I gave a paladin a weapon that leveled, but he had to search for the lore to unlock each tier. I seeded the plot hooks for these through the game, but since he also had to reach certain levels, he didn't solely focus on unlocking his weapon.
In my “Big Damned Heroes” campaign I have a level 15 Artificer wielding a Holy Avenger. I like the randomness of loot rolls from the DMG tables but they have caused that guy to get two stat tomes(int and he is the only int class), a belt of dwarvenkind and a bunch of other items so he currently has the highest HP pool, the biggest attack bonus and the 2nd highest AC
@@theDMLair The Artificer also has absolute GARBAGE for number of spell slots. Out of all the spells they get; only the majority of the cantrips they can choose from, a few of their level 1 spells, and (I think) like 3 of their level 2 spells; only those few can be classified as "attack" or "damage dealing" spells for Artificers. Artificers are now THE Utility/Support Caster. Nearly every single one of their spells above level 1 is either healing, buffing, directing, or battlefield controlling. They are DESIGNED to rely on magic items and magic weaponry. They make their own Temporary Magic Items. IMO, they NEED those extra attunement slots, or they wouldn't be what they are; nor would they survive very long. :-)
+5 frostbrand sword of white dragon summoning Cursed item Whenever you unsheathe this weapon, it summons an adult white dragon 10 feet directly above the wielder. This creature is hostile towards you Good luck
@@OlDirtySam Yup. Unlimited free experience, potion ingredients and crafting components. And a big summons to bomb enemies with. Whats not to like? (Sure, its hostile to you, but you do that in the right places pretty soon it'll be hostile to everybody, but you were expecting it and the enemy isnt...)
As an experienced DM who hands magic items out like candy… I actually found inspiration from this video. You’ve given me the idea of keeping the flow good but turning some of the game’s powerful items into consumables instead. Such a great idea
Another form of magic items to consider are "trinkets", where if a common item was a lv1 spell, a trinket is a cantrip. For example, some sort of noisemaker skinned as a childs toy, imagine your an orc gaurding a dungeon corridor and a "Tickle me Elmo" goes off, you have bo clue what the hell it is and might (dm rolls) go investigate and be confused by it for a minute before returning to your post, this lets the players have 1 minute to try and sneak past before he comes back. Other real world things to consider are glowsticks, fart in a can, silly string, and other childrens toys. They are not damage dealers but something like a glowstick or a stink bomb can be very situational, like clearing out a tavern or underwater lights. Just be careful of giving out a super soaker in a vampire campaign, players may decide to put holy water in it and give Stradd a shower. (I would reward such an action but I understand not wanting the BBEG to go down to a super soaker)
HI! 12 year DM/GM here, started with AD&D, played 3, 3.5 and now i DM/GM 5e. IGNORE rarity, price and level guides. PERIOD. READ the items description in its entirety and move forward one informed. Some legendary items are basically useless, some rare items are Game Breaking. Read and inform yourselves. STOP relying on youtube and forums. Overall good video here. Still this advice Doesn't replace READING.
Last time I was this early, I was a wee lad. Btw noticed I gave players too much stuff while early levels, BBEG happened to have a lair action which made players choose to sacrifice a nonconsumable magic item or lose half of current hit points. they actually sacrificed about 2-3 each, which was quite surprising. nobody felt too bad afterwards.
I had an older game in a different edition that we had magic weapons that leveled up with us after certain sections of the game. It was fun to feel like both my character and an item leveled up with me.
Yeah, I really like the idea of artifacts, where they get more abilities the further you get, so you can get like new stuff as you augment your gear with like monster drops and stuff, or as you level up.
Hey RUclips! The DM's Lair doesn't suck! In fact, he gives brilliant advice. I've only watched a handful of his videos so far, and I can say, as someone who used to play D&D a lot many many moons ago, and am just getting back into it! There is a lot of sage advice here! I will definitely be watching more of him!
I’m glad you mentioned flavouring less powerful items! I’m only new to DMing but since I’m following a module I’m sticking to that book for the “real” magic items. But to kick off the campaign since I was running for newbies, I had a go at Matt Colville’s Delian Tomb. Instead of just a +1 longsword as the final reward, the Party found the Delian Sword, that was only +1 to damage but glowed and became a light source by reciting the Delian Oath. I also like Relics as an alternative to spell scrolls, for a bit of diversity; consumable items that do basically the same things as spell scrolls and potions but are cool unique items to keep afterwards, like an artifact with mysterious inscriptions written in a dead language or something. It’s just really fun to reward cool loot, without panicking that all encounters after that will be broken.
I was a very experienced DM--all the way back to the basic set. Finally started up again with 5e for my family, and nearly destroyed our campaign giving away magic items like it was Pathfinder. Reined it back in just in time, but not before giving the cleric a set of prayer beads (a rare item) and she rolled Greater Restoration and Wind Walk beads--which are cast as a bonus action for that item! Long distance travel, infiltration, emergency escapes, petrification by gorgons, beholder beams, curses you name it--so many things were never an issue again. Had to change so many things to keep that campaign interesting. Some good points in this video.
Yeah, it was level 8 where i finally introduced a Magic Shop NPC to the players. They had recently finally come into some substantial money and had also become aware of bigger threats in the world (a local Red Dragon). Seemed like a good time.
The way I do it is at 2nd level I usually introduce a magic shop that sells shady magic items, Like a half functional flametounge, A wand of poison spray (range 30ft), Scissors designed to cut the owner, Or a magic orb that does something unknown. Then later on I introduce specialists who make a few really good magic items, But nothing else.
You say this is only for new DM's but, as an experienced DM, I find it overwhelmingly helpful to go back to the basics to keep myself on track. Loved the video!
I agree with the attunement recommendation, but I think you should have mentioned the one exception, Articifers. I would be upset is I went Articifer and found out I will lose my lvl 10, 14 and 18 extra attunements.
I'm using a manual recharging system myself. The magic arrows the archer has have to be charged by an artificer (the profession, not the class). A Spell Stone that has to be recharged by casting a spell into it, and it can only be used for a specific spell. I.e. a Stone of Fireball that can only be charged by casting fireball into it.
I run a westmarches game with multiple DM's. We give out a magic item after every session for the player who writes a report that's voted as the best by the other players. This item is always limited to 1-3 uses before it expires it's magical essence. It means a DM can award cool items, without worrying about long term effects.
great video my friend. I been Roleplaying lately and Did one as a Goblin, he is so fun.I think the Elder Scolls games did good on the part about recharging their magic weapons
Another good advice video. I've still got a while before a run my full campaign but I am starting to get the pieces together. Your videos have been helpful to me setting out some guidelines
I made an item for my campaign called "The Freshman's Ear Clasp", which requires attunement. It gave advantage on investigation and disadvantage on insight. The party got a real kick out of it.
I like giving my players personalized magic items that grow with them, as it's really cool for them to have unique abilities and fun to design. I've had to nerf a few and buff a few, but overall the players have loved it. I'll usually have my players assist in the initial form of the item and make the other forms secret until they earn it. I also have them level up based on both character level and important story moments.
The hexblade in my CoS campaign has a sentient sword that unlocks new powers. He a good aligned character, but he had to take the sword because he wants to keep it away from those who would use it for evil. It's evil and sentient, so I think it will make some good moral dilemmas such as the sword wanting to kill an innocent person to become stronger, so he would have to choose between power or upholding his beliefs
@@boredcoffeeaddict3992 one of my players has a similar item, except it was his dad (a devil) who had been forged into the sword after double crossing his boss. The sword constantly tried to convince the player to do evil things, forcing the player to have to choose between the power and maintaining his oath of goodness.
I tend to mix in some items with minor curses with magic items, so the players are somewhat wary of using them, particularly if attunement is required. Here are a couple of my favorite. 1. A ring of Mind Shielding. Prevents the player's mind from being read, and gives them advantage on saving throws vs. mental attacks. HOWEVER, it is also a "Ring of Contrariness", which means that any time the user gets into a conversation with someone else, he always proposes the opposite of what they want to do, think, etc. Makes for a contentious situation, but is awesome if the player knows how to roleplay it. One of my current players has this right now, and he texts me all the time about it. And we give each other knowing looks whenever he's playing it up. 2. A +2 Helmet of Defence. Improves the users AC by 2, and makes them immune to being magically knocked unconscious (includes Sleep spells, as an example). HOWEVER, it is also a Helmet of Untimely Flatulence. Any time the user is trying to be stealthy, he must also make a DC15 CON save. If he fails...the entire party pays. Right now, of course, the rogue is the one using this, and its power just manifested in the last session, after he completed attunement. Hijinx have ensued... Not all of the magical items received in my games are cursed. So far, in this campaign, which is right now at about 18 months real-time, they've only encountered three cursed items (two of them outlined above).
Wait he waited till lvl 2 to give out legendary items rookie strats i gave 7 legendary magic items at lvl 1 (and yes luke this was for the algorithm and something i did and have had no regretsabout)
I agree with most of this but your fighter is going to need at least a +1 Sword unless you don't have them fight anything with Damage immunities. It feels real bad when you're level 7+ and can't do anything in a fight.
Yeah that take was honestly bullshit. The game is designed against martials so they quite literally need to be spoonfed to defeat what casters do without items.
I had this problem with a monk before level six. We were fighting a monster that was immune to non-magical damage, and I was the only person who had no magic
The sheer amount of enemies with nonmagical damage resistances or outright immunities makes it really hard for me to take the whole sidebar about "5e is designed around play with little or no magic items" seriously.
Fantastic DM advice this whole video. I particularly like when you mention work and resources others have made that new players may not know yet. My particular rules are that wands run out but can be charged, lore/flavor over mechanics (even +1 weapons should have a name), and everything that gives a combat bonus/option must be attuned. Personally, I feel like creatures should always be acting intelligently if it makes sense to do so.
23:51 one of my favorite ones I’ve ever given is the Glowing Stick. It’s a simple old stick that glows bright light for 5 ft and dim for another 5…and it can’t be turned off.
22:00 "It's fun not knowing" *Maybe* for some people--maybe even for most people. But this is definitely an "ask your players, first" kind of thing. If they tell you they're looking forward to the surprise, then by all means, proceed. But if they express an interest in an item, or making an item, it's time to put that "fun not knowing" up on a shelf and pull down the "let's work together on this".
