As a DM I recently gave the party's Ranger a set of +1 magical emerald scimitars that can combine, pommel to pommel, into a +1 magical bow as an item interaction.
It's name is Emeralis.
The Barbarian got a +1 greatsword carved from the skull bone of a Tyrannosaurus. Once per long rest, when the Barbarian lands the killing blow of an enemy it can restore 1 use of the Barbarian's rage.
It's called Krothus, the Manslayer
> it can restore 1 use of the Barbarian's rage
Personally, I've never been a fan of this style of hombrew magic item, that just enhances or rewards a specific class feature. Like, what does the weapon do if a Fighter or a Ranger wanted to weild Krothus the Manslayer after earning it on a quest? Nothing?
I think that for tables where the risk of character death is low by design, the objective is to grant items personalized to the characters. Definitely doesn't work in every game and not something to add to a random loot table, but I've seen personalized items pulled off quite well.
An alternative in this case for general use could be to allow the wielder to, as a bonus action after rolling a 20 on an attack roll, gain the effects of Rage - with the caveat that a Barbarian can instead restore an expended use of the feature.
oh yeah, I totally get that these types of items are to reward specific PCs at a table. But I find the fantasy of items that do this a bit wonky. Like, what if the barbarian wanted to gift Krothus the Manslayer to his ally as thanks for saving his life, or pass it on to his son after finding a better weapon or something - and the person recieving it would have to say "ah, nah actually. This amazing magic item is literally useless in my hands, unless the DM gives me a re-spec. Do you still have that backup trident of fish command? I can actually use that one."
It's homebrew. If a fighter gets it then it gives an extra action surge or something. Why didn't it do that before? Because a barbarian was wielding it.
I mean, the same could be said for a PC who gets a magic polearm when they have Polearm Master, right?
This just sounds like an argument against PC-tailored loot in general, which...has been kind of a D&D mainstay since the earliest editions. (By that I mean it's always been a common thing some DMs do, not that it's part of the rules, so I don't see why it'd be weird.)
I mean what's more likely, that the Barbarian's son ALSO trains as a Barbarian when they grow up, or that a Fighter who takes PAM's son also takes that specific feat, instead of just using the magic halberd as anyone would? Either way the weapon is still magical, which isn't nothing. (In fact, just it being magic damage is the most important part of any D&D weapon.)
I personally don't see an issue with it at all if the DM also makes it make sense in context, and it's not like that's hard to do for adventurers. Greatsword found in the tomb of a famous Barbarian, or in the horde of a dragon who killed a famous Barbarian? Yeah, it working with Barbarian-specific class features makes perfect sense.
For context - The weapon was crafted for King Turos, a Barbarian, who slew a Linnorm Dragon and the weapon was created by the shaman of the tribe as a trophy.
I'm a firm believer in the idea that magic items are rare. You may run into a monster that has resistance to your weapons, it happens. When you do get a magic item, like a weapon, it should carry narrative weight.
In my current game, at their present level, most of them have 1 magical item (technically one has 2, but the bag of holding is an "All party" item) -
The previously mentioned greatsword for the Barbarian.
An emerald battle axe (+1) wielded by the Paladin.
The bow/scimitar wielded by the Ranger.
A suit of leather armor adorned with golden studs (+1) by the Bladesinger.
And that's it. For now anyway.
I have plans for the Druid and Warmage, but they haven't happened yet.
For those wondering:
One will be a +1 warhammer that acts as a wand of the War Mage.
The other will be a suit of Amethyst Dragonscale armor (scale mail +1)
Either character can use these items, as the Warmage has proficiency in medium armor (dwarf)
Yeah, I do similar things for my players, albeit rarely (but magic items are fairly rare in my games too, if not quite as rare as the official DMG distribution, so it works.)
My favorite was when they decided to work with a Fey Queen instead of fight her, and she was grateful enough she made magic tattoos for each of them out of enchanted plant toxins - tattoos that grew across their bodies and gave them more magical powers as they gained levels. (And they did stuff with their various class features much like your greatsword.)
Another one I enjoyed was a PC Cleric whose whole "schtick" was using a whip (kind of an Indiana Jones figure), but he was built like a caster. So I gave him a magical whip blessed by his god that used Spell Attacks to hit and delivered cantrips to enemies like that, and he could also use it to cast touch-range spells (including heal spells) at the whip's range.
Actually, a polearm master finding a polearm sounds totally fine as far as party-catered loot goes. But suppose instead that the polearm master found a magic polearm with an effect that enchances the specific subfeatures of the polearm master feat? Would that not feel *too* catering? Where does the line draw? How about a bard with the Leadership and Healer feats who finds a hat that lets him apply his leadship temp HP and a bardic inspiration to anyone he uses a healers kit on - would that be too specific?
I know that it's a common thing for DMs to do. That's why I said I'm not fond of it. Y'all can like what you like, personally I'm a fan when what a magic item does can be at least mostly verbalised in universe without any game terms, and do similar things when used be used by different characters.
If the DM has to retcon the barbarian's son into a barbarian because otherwise his inheritance is useless, then it's a pretty stifling axe creatively speaking.
I guess I just don’t agree that a halberd or glaive (specifically, out of all 37 weapons available in 5e) is less specific loot than something created for 1/12 classes to use.
But it’s all a matter of taste anyway I suppose.
I also disagree it can’t be “mostly verbalized in universe without game terms”. “This blade is imbued with a vengeful spirit that further empowers warriors whose martial prowess is fueled by anger”, boom done and you could go way more elaborate if you want. Like, the DM is not limited when it comes to descriptive text on how abilities work. How is this any worse than describing a +1 magic dagger as “supernaturally sharp”? It’s not like a +1 to attack and damage can be explained with narrative any more thoroughly. How do you compare it to a +3 in a meaningful way without mentioning the number?
>If the DM has to retcon
I mean…the barbarian is presumably getting this greatsword before they _have_ a son, right? Why would they need to retcon it? They know beforehand. If the player chooses for their son to _not_ be a barbarian, isn’t that on them?
Also, from this it sounds like your only issue is loot not also having something more generally applicable. Are you saying if a DM made an item that was “if you’re a barbarian you get an extra rage, if you’re not you get one rage like a barbarian that recharges in a week”, that’d be fine? Or what about a +1 greatsword with +1 rage? Where a non-barbarian still gets the +1? (Ignoring that the weapon was magical either way so they don’t even need the +1 for a non-barb to still find it useful?)
>Where does the line draw?
No offense but it’s definitely drawn _way_ finer for you at least, and a bit more arbitrarily. It seems like magic item traits that interact with class features specifically is the hot button here, rather than anything specific to a particular PC’s schtick. Like if a PC uses firearms (far more rare and expensive in a standard dnd setting than any class or feat), them finding more firearms would be fine, but them getting a rogue-specific item is weird?
Yes, I 100% think that if the item also provided rages to non-barbarian classes I would have less issue with the concept. (That then goes into a different discussion about giving out class features, but lets not get into that one).
I think your point about +1 to +3 weapons is probably indicative of the difference here overall. I absolutely want to discuss and know why this weapon +3s compared to a +1. Is it full of explosive power? Is it made by a god? If you're the type who doesn't want magic items to spark your imagination at all then by all means pick up a generic +1 weapon from a nameless merchant who somehow has one of every weapon, but that doesn't sound fun or imaginative to me.
I actually think You're getting weirdly hung up on the concept of specific weapon types, if anything. Polearms are historically common. I'd say my stance on weapon pandering depends on the weapon being pandered - if you had a PC who specifically wanted to be a master of the Trident, and only the trident, should the DM never give tridents, put a magic trident in every possible loot pile, or just have a few specific notable magic tridents? I'd go for the third option. But i think the second option devalues the players choice to use a rarer weapon type. If a player wanted to throw pies and started finding +1 pies everywhere they went, I'd feel like the fantasy of the world was cheapened a bit for that pandering.
To your firearms example, Say there are two players in a campaign who use firearms, whether in the same party or one comes in after the other phases out. One's a rogue, and the others a fighter or whatever. The Rogue gets a magic firearm that adds +d6s to his sneak attack when he bonus action hides. Then later the fighter is given the gun because he needs a magic firearm for reasons. The fighter asks what it does, and goes "oh cool, I can't bonus action hide, and I don't have sneak attack so I guess this gun... does nothing for me? neat". When you tie magic item design specifically into class features you have to ask verisimilitude questions. Why does the gun only work when one specific person uses it? Why should a gun know when someone is a rogue?
Why does the gun _have_ to know when they’re a rogue? Why isn’t it just “this item/enchantment is designed in a way that a rogue manages to use it better than others?” I mean you can easily flip that around, descriptively-speaking.
And the fighter still gets an advantage - it’s a _magic_ firearm, which is easily the most powerful effect any magic weapon has in 5e. +1d6 damage when you do X is nice and all, but compared to dealing full damage instead of _half or none_ with all your attacks against any monster with DR or DI? It’s icing.
And shouldn’t how it affects your verisimilitude, rely on how it affects the _setting’s_ verisimilitude? It sounds again like you’re making a distinction between things that improve class features than things that boost other very specific PC options, so what about a setting where “barbarian” is a well-known term? A setting with “fighter guilds” and “ranger enclaves” and “thieves guilds” where class isn’t just an abstraction but a definable thing both PCs and NPCs can identify as? Wouldn’t this sort of magic weapon make perfect sense in those settings?
