Setting Continuity: Magic Items

[Xetheral]

So, on page 144 of the PHB, it says “... you won’t normally come across magic items or spells to purchase. The value of magic is far beyond simple gold and should always be treated as such.”

Does anyone know if there is going to be an in-setting event for Forgotten Realms to explain the new inability to buy magic items? Or perhaps some other option for fluffing the transition?

I don’t personally play Forgotten Realms, but if I move my group over to 5th edition I’d face a similar adaptation challenge converting the custom world I’ve used since 3.0 days, so I’m curious what’s being done to explain the transition in the official setting.

[lianightdemon]

You may need to wait until the DMG comes out which should hopefully have rules for crafting them. (Which I suspect will be difficult or require rare components and much time) With items being more difficult to make and taking longer npcs will have a harder time supplying them, thus they become rare.

Of course for your game you can always go against this and make magic items more common. You'll just have to set a price for them yourself.

[Callin]

Well with the death of Mystra destroying most previous magic items and then the Sundering from 5th destroying most items made in the time period of the Spell Plague. Its like a reset button except for major artifacts. Most items lose their power and the ones that dont get changed to fit the new magic of the realms.

[Xetheral]

Of course for your game you can always go against this and make magic items more common. You'll just have to set a price for them yourself.

Probably more work than I'm willing to do, sadly. Mostly because trying price magic items on my own isn't the fun part of world design.



Well with the death of Mystra destroying most previous magic items and then the Sundering from 5th destroying most items made in the time period of the Spell Plague. Its like a reset button except for major artifacts. Most items lose their power and the ones that dont get changed to fit the new magic of the realms.

Thanks! So, they're going for the heavy-handed cataclysm approach then. I guess I was hoping they'd thought up a more subtle transition I could adapt to my own world.

[BigONotation]

So far in our now 11th level campaign I've handed out:
+1 maul + 1d6 sonic (glows faint blue)
+1 two handed sword +1d4 slashing (sacrifice 1 attack to block ray spells ability)
+1 bow +1 cold
+2 bracers of armor
ring of haste/day
holy symbol with a few useful low level spells/day
+1 full plate, free feat heavy armor master
Staff of Light/Shield per day (essentially just like Gandalf's, freely change any ray spell I to holy dmg, good aligned only)

Planning on giving:

+1 battlehammer +1 holy
+1 shield of mirror (reflect 1 spell a day)

Nothing game breaking and aimed at allowing the game day to have a few more encounters than usual.

[Engine]

You could use the prices in the 3.5 PHB for your 5E games in the meantime. If you want a campaign where magic items are quite common and PCs could buy them...well, you could do it.