Tip no.7 is the best tip IMO. In my homebrew campaign, I made magical items for the pc's which are considered artifacts to begin with, and they will soon get them (they are 4th level). Those items are very very good, and they don't require attunement, cause each item belongs to a pc and it has a special bond to it, so I decided to surprise the group and give them something cool as a reward. BUT, just like the other set of magical items I prepared for them to get in the future in certain situations, they all have features that are rechargeable after each day or after a long rest, so hearing you say that about the consumables and recharging items makes me even more confident in my decision to make them this way. It gives the party a solid boost in power, but it's not something permanent that they can just spam all day long, so it's something else that I consider as resources for them to use and expend and since I made the items, I can monitor them and how they affect the encounters and balance them accordingly. Something else that can help when giving magic items and creating them is knowing what level will the party eventually reach, So even then I can design things in accordance.
I love your advice, Luke. In my campaign, players are just now starting to get a few magic items, and they're level 10. I also like to give out funny or useless but flavourful items instead of magical weapons. My goal is to play in a high magic setting, though, and by the end of the campaign, when they're level 20, I want them to face real tough monsters and have to earn their wins. If the monster has 1300-1400 HP, even a +3 sword won't do you thaat much good. xD
Another option for culling already given magic items is to make those items popular with NPCs such that the start attracting unwanted attention... you know, people coming to take them one way or another. I had a party get downright terrified of an item once when they realized it would attract attention way above their ability to handle. They sold that off as fast as possible. Any number of specialized encounters can also strip characters of their carried gear or otherwise destroy items.
I'm a sweaty toothed madman currently using limited charges for an Eberron campaign for many items. It just made sense that in a world where the manufacture of magical items ought to have some sort of planned obsolescence to encourage more trips to the market. Also a big fan of items that level up with PCs as the achieve levels or complete specific quests. Good video!
Agreed! Less is more when it comes to magic items. I do tend to drop a lot more flavor on a weapon. So a +1 sword would be “Admar the Bane Blade”. Describe it with having mist constantly flowing from the blade and a thumb sized black gem in the hilt. So not only is the +1 sword more fun but it also has potential hook points for the players.
I like theming those recharging items or limited use items as "damaged" or "broken". They find it at level 5, and it only works a few times, as the enchantments have been cracked through disuse and wear and damage. Later in the campaign, if they find a sufficiently powerful enough enchanter or maybe even a god/patron with that type of magic, they could fix the damage and have the full use of the item with no recharge. It simultaneously balances item power and adds story elements. For example: a level 5 Barbarian finds his family's ancestral battleaxe. The axe was rumored to be enchanted to never lose its edge (+2) and could curse your foes on the battlefield, causing you to endlessly hunt them (could cast Hunter's Mark/Hex without concentration, but without the ability to move to other creatures). However, when you find it, the axe is rusted and dull, though still bearing the symbols of your tribe and family. The rusted and dented variant is +0 weapon that can only cast its Hex variant once per long rest. Over the course of the campaign, you need to visit three increasingly difficult to find people who all have quests for you: 1) a skilled weaponsmith from your tribe who would know of the location to find more metal to reforge the edge and remove the rust (+1), 2) an ancient sage of the woodlands who knows how to find out why the axe lost its power but requires your companions to gather specific herbs and materials for a vision, and 3) a demon prince trapped beneath the mountains, who your ancestor gave his life and his axes power to the spell to keep the prince imprisoned, and so by defeating the prince can you reclaim your axe's true power (+2 and 2-3 times Hex variant per long rest).
My brother called the Wand of Pyrotechnics the "Wand of Distraction." It is basically nothing but a long-distance firecracker, which is pretty cool, but hardly game-breaking. Unless it is used just right, in a clutch moment. Meanwhile, I'm planning to give my niece's Cleric of Loki (Chaotic Good God of Mischief, Trickery, and Pranks) a Wand of Smiles (which does not get destroyed when used up. It turns into a Wand of Scowls). Anyway, all it does is make a person smile uncontrollably for a minute. I view that as a decent prank to pull. MY Loki doesn't like "pranks" that hurt or harm. "If the target of the prank isn't laughing, too, it's not really a prank." That said, he is also the God of Mischief and Trickery, as in the leading/guiding force behind the gods' attempt to break through the Mists of Barovia and allow free travel for souls again, through the use of deceiving the demigod who set it up, in the first place. But that will require the cooperation of a True Believer, which means that my niece's Cleric of Loki needs to do some pranks! I have actually home brewed a prank to play on Falcon, involving some magical wine and a triggered telepathy spell. But that's just one prank. I'm also going to give her the Nolzur's Marvelous Pigments, because I fully expect her to pull a Wile E. Coyote routine of some sort. You know how he paints a tunnel in the side of a cliff, to lure the road runner into running into the cliff and knocking itself out? Stuff like that is right up her alley. And if she does that one, specifically, I will use my Mighty DM powers to have an actual train come out, and roll on to nowhere in particular, tooting as it goes, while her Holy Symbol of Loki giggles madly. I'll probably need to come up with some consumables for her to use, as well. Like Tickling Powder, or a Turn Blue Brew, or the like. I love the idea of giving FLAVOR items, instead of POWER items.
I gave the barbarian in one game I started with Sunless Citadel Shaterspike. I added one ability that it auto-crits constructs so it would have some synergy with later Barbarian abilities and now whenever I want him to feel badass, I'll figure out a way to have a construct in a fight. Had the idea that the hilt currently on it isn't the original one so if he finds that and a smith who can swap out the non-magical hilt for the original, it'll get some extra abilities and become a +2. Figure that'll happen right before he gets to confront the BBEG of his backstory. I learned my lesson after one of my players figured out how to turn a home brewed ring that contained a ruin demon (basically a fly with a human face and a ravenous appetite for living meat), which I figured would just give a low level familiar that could attack. There was a hole in my logic that allowed it to replicate and he figured out how to theoretically turn it into a WMD. Luckily, he lost the ring during a fight. Now this was also Sunless Citadel and I made Belak the Outcast's motivation getting revenge on the town of Red Larch after their elders had his Tiefling wife burned alive. He got away during the fight at the Gulthias tree so even though they foiled his plans to infest the woods with an army of blights under his control, he got the accidental replicating fly demon ring. The party will see their own plan used against a town later. 3:) Moral of the story, maybe don't give out homebrew items as a new DM, but also don't be afraid to use the party's own ideas they don't get to use against them later.
I gave my brother lvl 1 a +3 homebrewed axe. It auto-unattunes if he uses anything else to cause the death of a living thing i.e. shoves them off a cliff, purposely steps aside so an arrow hits them, or uproots a tree. Or else it takes a week to reattune to his 'Heirloom Axe'. He sharpens it daily.
Did a one shot for my brother and ended up giving him magic items (he was a druid), and so I had to give some more out to the other player to balance it out. I wouldn't have done it if I knew it wasn't going to be a one shot, but I thought of a cool item. I've always found +1/2/3 weapons boring and more difficult for the DM to balance out and flavor is free. 'Oh he has too much burst damage', make one more encounter before they long rest. The item was a Flaming Draconic Axe, they fought a minotaur to get his axe (villains using magic items are better than finding them typically, in my opinion). It was a stone black 2 handed Axe with the edges of the blade being colored like bronze and their are 7 symbols in draconic carved into either side of the Axe's head, the words are: Flaming, Fire, Smite, Incinerating, Scales, Curse, and Light, it has 3 charges and regains 1d2 at dawn. As a bonus action he can speak to of the words together to make an effect (He's a barbarian so he doesn't use he's bonus action to much). Fire Smite (1 charge): the Axe's Head turns red with heat and the next attack you land in the next minute deals an extra 1d8 fire damage. Flame Smite (2 charges): the Axe's Head gets consumed by a crimson flame, the next attack you land in the next minute deals an extra 1d12 fire damage. Flaming Light (1 charge): The Axe shines and creates 20 feet of bright light and 20 feet of dim light for 5 minutes, can be turned off with a bonus action. Paladin is my favorite class and I was disappointed that the Barbarian doesn't get burst damage or utility so I made this for them (a party of 5 with 4 humans, no dark-vision). He also gains new abilities as e beats other flame-based creatures, their about to fight a fire elemental and after words he'll gain a fire based control ability. This is how to make a magic item that the player won't just throw away.
YES. Number 10 mostly. From DM/GM to all players if it gets too hard run, Your DM may not be experienced in beefing up the encounters and need to know when they have gone too far instead of bullheading in and making them down grade or fudge their rolls to make sure you win, they didn't want a TPK, but they didn't know how tough they made it. :-D
A suggestion, if you do want to give a party a massive amount of magic items at low levels. I would recommend, give them more gimmicky or relatively useless items. Examples of this is something akin to a the Professional's suit. A magic item from an urban fantasy campaign, it was simply a suit of studded leather armor, that appeared to be a business suit that can never get dirty. I also gave them an endless pack of cigarettes. Just a simple infinite supply of cigarettes. Another one I gave was known as the hexblade's gloves. A set of gloves that teleports a weapon attuned to it to the user's hands, up to 2 weapons at base. Or you can make magic items that require certain things to be done (Level Requirements, ability score prerequisites, certain actions etc.)
I like to do things like just add basic and tangentially relevant things, like "this longsword is unbelievably light for its size, it gains the light and finesse property in addition to its other properties."
I made up the idea of a magic wand that requires gems to operate. You set a 100gp gem onto the wand and when activated, the gem is consumed. They can also change the gem type to change the effect.
Great tips! Something I like doing, cause I'm indecisive, is to have a list of items and have em roll to see what they find. Helps me, personally, since I have issues deciding specifically what to give peeps
For all the deck of many things Lovers: you could make an entire campaign or arc dedicated to a homebrew deck! I did this more than once and every table loved it! Even the players who dislike the original deck. There was tailored encounters from backstories on the cards, small and big empowered abilities or items, various curses that don't ruin the entire game or character and a lot of lore for the bookworm and history diggers
I like to homebrew items that are basically like normal weapons or armor or artifacts, but with different types of damage and minor utility. Beat this weird artificer type person? Find a mysterious red stone. First person who happens to try and put it onto a weapon will find it fuses into it. Weapon now has a light flame around it (dim light 10ft) that casts light and converts the damage to fire damage. Attunement needed to enable/disable the fire. Wanna make it stronger? Give it a few charges that allow the flame to rapidly power up. Deals an extra 1d6, extends range for 1 attack by 5ft, and has a limit to daily uses. Gives flavor, gives a way to use more damage resistances/vulnerabilities, can create for some fun interactions. Makes it still feel really cool without giving players a ton of power early on. Basically, anything that gives the player more choices tends to make them feel more powerful.