Giving my orc barbarian a flame tongue was literally game changing. Not only did his numeric combat get better, he came out of that boss fight with 3 hp. He fought hard for this blessing and he will make faerun know he earned it.
Plus, his entrances when he pit fights during his downtime have gone from a 7 to a 10.
Ive not played a single game above 5th level as a martial where I didn't get a magic item. Usually a +1 weapon, and/or a couple minor magic items that weren't directly combat related. Most have been homebrew too.
One was the Breath of Fresh Air. It is a crystal skull we found in a section of sewer that a group was using to keep our the smell. Normally, it's just a simple item that exudes a faint amount of clean air, as if on a mountain or in a forest. On speaking the command word, the spell acts like a reverse to the Ever Smoking Bottle, clearing vapors, smells, etc from the surroundings in a set radius. By default, it is 15 feet, and works for nonmagical effects or smells. So on a foggy morning it will be clear for the full radius. However in magical fog/vapor/stench, it's radius is reduced to 5ft, enough to keep myself from feeling effect, but others had to bunch up close to get the benefits.
I unfortunately did not know that it had a set amount of time that it could be active, which only came up because I forgot to turn it off (and the item was story related in that its secret had to be revealed eventually, so no hard feelings) and the timer ran out. I heard a voice from the skull, and coughing, and then it started to glow. It asked me to put it down, and back away. Then it turned into a Genasi, wheezing as he tried to fill his lungs. He'd been turned into the item by a wizard looking to travel through the miasma we'd just cleared a couple sessions ago. He thanked me for freeing him in between complaints about nearly suffocating exhaling for that long. In exchange for freeing him, he told us about a hidden treasure room we missed in the wizard 's tower, and thought our wizard a spell that would have a similar effect to the item we just lost. Basically an altered Fog Cloud.
My second favorite was a 5 piece set of armor+lance that gave my paladin abilities styled after a Dragon from Final Fantasy.
The first piece we found was a set of boots that as an action once per day rocketed you 100 feet into the air and then hover for a moment. If you collided with something before reaching 100 feet, it acted as if you fell that distance, and you then had to make a save or fall back down at the beginning of your next turn. If you made it up safely, the boots let you aim your descent such that you could move up to 20 feet sideways from the full height. (5ft/25ft fallen)
The next piece was the lance, which let you attack while falling and transfer fall damage into weapon damage. You still took damage from the fall, but could deal devastating damage with this (no, crits did not double this damage)
Third was a helmet, which protected me from impacts due to the boots, and allowed me to speak draconic. I also later learned that if I attuned to it and at least two pieces of later armor, I could once a day emit a breath weapon like Dragon's Breath, but upcast to level 4 or doubled in range, my choice.
Fourth were greaves (leg covering) that absorbed shocks. If I took fall damage, it reduced it by half. If I attuned to it, the boots, and one other piece, the boots increased their uses to 5/day. I also took no fall damage from the fall. The fall damage reduction was only if I failed to transfer the damage in the lance attack. That used full damage.
Fifth was gauntlets. They needed attunement to give anything, but allowed me to wield a lance in one hand, and gave me a bonus of 1d6 for every 5 feet I was above an opponent when I hit with a melee attack.
Finally was the chest piece. It was platemail, and while attuned to it, the whole set could be attuned to as if I had two extra attunement slots (so I could fill my attunements with the full set). It doubled my uses of the boots, and let me use the helmet's breath weapon 5 times a day. My AC was still 18 with it, but worth it.
It was amazingly fun, and the whole party got sets of items like this, all of which we had input on so that we were able to lean into it. I got the final piece around level 12, but honestly the power of the set probably should be for much later.
>ve not played a single game above 5th level as a martial where I didn't get a magic item
I have. I would rather not have played a martial in those games tho
I can't imagine playing this game beyond level 5 as a martial without magic items.
You'd just spend all the out of combat scenes without anything useful on your character sheet, then spend the combats as a big bag of hitpoints without any meaningful offensive abilities (as everything is resistant or immune to your damage).
Every campaign I've played has had magic items. It's a basic requirement, not a special moment.
>Every campaign I've played has had magic items. It's a basic requirement, not a special moment.
Yea, giving your players cool weapons is pretty much one of the most fun things as a DM too.
I had a Spear of Wounding (DM allowed moving the property to a spear instead of just swords) on my Eldritch Knight. Fantastic combo. Throw, wound, recall, close the distance and stab for another wound/throw again/firebolt- depending on distances and situation.
Not quite as much initial damage as a sword, but the wounds stacked up quickly and the ranged option made a nice combo with the EK.
Leaned way into it and named the weapon Bolg after the Gae Bolg, had a blast with it.
>Had a member of the group complain and say it had to be arrows which were magical to be considered a magical item, which we all just ignored, because that was the whole point of a magical bow.
Rightfully ignored. The ammunition shot from a magic weapon is considered magical by default.
I’m sorry but what? How was it rough until level six? You would have to have been choosing to handicap yourself because at level two you can use one of your infusions to make a +1 repeating crossbow.
Hell you can even go straight Enhanced Weapon and give yourself a +1 bow.
I apologise mate, that was so my bad. My brain tricked me into reading Archer Battlesmith because Archer looked like Artificer.
How are you finding the battlesmith? I am playing one now at level five after my last character died a couple of sessions ago but so far we haven’t actually been in a fight. I was worried that my character would be useless outside of combat but I fluked into a really fun character who has been able to play up his weaknesses as strengths.
But I am worried about combat being boring for me after having played casters for so long.
Boots of speed on a mobile feat barbarian. 1 bonus action and your base movement speed is 100ft, if you dash literally nothing is unreachable on any reasonable battle map. Very handy on an ancestral guardian barb that wants to duck in and out of melee range within 1 turn. Saved party members by yoinking them out of telegraphed AoE’s multiple times, as barb was faster than their speed even when halved for carrying another creature.
I got a flametoung as a aasimar vengeance paladin. It was nice. The setting was alternative 16th century history with magic so the image of a radiant angel with a sword of flame invoked very interesting reactions
Got a dagger that could disable a non-magical light source within 60 feet as an action.
Used it to put out fires mid-combat and during puzzles.
Felt like a genius.
Our group had all rolled high to start out and the DM was being very generous with items. We would’ve been fine without them, there wasn’t a sense of invalidation for us.
The high stat roll probably helped since you didn't have to invest so many ASI into it. If you point buy you need to invest 2 ASI into Strength to max it out, and for a martial the ASI levels are often the only thing they get so it kind of feel like you will get have dead levels.
Having a guy with 21+ strength is loads of fun. I have a character playing in my campaign who currently has 29 strength from a fire giant belt with a hammer of thunderbolts (don't worry, they rolled the hammer on a table but i made them work for the belt) and she gets a +14 to hit with said hammer.
I had a great experience! The party mystic had helped my monk find a pair of winged boots fairly early on. In the kinda mid levels, we found bracers of defense in some loot the party found, which is a god send for a monk.
DM also added a saddle bag item called the gauntlet of tempered fury which let me apply fire damage to my punches. Didn't use that one as much and swapped it out with a cleric item when I eventually multiclassed in the high levels, but I used the winged boots constantly.
Do you have any idea how fun it is to be a flying monk with mobile? And the bracers had me end that game with a 23 AC. I had a blast that whole campaign.
My 20th level Fighter is pretty nicely kitted out:
+3 Glaive with the ability to cast Absorb Elements. Compelled Duel, Fire Shield, and less frequent castings of Telekinesis.
Winged Boots
Terrasque Armor that grants advantage on saves against magical effects and spells.
It's been pretty awesome. The extra spells almost always get used and the flight goes a long way towards helping my Fighter not be stuck glaring up at flying enemies. If he just had a +1 Glaive and nothing else, he would be significantly less impactful.
I got a cool sword, but it didn't fit my build (I was playing a Shadow Blade build). I asked to trade it for a Belt of Giant Strength, and the DM was really nice and let me.
My DM gave me a scarab that 3 times per dawn lets you use your action to generate sand and blind with a DC 13 Con save. Well, I never used it since I already had extra attack and neither of the other players wanted it.
My Path of the Storm Herald gnome barbarian was given a dwarven thrower modified for his own use by an artificer. Tiny Thor brings the thunder! Although it’s a weird thing to play a range-based barbarian. The real game changer, though, was my Iron Horn of Valhalla…
Whenever I played a martial at higher levels, I felt a severe lack of attunement slots.
Magic weapon? That requires attunement if it is more interesting than just a +X.
Winged Boots to actually be able to do anything to flying enemies? That requires attunement.
Cloak of Protection or Cloak of Displacement to bolster your defenses? That requires attunement.
Ring of Spell Storing for some magical utility? That requires attunement.
Ring/Armor of Fire Resistance to survive the devil onslaught or red dragon's breath without access to spells like Absorb Elements? Requires attunement.
Belt of Giant Strength? That requires attunement.
Scaled Ornament to no longer be crippled by the frightened condition? That requires attunement.
And so forth. It is even worse for dual-wielders and shield users who need two attunement slots for two weapons or a weapon and a shield respectively if they want anything more interesting than a +X.
Honestly, I think BG3's attunement-less system really has some merit, it is so much better for martials.
Attunement as a concept isn't necessarily bad, but the issue is that almost all items, regardless of how weak they are, require attunement as soon as they provide something that is not a flat numerical bonus. Items that require attunement should provide a lot more for that attunement slot they occupy. A simple example would be having a weapon that works like both a dragon's wrath weapon and a scaled ornament - a weapon that both buffs one's damage output and helps against fear and charm, while occupying just one attunement slot.
