Group is new to 5e - is our DM a bit to generous?

[Lollerabe]

Hey guys! Me and a group of friends recently started playing a 5E campaign, after many years of pathfinder.

So far we're having a blast, however im afraid that our DM is giving us way to many magic items.

Im playing a Half Orc tempest cleric of Silvanus (Theres a cool BG to validate this)

and last night the group got to lvl 4.

So far I have been given a cloak of protection (+1 ac +1 all saves) a permanent +1 con boost (from a magical brew which can only be made every 1000 year) and last night after a encounter that almost TPK'ed us, i got a magical maul with + 1 attacks rolls and + 1d6 lightning damg.

Besides that we took out at a large bandit "fortress" a few sessions ago, which netted the party 4k gold.

The entire party thought it was way to much gold, so we donated 2k to a local village that had been robbed by the bandits for years.

Anyway my questions is this - Am I overreacting or is this way to much shiny loot for such low lvls?

I suggested that my DM nerfed the maul so it would only deal +1d4 lightning damg (making it a permanent elemental weapon) and explained that while I am of course happy with all the loot, I think he's making his job as a DM harder, because he will have to rescale every encounters CR to keep up with our DPR potential.

Does anyone have some experience with this "issue" (if it is indeed an issue) and if so do you got some suggestions? Thanks!

TL;DR:

DM is giving us way to much magic gear IMO and im afraid it will upset the balance of a 5e campaign.

[HoarsHalberd]

DM is giving us way to much magic gear IMO and im afraid it will upset the balance of a 5e campaign.

If he's capable of scaling the encounters properly then no it's not too bad overall. He's just running a higher magic game. The world can be adjusted to fit the weaponry and he may want to just throw you in to epic encounters sooner.

[Strill]

The stuff he gave out is fine. There's an official campaign that gives out a legendary +2 sword really early on. What he gave out is not going to make you super-overpowered, provided you're using the standard adventuring day encounter guidelines.

He just needs to be aware that magic item bonuses only go up to +3, and that players only have 3 attunement slots.

[Malifice]

Sounds a little Monty Haul.

Are the encounters challenging, or are you breezing through them?

[Lollerabe]

Didnt know the monty haul term, had to look it up :) But yeah that's my impression too.

No I wouldn't say we are breezing through the encounters, we use ALOT of time trying to gain advantage in fights.

Setting up traps (Caltrops, hunting traps from me and the druid with outlander BGs etc)

Using my cleric ritual casting for augury, to see if we indeed will have Silvanus' blessing in the upcomming encounter.

The druid used alot of time in spiderwolf form, to gather intel in the dungeon last night. Besides that he got really lucky with the 2d6 poison damg on hit (con save 11 which 3 orcs failed) and thus managed to take out 3 patrolling orcs and getting away.

And as mentioned we almost TPK'ed to the BBEG, we survived by me using my Half orc racial relentless endurance, while saving against the spell that triggered it (had I not saved I would have been killed outright).

So in short - no, but im afraid that if the DM keeps giving us this amount of loot, it will become to easy at some point. Plus I am personally a huge fan of the 5e magic item philosophy, magic items being nice to have, not need to have.

Again from a players perspective it's very fun so far, I just want to keep it that way.

Our party consists of a forest circle druid, valor bard, wild magic sorc, and me the tempest cleric, and I absolutely love that we have to use so much time planning every encounter, since we are screwed if we get swarmed.

P.S Obviously the lightning maul was the best thing that every happened to my cleric. Silvanus' favored weapon + it has lightning damg while im a tempest? My cleric broke down in tears, convinced that it was a sign from his god telling him that he was chosen for something great.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

It's maybe a little heavier than recommended, but as long as it's remaining fun and challenging, that's not really a problem.

[Ninja_Prawn]

It's maybe a little heavier than recommended, but as long as it's remaining fun and challenging, that's not really a problem.

Pretty much what I was going to say. 5e is designed to work without magic items, but that doesn't mean a few extras automatically break the game.

A bigger problem is the magic item rarity system - the range of power levels in the same rarity bracket is ridiculous. Especially calling Cloaks of Elvenkind 'uncommon'.

[SharkForce]

getting lots of magic items can be adjusted for. so long as your DM is good at making those adjustments, you should be fine, mostly.

[Raphite1]

1d4 vs 1d6 is largely irrelevant - it's not damage that makes "traditional" types magic weapons and armor very powerful in 5e, it's the boosts to hit chance and AC, since those are more narrowly bounded in this edition.