My balancing for early game magic items is actually to stick attunement onto common and uncommon magic items that don't already have it. That, plus creating crappy magic items that players will get emotionally attached to balances things nicely in high magic item campaigns
@@soMeRandoM670 Anything they've used a lot, since it's been useful so far. I like to create attunement items that only give players a cantrip - my monk refuses to give up his bracers of minor illusion, despite finding really powerful attunement items
@@soMeRandoM670 An example from my current rogue character: a magical dagger that is +0 to attack, +1 to damage, and activates Detect Magic twice a day. We got it from a were-rat cultists on our first adventure. This dagger was my only magical weapon for the first four levels, and I will likely stay attuned to it, and use it, to the end of the campaign. I have already passed off on better weapons to keep that one, not just because of the Detect Magic, but because of the story behind it. - In a previous campaign, we got a trio of magical longswords that let us cast Message at will to the holder of the other two wielders if they were in range. My sorcerer kept one, even though he is not proficient in the weapon, using up an attunement slot, simply for the ability to have near-silent coordination in the party.
I hear the voice of many years of experience in this video. Magic Items can break a campaign so fast you don't know what hit you. I am a veteran GM and I am extremely stingy with my magic items. The need to be special in any case.
Yeah... I’ve never gotten that, I don’t like vanilla D&D, it has a painful tendency to be the same game over and over again mechanically, now this might be me being a power gamer, but D&D without magic gear is really boring, because you’re generally just doing the same thing over and over again in combat, and getting some new options helps with that a lot (Also because we tend to roll for stats, and I tend to roll poorly, I like how magic gear lessens the gap between me and everyone else because I rolled 2 8s and a 14 and they rolled at least one 16+)
"The Monsters Know What They Are Doing" is the BEST BOOK! I've read just a few chapters and it's already changed the way my monsters fight! Liked this topic a WHOLE lot!
I love magic items that give quality of life effects without giving combat bonuses. Magic cookpot that cooks food without a fire. Tentclock that becomes a furnished 4 man tent when you hang it from a tree branch. Potions and scrolls for 1-3 level useful spell affects that allow for greater variety of abilities among the characters.
Here is one of my homebrew items my Forge Cleric made/enchanted. We've had so much fun with this thing. And yes, it was named Morty from Rick and Morty. This Warhammer, crafted by the master blacksmith Fargim Moyer, in infused with an enchanted (or cursed?) piece of adamantine in Fargrim's Seal on the head of the hammer. Under the head of the weapon in dwarvish is the name "No. 78 Morty". The rest of the hammer is inlaid in gold and silver. Warhammer No. 78 "Morty" (Rare, magical, requires attunement, worth up to 5,000 gp) Damage: 1d8 Bludgeoning (one-handed) 1d10 Bludgeoning (two-handed) Weight: 2 lbs Properties: Versatile Magical Properties: Whenever the Warhammer hits an object, the hit is a critical hit. "Morty" Enchantment (or Curse?): When the Warhammer touches (or hits) a hostile creature with an intelligence higher than 10, that creature must make an Intelligence Saving Throw versus your spell save DC. On a failure, the creature becomes friendly to you for one minute. After the minute the creature knows you cast a spell on it and becomes confused/hostile to you again. Creatures with an intelligence of 9 or lower are unaffected by this enchantment. This effect ends early if someone is hostile to the affected creature. On a success, or after the one minute the creature is immune to the enchantment for the next 24 hours.
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Give out more consumable items! _Spell Scrolls_ and Potions and Elixirs! _Spellwrought Tattoos_ from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything! A _Necklace of Fireballs_ if you're feeling spicy. If you give them something too powerful, it's one and done. Regarding non-rechargeable wands, I'd have both rechargeable and non-rechargeable wands so the recharging wands feel more special when the players do get one.
The last 5e campaign I was in was, "Tomb of Annihilation" run by my friend who is known for giving no magic gear or gold or downtime (so as to deny us any means of gaining magic items). The jungle of Chult steamrolled US and we never played 5e again. Don't starve your players of magic in a world where it is supposed to be a part of it. Make it special but also give your players a fighting chance.
At times I've had to dig into the Monster Manual to "remove" some items from the equation. That OP Level 3 Paladin falling into a tunnel network that is the burrow of a handful of rust monsters to get rid of that +4 full plate that made him unhitable. Or make the OP item a macguffin that needs to be given up to survive a puzzle or crypt.
"Players should never be able to attune to more than 3 magic items that require attunement" Laughs in artificer I do totally get what he's saying though, and so much of this is amazing advice.
I am a loooong time DM, more than 30 years now, and this entire concept is something that really rubbed me the wrong way in 5E. I actually really liked some aspects of 4E, and this was one. Tons of magic items of all kinds. Some for raw power, some for utility, some for combat effects, some for buffs/debuffs and even ones for simple overworld style travel effects. I look at the limits that are put into place on magic items now and just cringe at how many cool, useful, fun, and empowering items would have been completely ignored or missed out on from past campaigns with these ideas. I love giving my players all manner of tools and options for all kinds of situations. I make the scenarios for my campaigns, and I gave them the items they have. I know what they can do, and I plan for it. and if they surprise me with a use I didn't think of, well, now I know of it, and I go forward with that new knowledge. On the other side of things, you sure as hell don't break out the Legendary gear list at level 5, that way lies MADNESS.
An interesting mechanic you can do is make charges recover weekly for some items , making there use more sparing while also giving them an item that will stay with them and the character may still get attached to. Edit , a great example of this is The Eye Of The Storm, in aerois. No spoilers, it becomes a defining part of the character, but do to it’s limited charges per week rather then per day, that character has to be very careful with how they use it.
Just saw this and I definitely fell headfirst into this trap back in my last campaign. We finished and had a good time but i have to up the power of so many things. Funnily enough, it was the Muffin Button that they liked and abused the most. A box with a button that conjures a muffin. Only each time the muffin is different. This is cause it doesnt conjure anything. It summons the nearest muffin. Ended up making rumors of a rampant muffin theif across the continent. Just found it hilarious myself.
One of the things I did to limit the number of magic items I have in my game is to give it a back story to every one of them and a reason for it to be in the location that it is found. I found this was enough for me to slow down giving out five +1 long swords if I have to come up with five different back stories for them to fit in my campaign.
I know I'm late to this but maybe can add something helpful. I use a way they can trade in old magic items. Certain smiths can destroy old items to extract magic from them to create new ones or upgrade existing ones. Then I simply put the the new items in their list of items they can create or have them be items found in a dungeon that have lost their abilities with time. Having them appraised reveals their properties once their power is restored and what they need. Likewise, the questing for power ups. You can simply place these items in their way within the normal campaign. Instead of telling them they are looking for that roc's feather. Have them simply find the rocks feather or fight one and loot it. Let them later find out it is useful for upgrading the items or even items they haven't found yet. There... done.
I like to make attunement actually take a task that fits the magic item. For instance say you get a flame tongue sword. You can't just take a short rest to attune to it, you must attune to it by thrusting it into a fire blessed by a cleric and then you may attune to it while it is bathed in the holy flames. Or boots of flying you must jump from a specific cliff and the boots will allow you to fly just before you hit the ground and you are then attuned to them.
I like how you offer a free example of your lair magazine to check out. More people should do samples before expecting a commitment. However I was going to try out the content to test its balance and couldn't read much of it because I f the sample text over the pages.
Magic items can be tremendously different in power scaling depending on who you give them to. Some examples: Flame Tongue Weapons: *Fighters:* Nightmare incarnate in your campaign. They get so many weapon attacks and, if they decide to multiclass into something like warlock for hex, you are going to end up doomed. *Rogue:* They get a 2d6 extra fire damage on one attack.
Still my favourite moment as a player ever, was when I've been collecting herbs left and right and ended up coming across toxic berries (ones that cause paralysis). DM allowed me to collect them and make a potion. Some 3 sessions later after I've more or less instantly extinguished entire village with 2 castings of sleet storm, we've encounter young red dragon and our front liners got beat up rather bad. I somehow thought of running closer to the dragon, throwing the potion at it's face and by some miracle I've actually landed it just before it was about to use it's breath attack for the first time. 2 turns of auto-critting later we've returned to helping villagers. Anyways, now I rarely get anything besides some tea herbs lol
Agree 100% with consumables and having items that grow in power with the characters. Never though about nerfing magic itens with slots, it's great advice, for sure I'll try out next time.
First time DM. I try to think about this in a logical way. The first Boss they encountered had three attunable items, and all had a reason. He had a hat of disguise, Ring of Mind shielding and Amulett of protection against detection. He was a rogue priest, still playing the good priest of Chauntea, but secretly experimenting in some hidden rooms beneath an abandoned Asylum on peoples, mostly abductet travellers, to basically brainwash them into absolutelly obedient servants by making a hole in their head and basically rewire their brains. The hat was to disguise himself to not be known, if a prisoner ever should escape, the Amulett, so he couldn't be detected and found while working in his laboratory, and the Ring, so people can't read his thoughts or his alignment, even more important, since two of his puppets were mind flayers. Those two were equiped with items to silently give alarm and catch and constrict opponents. And then there were several more magical items in a backchamber, along mundane stuff, that didn't interest him, at least not as much, because they were not of use in his objective. There were two more powerful among them, a magic Book and a legendary sword, both of which are pretty useless at the moment. The Book can't be opened yet, and the sword is one of a pair, so although it is definitivelly enchanted, on its own, without its twin, it's barely more than a normal sword. I plan on integrating this in the story. At some point, the book can be opened, as soon as it deems them worthy, capable. The sword, there are several replicas of it, which they can find, optically identical to the original, but they all come in pairs, and at some point, they'll find the original twin, after which it will slowly awake. Also, I'm pretty bad at balancing encounters, so I play it, that they will encounter way too powerful opponents, because the World doesn't level with them, so they probably need all help they can get.
I typically start my party around level 3-4 so it's not unlikely they'll have stumbled over a +1 item somewhere or procured a few potions or scrolls, I don't mind tossing in a +2 sword or 3rd-4rth level scroll somewhere and then gradually loot table out the rest of the party to balance up. I try to get something for the fighter classes first since they are always up in danger's face you wanna make them feel like they are holding their ground fairly well; casters or ranged players always have access to a lot of mobility and utility so even if they aren't "powered up" through magic stuff they aren't as stressed out as the front line melee heroes so I tend to flash a little favor their way first then scale in the others.
