Are there too many magic items in your campaign?
“…and a +5 Sword”
The nature of fantasy adventure gaming, as set out by the original Dungeons & Dragons, is that the collection of treasure meant acquiring magic items. In earlier versions of D&D, magic items were one of the few ways a character could increase in power. That mindset, which is still pervasive in many tabletop fantasy role-playing games today, is that over time, those magic items add up. This is the “Monty Haul” campaign, in which characters have so many magic items that their power level far exceeds their level, and dungeon masters find themselves struggling to provide challenges for the player characters to keep the game fun. I’ve addressed how to deal with this before in “When There’s Too Many Magic Items” and “Power Creep,” but there are certainly other ways as well.
Charging for Magic
One idea I’ve floated for dealing with “magic item inflation” is for PCs to roll a die whenever a character uses an item, to find out if it “expires.” Different items can have different probabilities. For example, a wand might have a 5% chance of expiration. So when the player intends to use the item, they roll a 20 sided die and if a “1” results the item does not work! Never again, unless it’s rechargeable. (An alternative would be to have the item work, but then never work again. There could even be some form of magic that can assure that the item has at least one use left.) You could measure everything in percentages or use special dice: for example, item expires when a one is rolled on a d12. Or if the game only uses d6s, it might expire when 2d6 results in “snake eyes” (one chance in 36).
This limitation can be applied to all kinds of magic items, magic armor, shields, even swords, with the roll occurring at the end of an adventure or at the end of a gaming session (assuming the item had been in use). More or less “permanent” magic items would have very small chances of expiration. This is not perfect of course because items like armor and shields should become unusable after heavy accumulation of damage.
This concept isn’t new. Various magic items (usually wands) have had charges in different editions of D&D, and Fifth Edition has charged items recharge daily, requiring a die roll (often a d20) and if you a roll a 1, the item is destroyed (e.g., a staff of healing). And 5E’s attunement mechanism is an excellent method of reducing the number of magic items that can be used at any given time (as in “wish I’d thought of that”).
Implications
Of course, if every magic item has a charge, it requires significant paperwork to keep track when it’s used. Another problem (assuming the original problem is your goal is to remove magic items through use) with this scheme is that it can result in “infinite” use, as the player never rolls badly enough to trigger expiration. But when the original AD&D alternative is that items can have 100 charges, or more likely infinite usage to begin with as they work without charges, this is not a real problem. For artifacts, perhaps infinite usage would be appropriate.
Giving any magic item a limited lifespan changes how characters interact with it in the world. Using a magic sword repeatedly might be discouraged for fear it could “run out” at the wrong moment, and thus only used in emergencies.
It should be noted that hard-earned magic items that are destroyed by a bad roll can be quite upsetting for PCs too, who might justifiably feel they “earned” it and be angry about losing something to a random die roll. As always, speaking with the group about how magic items operate is a good idea before rules like this are implemented.
Other Constraints
Magic items don’t have to just be temporary. There are plenty of other ways they can be constrained:
- Special Effects: Magic items can be loud or flashy when actiated, as I discussed in “How Subtle is your Sorcery?” which can end up making PCs with lots of magic items flashing warning signs to monsters and thieves who might run away or attack, depending on their relative power level.
- Command Word: Does the magic item need a magic word or gesture? In my experience, this tends to be ignored in actual play, perhaps because it’s seen as an unnecessary impediment. Entire series of adventures can revolve around finding the word or gesture for a magic item. How easy is it to find out? The word might be written on the magic item. And in this case if someone just reads the word aloud does the item activate, the classic movie “gotcha?” Or it might be hidden in some ancient tome, or just about anywhere, as simple or elaborate as the GM likes.
- Class Requirements: Another element that has become increasingly rare in Fifth Edition is character class requirements for use. This was at one point a major feature of thieves, who could use scrolls from other classes; it was later changed to Use Magic Device as a skill, which let the rogue ignore the restrictions of magic items assigned to a class or species.
- Saving Throws: How easy is it to destroy an item during combat, or deliberately destroy something cursed or otherwise not beneficial? The “original” answer was that some spells could destroy items (saving throw allowed), but it was very difficult to destroy a cursed or evil artifact. Different editions of D&D could result in magic items be destroyed if the target rolled a natural 1 or the item was unattended, requiring the item to make a saving throw. Fifth Edition has largely eliminated magical items being destroyed at all.
Over time, D&D has shifted from an emphasis on “stuff” for power to innate abilities. Magic items are helpful in Fifth Edition but are not necessarily a requirement for characters to win battles against monsters (this doesn’t mean it will be easy!). As a result, the power creep of magic items – and the subsequent limitations that need to be imposed upon them – has shifted.
Which brings us to the simplest means of managing magic item power creep: be careful how PC acquire them in the first place.
Your turn: How do you manage magic item use when it starts to get out of hand?
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