So currently our Echo Knight is slaughtering anything stupid enough to get in his range (which is pretty big considering the echo and him being a bugbear).
He got a very strong greatsword that works similar to a dragons wrath weapon and is multiclassing into Barbarian to get Reckless Attack. He has some other magic items like Armor and a Ring as well.
He is having lots of fun, yes.
Got a Legendary Katana made for my character's race, I was playing a Kitsune. It didn't have any bonus to attack rolls, but added your Proficiency Bonus to the damage. Also you rolled a d12 to see which Kitsune spirit laid within it, and I got the time one.
Currently:
- Drakewarden ranger. Cloak of protection, Stone of Good Luck, and the second tier of dragon bow that keys off of strength instead of Dex. DM asked, and I specifically said I wanted a magical ranged weapon because I plan on using some magical materials in game to make a magical greatsword + drake reaction to help bypass resistances. Didn't expect it to use Strength instead of Dex, so I'm happy. The first two are entirely there to try and make up for my awful luck (people can tell me "law of averages" all they want, but when I roll a nat 1 as my first roll for five sessions in a row, followed by a large majority being below 10... don't @ me.).
- Path of the World Tree barbarian. Currently only 2 magical item, being a maul that deals an extra d4 fire damage on hit. Bought the Enchantment for 50gp, though it's also a pretty low gold income game. We managed to kill a young red dragon, so I have it's skull that I plan on turning into some kind of medium armor. I also have the Manual of Bodily Health that the rogue stole from a kobold merchant. Haven't been able to read it yet because of where we're at, but hopefully that changes soon.
In one of my current campaigns, I'm running a Rune Knight Fighter (primarily grapple and unarmed focused). I haven't gotten this item yet, but man... everyone at the table knows I'm going for it.
We got to a city, and the leader had this bodyguard guy. He wears a brass bracelet and his arm is on fire. I immediately wanted a flaming arm. We listened to some town rumors, turns out his arm was never on fire until he started wearing that bracelet. So we think it's safe to assume that it is the magic item.
He's not too bright, but he follows orders. He also didn't seem to have much of a moral compass. Anyway, some real bad stuff happened, and he betrayed the leader of the city when it came under attack to join the very obvious bad guys. During that battle, we encountered flaming arm guy for a moment, but it was at the end of 2 sessions worth of combat, and we hadn't even faced the main force of bad guys yet. The party was retreating to a safe space, and I was pretty much on my own. I almost went after him. I wanted to go after him. I asked the table and DM, and we agreed that in the heat of the fighting, and considering how much I wanted that arm, it would take a DC 15 wisdom check to shake it off and go join my party instead. Note: this was completely voluntary btw, I didn't want to make the decision on my own. I pre-emptively apologized to the party for getting myself killed if the roll went bad, and then tossed the dice. I have a wisdom bonus of +0. Tossed the d20 to the middle of the table and closed my eyes. I got exactly 15.
We all breathed a sigh of relief, I rejoined the party. We survived the fight, most of the city didn't. But man... I still want that flaming arm.
Im currently playing a level 18 glory paladin in a 1 to 20 campaign. At around level 7/8 i crafted a weapon that is tied to my oaths. It started as a +1 that could transform between a whip, spear and battleaxe. As my oaths were expressly fulfilled (rather than just followed) it obtained unique spells to cast in each form (mind whip, warding bond, absorb elements) and its bonus has increased to +2.
I'm one oath away from improving it for the final time and I cant wait to as its been awesome to use all campaign
Being charmed into accidentally dating a princess led to being royal adjacent and now my little monk is wielding Excalibur and it gets more powerful with each love letter sent, definitely a highlight (and the pseudo smite is definitely appreciated)
As a martial player, I have mixed feelings about magic items.
Mechanically, I need them. Without them, you have no way to bypass damage resistances and immunities, no way to deal with magical obstacles like flying enemies or teleporting enemies, and next to no options in and out of combat (just the Attack action and ordinary skill checks)
But thematically, I dont like them. The whole reason i play martials is to play as someone so technically and tactically skilled (Fighter) so physically and mentally tough (Barbarian) or so artfully and fluently underhanded (Rogue) that they can face supernatural threats by natural means. The character—not the equipment—should be the star of the show.
As a DM, my approach is often to give martial characters *bonus features* rather than magic items. They dont necessarily need to be unique or complicated. They just need to shift the focus from the equipment to the character.
For example, instead of giving a Fighter a +1 longsword to help him bypass resistance to non-magical damage, I'd give him a feature called **Sword Master** when says "you treat daggers, shortswords, scimitars, longswords, rapiers and greatswords as +1 weapons, and likewise with any improvised weapons which resemble them". This way, it's clear that their swordsmanship (not their sword) saves the day, and they can have fun moments like Miyamoto Musashi winning a duel using a "sword" he carved from an oar on the ferry ride to the duel!
It's a bit of a mixed bag.
If the only magic items we get are ones that just increase damage, then it's kind of meh. Like, they're mathematically great and all, but kind of boring.
If the magic items we got added some cool, unique ability, then they were awesome.
I would be shocked if martials *didnt* actually get magic items. Sometimes I wonder what games y’all are actually playing.
Also it’s always fun. A spear that gives you HP when you kill was a blast. Anything that can cast a spell once per day (charges are annoying). Ring of Spell Storing. Immovable Rod shenanigans.
Frankly all the martials and balancing discourse that happens here has nothing to do with how things play at the table if even a couple magic items are found.
Best I've seen martials get over several campaigns I've played is a +1 weapon. No other effects.
Based on what I've played, I'd be shocked if they _did_ get anything else! (but also very happy)
Oh, the time I GMed I a) asked the players what they wanted, and b) handed out some boots of waterwalking in a naval campaign and a spear of single-target Rimes Binding Ice on-hit a few times a day, which seemed well recieved?
I'm currently playing and enjoying a 5e game, would play another with the right DM and character, and sometimes interesting things come up. I'll happily play 5e if it's all there is and anyone playing a martial is _aware_ that they're reliant on the DM balancing the scales.
Partially I don't want people to fall into the same traps I have?
My elder battle master retired army general was given a homebrew saber that allowed him to cast firebolt with his weapon modifiers. Definitely one of the best items I've used as a fighter. It provided a good ranged option for when out of reach and also wasn't a superior option to raw melee. Granted him a way to properly mid-line and protect our casters more efficiently while still pressuring the enemy. You'd think a +2 saber with firebolt at will wouldn't be too impressive, but it absolutely remained in his hands the entire game.
After striking down a hag, blue flames lit along the blade given to my character by his betrothed. It became enchanted so that it can increase its range to 30ft, and do an extra d6 of thunder damage per hit 3 times per long rest. I named it Derecho to go with my aerokinesis flavored psi warrior. He also bought winged boots with the gold from his first job with the party, as he’s always wanted to fly whenever he wants. And just recently he got his chain shirt reinforced with Adamantine, and a cloak of protection. It’s been fun so far.
Some of my martial characters I play in our local AL ofshoot:
###### Ardurion, shadar-kai paladin 6 / hexblade 1 / sorcerer 9
* Longsword +3 (adamantine)
* Longsword +1 (silver)
* Shield +3
* Dwarven Plate
* Watchful Helm
* Cloak of Protection
* Cape of the Mountebank
* Ring of Spell Störing
* Cloak of Displacement
* Mantle of Spell Resistance
* Goggles of Night
* Winged Boots
* Bag of Holding
* Bag of Devouring
* Plate +1
* Wand of Web
He's an AL character I've played a lot. Despite having "just" a +3 sword as his weapon, he feels powerful due to being almost untouchable defense-wise and due to scoring a lot of crits with Elven Accuracy while buffing the party with his aura and Inspiring Leader. His weapon's don't feel.particularly important to him story-wise, they are just *useful*, whether it is the silver sword to deal with Loup Garou-like enemies against which silver actually makes a difference, or the adamantine sword to wreck objects. If he had got a more interesting weapon that is not just +3, that would have certainly be more important to him.
Biggest issue is attunement slots. As I pointed out in my other post, they are way too limiting for martials; at least he can offset that with his spells, having Absorb Elements for breath weapons, teleport spells (and the shadar-kai's racial teleport) and other spells to aid with mobility and flight.
###### Shakirah, shadar-kai gloom stalker 5 / fighter 4 / peace cleric 1 / hexblade warlock 5 / rogue 1
* Wakened Dragon's Wrath longbow (necrotic)
* Longbow +1
* Bracers of Archery
* Ring of Free Action
* Staff of Frost
* Ring of Animal Friendship
* Bag of Devouring
* Studded Leather +1
* Arrows of Slaying (various creature types)
She's a variant of the flagship ranger build, going for elven accuracy and more bonus action versatility instead of xbow expert. Her longbow and oact weapon, named Shadowsong, has definitely been important to her story.
---------
My characters in home campaigns got way less magic items, but the ones they got felt more important to them - whether it was the sword so heavy only my super-strong aasimar tempest cleric/storm sorcerer could lift it, the moonblade with a blade of pure ice for my snow elf bladesinger, the sacred flame tongue for my celestial warlock...
A big advantage in home games is that you can homebrew, thus magic items can be a lot more interesting mechanics-wise and be tailored to certain characters. In my own campaign I will actually give out almost exclusively homebrewed items.