Well, I do love your ruggedly handsome face 🤔 it's like you're talking directly to me! I don't think this was a nerf, but my character had a sword that dealt extra damage to dragons and it sure did tear into them! After he died and was later resurrected, he no longer has that sword, but another awesome one, though with more conditions i.e. needing to use it for killing blows to charge it up to get spells he can use to make himself more durable. He also came back with a couple of extra levels so he's now Path of the Zealot barbarian and has an aberrant dragon mark, so he has more damage types. Nothing worse than being a fighter/barbarian going up against an opponent with physical resistances without an inherently magical weapon!
Great vid, newbie dm here. Currently running LMoP and since it's a module for lvl 1-5, I made it so the Lionshield Coster occasionally gets random magic items such as Cloak of many fashions, immovable rod, nightvision goggles; nothing that does damage. I let the characters open a line of credit so they can get a taste of magic items.
My group's DM has set places where we can find magic items, such as after a big boss fight and whatnot. He just rolls on a loot table and so far we haven't gotten anything OP yet. Except for an item he made himself and let us get a hold of. An orb that when touched with a crystal, that has at least one charge in it, activates an antimagic zone. He basically gave us a level 8 spell but didn't realize it until after the session when our monk told him what he did. Most of the other stuff has small bonuses that we've mostly used to cover for our class/race negative traits. Like our giant, who has a sneak disadvantage due to his size, now has boots of elvenkind so he can roll normally on stealth checks. The only other item that could be considered OP would be my captain's silver rapier, I think another homebrew item, which deals double damage to undead creatures. Too bad I'm a bard so half the time when trying to melee I miss.
Another important suggestion is to use in the battles, more magic objects that require specific classes or alignments or size, sometimes even high (or low) characteristics, feats, or the belonging to some order, church, divinity. Or that give to the players bonus that are non cumulable. And do not forget that more magical items, more thiefs of high levels that lurk to stole the player stuff.
I like the concept that you must attune to all magic items but would add that they all cost some points (depending on the rarity) to attune, the amount of attunement points you have is equal to your proficiency points plus you intelligence modifier (with a minimum of 0). The Artificer can have some extra points.
I created a Potion of Attunement that lets a PC attune to an item as an action for an hour at the cost of a level of exhaustion when the hour is up. It would also increase the levels of exhaustion for attuned items above the normal limit (i.e. attuning to a 4th item would result in 2 levels of exhaustion at the end of the hour.)
Not a particularly experienced DM so use my method at your own risk but one thing that I have found is that common and uncommon magic items that don't have a bonus to attacks or saves don't impact the difficulty too much. And one of my main things was giving a martial mithril plate at lvl 3. It is in ravenloft and I have been handing their butts to them by playing the monsters logically so I don't mind adding some toys. I already warned them that while I am adding magic items this also means that the BBEG will have a lot of toys also but he will have the same limitations (basically Strhad will be a DM PC and I will be playing to win with him.)
#8 is my thing for 5e. within the first 5 levels or so I generally try to make sure each character has some kind of personalized scaling magic item, even if they don't necessarily know that until later.
I had a Monty Hall moment early on in my game (first time DM), and I have chosen to 1) Suck it up and adjust future adventures, usually by adding monsters or adding HP, and 2) Keep the high prices. Now, I LOVE that sane pricing table, but after the Monty Hall moment (my brother called it Monty Hall. He's an experienced game master, and knows what I did wrong, but didn't say anything, except, "This is fun! It's fun to be Monty Hall!") I have to deal with inflation in my game, because they got a LOT of stuff to sell or use as trade goods. They got a lot of magic items they can't even use, and some they don't care about, because I had them roll on the loot tables. Yeah, the set-up was they entered Tymora's Sanctuary, and were allowed to gamble until midnight. The ante was Hit Points. So, they used their healing and short rests, and got as many gambles as they could. I DID increase the cost of the ante after each short rest, but I also increased the hoard table. Pay more, play more. I was having a BLAST giving them all this loot! They were having a lot of fun getting it. I did tell them not to go to 0 hit points, as there would be consequences. But they got as close as they could get, and played all the way until midnight. Now, they have loads of loot, including lots of gems (lots of diamonds, too. I made them roll for how many gems they got, and then roll again for how many of the gems were diamonds), and a lot of art pieces (which I called trade goods), as well as a load of random magic items. I was so happy they got the bag of holding and a portable hole, because they got so much stuff to carry, and with the portable hole, they have a "savings account" that they can dip into with a bit more effort, while the bag of holding is easily accessible. The thing is, because we were trying to move things along, we wrote down the winnings, but then they had the "homework" of actually writing down what everything actually does, and my brother was too busy to do his, so I wound up doing it for him. Over time, they simply forgot what they had. I tried to encourage them to sort it all out and do swapsies and decide what to attune, and now they are each attuned to one magic item, and the rest are saved, because "But, it takes too long to do swapsies, and we just want to get on with the game!" So, the vast majority of their hoard is in their portable hole or bag of holding, and they really only care about a few small items, because they actually needed it in game. I must say, my niece was a genius to use her rope of climbing to bypass the lock that denied picking or crushing. They've used ropes of climbing three times now, in Gnomengarde, alone. And they used the Boots of the Winterland, because they had to cross that crazy rope bridge in front of a waterfall, during a blizzard, and had already taken damage from the river below, and didn't want to do it again. Otherwise, they have a few weapons, and armor, and seem to be happy enough. I'm still keeping the high prices for consumables, though, because I went to a lot of effort already to type out those prices on the cards, and in the shop-keep menu, and let's face it: My players are RICH now. But next campaign, I will definitely use the "sane" prices. It makes SO much more sense. As it is, I will use it in my own game as a ratio. The Boots of Flying? Yeah, they'll be MUCH more expensive than the Cape of Flying, because of their actual play-value, and I appreciate the fix so much. Meanwhile, I can't play the module as written, and I'm fine with that. I'm already doing lots of home-brew additions for story purposes, and I HAVE to type out every adventure, rather than running it straight from the book, because of my brain issues, meaning I cannot reliably read that smallish print on gray background at the table. I have to re-type it during my good times, in large print, even if I don't have to toughen it up, so it's not that much to toughen it up, or add a story element here or there, as I go. But I feel good watching this video, knowing that I am not the only one who has made this mistake. And knowing that I can "fix" it, simply by re-balancing the game, adding more/tougher monsters and higher DCs for things (when their magic items actually apply) is also good to know. Yes, it's more work, but it's also something I can actually do. And NEXT campaign will have significantly less magic loot. I'm already planning it, and it will not happen for YEARS down the line. Hahaha.
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Love the powering items. Can always dispense info on what the item does once it's unlocked and keep it a mystery until then.
Is Lair Magazine a physical copy or digital?
For attunement and progress in the attunement from 3 to 9 you could also add rarity levels to that as well for instance you can’t attuned to a very rare item at level three but you could at level nine
Number 11:
Equip your monsters with the magic item you want to give out. Can't defeat the Orc Warchief with his Rod of Lordly Might? Well perhaps it's not the right item for the party, yet.
this is amazing advice!
Absolutely. Why is a +2 axe of smiting not being wielded by an appropriate foe? Why does the evil wizard have a wand of meteor storms sitting in his chest? They would be using these. Legendary and wondrous items may be buried in some long forgotten tomb or some such but your enemies should be wielding the powerful items that are the players rewards
I actually did this in our last session.
The enemy knight had a circlet of blasting (reskinned as a bracelet) in case the players moved away. The sneaky enemy had boots of elvenkind, and the kobold sorcerer had 3 potions of healing, and had used 1 so the party got 2.
Yeah, been doing this for years. Never have a treasure chest with tonnes of gold and a +1 Sword in it. It makes no sense what-so-ever. Put the sword in the hands of the tribe/clan/warband leader. Give a wand of Magic Missiles to the tribe's mage ... and make them use it to hurt (not destroy just hurt, well maybe destroy, destroy-ish) the players.
Two things happen.
1) The players see the items in action and WANT them all the more. Something gained in battle like this is always appreciated more and never call it a Short Sword +1, it's Grendar The Mighty's Sword ... don't tell them it's a +1 sword tell them it's shinier than the other swords and it stings a little more when it cuts you ... you tell them it's +1 after they get it from Grendar's cold dead hand and if you want to add stuff to it later (like Dragon Detection or whatever you can just do it)
2) The fights themselves become more fun, not just challenging but fun ... if the players can't kill (or at least don't think they can kill) Grendar The Mighty maybe the rogue can sneak up behind her and relieve her of it before combat begins ... cue disguises and distractions and lots of sneaking around ... fun.
Special case ... Potions of Healing ... why wouldn't most orcs (or whatever) in a tribe have one of these? If they get hurt they drink them and heal up ... if the characters can kill them quickly before they can drink their potion then they can get access to the healing ... again more tactics, more fun. For example poor Grog died in round two of the combat, everyone can see the small potion on the chain around his hacked neck ... so now the players and the rest of the baddies are fighting over his body so they can get the potion for their side. The barbarian grabs Grog's foot, a big orc grabs his arm, we have a tug-of-war in the middle of a battle ...
I agree for this approach with the best items, but just like the players once the attunement slots get used up, weaker items get put back for safe keeping or distribution to a lieutenant or something later as that becomes an option.
Yes, yes, I'm going to give that suspicious deck of cards to my lvl 3 players, what could go wrong...
So did I to my level 5 group and they ended up killing death with their 5 immovable rods and 2 bags of holding, and Luck blade.
please, don´t let it be the deck of many thing, there are more deck cards, anything but that.
I lost more character to the deck of many things then any other character death combined
I did that once, absolute chaos ensued
There are a lot of decks you can use. You can have fun letting them think that it’s a DOMTs, then when they draw cards and the result is much less than they expected, you tell them “you don’t think I would give you that at this level, do you?”. This allows for some fun and tension but also teaches them that you’re not going to unbalance the world in their favor.
Was just planning to give my players the Rock of gravity detection. When you let this magical object go, it detects the direction of the gravity field by following it until it finds something that stops it.
Hilarious.
I'm inspired to make a dungeon room based on the Pokémon type game arrows of one direction floor tiles.
Where as the gravity in the room is all over the place and you have to chose the right pathway or fall hard and possibly into a pit or other trap.
Then maybe a button at the beginning one person might have to stay at that reverses each "mote" of gravity.
I'm sorry but a rock of gravity detection as you described it sounds way too overpowered. I would scale back just a little bit. They maybe sometimes it doesn't fall toward the largest mass with the largest gravitational pull. Maybe put a curse on it. Sometimes it flies from your hand and Strikes the nearest person.
