Eberron, 5e, and Magic Items

[Alcibiades]

5e's core assumption about magic items is they're extremely rare and the knowledge of creating them was lost to the ages.
That's a problematic assumption for Eberron, where magic items are considered to be extremely common and the creation and trade of (low-level) magic items is an everyday occurence.

Keith Baker has tried to provide an answer to that problem in one of his blogs:

BUT HOW DO YOU RECONCILE EBERRON WITH RARE MAGIC ITEMS?

It’s a good question, and frankly one I can’t answer in depth until I’ve actually seen the DM’s Guide. The main thing to me is that you can keep the fundamental idea of Eberron as a world in which low-level magic is used to benefit society – where we send messages with speaking stones and light the streets with continual flame – without making magic swords commonplace. The idea of 5E is that even a +1 magic sword is a special thing, and I’m okay with that as a concept. Low level magic remains a driving force of Eberron – it just turns out than many magic items that used to be low-level are now in fact high-level.

But is that really a satisfying answer? Is it reasonable that a land that only a few years ago saw the end of over a century of (magical) warfare, to the point that it even created magical automatons to fight its battles, doesn't have the knowledge to create a +1 sword? Even if it is and magic weapons are that uncommon, much of the mundane magics that are common in e.g. Sharn would probably be easy to weaponize. And that's just ignoring the existence of artificers.
It seems to me Baker's suggestion would require some important changes in the setting to uphold the suspension of disbelief.
I'm curious what the Playground's thoughts on this are.

I'm going to be running a 5e Eberron campaign soon, and I think I've already made up my mind: I like 5e and I like its changes to magic items; but for Eberron I'm going to just chuck some of its guidelines out of the window.
The party won't necessarily start out with Common Magic items, but they'll be significantly more common to the extent that anyone who's got a reasonably important position (the Captain of the City Guard, a local crime boss, etc) will own a magical weapon. Later on they can commission Common and maybe even Uncommon magic items if they gather the cash.
Atunement will stop the party from getting too powerful off this, though I intend to remove atunement from some of the more common use items like certain low-level wands.
My main question is: Will making low-level magic items much more common break 5e or lead to any problems I overlooked? I'm pretty comfortable playing/running 5e but I don't have a perfect understanding of the balance yet.

[Human Paragon 3]

I am also running 5e in Eberron right now. I don't think adding more magic items hurts things too badly. You may just need to adjust your monsters slightly. If everyone has +1 weapons and +1 armors... give your monsters +1 AC and +1 to hit. Or increase their Strength and Con scores by 2. Resistance to non-magic becomes much weaker, but again, not too huge a deal. I think 5e is robust enough to tolerate increasing the # of magic items in the system.

[Baptor]

Yeah I feel you. This is one of the main reasons I think WotC is avoiding Eberron right now.

Eberron was built on the assumptions of the 3.5e Core Rules and especially its easily available magic and items. Baker looked at the rules and said to himself, "What would a world with rules like this actually look like?" and went from there.

He built a beautiful world, but it's a world that only really works best with 3.5e or Pathfinder.

5e and Eberron are incompatible. That doesn't mean you can't run a game there, but it does mean you are going to have to change 5e or change Eberron to some degree to make them fit. I don't think Baker's answer is satisfactory, just imagining things to be different doesn't change the assumptions of 5e, which are very different than 3.5e.

My advice would be to either run Eberron in the system it was designed for or run it in 5e but create a robust magic economy and swallow the consequences.

[Alcibiades]

Yes, running it in 3.5 is probably the ideal solution. The reasons I want to run 5e are:
- It just seems to be a lot easier to find players for 5e in my area.
- I like DMing in 5e over 3.5, for a bunch of different reasons that I won't get into.

Thanks, Human Paragon. :smallsmile:

[DragonSorcererX]

Yeah I feel you. This is one of the main reasons I think WotC is avoiding Eberron right now.

Eberron was built on the assumptions of the 3.5e Core Rules and especially its easily available magic and items. Baker looked at the rules and said to himself, "What would a world with rules like this actually look like?" and went from there.

He built a beautiful world, but it's a world that only really works best with 3.5e or Pathfinder.