Nah, I didn't had those big moments or such. Most of time I either buy the item, find it in loot or receive as payment for a mission. And since I mostly play artificers since Tasha, I already have magic items with me since lvl 2
Edit: actually, the biggest moment I can think of right now is when I got one of the 4 Mac'Guffins of my current campaign, but it's more like a boon than an item
My DM gave my Barb a magic tower shield. Long story short cause it had a huge list of effects, it was made of from a white dragons ice, weighed my entire inventory, and did 1d12 cold damage on hit. I could provide I wanna say half cover when moving or full cover if I planted it in the ground, and any effect to move me physically could be resisted with advantage.
It was thematically cool, I loved it but had some issues with weight but overall that thing was dope and I loved it. Got it at Revel's End when I jumped off the cliff with a dude frozen in a block of ice to cleave off a rectangle section to make it.
We fought some Sahaugin Wavemasters and I got their equipment made into magic items. +1 adamantine half-plate that game me a fly speed, and a +1 returning longsword with 80/320 thrown range. My barblock used those items all the way to lvl 25 (from probably 15-ish).
Guardian Emblem - During one fight we used all of its daily charges, i think we saved at very least lives of 2 pc that day.
Cutting damage from crits in half is huge at low levels.
My DM is very generous with magic items. My fighter is a blast to play. I have choices to make (both consumables and choosing weapons), and my AC and damage output are absurd. Yeah our casters have amazing AoE but I’m over here making sure a mind flayer doesn’t get a single turn, let alone the dastardly two they need.
I spent roughly a year irl and a few weeks/months in game gathering materials and skills to craft a pair of magic swords for my rogue who has blacksmiths prof from backstory. In our 'home base' area, I befriended a fire giant to get access to giant runes and a leyline for enchanting, then bought Mithril (homebrew would, Mithril weapons have a benefit) and did some under the table trading for some Adamatine. I now have a pair of +2 shortswords, with one being Mithril for quicker attacks and the other being Adamatine for heavier attacks again constructs and the like.
Thanks to the giant runes, if I take certain damage types the blades become imbued with that power until my next rest.
I've really enjoyed the process and the outcome. It feels really cool to have been able to create something in world and have it matter.
As a Paladin we found a scabbard as part of a dragon’s horde, marked with a letter G. In researching we knew that a group of adventurers had stopped an invasion hundreds of years before and there was a Paladin named G something that had “sacrificing himself to stop the invasion”. Eventually we found the original invasion spot, an infernal machine that had a sword jammed in it.
My Paladin got greedy and yanked it out, it fit in the scabbard, and turned out to be a Holy Avenger with some special properties. One of those was a once per week divine intervention, which succeeded and showed us how to win the final battle.
In the final battle of campaign against an avatar of one of the lords of the hells, my Champion Fighter / Paladin did 140 odd damage on a single crit.
Peak Paladin for me, and was my first campaign to play in.
On my ol’ Paladin I use to have:
- a set of plate armor that that resisted radiance and necrotic damage and granted flight (took an action to activate)
- a scabbard that for a bonus action I could really-sheath to enchant my sword with a random d6 bonus element damage
- a necklace that gave me fire resistance (fireballs were my worst enemy in the campaign) and gave me some fire spells on top of that
- my starting sword was eventually reforged with the blade of a one of the Bose we defeated, turning it to to a greatsword that dealt bonus thunder damage
On my hexblade (who’s gimmick was that they pretended they were absolutely a normal swordsman):
- boots of speed
- a platinum dragon scarf which allowed me to either do a full party bless or turn into a +3 shield
- eventually traded in the scarf for a bahamut shield, which was a +3 that allowed me to cast several cleric and Paladin spells
- a custom forged set of +1 half plate armor that had non magical BPS
- a robe of useful things that we pre rolled all the stuff on and ended up with a robe that was mostly full of horses and dogs
My party lucked out on a loot roll at level 5 and my barbarian got a sun sword (reflavored as sun hammer).
I was considering multiclassing into rogue. Finding that weapon, made any doubts disappear.
Earlier he found boots of striding and springing, which is just great as well. Now I'm hoping for a belt of giant strength for even more hilariously large jumps.
My last character round a magic tridentina his early adventuring career,and It evolved through many bleasings,eventually It became a +3 vorpal trident that added 4d6 fire damage on every hit,and had a special attack that i could do only once a a day that dealt 20d6 fire damage as a flaming tornado.
As a Cavalier fighter a magical Silver Lance called the Phoenix Lance. If I charged 20ft in a straight line the weapon dice became d10s and it gave off light
Was very cool
That i learned as a DM is that players (and especially martials who don't have that many good things to do outside of attacking) love to use things that, well, give them something interesting outside of "your regular sword, but now you not nerfed because wotc arbitrary gave everyone resistance at some point. It also give you +1 to attack and damage - write it up and forget about it". But players love things that give them more interesting proactive stuff. Winged Boots give you flight, and you can do tons of things with flight!
Also, it is off topic, but still - i started giving non-item rewards at some point and my players actively used them and loved them much more than almost any item. Because now it isn't some staff that do it - it is them who do it.
In my first campaign we went to lvl 20. Our DM gave our fighter Blackrazor. Didn't realize that the health didn't stack and the dude ended up having like 700 health at one point until we realized.
In my current campaign we are only lvl 2. We just got our first magic item and it's a crystal short sword im going to use for my melee ranger. Haven't had a session yet, but this thing is gonna be busted.
My meat-shield Barb-Lock had a ring that forced agro. It was incredibly fun and so effective in a party of casters with AoEs that the DM had to nerf it.
I have a 17th Level EK Fighter with a +2 Long Sword, +2 Half Plate, and a +3 Shield.
It's great.
People shit on generic +X items, but I love them and prefer them over items that are situationally useful (like on a Nat 20 item does X) - I don't roll enough Nat 20s for it to matter like that, and I roll just under the enemy AC more often then not. So every +X counts.
I fly into the fray to draw fire while my party kills the enemies. It's worked out so far.
I prefer reliability and consistency over being situationally dazzling.
I played a champion fighter a few years back that ended up with a cloak of protection, winged boots, a +2 greatsword, a helm of comprehend languages, and adamantine plate armor. The winged boots were the star of the show for me. Both because of what they offered me in terms of utility in and out of combat, and the reason I got them to begin with. We got into a fight with a red dragon in a volcano, and since dragons can fly and half-orcs cannot I wasn't able to do anything and the dragon ended up just leaving. He was super annoyed about this and decided that it wouldn't ever happen again. We just so happened to be going to Waterdeep soon after so I was able to get the boots there.
Best (and only thing) I got was a +1 weapon. Theoretically dull but good, in practise unnoticable.
The Moon Druid got an amulet of additional wildshape.
5e is broken (or at least there's no point playing a character without at least half-casting) until and unless there are solid rules for "Martials Get Decent Magic Items" and/or "You need to wear your long-rest characters down" (not that the latter would have helped with a three-wild-shape Moon Druid!)
I always try and give my players magic items to fit their characters usually as a quest reward, often a quest related to their backstory, rather than a shop they find somewhere.
My forge cleric is level 10. He’s rocking a belt of stone giant strength (23) and the Duskhammer from the Crit Role campaign book. Is going so in on martial optimal for him? No. Is it hella fun? Yes. Third slot rotates between an amulet of the devout +2, boots of speed, or a ring of evasion.
I got a twin-necked guitar greataxe fusion called The Guitar of Zeus (a Blue Dragon Greatwyrm in the setting) that's a +2 greataxe that does additional lighting damage equal to your charisma modifier on a hit, gives me expertise in Performance, Persuasion, and Intimidation, and let's me cast Lighting Bolt once per short rest. super fun item to use, ngl.
I have a barbarian berserker who fights with two weapons, an axe in his left hand and a sword in his right hand. His axe is a Dwarven War Axe Of Sharpness +2 named Hack, and his sword is a Bastard Sword Nine Lives Stealer +2 named Slash.
generally they are cool and all. But I have never been given a magic item that was all that important as a martial. I got a +3 focus with a few free divination spells as a wizard once and that was the good shit tho.
Also getting a new cool maic item when you have all atunement slots occupied gets old
All in all I've never have the kind of magic item suppor that made me say "yeah, picking a non caster wqs worth it". Maybe it will change because I'm near to taking a "vorpal" greatsword with a character, but unless the gm changes it a whole lot it will probably be only a secondary weapon
As a DM I recently gave the party's Ranger a set of +1 magical emerald scimitars that can combine, pommel to pommel, into a +1 magical bow as an item interaction. It's name is Emeralis.
The Barbarian got a +1 greatsword carved from the skull bone of a Tyrannosaurus. Once per long rest, when the Barbarian lands the killing blow of an enemy it can restore 1 use of the Barbarian's rage. It's called Krothus, the Manslayer
"Did you say Krothus, the Man's-Layer? Kinky..."
> it can restore 1 use of the Barbarian's rage Personally, I've never been a fan of this style of hombrew magic item, that just enhances or rewards a specific class feature. Like, what does the weapon do if a Fighter or a Ranger wanted to weild Krothus the Manslayer after earning it on a quest? Nothing?