@@mokane86 i like it
@@theDMLair Brilliant! I'll definitely put a curse like that on it 🤣
You should make them buy it at the Minatorium Emporium.
Where they can also find such things as the Invisible Ring and the Leek-Proof Cloak.
-
Yeah, I'm a 1 For All fan too!
I'm a fan of items that grow with players, as opposed swapping out items. I gave a paladin a weapon that leveled, but he had to search for the lore to unlock each tier. I seeded the plot hooks for these through the game, but since he also had to reach certain levels, he didn't solely focus on unlocking his weapon.
that's a great idea
My dm does that calles them vestiges
@@blunk778 Sounds like someone watched critical role then.
Thats what one of my dm's does
Ive thought about doing this, but how do you handle pricing (not just buying, but selling or gauging what to hand out when)?
"don't let your players attune to more than 3 magic items"
Laughs in 10 levels of artificer
In my “Big Damned Heroes” campaign I have a level 15 Artificer wielding a Holy Avenger. I like the randomness of loot rolls from the DMG tables but they have caused that guy to get two stat tomes(int and he is the only int class), a belt of dwarvenkind and a bunch of other items so he currently has the highest HP pool, the biggest attack bonus and the 2nd highest AC
@@jellegaard not really seeing a problem here
Assuming everyone else was also that kitted out?
I mean artificers get to break all the rules right? LOL
@@theDMLair The Artificer also has absolute GARBAGE for number of spell slots. Out of all the spells they get; only the majority of the cantrips they can choose from, a few of their level 1 spells, and (I think) like 3 of their level 2 spells; only those few can be classified as "attack" or "damage dealing" spells for Artificers. Artificers are now THE Utility/Support Caster. Nearly every single one of their spells above level 1 is either healing, buffing, directing, or battlefield controlling. They are DESIGNED to rely on magic items and magic weaponry.
They make their own Temporary Magic Items. IMO, they NEED those extra attunement slots, or they wouldn't be what they are; nor would they survive very long. :-)
@@theDMLair Artificers are the magic item rule writers though, right? They can break their own rules. Hhahaha
DM Lair: "How to reward magic items without breaking the game."
Me: What magic items? :)))))))
+5 frostbrand sword of white dragon summoning
Cursed item
Whenever you unsheathe this weapon, it summons an adult white dragon 10 feet directly above the wielder. This creature is hostile towards you
Good luck
I laughed too much at this.
*shining eyes* Monster trap dragon farming!
@@OlDirtySam at level 5?
@@fenixmeaney6170 just means you need time and creativity
@@OlDirtySam Yup. Unlimited free experience, potion ingredients and crafting components. And a big summons to bomb enemies with. Whats not to like? (Sure, its hostile to you, but you do that in the right places pretty soon it'll be hostile to everybody, but you were expecting it and the enemy isnt...)
As an experienced DM who hands magic items out like candy… I actually found inspiration from this video. You’ve given me the idea of keeping the flow good but turning some of the game’s powerful items into consumables instead. Such a great idea
Another form of magic items to consider are "trinkets", where if a common item was a lv1 spell, a trinket is a cantrip.
For example, some sort of noisemaker skinned as a childs toy, imagine your an orc gaurding a dungeon corridor and a "Tickle me Elmo" goes off, you have bo clue what the hell it is and might (dm rolls) go investigate and be confused by it for a minute before returning to your post, this lets the players have 1 minute to try and sneak past before he comes back.
Other real world things to consider are glowsticks, fart in a can, silly string, and other childrens toys. They are not damage dealers but something like a glowstick or a stink bomb can be very situational, like clearing out a tavern or underwater lights. Just be careful of giving out a super soaker in a vampire campaign, players may decide to put holy water in it and give Stradd a shower. (I would reward such an action but I understand not wanting the BBEG to go down to a super soaker)
@@jasonreed7522 Critical Role's "oops-stones", "celebones", and "chuckle dust" are good examples of this.
"Don't let them attune to more than three!!" .....*cackles in Artificer*
I think the rogue's fav expression is "Hoooly crap!". He always says it
Google "catchphrase".
Hooooly crap!
Stabby stabby
Maybe it's "wholly crap"?
HI! 12 year DM/GM here, started with AD&D, played 3, 3.5 and now i DM/GM 5e. IGNORE rarity, price and level guides. PERIOD. READ the items description in its entirety and move forward one informed. Some legendary items are basically useless, some rare items are Game Breaking. Read and inform yourselves. STOP relying on youtube and forums. Overall good video here. Still this advice Doesn't replace READING.
Last time I was this early, I was a wee lad.
Btw noticed I gave players too much stuff while early levels, BBEG happened to have a lair action which made players choose to sacrifice a nonconsumable magic item or lose half of current hit points. they actually sacrificed about 2-3 each, which was quite surprising. nobody felt too bad afterwards.
That's a good idea. At least the players feel like it's their choice.
Pardon me. Stealing this.
I had an older game in a different edition that we had magic weapons that leveled up with us after certain sections of the game. It was fun to feel like both my character and an item leveled up with me.
Yeah, I really like the idea of artifacts, where they get more abilities the further you get, so you can get like new stuff as you augment your gear with like monster drops and stuff, or as you level up.
@@The_Murder_Party They were crafted items that could've become artifacts, but they were basically improved magical items in the DMG.
@@KnicKnac thought that was just what artifacts where XD gear that improves with you.
The Monsters Know What They're Doing is so great!! I just got it recently and it's so great for thinking differently about encounters.
Hey RUclips! The DM's Lair doesn't suck! In fact, he gives brilliant advice. I've only watched a handful of his videos so far, and I can say, as someone who used to play D&D a lot many many moons ago, and am just getting back into it! There is a lot of sage advice here! I will definitely be watching more of him!
Oh, good, I was worried that the skits were ending for real.
I'm learning to love them
I’m glad you mentioned flavouring less powerful items! I’m only new to DMing but since I’m following a module I’m sticking to that book for the “real” magic items. But to kick off the campaign since I was running for newbies, I had a go at Matt Colville’s Delian Tomb. Instead of just a +1 longsword as the final reward, the Party found the Delian Sword, that was only +1 to damage but glowed and became a light source by reciting the Delian Oath.
I also like Relics as an alternative to spell scrolls, for a bit of diversity; consumable items that do basically the same things as spell scrolls and potions but are cool unique items to keep afterwards, like an artifact with mysterious inscriptions written in a dead language or something. It’s just really fun to reward cool loot, without panicking that all encounters after that will be broken.
I have been blessed with players that tend to forget magic items I give them 😂 so I haven’t had to worry about this as much. A great way to playtest!
I was a very experienced DM--all the way back to the basic set. Finally started up again with 5e for my family, and nearly destroyed our campaign giving away magic items like it was Pathfinder. Reined it back in just in time, but not before giving the cleric a set of prayer beads (a rare item) and she rolled Greater Restoration and Wind Walk beads--which are cast as a bonus action for that item! Long distance travel, infiltration, emergency escapes, petrification by gorgons, beholder beams, curses you name it--so many things were never an issue again. Had to change so many things to keep that campaign interesting. Some good points in this video.
Yeah, it was level 8 where i finally introduced a Magic Shop NPC to the players. They had recently finally come into some substantial money and had also become aware of bigger threats in the world (a local Red Dragon). Seemed like a good time.
The way I do it is at 2nd level I usually introduce a magic shop that sells shady magic items,
Like a half functional flametounge,
A wand of poison spray (range 30ft),
Scissors designed to cut the owner,
Or a magic orb that does something unknown.
Then later on I introduce specialists who make a few really good magic items,
But nothing else.
You say this is only for new DM's but, as an experienced DM, I find it overwhelmingly helpful to go back to the basics to keep myself on track. Loved the video!
"cat lover master" got my thumbs up 😂
Too bad cats lack opposable thumbs
Nice to know I heard that correctly. I wasn't paying 100% attention and thought my brain glitched! 🤣
@@dach829 It's a good thing mine doesn't; she'd be an archvillain in no time!
I agree with the attunement recommendation, but I think you should have mentioned the one exception, Articifers. I would be upset is I went Articifer and found out I will lose my lvl 10, 14 and 18 extra attunements.
I'm using a manual recharging system myself.
The magic arrows the archer has have to be charged by an artificer (the profession, not the class).
A Spell Stone that has to be recharged by casting a spell into it, and it can only be used for a specific spell. I.e. a Stone of Fireball that can only be charged by casting fireball into it.
I run a westmarches game with multiple DM's. We give out a magic item after every session for the player who writes a report that's voted as the best by the other players. This item is always limited to 1-3 uses before it expires it's magical essence. It means a DM can award cool items, without worrying about long term effects.
great video my friend. I been Roleplaying lately and Did one as a Goblin, he is so fun.I think the Elder Scolls games did good on the part about recharging their magic weapons
As a new DM...I'd be absolutely lost without this dude.
“The Monsters Know What They’re Doing” is awesome! Makes combat so dynamic. It’s also great on audible for those who’d rather listen than read.
Another good advice video. I've still got a while before a run my full campaign but I am starting to get the pieces together. Your videos have been helpful to me setting out some guidelines
I made an item for my campaign called "The Freshman's Ear Clasp", which requires attunement. It gave advantage on investigation and disadvantage on insight. The party got a real kick out of it.
I like giving my players personalized magic items that grow with them, as it's really cool for them to have unique abilities and fun to design. I've had to nerf a few and buff a few, but overall the players have loved it. I'll usually have my players assist in the initial form of the item and make the other forms secret until they earn it. I also have them level up based on both character level and important story moments.
The hexblade in my CoS campaign has a sentient sword that unlocks new powers. He a good aligned character, but he had to take the sword because he wants to keep it away from those who would use it for evil.
It's evil and sentient, so I think it will make some good moral dilemmas such as the sword wanting to kill an innocent person to become stronger, so he would have to choose between power or upholding his beliefs
@@boredcoffeeaddict3992 one of my players has a similar item, except it was his dad (a devil) who had been forged into the sword after double crossing his boss. The sword constantly tried to convince the player to do evil things, forcing the player to have to choose between the power and maintaining his oath of goodness.
I tend to mix in some items with minor curses with magic items, so the players are somewhat wary of using them, particularly if attunement is required. Here are a couple of my favorite.
1. A ring of Mind Shielding. Prevents the player's mind from being read, and gives them advantage on saving throws vs. mental attacks. HOWEVER, it is also a "Ring of Contrariness", which means that any time the user gets into a conversation with someone else, he always proposes the opposite of what they want to do, think, etc. Makes for a contentious situation, but is awesome if the player knows how to roleplay it. One of my current players has this right now, and he texts me all the time about it. And we give each other knowing looks whenever he's playing it up.