5e and Eberron are incompatible. That doesn't mean you can't run a game there, but it does mean you are going to have to change 5e or change Eberron to some degree to make them fit. I don't think Baker's answer is satisfactory, just imagining things to be different doesn't change the assumptions of 5e, which are very different than 3.5e.

My advice would be to either run Eberron in the system it was designed for or run it in 5e but create a robust magic economy and swallow the consequences.

WotC even updated Eberron to that madness that 4e was, I don't see why they wouldn't do it for 5e...

[Stan]

5e's core assumption about magic items is they're extremely rare and the knowledge of creating them was lost to the ages.

This is something that many people on the internet say but it's greatly overstated. If you look at official adventures, the number of magic items is lower than 3.5 but they're still all over the place. The rules for crafting magic items are pretty simple and simply state that you can allow players to make items if you want. Uncommon items are quite feasible - though rare and above are a big time sink. One thing not in 5e's style is countless items that throw on pluses.

In Eberron, just tone things down a bit to adjust to 5e. Not every NPC has magic armor and weapons but many will have consumable magic items and a few will have permanent items. Many areas in the world have made dedicated effort to produce semi-magical and uncommon magic items. These should be available to buy, though better items would be like buying a high end art piece or collectible, where you have to know someone and make arrangements. In a way, Eberron just follows the assumptions of D&D to their natural consequence to the world.

Beyond magic items, a key part of Eberron is that low level spells are readily accessible. The default number of low level casters means that you should be able to get a common low level spell cast in most towns. Instead of NPC classes, it might be simpler to use the low level prebuilt casters or give a few NPCs dragon marks or the magic initiate feat.

[Human Paragon 3]

I think Stan nailed it.

Also check out the DMG which contains a few levels of permissiveness of item availability.

[MeeposFire]

WotC even updated Eberron to that madness that 4e was, I don't see why they wouldn't do it for 5e...

Eberron actually did fairly well for 4e. The book was actually fairly well liked and the artificer was considered quite good. Generally though most people I saw were cool with Eberron and were also very happy with Dark Sun. The only setting that really drew ire was the Forgotten Realms due to the number and type of changes (of course that is sadly a tradition for that setting and it often upsets ts fans though not usually quite that much).

Now as for items in Eberron I think the key is to change some of your expectations remember 3e had swords that could go up to +5 and then also have other things on them. 4e went up to +6 with also a special ability added on. 5e only goes to +3 with possible additions. So essentially your first rule of thumb is to consider that a +3 weapon is like getting a +4 or 5 weapon in 3e. To help with lower level magic items consider magic weapons or items with very minor enchantments on them. Eberron being set after a major war would make sense to have say a magic sword with a minor prestidigitation spell on it to clean itself after fights. It does not boost numbers so you can give it out earlier than a +1 weapon without affecting the basic math. It will make normal weapon resisting enemies less durable but just keep that in mind when making encounters.

Also in that vein make lots of minor items that give helpful things that are not really combat oriented. For instance a sleeping roll that keeps you warm even in fairly cold climates. Really nice to have around and makes sense in universe but not a combat item.

For other items you could give special abilities that are potentially potent but only in very narrow circumstances. For instance perhaps a Kyber dragonshard infused armor that protects the wearer from being transformed by Dalkyr or can defend you from a mind blast once a long rest? Can really be memorable in the right situation but does not come up in most encounters you make.

I think the trick will be making stuff like this where you can give out a lot of items but they do not impact the math until you are ready for them.

[Pex]

5E is not a game without magic items. They exist. It is true they were passive aggressive in forbidding PCs from creating items by technically providing rules of such but make the process so hard to feasibly impossible to no one is going to do it. Boo on them.

A 5E Eberron is possible and will work just fine. Bounded Accuracy just means be careful with the plus numbers. +2 and +3 weapons and armor can exist but should be rare. +0 magic weapons and armor are a thing, no bonus to hit, damage, or AC but still provide a cool benefit. Those would be the so called common magic weapons and armor. +1 items are special especially when they have a benefit in addition to the +1.