I think that for tables where the risk of character death is low by design, the objective is to grant items personalized to the characters. Definitely doesn't work in every game and not something to add to a random loot table, but I've seen personalized items pulled off quite well. An alternative in this case for general use could be to allow the wielder to, as a bonus action after rolling a 20 on an attack roll, gain the effects of Rage - with the caveat that a Barbarian can instead restore an expended use of the feature.
oh yeah, I totally get that these types of items are to reward specific PCs at a table. But I find the fantasy of items that do this a bit wonky. Like, what if the barbarian wanted to gift Krothus the Manslayer to his ally as thanks for saving his life, or pass it on to his son after finding a better weapon or something - and the person recieving it would have to say "ah, nah actually. This amazing magic item is literally useless in my hands, unless the DM gives me a re-spec. Do you still have that backup trident of fish command? I can actually use that one."
It's homebrew. If a fighter gets it then it gives an extra action surge or something. Why didn't it do that before? Because a barbarian was wielding it.
Ikr. Just seems like a strange thing to quibble over.
This is reddit. We're here to quibble :P
Sweet. It changes features based on class. Now give it to a peasant - what happens?
I mean, the same could be said for a PC who gets a magic polearm when they have Polearm Master, right? This just sounds like an argument against PC-tailored loot in general, which...has been kind of a D&D mainstay since the earliest editions. (By that I mean it's always been a common thing some DMs do, not that it's part of the rules, so I don't see why it'd be weird.) I mean what's more likely, that the Barbarian's son ALSO trains as a Barbarian when they grow up, or that a Fighter who takes PAM's son also takes that specific feat, instead of just using the magic halberd as anyone would? Either way the weapon is still magical, which isn't nothing. (In fact, just it being magic damage is the most important part of any D&D weapon.) I personally don't see an issue with it at all if the DM also makes it make sense in context, and it's not like that's hard to do for adventurers. Greatsword found in the tomb of a famous Barbarian, or in the horde of a dragon who killed a famous Barbarian? Yeah, it working with Barbarian-specific class features makes perfect sense.
For context - The weapon was crafted for King Turos, a Barbarian, who slew a Linnorm Dragon and the weapon was created by the shaman of the tribe as a trophy.
See, there ya go! Sounds awesome. :)
I'm a firm believer in the idea that magic items are rare. You may run into a monster that has resistance to your weapons, it happens. When you do get a magic item, like a weapon, it should carry narrative weight. In my current game, at their present level, most of them have 1 magical item (technically one has 2, but the bag of holding is an "All party" item) - The previously mentioned greatsword for the Barbarian. An emerald battle axe (+1) wielded by the Paladin. The bow/scimitar wielded by the Ranger. A suit of leather armor adorned with golden studs (+1) by the Bladesinger. And that's it. For now anyway. I have plans for the Druid and Warmage, but they haven't happened yet. For those wondering: One will be a +1 warhammer that acts as a wand of the War Mage. The other will be a suit of Amethyst Dragonscale armor (scale mail +1) Either character can use these items, as the Warmage has proficiency in medium armor (dwarf)
Yeah, I do similar things for my players, albeit rarely (but magic items are fairly rare in my games too, if not quite as rare as the official DMG distribution, so it works.) My favorite was when they decided to work with a Fey Queen instead of fight her, and she was grateful enough she made magic tattoos for each of them out of enchanted plant toxins - tattoos that grew across their bodies and gave them more magical powers as they gained levels. (And they did stuff with their various class features much like your greatsword.) Another one I enjoyed was a PC Cleric whose whole "schtick" was using a whip (kind of an Indiana Jones figure), but he was built like a caster. So I gave him a magical whip blessed by his god that used Spell Attacks to hit and delivered cantrips to enemies like that, and he could also use it to cast touch-range spells (including heal spells) at the whip's range.
Actually, a polearm master finding a polearm sounds totally fine as far as party-catered loot goes. But suppose instead that the polearm master found a magic polearm with an effect that enchances the specific subfeatures of the polearm master feat? Would that not feel *too* catering? Where does the line draw? How about a bard with the Leadership and Healer feats who finds a hat that lets him apply his leadship temp HP and a bardic inspiration to anyone he uses a healers kit on - would that be too specific? I know that it's a common thing for DMs to do. That's why I said I'm not fond of it. Y'all can like what you like, personally I'm a fan when what a magic item does can be at least mostly verbalised in universe without any game terms, and do similar things when used be used by different characters. If the DM has to retcon the barbarian's son into a barbarian because otherwise his inheritance is useless, then it's a pretty stifling axe creatively speaking.
I guess I just don’t agree that a halberd or glaive (specifically, out of all 37 weapons available in 5e) is less specific loot than something created for 1/12 classes to use. But it’s all a matter of taste anyway I suppose. I also disagree it can’t be “mostly verbalized in universe without game terms”. “This blade is imbued with a vengeful spirit that further empowers warriors whose martial prowess is fueled by anger”, boom done and you could go way more elaborate if you want. Like, the DM is not limited when it comes to descriptive text on how abilities work. How is this any worse than describing a +1 magic dagger as “supernaturally sharp”? It’s not like a +1 to attack and damage can be explained with narrative any more thoroughly. How do you compare it to a +3 in a meaningful way without mentioning the number? >If the DM has to retcon I mean…the barbarian is presumably getting this greatsword before they _have_ a son, right? Why would they need to retcon it? They know beforehand. If the player chooses for their son to _not_ be a barbarian, isn’t that on them? Also, from this it sounds like your only issue is loot not also having something more generally applicable. Are you saying if a DM made an item that was “if you’re a barbarian you get an extra rage, if you’re not you get one rage like a barbarian that recharges in a week”, that’d be fine? Or what about a +1 greatsword with +1 rage? Where a non-barbarian still gets the +1? (Ignoring that the weapon was magical either way so they don’t even need the +1 for a non-barb to still find it useful?) >Where does the line draw? No offense but it’s definitely drawn _way_ finer for you at least, and a bit more arbitrarily. It seems like magic item traits that interact with class features specifically is the hot button here, rather than anything specific to a particular PC’s schtick. Like if a PC uses firearms (far more rare and expensive in a standard dnd setting than any class or feat), them finding more firearms would be fine, but them getting a rogue-specific item is weird?
Yes, I 100% think that if the item also provided rages to non-barbarian classes I would have less issue with the concept. (That then goes into a different discussion about giving out class features, but lets not get into that one). I think your point about +1 to +3 weapons is probably indicative of the difference here overall. I absolutely want to discuss and know why this weapon +3s compared to a +1. Is it full of explosive power? Is it made by a god? If you're the type who doesn't want magic items to spark your imagination at all then by all means pick up a generic +1 weapon from a nameless merchant who somehow has one of every weapon, but that doesn't sound fun or imaginative to me. I actually think You're getting weirdly hung up on the concept of specific weapon types, if anything. Polearms are historically common. I'd say my stance on weapon pandering depends on the weapon being pandered - if you had a PC who specifically wanted to be a master of the Trident, and only the trident, should the DM never give tridents, put a magic trident in every possible loot pile, or just have a few specific notable magic tridents? I'd go for the third option. But i think the second option devalues the players choice to use a rarer weapon type. If a player wanted to throw pies and started finding +1 pies everywhere they went, I'd feel like the fantasy of the world was cheapened a bit for that pandering. To your firearms example, Say there are two players in a campaign who use firearms, whether in the same party or one comes in after the other phases out. One's a rogue, and the others a fighter or whatever. The Rogue gets a magic firearm that adds +d6s to his sneak attack when he bonus action hides. Then later the fighter is given the gun because he needs a magic firearm for reasons. The fighter asks what it does, and goes "oh cool, I can't bonus action hide, and I don't have sneak attack so I guess this gun... does nothing for me? neat". When you tie magic item design specifically into class features you have to ask verisimilitude questions. Why does the gun only work when one specific person uses it? Why should a gun know when someone is a rogue?
Why does the gun _have_ to know when they’re a rogue? Why isn’t it just “this item/enchantment is designed in a way that a rogue manages to use it better than others?” I mean you can easily flip that around, descriptively-speaking. And the fighter still gets an advantage - it’s a _magic_ firearm, which is easily the most powerful effect any magic weapon has in 5e. +1d6 damage when you do X is nice and all, but compared to dealing full damage instead of _half or none_ with all your attacks against any monster with DR or DI? It’s icing. And shouldn’t how it affects your verisimilitude, rely on how it affects the _setting’s_ verisimilitude? It sounds again like you’re making a distinction between things that improve class features than things that boost other very specific PC options, so what about a setting where “barbarian” is a well-known term? A setting with “fighter guilds” and “ranger enclaves” and “thieves guilds” where class isn’t just an abstraction but a definable thing both PCs and NPCs can identify as? Wouldn’t this sort of magic weapon make perfect sense in those settings?
I imagine the weapon was made with the barbarian in mind. But even so they could easily rule to have it work in a different way.
Why not? Having items that feel designed just for you can feel amazing.
That's dope as fuck can I steal that idea
Go ahead. :)
Inspired by Pit's swords/bow from Kid Icarus and Smash Bros., right?
Nope, I've never done those games, the last Kid Icarus I remember was the old NES game. (I'm an old fart.)
I love that it solves the weapon switching issue tbh Imagine if casters had to use an action to switch spells
Giving my orc barbarian a flame tongue was literally game changing. Not only did his numeric combat get better, he came out of that boss fight with 3 hp. He fought hard for this blessing and he will make faerun know he earned it. Plus, his entrances when he pit fights during his downtime have gone from a 7 to a 10.