2. A +2 Helmet of Defence. Improves the users AC by 2, and makes them immune to being magically knocked unconscious (includes Sleep spells, as an example). HOWEVER, it is also a Helmet of Untimely Flatulence. Any time the user is trying to be stealthy, he must also make a DC15 CON save. If he fails...the entire party pays.
Right now, of course, the rogue is the one using this, and its power just manifested in the last session, after he completed attunement.
Hijinx have ensued...
Not all of the magical items received in my games are cursed. So far, in this campaign, which is right now at about 18 months real-time, they've only encountered three cursed items (two of them outlined above).
Wait he waited till lvl 2 to give out legendary items rookie strats i gave 7 legendary magic items at lvl 1 (and yes luke this was for the algorithm and something i did and have had no regretsabout)
I agree with most of this but your fighter is going to need at least a +1 Sword unless you don't have them fight anything with Damage immunities. It feels real bad when you're level 7+ and can't do anything in a fight.
Yeah that take was honestly bullshit. The game is designed against martials so they quite literally need to be spoonfed to defeat what casters do without items.
I had this problem with a monk before level six. We were fighting a monster that was immune to non-magical damage, and I was the only person who had no magic
This is why Manastorm Golems are great
The sheer amount of enemies with nonmagical damage resistances or outright immunities makes it really hard for me to take the whole sidebar about "5e is designed around play with little or no magic items" seriously.
Fantastic DM advice this whole video. I particularly like when you mention work and resources others have made that new players may not know yet.
My particular rules are that wands run out but can be charged, lore/flavor over mechanics (even +1 weapons should have a name), and everything that gives a combat bonus/option must be attuned. Personally, I feel like creatures should always be acting intelligently if it makes sense to do so.
23:51 one of my favorite ones I’ve ever given is the Glowing Stick. It’s a simple old stick that glows bright light for 5 ft and dim for another 5…and it can’t be turned off.
22:00 "It's fun not knowing" *Maybe* for some people--maybe even for most people. But this is definitely an "ask your players, first" kind of thing. If they tell you they're looking forward to the surprise, then by all means, proceed. But if they express an interest in an item, or making an item, it's time to put that "fun not knowing" up on a shelf and pull down the "let's work together on this".
Tip no.7 is the best tip IMO. In my homebrew campaign, I made magical items for the pc's which are considered artifacts to begin with, and they will soon get them (they are 4th level). Those items are very very good, and they don't require attunement, cause each item belongs to a pc and it has a special bond to it, so I decided to surprise the group and give them something cool as a reward. BUT, just like the other set of magical items I prepared for them to get in the future in certain situations, they all have features that are rechargeable after each day or after a long rest, so hearing you say that about the consumables and recharging items makes me even more confident in my decision to make them this way.
It gives the party a solid boost in power, but it's not something permanent that they can just spam all day long, so it's something else that I consider as resources for them to use and expend and since I made the items, I can monitor them and how they affect the encounters and balance them accordingly. Something else that can help when giving magic items and creating them is knowing what level will the party eventually reach, So even then I can design things in accordance.
I love your advice, Luke. In my campaign, players are just now starting to get a few magic items, and they're level 10. I also like to give out funny or useless but flavourful items instead of magical weapons. My goal is to play in a high magic setting, though, and by the end of the campaign, when they're level 20, I want them to face real tough monsters and have to earn their wins. If the monster has 1300-1400 HP, even a +3 sword won't do you thaat much good. xD
Why do I have the impression that the barbarian is the real
Lukd and all of the others are all personas he plays
Another option for culling already given magic items is to make those items popular with NPCs such that the start attracting unwanted attention... you know, people coming to take them one way or another. I had a party get downright terrified of an item once when they realized it would attract attention way above their ability to handle. They sold that off as fast as possible.
Any number of specialized encounters can also strip characters of their carried gear or otherwise destroy items.
loved the Dead Poets Society reference at 8:10 🥰
I'm a sweaty toothed madman currently using limited charges for an Eberron campaign for many items. It just made sense that in a world where the manufacture of magical items ought to have some sort of planned obsolescence to encourage more trips to the market. Also a big fan of items that level up with PCs as the achieve levels or complete specific quests.
Good video!
Agreed! Less is more when it comes to magic items. I do tend to drop a lot more flavor on a weapon. So a +1 sword would be “Admar the Bane Blade”. Describe it with having mist constantly flowing from the blade and a thumb sized black gem in the hilt. So not only is the +1 sword more fun but it also has potential hook points for the players.
I like theming those recharging items or limited use items as "damaged" or "broken". They find it at level 5, and it only works a few times, as the enchantments have been cracked through disuse and wear and damage. Later in the campaign, if they find a sufficiently powerful enough enchanter or maybe even a god/patron with that type of magic, they could fix the damage and have the full use of the item with no recharge. It simultaneously balances item power and adds story elements.
For example: a level 5 Barbarian finds his family's ancestral battleaxe. The axe was rumored to be enchanted to never lose its edge (+2) and could curse your foes on the battlefield, causing you to endlessly hunt them (could cast Hunter's Mark/Hex without concentration, but without the ability to move to other creatures). However, when you find it, the axe is rusted and dull, though still bearing the symbols of your tribe and family. The rusted and dented variant is +0 weapon that can only cast its Hex variant once per long rest. Over the course of the campaign, you need to visit three increasingly difficult to find people who all have quests for you: 1) a skilled weaponsmith from your tribe who would know of the location to find more metal to reforge the edge and remove the rust (+1), 2) an ancient sage of the woodlands who knows how to find out why the axe lost its power but requires your companions to gather specific herbs and materials for a vision, and 3) a demon prince trapped beneath the mountains, who your ancestor gave his life and his axes power to the spell to keep the prince imprisoned, and so by defeating the prince can you reclaim your axe's true power (+2 and 2-3 times Hex variant per long rest).
My brother called the Wand of Pyrotechnics the "Wand of Distraction." It is basically nothing but a long-distance firecracker, which is pretty cool, but hardly game-breaking. Unless it is used just right, in a clutch moment.
Meanwhile, I'm planning to give my niece's Cleric of Loki (Chaotic Good God of Mischief, Trickery, and Pranks) a Wand of Smiles (which does not get destroyed when used up. It turns into a Wand of Scowls). Anyway, all it does is make a person smile uncontrollably for a minute. I view that as a decent prank to pull. MY Loki doesn't like "pranks" that hurt or harm. "If the target of the prank isn't laughing, too, it's not really a prank." That said, he is also the God of Mischief and Trickery, as in the leading/guiding force behind the gods' attempt to break through the Mists of Barovia and allow free travel for souls again, through the use of deceiving the demigod who set it up, in the first place. But that will require the cooperation of a True Believer, which means that my niece's Cleric of Loki needs to do some pranks!
I have actually home brewed a prank to play on Falcon, involving some magical wine and a triggered telepathy spell. But that's just one prank.
I'm also going to give her the Nolzur's Marvelous Pigments, because I fully expect her to pull a Wile E. Coyote routine of some sort. You know how he paints a tunnel in the side of a cliff, to lure the road runner into running into the cliff and knocking itself out? Stuff like that is right up her alley. And if she does that one, specifically, I will use my Mighty DM powers to have an actual train come out, and roll on to nowhere in particular, tooting as it goes, while her Holy Symbol of Loki giggles madly.
I'll probably need to come up with some consumables for her to use, as well. Like Tickling Powder, or a Turn Blue Brew, or the like.
I love the idea of giving FLAVOR items, instead of POWER items.
I gave the barbarian in one game I started with Sunless Citadel Shaterspike. I added one ability that it auto-crits constructs so it would have some synergy with later Barbarian abilities and now whenever I want him to feel badass, I'll figure out a way to have a construct in a fight. Had the idea that the hilt currently on it isn't the original one so if he finds that and a smith who can swap out the non-magical hilt for the original, it'll get some extra abilities and become a +2. Figure that'll happen right before he gets to confront the BBEG of his backstory.
I learned my lesson after one of my players figured out how to turn a home brewed ring that contained a ruin demon (basically a fly with a human face and a ravenous appetite for living meat), which I figured would just give a low level familiar that could attack. There was a hole in my logic that allowed it to replicate and he figured out how to theoretically turn it into a WMD. Luckily, he lost the ring during a fight. Now this was also Sunless Citadel and I made Belak the Outcast's motivation getting revenge on the town of Red Larch after their elders had his Tiefling wife burned alive. He got away during the fight at the Gulthias tree so even though they foiled his plans to infest the woods with an army of blights under his control, he got the accidental replicating fly demon ring. The party will see their own plan used against a town later. 3:) Moral of the story, maybe don't give out homebrew items as a new DM, but also don't be afraid to use the party's own ideas they don't get to use against them later.
even though I have been DMing for 20 years i still find your fundamental videos interesting and fun perspective for food for thought.
I gave my brother lvl 1 a +3 homebrewed axe. It auto-unattunes if he uses anything else to cause the death of a living thing i.e. shoves them off a cliff, purposely steps aside so an arrow hits them, or uproots a tree. Or else it takes a week to reattune to his 'Heirloom Axe'. He sharpens it daily.
Did a one shot for my brother and ended up giving him magic items (he was a druid), and so I had to give some more out to the other player to balance it out. I wouldn't have done it if I knew it wasn't going to be a one shot, but I thought of a cool item. I've always found +1/2/3 weapons boring and more difficult for the DM to balance out and flavor is free. 'Oh he has too much burst damage', make one more encounter before they long rest.
The item was a Flaming Draconic Axe, they fought a minotaur to get his axe (villains using magic items are better than finding them typically, in my opinion). It was a stone black 2 handed Axe with the edges of the blade being colored like bronze and their are 7 symbols in draconic carved into either side of the Axe's head, the words are: Flaming, Fire, Smite, Incinerating, Scales, Curse, and Light, it has 3 charges and regains 1d2 at dawn. As a bonus action he can speak to of the words together to make an effect (He's a barbarian so he doesn't use he's bonus action to much).
Fire Smite (1 charge): the Axe's Head turns red with heat and the next attack you land in the next minute deals an extra 1d8 fire damage.
Flame Smite (2 charges): the Axe's Head gets consumed by a crimson flame, the next attack you land in the next minute deals an extra 1d12 fire damage.
Flaming Light (1 charge): The Axe shines and creates 20 feet of bright light and 20 feet of dim light for 5 minutes, can be turned off with a bonus action.