Your DM can easily keep encounters balanced around your increased damage per round, the real challenge he'll face is finding monsters that have a decent chance to hit you (and avoid being hit themselves) that also aren't so strong that they'll one-shot a PC every turn that they hit.

Edit: Also, as a DM I'd be kinda annoyed if one of the players was trying to balance or fix the loot for me. I know what's coming in the future; they don't, so they have absolutely no idea how appropriate the loot is. This is very different from the players expressing concern about the story, the types of encounters, etc. - all of those concerns are very welcome, because the player knows how much fun they're having far better than I do.

[Aurthur]

So far we're having a blast

Not sure I understand the concern if the above is true. So long as you're not being given deathtouch weapons and can sweep aside armies with a chuckle and a smile...I don't see the problem. :)

The whole point is to have fun. So long as you're feeling reasonably challenged, (as others have said), then it doesn't matter if you're equipped like it was 4E (yes, I know that's no longer possible...but you get my meaning).


Edit: Also, as a DM I'd be kinda annoyed if one of the players was trying to balance or fix the loot for me. I know what's coming in the future; they don't, so they have absolutely no idea how appropriate the loot is. This is very different from the players expressing concern about the story, the types of encounters, etc. - all of those concerns are very welcome, because the player knows how much fun they're having far better than I do.

+1. There's nothing wrong with RP'ing the 'we give half our spoils to the town'...but something different if you're doing it because you think the DM doesn't know what they are doing insofar as rewards.

[Lollerabe]

Thanks for all the input guys, I consider myself calmed :)

A few notes tho, the giving away of the gold was RP'ed be me and the druid. We have spent our entire life in the forest and have no relationship to currency, the halflings we gave the gold to had taken us in, and fed us when we were wounded, so from a rp perspective that made complete sense.

I completely understand why you as a DM would be annoyed by a player second guessing you, in this case however, im the one who has spent the most time reading the 3 core books, forums etc.

So it's very common that both the rest of the players and the DM look to me for rule answers and such, that's the only reason I told the dm about my concern.

He made it clear that he intended to give out loot as in a pathfinder game, so I was just trying to give him a headsup regarding magic items rarity and potency in 5E.

Again thank you guys for your input, I just wanted to make it clear that I never meant to second guess my game master or disrupt the game in any way, quiet the contrary.

[WickerNipple]

He made it clear that he intended to give out loot as in a pathfinder game, so I was just trying to give him a headsup regarding magic items rarity and potency in 5E.

Then you gave him the wrong answer/advice. There is no expected standard in 5e for magic item distribution. If the DM wants to give out loot like a PF game, that is entirely their perrogative and won't break the game in the slightest. Several of the official adventures give out a ton of loot.

What 5e did is make it so the DM doesn't have to give out loot like that if they don't want to.

[pwykersotz]

Then you gave him the wrong answer/advice. There is no expected standard in 5e for magic item distribution. If the DM wants to give out loot like a PF game, that is entirely their perrogative and won't break the game in the slightest. Several of the official adventures give out a ton of loot.

What 5e did is make it so the DM doesn't have to give out loot like that if they don't want to.

Yeah, it's becoming a common misconception that 5e is low loot, because so many people (myself included) are celebrating that they can finally run a low item campaign if they want.

I gave my players a Brazier of Summoning Fire Elementals at level 5, a Staff of the Magi at level 7, a custom pendant of Greater Magic Weapon at level 4, and a bunch of others. It worked out just fine.

[Raphite1]

He made it clear that he intended to give out loot as in a pathfinder game, so I was just trying to give him a headsup regarding magic items rarity and potency in 5E.


That makes sense!


Then you gave him the wrong answer/advice. There is no expected standard in 5e for magic item distribution. If the DM wants to give out loot like a PF game, that is entirely their perrogative and won't break the game in the slightest. Several of the official adventures give out a ton of loot.

What 5e did is make it so the DM doesn't have to give out loot like that if they don't want to.

Well there are wealth/magic item guidelines in the DMG, and they're pretty darn low compared to Pathfinder, 3.5, etc. I'd really expect for +3 weapons and armor to result in extremely "swingy" combats in 5th Edition, if they showed up before high-level endgame. I cant say for sure, though, since only one +3 item currently exists in my game, owned by a NPC, who has only gotten involved in combat once.

I'm unfamiliar with the loot in the published adventures, since I haven't used any of them yet. I'm considering picking one out for a side-game, though.