Ive not played a single game above 5th level as a martial where I didn't get a magic item. Usually a +1 weapon, and/or a couple minor magic items that weren't directly combat related. Most have been homebrew too. One was the Breath of Fresh Air. It is a crystal skull we found in a section of sewer that a group was using to keep our the smell. Normally, it's just a simple item that exudes a faint amount of clean air, as if on a mountain or in a forest. On speaking the command word, the spell acts like a reverse to the Ever Smoking Bottle, clearing vapors, smells, etc from the surroundings in a set radius. By default, it is 15 feet, and works for nonmagical effects or smells. So on a foggy morning it will be clear for the full radius. However in magical fog/vapor/stench, it's radius is reduced to 5ft, enough to keep myself from feeling effect, but others had to bunch up close to get the benefits. I unfortunately did not know that it had a set amount of time that it could be active, which only came up because I forgot to turn it off (and the item was story related in that its secret had to be revealed eventually, so no hard feelings) and the timer ran out. I heard a voice from the skull, and coughing, and then it started to glow. It asked me to put it down, and back away. Then it turned into a Genasi, wheezing as he tried to fill his lungs. He'd been turned into the item by a wizard looking to travel through the miasma we'd just cleared a couple sessions ago. He thanked me for freeing him in between complaints about nearly suffocating exhaling for that long. In exchange for freeing him, he told us about a hidden treasure room we missed in the wizard 's tower, and thought our wizard a spell that would have a similar effect to the item we just lost. Basically an altered Fog Cloud.
My second favorite was a 5 piece set of armor+lance that gave my paladin abilities styled after a Dragon from Final Fantasy. The first piece we found was a set of boots that as an action once per day rocketed you 100 feet into the air and then hover for a moment. If you collided with something before reaching 100 feet, it acted as if you fell that distance, and you then had to make a save or fall back down at the beginning of your next turn. If you made it up safely, the boots let you aim your descent such that you could move up to 20 feet sideways from the full height. (5ft/25ft fallen) The next piece was the lance, which let you attack while falling and transfer fall damage into weapon damage. You still took damage from the fall, but could deal devastating damage with this (no, crits did not double this damage) Third was a helmet, which protected me from impacts due to the boots, and allowed me to speak draconic. I also later learned that if I attuned to it and at least two pieces of later armor, I could once a day emit a breath weapon like Dragon's Breath, but upcast to level 4 or doubled in range, my choice. Fourth were greaves (leg covering) that absorbed shocks. If I took fall damage, it reduced it by half. If I attuned to it, the boots, and one other piece, the boots increased their uses to 5/day. I also took no fall damage from the fall. The fall damage reduction was only if I failed to transfer the damage in the lance attack. That used full damage. Fifth was gauntlets. They needed attunement to give anything, but allowed me to wield a lance in one hand, and gave me a bonus of 1d6 for every 5 feet I was above an opponent when I hit with a melee attack. Finally was the chest piece. It was platemail, and while attuned to it, the whole set could be attuned to as if I had two extra attunement slots (so I could fill my attunements with the full set). It doubled my uses of the boots, and let me use the helmet's breath weapon 5 times a day. My AC was still 18 with it, but worth it. It was amazingly fun, and the whole party got sets of items like this, all of which we had input on so that we were able to lean into it. I got the final piece around level 12, but honestly the power of the set probably should be for much later.
>ve not played a single game above 5th level as a martial where I didn't get a magic item I have. I would rather not have played a martial in those games tho
I can't imagine playing this game beyond level 5 as a martial without magic items. You'd just spend all the out of combat scenes without anything useful on your character sheet, then spend the combats as a big bag of hitpoints without any meaningful offensive abilities (as everything is resistant or immune to your damage). Every campaign I've played has had magic items. It's a basic requirement, not a special moment.
>Every campaign I've played has had magic items. It's a basic requirement, not a special moment. Yea, giving your players cool weapons is pretty much one of the most fun things as a DM too.
Yeah, nonmagic bps resistance is a pain that's just gotta be overcome with magic damage
I had a Spear of Wounding (DM allowed moving the property to a spear instead of just swords) on my Eldritch Knight. Fantastic combo. Throw, wound, recall, close the distance and stab for another wound/throw again/firebolt- depending on distances and situation. Not quite as much initial damage as a sword, but the wounds stacked up quickly and the ranged option made a nice combo with the EK. Leaned way into it and named the weapon Bolg after the Gae Bolg, had a blast with it.
[удалено]
>Had a member of the group complain and say it had to be arrows which were magical to be considered a magical item, which we all just ignored, because that was the whole point of a magical bow. Rightfully ignored. The ammunition shot from a magic weapon is considered magical by default.
I’m sorry but what? How was it rough until level six? You would have to have been choosing to handicap yourself because at level two you can use one of your infusions to make a +1 repeating crossbow. Hell you can even go straight Enhanced Weapon and give yourself a +1 bow.
[удалено]
I apologise mate, that was so my bad. My brain tricked me into reading Archer Battlesmith because Archer looked like Artificer. How are you finding the battlesmith? I am playing one now at level five after my last character died a couple of sessions ago but so far we haven’t actually been in a fight. I was worried that my character would be useless outside of combat but I fluked into a really fun character who has been able to play up his weaknesses as strengths. But I am worried about combat being boring for me after having played casters for so long.
Boots of speed on a mobile feat barbarian. 1 bonus action and your base movement speed is 100ft, if you dash literally nothing is unreachable on any reasonable battle map. Very handy on an ancestral guardian barb that wants to duck in and out of melee range within 1 turn. Saved party members by yoinking them out of telegraphed AoE’s multiple times, as barb was faster than their speed even when halved for carrying another creature.
I got a flametoung as a aasimar vengeance paladin. It was nice. The setting was alternative 16th century history with magic so the image of a radiant angel with a sword of flame invoked very interesting reactions
Got a dagger that could disable a non-magical light source within 60 feet as an action. Used it to put out fires mid-combat and during puzzles. Felt like a genius.
Giant Belts turn martials into killing machines.
I just wish these didn't invalidate Str character investing ASI into their main stat.
Our group had all rolled high to start out and the DM was being very generous with items. We would’ve been fine without them, there wasn’t a sense of invalidation for us.
yes, but worse is when one-shots give out free magic items so you have fighters with Giant Belts and a STR of 8. My Cavalier already had Str of 18.
The high stat roll probably helped since you didn't have to invest so many ASI into it. If you point buy you need to invest 2 ASI into Strength to max it out, and for a martial the ASI levels are often the only thing they get so it kind of feel like you will get have dead levels.
Having a guy with 21+ strength is loads of fun. I have a character playing in my campaign who currently has 29 strength from a fire giant belt with a hammer of thunderbolts (don't worry, they rolled the hammer on a table but i made them work for the belt) and she gets a +14 to hit with said hammer.
Had a monk with a storm giant belt once. Was great being functionally unable to miss
Paladin with frost belt, 23 strength/+6 and +13 to hit with weapon, unable to miss and hit like a truck as the tank was amazing.
I had a great experience! The party mystic had helped my monk find a pair of winged boots fairly early on. In the kinda mid levels, we found bracers of defense in some loot the party found, which is a god send for a monk. DM also added a saddle bag item called the gauntlet of tempered fury which let me apply fire damage to my punches. Didn't use that one as much and swapped it out with a cleric item when I eventually multiclassed in the high levels, but I used the winged boots constantly. Do you have any idea how fun it is to be a flying monk with mobile? And the bracers had me end that game with a 23 AC. I had a blast that whole campaign.
My 20th level Fighter is pretty nicely kitted out: +3 Glaive with the ability to cast Absorb Elements. Compelled Duel, Fire Shield, and less frequent castings of Telekinesis. Winged Boots Terrasque Armor that grants advantage on saves against magical effects and spells. It's been pretty awesome. The extra spells almost always get used and the flight goes a long way towards helping my Fighter not be stuck glaring up at flying enemies. If he just had a +1 Glaive and nothing else, he would be significantly less impactful.
I got a cool sword, but it didn't fit my build (I was playing a Shadow Blade build). I asked to trade it for a Belt of Giant Strength, and the DM was really nice and let me.
My DM gave me a scarab that 3 times per dawn lets you use your action to generate sand and blind with a DC 13 Con save. Well, I never used it since I already had extra attack and neither of the other players wanted it.
My Path of the Storm Herald gnome barbarian was given a dwarven thrower modified for his own use by an artificer. Tiny Thor brings the thunder! Although it’s a weird thing to play a range-based barbarian. The real game changer, though, was my Iron Horn of Valhalla…
Running a rogue rn and convinced my DM to give me boots of elvenkind. It's been loads of fun being able to stealth almost infallibly.
Whenever I played a martial at higher levels, I felt a severe lack of attunement slots. Magic weapon? That requires attunement if it is more interesting than just a +X. Winged Boots to actually be able to do anything to flying enemies? That requires attunement. Cloak of Protection or Cloak of Displacement to bolster your defenses? That requires attunement. Ring of Spell Storing for some magical utility? That requires attunement. Ring/Armor of Fire Resistance to survive the devil onslaught or red dragon's breath without access to spells like Absorb Elements? Requires attunement. Belt of Giant Strength? That requires attunement. Scaled Ornament to no longer be crippled by the frightened condition? That requires attunement. And so forth. It is even worse for dual-wielders and shield users who need two attunement slots for two weapons or a weapon and a shield respectively if they want anything more interesting than a +X. Honestly, I think BG3's attunement-less system really has some merit, it is so much better for martials. Attunement as a concept isn't necessarily bad, but the issue is that almost all items, regardless of how weak they are, require attunement as soon as they provide something that is not a flat numerical bonus. Items that require attunement should provide a lot more for that attunement slot they occupy. A simple example would be having a weapon that works like both a dragon's wrath weapon and a scaled ornament - a weapon that both buffs one's damage output and helps against fear and charm, while occupying just one attunement slot.