Paladin is my favorite class and I was disappointed that the Barbarian doesn't get burst damage or utility so I made this for them (a party of 5 with 4 humans, no dark-vision).
He also gains new abilities as e beats other flame-based creatures, their about to fight a fire elemental and after words he'll gain a fire based control ability.
This is how to make a magic item that the player won't just throw away.
Love his list. As an experienced DM with 30+ years, I still have issues with too many or too powerful items at times.
YES. Number 10 mostly. From DM/GM to all players if it gets too hard run, Your DM may not be experienced in beefing up the encounters and need to know when they have gone too far instead of bullheading in and making them down grade or fudge their rolls to make sure you win, they didn't want a TPK, but they didn't know how tough they made it. :-D
A suggestion, if you do want to give a party a massive amount of magic items at low levels. I would recommend, give them more gimmicky or relatively useless items.
Examples of this is something akin to a the Professional's suit. A magic item from an urban fantasy campaign, it was simply a suit of studded leather armor, that appeared to be a business suit that can never get dirty.
I also gave them an endless pack of cigarettes. Just a simple infinite supply of cigarettes.
Another one I gave was known as the hexblade's gloves. A set of gloves that teleports a weapon attuned to it to the user's hands, up to 2 weapons at base.
Or you can make magic items that require certain things to be done (Level Requirements, ability score prerequisites, certain actions etc.)
I like to do things like just add basic and tangentially relevant things, like "this longsword is unbelievably light for its size, it gains the light and finesse property in addition to its other properties."
I just want to comment that I love the old school HeroQuest DM screen at the beginning.
This was extremely helpful! Im new to DM'ing and still pretty new to the game. Thanks for making you no BS videos.
I made up the idea of a magic wand that requires gems to operate. You set a 100gp gem onto the wand and when activated, the gem is consumed. They can also change the gem type to change the effect.
Great tips! Something I like doing, cause I'm indecisive, is to have a list of items and have em roll to see what they find. Helps me, personally, since I have issues deciding specifically what to give peeps
For all the deck of many things Lovers: you could make an entire campaign or arc dedicated to a homebrew deck! I did this more than once and every table loved it! Even the players who dislike the original deck. There was tailored encounters from backstories on the cards, small and big empowered abilities or items, various curses that don't ruin the entire game or character and a lot of lore for the bookworm and history diggers
I like to homebrew items that are basically like normal weapons or armor or artifacts, but with different types of damage and minor utility.
Beat this weird artificer type person? Find a mysterious red stone. First person who happens to try and put it onto a weapon will find it fuses into it. Weapon now has a light flame around it (dim light 10ft) that casts light and converts the damage to fire damage. Attunement needed to enable/disable the fire.
Wanna make it stronger? Give it a few charges that allow the flame to rapidly power up. Deals an extra 1d6, extends range for 1 attack by 5ft, and has a limit to daily uses.
Gives flavor, gives a way to use more damage resistances/vulnerabilities, can create for some fun interactions. Makes it still feel really cool without giving players a ton of power early on. Basically, anything that gives the player more choices tends to make them feel more powerful.
My balancing for early game magic items is actually to stick attunement onto common and uncommon magic items that don't already have it. That, plus creating crappy magic items that players will get emotionally attached to balances things nicely in high magic item campaigns
What type of magic items players get attached too?
@@soMeRandoM670 Anything they've used a lot, since it's been useful so far. I like to create attunement items that only give players a cantrip - my monk refuses to give up his bracers of minor illusion, despite finding really powerful attunement items
@@soMeRandoM670 An example from my current rogue character: a magical dagger that is +0 to attack, +1 to damage, and activates Detect Magic twice a day.
We got it from a were-rat cultists on our first adventure.
This dagger was my only magical weapon for the first four levels, and I will likely stay attuned to it, and use it, to the end of the campaign.
I have already passed off on better weapons to keep that one, not just because of the Detect Magic, but because of the story behind it.
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In a previous campaign, we got a trio of magical longswords that let us cast Message at will to the holder of the other two wielders if they were in range.
My sorcerer kept one, even though he is not proficient in the weapon, using up an attunement slot, simply for the ability to have near-silent coordination in the party.
I hear the voice of many years of experience in this video. Magic Items can break a campaign so fast you don't know what hit you. I am a veteran GM and I am extremely stingy with my magic items. The need to be special in any case.
Yeah... I’ve never gotten that, I don’t like vanilla D&D, it has a painful tendency to be the same game over and over again mechanically, now this might be me being a power gamer, but D&D without magic gear is really boring, because you’re generally just doing the same thing over and over again in combat, and getting some new options helps with that a lot (Also because we tend to roll for stats, and I tend to roll poorly, I like how magic gear lessens the gap between me and everyone else because I rolled 2 8s and a 14 and they rolled at least one 16+)
I remember in CoS my players were supposed to start of with the sunblade,
Since they spend the night at the vestani camp,
Which is really dumb.
"The Monsters Know What They Are Doing" is the BEST BOOK! I've read just a few chapters and it's already changed the way my monsters fight!
Liked this topic a WHOLE lot!
I love magic items that give quality of life effects without giving combat bonuses.
Magic cookpot that cooks food without a fire.
Tentclock that becomes a furnished 4 man tent when you hang it from a tree branch.
Potions and scrolls for 1-3 level useful spell affects that allow for greater variety of abilities among the characters.
Here is one of my homebrew items my Forge Cleric made/enchanted. We've had so much fun with this thing. And yes, it was named Morty from Rick and Morty.
This Warhammer, crafted by the master blacksmith Fargim Moyer, in infused with an enchanted (or cursed?) piece of adamantine in Fargrim's Seal on the head of the hammer. Under the head of the weapon in dwarvish is the name "No. 78 Morty". The rest of the hammer is inlaid in gold and silver.
Warhammer No. 78 "Morty" (Rare, magical, requires attunement, worth up to 5,000 gp)
Damage:
1d8 Bludgeoning (one-handed)
1d10 Bludgeoning (two-handed)
Weight: 2 lbs
Properties: Versatile
Magical Properties:
Whenever the Warhammer hits an object, the hit is a critical hit.
"Morty" Enchantment (or Curse?):
When the Warhammer touches (or hits) a hostile creature with an intelligence higher than 10, that creature must make an Intelligence Saving Throw versus your spell save DC.
On a failure, the creature becomes friendly to you for one minute. After the minute the creature knows you cast a spell on it and becomes confused/hostile to you again. Creatures with an intelligence of 9 or lower are unaffected by this enchantment. This effect ends early if someone is hostile to the affected creature.
On a success, or after the one minute the creature is immune to the enchantment for the next 24 hours.
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Give out more consumable items! _Spell Scrolls_ and Potions and Elixirs! _Spellwrought Tattoos_ from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything! A _Necklace of Fireballs_ if you're feeling spicy. If you give them something too powerful, it's one and done. Regarding non-rechargeable wands, I'd have both rechargeable and non-rechargeable wands so the recharging wands feel more special when the players do get one.
"Never let them attune to more than 3 magic items"
*laughs in artificer*
The last 5e campaign I was in was, "Tomb of Annihilation" run by my friend who is known for giving no magic gear or gold or downtime (so as to deny us any means of gaining magic items). The jungle of Chult steamrolled US and we never played 5e again.
Don't starve your players of magic in a world where it is supposed to be a part of it. Make it special but also give your players a fighting chance.
The orb got us. The Tomb of Annihilation is supposed to kill you. That's why prerolled characters. Most likely you will die.
At times I've had to dig into the Monster Manual to "remove" some items from the equation. That OP Level 3 Paladin falling into a tunnel network that is the burrow of a handful of rust monsters to get rid of that +4 full plate that made him unhitable. Or make the OP item a macguffin that needs to be given up to survive a puzzle or crypt.
6:59 yeah those level 1-2 players ain't gonna need basic potions of healing.
"Players should never be able to attune to more than 3 magic items that require attunement"
Laughs in artificer
I do totally get what he's saying though, and so much of this is amazing advice.
I am a loooong time DM, more than 30 years now, and this entire concept is something that really rubbed me the wrong way in 5E. I actually really liked some aspects of 4E, and this was one. Tons of magic items of all kinds. Some for raw power, some for utility, some for combat effects, some for buffs/debuffs and even ones for simple overworld style travel effects. I look at the limits that are put into place on magic items now and just cringe at how many cool, useful, fun, and empowering items would have been completely ignored or missed out on from past campaigns with these ideas. I love giving my players all manner of tools and options for all kinds of situations. I make the scenarios for my campaigns, and I gave them the items they have. I know what they can do, and I plan for it. and if they surprise me with a use I didn't think of, well, now I know of it, and I go forward with that new knowledge.
On the other side of things, you sure as hell don't break out the Legendary gear list at level 5, that way lies MADNESS.
An interesting mechanic you can do is make charges recover weekly for some items , making there use more sparing while also giving them an item that will stay with them and the character may still get attached to. Edit , a great example of this is The Eye Of The Storm, in aerois. No spoilers, it becomes a defining part of the character, but do to it’s limited charges per week rather then per day, that character has to be very careful with how they use it.
Just saw this and I definitely fell headfirst into this trap back in my last campaign. We finished and had a good time but i have to up the power of so many things.
Funnily enough, it was the Muffin Button that they liked and abused the most. A box with a button that conjures a muffin. Only each time the muffin is different. This is cause it doesnt conjure anything. It summons the nearest muffin.
Ended up making rumors of a rampant muffin theif across the continent. Just found it hilarious myself.
This is just the video I needed. Thankyou
One of the things I did to limit the number of magic items I have in my game is to give it a back story to every one of them and a reason for it to be in the location that it is found. I found this was enough for me to slow down giving out five +1 long swords if I have to come up with five different back stories for them to fit in my campaign.
A cup that changes things to alcohol is one thing I added to much praise.
I know I'm late to this but maybe can add something helpful. I use a way they can trade in old magic items. Certain smiths can destroy old items to extract magic from them to create new ones or upgrade existing ones. Then I simply put the the new items in their list of items they can create or have them be items found in a dungeon that have lost their abilities with time. Having them appraised reveals their properties once their power is restored and what they need.
Likewise, the questing for power ups. You can simply place these items in their way within the normal campaign. Instead of telling them they are looking for that roc's feather. Have them simply find the rocks feather or fight one and loot it. Let them later find out it is useful for upgrading the items or even items they haven't found yet. There... done.