The game does not fall apart into useless unplayability just because magic items exist. As for PCs crafting magic items that unfortunately is an exercise left for the DM and playing group to work on. Using previous editions as a guide could help.

[Regitnui]

I'm running Eberron and I gave my players quirky items rather than +1 items. The cleric got a holy symbol that wept "goodberries" of blood, for example, while the sorcerer got a dagger that's invisible, but shuts off any nonmagical light source around him. And I think that's the ideal here. Bounded accuracy limits the +1 bonuses you can throw around, but flat +1 bonuses are dull. Give your players something useful but strange, and it's a lot more interesting.

[Gastronomie]

As already stated by Pex, giving out +2 and +3 items is generally a bad idea in 5e. I have actually never given out a plus item, even a +1 item, in my games.

But it's really easy to create original items that are "uncommon" or "rare" and give them to the players. A sword that can allow you to cast the Smite spells using charges, a dagger that paralyzes the enemy on a critical hit, etc... it should be no problem to balance stuff.

[T.G. Oskar]

I've always said, and I insist, that Eberron's abundance of magic items isn't really a problem, since it has an ingrained solution - Dragonshards.

In essence, magic items in Eberron are easier to make because of the existence of Dragonshards and the methods of construction. Enchanting a weapon to grant a +1 bonus is difficult, and most likely the work of years by a Cannith mastersmith or a relic of the Last War, but minor stuff like Continual Flame torches that can't be dispelled (the spell still exists in 5e, btw, and explains why Sharn and other cities are well-lit) or great works of Magitek like the airships and lightning rails exist because (Khyber) dragonshards work to empower them (and in the case of Khyber dragonshards, bound elementals as well).

Take wands, for example. Originally, wands had charges, but couldn't be recovered. Eberron introduced Eternal Wands, which work like 5e's wands except without the chance of losing their magic permanently. You could reduce a wand's rarity by making them unable to recharge their charges, thus turning them into consumables. The good ones (the ones that recharge) require a Dragonshard component, so crafting one will require getting a Dragonshard of the proper quality alongside a good craftsman that could create one - and then, you'd have a wand just like the ones from the DMG, but with the caveat that they're a bit more difficult to make (and you can tailor the adventure for it - hey, Q'barra is always looking for adventurers, and so does the Shadow Marshes!). A true wand that can recharge itself without a Dragonshard is much rarer, of course.

Many minor items are more common, of course, but mostly because of Dragonshards. Take the Alchemy Jug, for example, or maybe an "Ice Box" - they're useful for mundane stuff, but they're meant to be rare...except they are embedded with Dragonshards, which allow them to work as intended. If something were to happen to the Dragonshard? Tough luck - the item just won't work anymore, and you probably need a new one. Arguably, that's how Cannith might make a profit - they have a Tinker's Guild, after all. Most of the items might also be a bit bulky and not portable (the Dragonshard-powered Alchemy Jug might be too large for an adventurer to take, and the Dragonshard-powered equivalent of the Decanter of Endless Water is the size of a well AND lacks some of the more common features). They're great if you have a business, for example, but not for proper adventuring.

And...that's mostly the thing. Magic items just don't have to be specifically combat-worthy to exist; most do, because you're expected to adventure, but Eberron's magic items are more widespread and not necessarily meant for adventuring. A +1 sword could still be rare - indeed, it could be the purpose of a low-level campaign, where an aspiring Cannith craftsman hopes to get the blueprints for it - while certain lesser items could be more common (a version of the Flametongue that adds just 1 point of fire damage, but because you have a Khyber dragonshard with a bound fire elemental, it's "common" but still expensive) and still be combat-ready, without breaking immersion or the rules.

In short - sure, you might have to bend the mechanics, but Eberron has ways to justify those by fluff, so magic items can be as common as intended, and still allow you to evoke that kind of rarity DMG items are meant to have. Sure, you won't be getting +5 weapons soon enough (maybe you could get an ancient weapon that's powered by a flawless Dragonshard of legendary repute that's actually a +4 sword, but that's just approaching artifact levels), but it doesn't mean that the intended rarity of magic items of the system should affect the fluff of the campaign setting.

One more thing to point out - most items already require attunement. Some dragonshard-embedded items might require attunement even if the original item doesn't. Just to give you some thought about it.