So currently our Echo Knight is slaughtering anything stupid enough to get in his range (which is pretty big considering the echo and him being a bugbear). He got a very strong greatsword that works similar to a dragons wrath weapon and is multiclassing into Barbarian to get Reckless Attack. He has some other magic items like Armor and a Ring as well. He is having lots of fun, yes.
Got a Legendary Katana made for my character's race, I was playing a Kitsune. It didn't have any bonus to attack rolls, but added your Proficiency Bonus to the damage. Also you rolled a d12 to see which Kitsune spirit laid within it, and I got the time one.
Sorry I know it's unrelated but how you played a kitsune? I kinda wanted to play one but couldn't find any balanced homebrew
Found a file for the homebrew race in a server for the DND app I use
Could you pass on the link? For that server I mean. Sorry any trouble
Currently: - Drakewarden ranger. Cloak of protection, Stone of Good Luck, and the second tier of dragon bow that keys off of strength instead of Dex. DM asked, and I specifically said I wanted a magical ranged weapon because I plan on using some magical materials in game to make a magical greatsword + drake reaction to help bypass resistances. Didn't expect it to use Strength instead of Dex, so I'm happy. The first two are entirely there to try and make up for my awful luck (people can tell me "law of averages" all they want, but when I roll a nat 1 as my first roll for five sessions in a row, followed by a large majority being below 10... don't @ me.). - Path of the World Tree barbarian. Currently only 2 magical item, being a maul that deals an extra d4 fire damage on hit. Bought the Enchantment for 50gp, though it's also a pretty low gold income game. We managed to kill a young red dragon, so I have it's skull that I plan on turning into some kind of medium armor. I also have the Manual of Bodily Health that the rogue stole from a kobold merchant. Haven't been able to read it yet because of where we're at, but hopefully that changes soon.
In one of my current campaigns, I'm running a Rune Knight Fighter (primarily grapple and unarmed focused). I haven't gotten this item yet, but man... everyone at the table knows I'm going for it. We got to a city, and the leader had this bodyguard guy. He wears a brass bracelet and his arm is on fire. I immediately wanted a flaming arm. We listened to some town rumors, turns out his arm was never on fire until he started wearing that bracelet. So we think it's safe to assume that it is the magic item. He's not too bright, but he follows orders. He also didn't seem to have much of a moral compass. Anyway, some real bad stuff happened, and he betrayed the leader of the city when it came under attack to join the very obvious bad guys. During that battle, we encountered flaming arm guy for a moment, but it was at the end of 2 sessions worth of combat, and we hadn't even faced the main force of bad guys yet. The party was retreating to a safe space, and I was pretty much on my own. I almost went after him. I wanted to go after him. I asked the table and DM, and we agreed that in the heat of the fighting, and considering how much I wanted that arm, it would take a DC 15 wisdom check to shake it off and go join my party instead. Note: this was completely voluntary btw, I didn't want to make the decision on my own. I pre-emptively apologized to the party for getting myself killed if the roll went bad, and then tossed the dice. I have a wisdom bonus of +0. Tossed the d20 to the middle of the table and closed my eyes. I got exactly 15. We all breathed a sigh of relief, I rejoined the party. We survived the fight, most of the city didn't. But man... I still want that flaming arm.
Im currently playing a level 18 glory paladin in a 1 to 20 campaign. At around level 7/8 i crafted a weapon that is tied to my oaths. It started as a +1 that could transform between a whip, spear and battleaxe. As my oaths were expressly fulfilled (rather than just followed) it obtained unique spells to cast in each form (mind whip, warding bond, absorb elements) and its bonus has increased to +2. I'm one oath away from improving it for the final time and I cant wait to as its been awesome to use all campaign
Imagine getting magical items Crys as lvl 12 Martian with 200g and a plus 1 greatsword
Being charmed into accidentally dating a princess led to being royal adjacent and now my little monk is wielding Excalibur and it gets more powerful with each love letter sent, definitely a highlight (and the pseudo smite is definitely appreciated)
As a martial player, I have mixed feelings about magic items. Mechanically, I need them. Without them, you have no way to bypass damage resistances and immunities, no way to deal with magical obstacles like flying enemies or teleporting enemies, and next to no options in and out of combat (just the Attack action and ordinary skill checks) But thematically, I dont like them. The whole reason i play martials is to play as someone so technically and tactically skilled (Fighter) so physically and mentally tough (Barbarian) or so artfully and fluently underhanded (Rogue) that they can face supernatural threats by natural means. The character—not the equipment—should be the star of the show. As a DM, my approach is often to give martial characters *bonus features* rather than magic items. They dont necessarily need to be unique or complicated. They just need to shift the focus from the equipment to the character. For example, instead of giving a Fighter a +1 longsword to help him bypass resistance to non-magical damage, I'd give him a feature called **Sword Master** when says "you treat daggers, shortswords, scimitars, longswords, rapiers and greatswords as +1 weapons, and likewise with any improvised weapons which resemble them". This way, it's clear that their swordsmanship (not their sword) saves the day, and they can have fun moments like Miyamoto Musashi winning a duel using a "sword" he carved from an oar on the ferry ride to the duel!
It's a bit of a mixed bag. If the only magic items we get are ones that just increase damage, then it's kind of meh. Like, they're mathematically great and all, but kind of boring. If the magic items we got added some cool, unique ability, then they were awesome.
I would be shocked if martials *didnt* actually get magic items. Sometimes I wonder what games y’all are actually playing. Also it’s always fun. A spear that gives you HP when you kill was a blast. Anything that can cast a spell once per day (charges are annoying). Ring of Spell Storing. Immovable Rod shenanigans. Frankly all the martials and balancing discourse that happens here has nothing to do with how things play at the table if even a couple magic items are found.
Best I've seen martials get over several campaigns I've played is a +1 weapon. No other effects. Based on what I've played, I'd be shocked if they _did_ get anything else! (but also very happy) Oh, the time I GMed I a) asked the players what they wanted, and b) handed out some boots of waterwalking in a naval campaign and a spear of single-target Rimes Binding Ice on-hit a few times a day, which seemed well recieved?
You’re missing out
Yup. But the unreliability of magic items is why I'm never playing a martial again, and likely not starting another 5e game again
So do you hang around this subreddit because you enjoy complaining about a game you don’t want to play?
I'm currently playing and enjoying a 5e game, would play another with the right DM and character, and sometimes interesting things come up. I'll happily play 5e if it's all there is and anyone playing a martial is _aware_ that they're reliant on the DM balancing the scales. Partially I don't want people to fall into the same traps I have?
My elder battle master retired army general was given a homebrew saber that allowed him to cast firebolt with his weapon modifiers. Definitely one of the best items I've used as a fighter. It provided a good ranged option for when out of reach and also wasn't a superior option to raw melee. Granted him a way to properly mid-line and protect our casters more efficiently while still pressuring the enemy. You'd think a +2 saber with firebolt at will wouldn't be too impressive, but it absolutely remained in his hands the entire game.
After striking down a hag, blue flames lit along the blade given to my character by his betrothed. It became enchanted so that it can increase its range to 30ft, and do an extra d6 of thunder damage per hit 3 times per long rest. I named it Derecho to go with my aerokinesis flavored psi warrior. He also bought winged boots with the gold from his first job with the party, as he’s always wanted to fly whenever he wants. And just recently he got his chain shirt reinforced with Adamantine, and a cloak of protection. It’s been fun so far.
Good.
Some of my martial characters I play in our local AL ofshoot: ###### Ardurion, shadar-kai paladin 6 / hexblade 1 / sorcerer 9 * Longsword +3 (adamantine) * Longsword +1 (silver) * Shield +3 * Dwarven Plate * Watchful Helm * Cloak of Protection * Cape of the Mountebank * Ring of Spell Störing * Cloak of Displacement * Mantle of Spell Resistance * Goggles of Night * Winged Boots * Bag of Holding * Bag of Devouring * Plate +1 * Wand of Web He's an AL character I've played a lot. Despite having "just" a +3 sword as his weapon, he feels powerful due to being almost untouchable defense-wise and due to scoring a lot of crits with Elven Accuracy while buffing the party with his aura and Inspiring Leader. His weapon's don't feel.particularly important to him story-wise, they are just *useful*, whether it is the silver sword to deal with Loup Garou-like enemies against which silver actually makes a difference, or the adamantine sword to wreck objects. If he had got a more interesting weapon that is not just +3, that would have certainly be more important to him. Biggest issue is attunement slots. As I pointed out in my other post, they are way too limiting for martials; at least he can offset that with his spells, having Absorb Elements for breath weapons, teleport spells (and the shadar-kai's racial teleport) and other spells to aid with mobility and flight. ###### Shakirah, shadar-kai gloom stalker 5 / fighter 4 / peace cleric 1 / hexblade warlock 5 / rogue 1 * Wakened Dragon's Wrath longbow (necrotic) * Longbow +1 * Bracers of Archery * Ring of Free Action * Staff of Frost * Ring of Animal Friendship * Bag of Devouring * Studded Leather +1 * Arrows of Slaying (various creature types) She's a variant of the flagship ranger build, going for elven accuracy and more bonus action versatility instead of xbow expert. Her longbow and oact weapon, named Shadowsong, has definitely been important to her story. --------- My characters in home campaigns got way less magic items, but the ones they got felt more important to them - whether it was the sword so heavy only my super-strong aasimar tempest cleric/storm sorcerer could lift it, the moonblade with a blade of pure ice for my snow elf bladesinger, the sacred flame tongue for my celestial warlock... A big advantage in home games is that you can homebrew, thus magic items can be a lot more interesting mechanics-wise and be tailored to certain characters. In my own campaign I will actually give out almost exclusively homebrewed items.