I like to make attunement actually take a task that fits the magic item. For instance say you get a flame tongue sword. You can't just take a short rest to attune to it, you must attune to it by thrusting it into a fire blessed by a cleric and then you may attune to it while it is bathed in the holy flames. Or boots of flying you must jump from a specific cliff and the boots will allow you to fly just before you hit the ground and you are then attuned to them.
I like how you offer a free example of your lair magazine to check out. More people should do samples before expecting a commitment. However I was going to try out the content to test its balance and couldn't read much of it because I f the sample text over the pages.
Magic items can be tremendously different in power scaling depending on who you give them to. Some examples:
Flame Tongue Weapons:
*Fighters:* Nightmare incarnate in your campaign. They get so many weapon attacks and, if they decide to multiclass into something like warlock for hex, you are going to end up doomed.
*Rogue:* They get a 2d6 extra fire damage on one attack.
Still my favourite moment as a player ever, was when I've been collecting herbs left and right and ended up coming across toxic berries (ones that cause paralysis). DM allowed me to collect them and make a potion. Some 3 sessions later after I've more or less instantly extinguished entire village with 2 castings of sleet storm, we've encounter young red dragon and our front liners got beat up rather bad. I somehow thought of running closer to the dragon, throwing the potion at it's face and by some miracle I've actually landed it just before it was about to use it's breath attack for the first time. 2 turns of auto-critting later we've returned to helping villagers.
Anyways, now I rarely get anything besides some tea herbs lol
Agree 100% with consumables and having items that grow in power with the characters. Never though about nerfing magic itens with slots, it's great advice, for sure I'll try out next time.
First time DM.
I try to think about this in a logical way.
The first Boss they encountered had three attunable items, and all had a reason. He had a hat of disguise, Ring of Mind shielding and Amulett of protection against detection. He was a rogue priest, still playing the good priest of Chauntea, but secretly experimenting in some hidden rooms beneath an abandoned Asylum on peoples, mostly abductet travellers, to basically brainwash them into absolutelly obedient servants by making a hole in their head and basically rewire their brains. The hat was to disguise himself to not be known, if a prisoner ever should escape, the Amulett, so he couldn't be detected and found while working in his laboratory, and the Ring, so people can't read his thoughts or his alignment, even more important, since two of his puppets were mind flayers.
Those two were equiped with items to silently give alarm and catch and constrict opponents.
And then there were several more magical items in a backchamber, along mundane stuff, that didn't interest him, at least not as much, because they were not of use in his objective.
There were two more powerful among them, a magic Book and a legendary sword, both of which are pretty useless at the moment.
The Book can't be opened yet, and the sword is one of a pair, so although it is definitivelly enchanted, on its own, without its twin, it's barely more than a normal sword.
I plan on integrating this in the story. At some point, the book can be opened, as soon as it deems them worthy, capable.
The sword, there are several replicas of it, which they can find, optically identical to the original, but they all come in pairs, and at some point, they'll find the original twin, after which it will slowly awake.
Also, I'm pretty bad at balancing encounters, so I play it, that they will encounter way too powerful opponents, because the World doesn't level with them, so they probably need all help they can get.
"Magical items are not required."
"So that Wererat gang..."
I typically start my party around level 3-4 so it's not unlikely they'll have stumbled over a +1 item somewhere or procured a few potions or scrolls, I don't mind tossing in a +2 sword or 3rd-4rth level scroll somewhere and then gradually loot table out the rest of the party to balance up. I try to get something for the fighter classes first since they are always up in danger's face you wanna make them feel like they are holding their ground fairly well; casters or ranged players always have access to a lot of mobility and utility so even if they aren't "powered up" through magic stuff they aren't as stressed out as the front line melee heroes so I tend to flash a little favor their way first then scale in the others.
Well, I do love your ruggedly handsome face 🤔 it's like you're talking directly to me!
I don't think this was a nerf, but my character had a sword that dealt extra damage to dragons and it sure did tear into them! After he died and was later resurrected, he no longer has that sword, but another awesome one, though with more conditions i.e. needing to use it for killing blows to charge it up to get spells he can use to make himself more durable.
He also came back with a couple of extra levels so he's now Path of the Zealot barbarian and has an aberrant dragon mark, so he has more damage types. Nothing worse than being a fighter/barbarian going up against an opponent with physical resistances without an inherently magical weapon!
Great vid, newbie dm here. Currently running LMoP and since it's a module for lvl 1-5, I made it so the Lionshield Coster occasionally gets random magic items such as Cloak of many fashions, immovable rod, nightvision goggles; nothing that does damage. I let the characters open a line of credit so they can get a taste of magic items.
5e and it's lower fantasy/magic style is definitely different from 1e and AD&D 2e (which can be found for sale online).
Decent info in your list.
My group's DM has set places where we can find magic items, such as after a big boss fight and whatnot. He just rolls on a loot table and so far we haven't gotten anything OP yet. Except for an item he made himself and let us get a hold of. An orb that when touched with a crystal, that has at least one charge in it, activates an antimagic zone. He basically gave us a level 8 spell but didn't realize it until after the session when our monk told him what he did.
Most of the other stuff has small bonuses that we've mostly used to cover for our class/race negative traits. Like our giant, who has a sneak disadvantage due to his size, now has boots of elvenkind so he can roll normally on stealth checks. The only other item that could be considered OP would be my captain's silver rapier, I think another homebrew item, which deals double damage to undead creatures. Too bad I'm a bard so half the time when trying to melee I miss.
Another important suggestion is to use in the battles, more magic objects that require specific classes or alignments or size, sometimes even high (or low) characteristics, feats, or the belonging to some order, church, divinity. Or that give to the players bonus that are non cumulable. And do not forget that more magical items, more thiefs of high levels that lurk to stole the player stuff.
I like the concept that you must attune to all magic items but would add that they all cost some points (depending on the rarity) to attune, the amount of attunement points you have is equal to your proficiency points plus you intelligence modifier (with a minimum of 0).
The Artificer can have some extra points.
I created a Potion of Attunement that lets a PC attune to an item as an action for an hour at the cost of a level of exhaustion when the hour is up. It would also increase the levels of exhaustion for attuned items above the normal limit (i.e. attuning to a 4th item would result in 2 levels of exhaustion at the end of the hour.)
If I drank a shot every time you said Magic Item in this video I'd probably be in the hospital ngl
In the skit at the beginning. I imagined that all the powerful items were secretly HORRIBLY cursed lol
Not a particularly experienced DM so use my method at your own risk but one thing that I have found is that common and uncommon magic items that don't have a bonus to attacks or saves don't impact the difficulty too much. And one of my main things was giving a martial mithril plate at lvl 3. It is in ravenloft and I have been handing their butts to them by playing the monsters logically so I don't mind adding some toys. I already warned them that while I am adding magic items this also means that the BBEG will have a lot of toys also but he will have the same limitations (basically Strhad will be a DM PC and I will be playing to win with him.)
#8 is my thing for 5e. within the first 5 levels or so I generally try to make sure each character has some kind of personalized scaling magic item, even if they don't necessarily know that until later.
22:33 EA: Now THAT... will give us a lot of cash.
I had a Monty Hall moment early on in my game (first time DM), and I have chosen to 1) Suck it up and adjust future adventures, usually by adding monsters or adding HP, and 2) Keep the high prices. Now, I LOVE that sane pricing table, but after the Monty Hall moment (my brother called it Monty Hall. He's an experienced game master, and knows what I did wrong, but didn't say anything, except, "This is fun! It's fun to be Monty Hall!") I have to deal with inflation in my game, because they got a LOT of stuff to sell or use as trade goods. They got a lot of magic items they can't even use, and some they don't care about, because I had them roll on the loot tables.
Yeah, the set-up was they entered Tymora's Sanctuary, and were allowed to gamble until midnight. The ante was Hit Points. So, they used their healing and short rests, and got as many gambles as they could. I DID increase the cost of the ante after each short rest, but I also increased the hoard table. Pay more, play more.
I was having a BLAST giving them all this loot! They were having a lot of fun getting it. I did tell them not to go to 0 hit points, as there would be consequences. But they got as close as they could get, and played all the way until midnight.
Now, they have loads of loot, including lots of gems (lots of diamonds, too. I made them roll for how many gems they got, and then roll again for how many of the gems were diamonds), and a lot of art pieces (which I called trade goods), as well as a load of random magic items. I was so happy they got the bag of holding and a portable hole, because they got so much stuff to carry, and with the portable hole, they have a "savings account" that they can dip into with a bit more effort, while the bag of holding is easily accessible.
The thing is, because we were trying to move things along, we wrote down the winnings, but then they had the "homework" of actually writing down what everything actually does, and my brother was too busy to do his, so I wound up doing it for him. Over time, they simply forgot what they had. I tried to encourage them to sort it all out and do swapsies and decide what to attune, and now they are each attuned to one magic item, and the rest are saved, because "But, it takes too long to do swapsies, and we just want to get on with the game!"
So, the vast majority of their hoard is in their portable hole or bag of holding, and they really only care about a few small items, because they actually needed it in game.
I must say, my niece was a genius to use her rope of climbing to bypass the lock that denied picking or crushing. They've used ropes of climbing three times now, in Gnomengarde, alone. And they used the Boots of the Winterland, because they had to cross that crazy rope bridge in front of a waterfall, during a blizzard, and had already taken damage from the river below, and didn't want to do it again. Otherwise, they have a few weapons, and armor, and seem to be happy enough.
I'm still keeping the high prices for consumables, though, because I went to a lot of effort already to type out those prices on the cards, and in the shop-keep menu, and let's face it: My players are RICH now.
But next campaign, I will definitely use the "sane" prices. It makes SO much more sense.
As it is, I will use it in my own game as a ratio. The Boots of Flying? Yeah, they'll be MUCH more expensive than the Cape of Flying, because of their actual play-value, and I appreciate the fix so much.
Meanwhile, I can't play the module as written, and I'm fine with that. I'm already doing lots of home-brew additions for story purposes, and I HAVE to type out every adventure, rather than running it straight from the book, because of my brain issues, meaning I cannot reliably read that smallish print on gray background at the table. I have to re-type it during my good times, in large print, even if I don't have to toughen it up, so it's not that much to toughen it up, or add a story element here or there, as I go.
But I feel good watching this video, knowing that I am not the only one who has made this mistake. And knowing that I can "fix" it, simply by re-balancing the game, adding more/tougher monsters and higher DCs for things (when their magic items actually apply) is also good to know. Yes, it's more work, but it's also something I can actually do.
And NEXT campaign will have significantly less magic loot. I'm already planning it, and it will not happen for YEARS down the line. Hahaha.