[CaptainSarathai]

I'm with the others - Eberron items don't need to be combat-oriented. Think about it; most Eberron items use magic to replicate modern technology. A +1 Sword isn't technology, however, a sword/sheath that causes the sword to be perfectly sharp every time it's drawn IS tech(ish).

My group keeps Eberron or homebrew magitech systems like Eberron, in regular rotation. Some items I've given/seen:

1) A small, alabaster orb which can be activated to provide a Light spell. It is reusable. You can, however, destroy the item to create a sort of "Flash-bang" effect. Alternate versions instead extinguish all nearby light sources, or cast Darkness, or can cast various Detection spells.

2) Self-fitting armor. The armor changes shape to fit any size humanoid between Small and Large. These are relics of the Great War, which were created so that armor could be mass produced on a simple template.

3) Dark-vision goggles

4) "Porter's Pack" - the bag and it's contents weight half as much as expected. Items must fit wholly in the bag, however (it's not a Bag of Holding).

[JackPhoenix]

Using utility items with non-combat uses was already mentioned, so I'll mention other things.

I think 5e's approach to magic items fit Eberron even better than what 3.5e did. In 5e, you can make useful things like plates that keep food warm or self-cleaning and repairing clothes much more common. With the way 3.5 magic item pricing was set, even minor things were hugely expensive... and worse, with magic items being mandatory for power curve progress, relatively easy to make and WBL existing, you couldn't put too much magic stuff... even useless to adventurers... to the game, because it could be sold or deconstructed for extra crafting materials by an artificer, and you could turn money into power directly. In 5e, even if you find someone willing to buy 10 Perfect Bedrolls or whatever, you can't do much with the gold.... or at least not much that translate into extra combat power for the characters. 3.5 also "forced" you into using any excess wealth to upgrade your gear... those pluses were really important to stay competitive... instead of investing into more interesting roleplaying stuff... utility items, houses, bribes and gifts, etc.

For those arguing that after the Last War, there should be a ton of magic stuff lying around... not really. Some, sure, but even in 3.5, magic items were pretty expensive. Even a simple +1 sword cost 2000+ gp. You could equip a squad of archers or heavy infantry with that, and those will have bigger impact on the battlefield... one guy with magic sword won't do much, ten other guys with similar stats without the item would kill him easily even without bounded accuracy. Better use for that kind of money would be to hire a magewright and give him few scrolls or a partially charged wand (Sir Giacomo would be so proud!) of Fireball... now he can destroy that squad easily from a distance. But those items are consumables... they run out. Which is great both from in-character perspective... House Cannith gets make and sell more of them... and from the GM's perspective: if you give your NPCs few consumable items, you'll increase their combat effectivness, but the items get used and won't leave much to increase PC's power. PCs are rewarded for better tactics: If you attack the enemy directly, they'll use their potions and scrolls to buff themselves and hurt them in combat, but if they can manage to catch them unprepared, they'll can grab the items enemy didn't get a chance to use.

You'll still want some soldiers kited out in magic stuff, but those aren't rank-and-file grunts, but elite spec-ops units (suspiciously similar to adventure parties) that don't waste their time with fighting the main enemy army (especially with bounded accuracy in 5e, doesn't matter how badass you are, 100 or more archer volley will ruin your day), but deal with specific threats that are too dangerous or impossible for normal soldiers to deal with: Karrnathi vampires and incorporeal undead, Cyran elite mercenaries (Valenar elves are scary: their average combatant was level 4 ranger when most armies were filled with level 1-2 warriors), whatever monsters Aundarian mages summoned, Brelish golems, and of course their counterparts, like Thranish paladin and cleric squads.

[Plaguescarred]

My main question is: Will making low-level magic items much more common break 5e or lead to any problems I overlooked? No i don't think you're breaking an edition of D&D when being more generous with magic items, unless you're giving out too many very powerful magic items or artifacts at low level. Of course the more magic is available to your party, the more easy things will get unless you increase the challenges they face by increasing monsters capabilities, or their numbers.

I would also assume in Eberron monsters to be more commonly equipped with magic items too.