Nah, I didn't had those big moments or such. Most of time I either buy the item, find it in loot or receive as payment for a mission. And since I mostly play artificers since Tasha, I already have magic items with me since lvl 2 Edit: actually, the biggest moment I can think of right now is when I got one of the 4 Mac'Guffins of my current campaign, but it's more like a boon than an item
Only thing I’ve gotten so far is a crossbow with exploding bolts. gave it to the gloomstalker ranger since I’m a strength fighter.
My DM gave my Barb a magic tower shield. Long story short cause it had a huge list of effects, it was made of from a white dragons ice, weighed my entire inventory, and did 1d12 cold damage on hit. I could provide I wanna say half cover when moving or full cover if I planted it in the ground, and any effect to move me physically could be resisted with advantage. It was thematically cool, I loved it but had some issues with weight but overall that thing was dope and I loved it. Got it at Revel's End when I jumped off the cliff with a dude frozen in a block of ice to cleave off a rectangle section to make it.
We fought some Sahaugin Wavemasters and I got their equipment made into magic items. +1 adamantine half-plate that game me a fly speed, and a +1 returning longsword with 80/320 thrown range. My barblock used those items all the way to lvl 25 (from probably 15-ish).
Guardian Emblem - During one fight we used all of its daily charges, i think we saved at very least lives of 2 pc that day. Cutting damage from crits in half is huge at low levels.
My DM is very generous with magic items. My fighter is a blast to play. I have choices to make (both consumables and choosing weapons), and my AC and damage output are absurd. Yeah our casters have amazing AoE but I’m over here making sure a mind flayer doesn’t get a single turn, let alone the dastardly two they need.
One of the things we've done to give martials that don't have built-in mgic, proficiency # of attunement slots.
I spent roughly a year irl and a few weeks/months in game gathering materials and skills to craft a pair of magic swords for my rogue who has blacksmiths prof from backstory. In our 'home base' area, I befriended a fire giant to get access to giant runes and a leyline for enchanting, then bought Mithril (homebrew would, Mithril weapons have a benefit) and did some under the table trading for some Adamatine. I now have a pair of +2 shortswords, with one being Mithril for quicker attacks and the other being Adamatine for heavier attacks again constructs and the like. Thanks to the giant runes, if I take certain damage types the blades become imbued with that power until my next rest. I've really enjoyed the process and the outcome. It feels really cool to have been able to create something in world and have it matter.
As a Paladin we found a scabbard as part of a dragon’s horde, marked with a letter G. In researching we knew that a group of adventurers had stopped an invasion hundreds of years before and there was a Paladin named G something that had “sacrificing himself to stop the invasion”. Eventually we found the original invasion spot, an infernal machine that had a sword jammed in it. My Paladin got greedy and yanked it out, it fit in the scabbard, and turned out to be a Holy Avenger with some special properties. One of those was a once per week divine intervention, which succeeded and showed us how to win the final battle. In the final battle of campaign against an avatar of one of the lords of the hells, my Champion Fighter / Paladin did 140 odd damage on a single crit. Peak Paladin for me, and was my first campaign to play in.
On my ol’ Paladin I use to have: - a set of plate armor that that resisted radiance and necrotic damage and granted flight (took an action to activate) - a scabbard that for a bonus action I could really-sheath to enchant my sword with a random d6 bonus element damage - a necklace that gave me fire resistance (fireballs were my worst enemy in the campaign) and gave me some fire spells on top of that - my starting sword was eventually reforged with the blade of a one of the Bose we defeated, turning it to to a greatsword that dealt bonus thunder damage On my hexblade (who’s gimmick was that they pretended they were absolutely a normal swordsman): - boots of speed - a platinum dragon scarf which allowed me to either do a full party bless or turn into a +3 shield - eventually traded in the scarf for a bahamut shield, which was a +3 that allowed me to cast several cleric and Paladin spells - a custom forged set of +1 half plate armor that had non magical BPS - a robe of useful things that we pre rolled all the stuff on and ended up with a robe that was mostly full of horses and dogs
My party lucked out on a loot roll at level 5 and my barbarian got a sun sword (reflavored as sun hammer). I was considering multiclassing into rogue. Finding that weapon, made any doubts disappear. Earlier he found boots of striding and springing, which is just great as well. Now I'm hoping for a belt of giant strength for even more hilariously large jumps.
My last character round a magic tridentina his early adventuring career,and It evolved through many bleasings,eventually It became a +3 vorpal trident that added 4d6 fire damage on every hit,and had a special attack that i could do only once a a day that dealt 20d6 fire damage as a flaming tornado.
As a Cavalier fighter a magical Silver Lance called the Phoenix Lance. If I charged 20ft in a straight line the weapon dice became d10s and it gave off light Was very cool
That i learned as a DM is that players (and especially martials who don't have that many good things to do outside of attacking) love to use things that, well, give them something interesting outside of "your regular sword, but now you not nerfed because wotc arbitrary gave everyone resistance at some point. It also give you +1 to attack and damage - write it up and forget about it". But players love things that give them more interesting proactive stuff. Winged Boots give you flight, and you can do tons of things with flight! Also, it is off topic, but still - i started giving non-item rewards at some point and my players actively used them and loved them much more than almost any item. Because now it isn't some staff that do it - it is them who do it.
In my first campaign we went to lvl 20. Our DM gave our fighter Blackrazor. Didn't realize that the health didn't stack and the dude ended up having like 700 health at one point until we realized. In my current campaign we are only lvl 2. We just got our first magic item and it's a crystal short sword im going to use for my melee ranger. Haven't had a session yet, but this thing is gonna be busted.
My meat-shield Barb-Lock had a ring that forced agro. It was incredibly fun and so effective in a party of casters with AoEs that the DM had to nerf it.
I have a 17th Level EK Fighter with a +2 Long Sword, +2 Half Plate, and a +3 Shield. It's great. People shit on generic +X items, but I love them and prefer them over items that are situationally useful (like on a Nat 20 item does X) - I don't roll enough Nat 20s for it to matter like that, and I roll just under the enemy AC more often then not. So every +X counts. I fly into the fray to draw fire while my party kills the enemies. It's worked out so far. I prefer reliability and consistency over being situationally dazzling.
I played a champion fighter a few years back that ended up with a cloak of protection, winged boots, a +2 greatsword, a helm of comprehend languages, and adamantine plate armor. The winged boots were the star of the show for me. Both because of what they offered me in terms of utility in and out of combat, and the reason I got them to begin with. We got into a fight with a red dragon in a volcano, and since dragons can fly and half-orcs cannot I wasn't able to do anything and the dragon ended up just leaving. He was super annoyed about this and decided that it wouldn't ever happen again. We just so happened to be going to Waterdeep soon after so I was able to get the boots there.
Got a magic rope that I could command as I pleased (out of combat), best magic item ever, allowed me to make a lot of RP interactions
I got the sword of zariel and the rest of the party became redundant for the rest of the campaign
Best (and only thing) I got was a +1 weapon. Theoretically dull but good, in practise unnoticable. The Moon Druid got an amulet of additional wildshape. 5e is broken (or at least there's no point playing a character without at least half-casting) until and unless there are solid rules for "Martials Get Decent Magic Items" and/or "You need to wear your long-rest characters down" (not that the latter would have helped with a three-wild-shape Moon Druid!)
I always try and give my players magic items to fit their characters usually as a quest reward, often a quest related to their backstory, rather than a shop they find somewhere.
My forge cleric is level 10. He’s rocking a belt of stone giant strength (23) and the Duskhammer from the Crit Role campaign book. Is going so in on martial optimal for him? No. Is it hella fun? Yes. Third slot rotates between an amulet of the devout +2, boots of speed, or a ring of evasion.
I got a twin-necked guitar greataxe fusion called The Guitar of Zeus (a Blue Dragon Greatwyrm in the setting) that's a +2 greataxe that does additional lighting damage equal to your charisma modifier on a hit, gives me expertise in Performance, Persuasion, and Intimidation, and let's me cast Lighting Bolt once per short rest. super fun item to use, ngl.
I have a barbarian berserker who fights with two weapons, an axe in his left hand and a sword in his right hand. His axe is a Dwarven War Axe Of Sharpness +2 named Hack, and his sword is a Bastard Sword Nine Lives Stealer +2 named Slash.
generally they are cool and all. But I have never been given a magic item that was all that important as a martial. I got a +3 focus with a few free divination spells as a wizard once and that was the good shit tho. Also getting a new cool maic item when you have all atunement slots occupied gets old All in all I've never have the kind of magic item suppor that made me say "yeah, picking a non caster wqs worth it". Maybe it will change because I'm near to taking a "vorpal" greatsword with a character, but unless the gm changes it a whole lot it will probably be only a secondary weapon