what KIND of magic item's do you like to get as a player?

[Rfkannen]

just curious, what sort of magic item's do you like to get as a player? What sort do you not like.

Personally, my favorite ones are items with a lot of fiddly bits that can do a bunch of small things, I really don't care about a +1 sword, and a vorpal sword is cool and all, but I love items like a cloak of arachnida, a robe of the archmage, a rod of lordly might, ring of elemental control, or wave. I also really loved getting cursed items, my fighter just got a sword that can make them attack there own party and I am loving it.

What sort of magic item's do you like?

[Angelalex242]

[QUOTE=Rfkannen;22950661]just curious, what sort of magic item's do you like to get as a player? What sort do you not like.

Personally, my favorite ones are items with a lot of fiddly bits that can do a bunch of small things, I really don't care about a +1 sword, and a vorpal sword is cool and all, but I love items like a cloak of arachnida, a robe of the archmage, a rod of lordly might, ring of elemental control, or wave. I also really loved getting cursed items, my fighter just got a sword that can make them attack there own party and I am loving it.

What sort of magic item's do you like?[/QUOTE


I like Iconic items. My paladins don't want to leave home without a Holy Avenger, and every arcanist should have an appropriate colored robe of the archmagi.

Ya know. Magic items made by a class for a class.

[Aett_Thorn]

As a player, getting a +1 or magical weapon is great, since it allows me to not suck against resistant foes. However, my favorite items are those that allow me to do something different and useful outside of combat, especially items that might allow me to foil a DM’s challenge several sessions later when he forgets that I have it.

[DarkKnightJin]

The best items to get are not so much ones that just up your damage.
They're the ones that empower your character, by letting them do some stuff they couldn't before.

Or, as someone said, an item that's generally not overly useful, and goes forgotten by player and DM.. Until such a time that the player looks at their items, almost at their wit's end..
And comes up with a wonderfully creative solution to the challenge posed before them, that leaves everybody at the table, item user included, wondering if that really just happened.

Sadly, I've yet to acquire any magical items in gameplay. Outside of a wizard's book that let my Cleric learn a homebrew cantrip, anyway.
Wasn't so much a magic item as it was an item that taught me some magic.

[Oramac]

Generally speaking I prefer things that have story significance. For example: I'd rather my paladin uses his grandfather's trusty greatsword rather than swap it out for the shiny-but-uninteresting +1 greatsword.

This is one major reason why I introduced Oil of Enduring Power (See Custom Magic Items (http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/BkgjcJlAg) in my sig) into my games. Basically, it allows a player to apply it to a weapon or armor to get the benefits of a +1/2/3 whatever, without sacrificing their cool story related item.

[Gorgo]

For me, it varies a lot depending on the class. For classes that have a limited number of things they can do, items that provide new abilities are great. For full casters, their spell lists provide enough options that items that make them better at what they can already do are welcome.

[Slayn82]

Back in the old 2nd edition days, Spoon of Murlynd and Billarro's Iron Bands were my favorites, because they were considered minor items and I could usualy convince my DM's to give me both instead of a magic weapon. Both items also were quite easy to conceal. Magic Slings also are very hard for enemies to notice.

Musical Instruments also tend to be great. Lyre of Building in the hands of a skilled bard also was amazing - one of the best ways to clear a dungeon I've ever heard: closing all the exits and flooding it with water. Also, useful for creating massive sculptures of the party to celebrate their achievements. If the enemies always discover where you are going anyway, you can start leaving some stern warnings.

[snowman87]

I love the items that can be used to be clever in all types of situations? Want to pin someone to the ground? Immovable rod. Want to sneak into the bad guy's castle unexpectedly? Necklace of Adaptation to swim in underneath. Want to lure a guard into a trap? Talking Doll on top of a Glyph of Warding. I love being clever with items.

[Baptor]

Most of my time with D&D has been as a DM. Let me provide a bit from that side of the screen:

I don't like plain +1 weapons. I -at least- use the quirks and so forth table to give it some flair. Usually I also give weapons some minor spellcasting. Like a sword that can cast see invisibility 1/day or something.

I try to satisfy both those who like seeing shiny loot drop and those who prefer to keep a single weapon -grandpappy's sword - through the game. For the latter I employ rules similar to the Legacy Weapons of old.

As a player I want what I give as a DM. Weapons with personality and a bit o magic in them. My personal favorite magic items are rings of spell storing. I played in several games where all the warriors (myself included) had one and our resident wizard would put our favorite spells into them for use to use. Good times.

[Daithi]

In general, the more powerful the better. And... something sentient.

Book of Vile Darkness with the true names of fiends would be wicked cool for my Summoner character. Although, he's lawful neutral, so he'd have to be careful not to get sucked into becoming pure evil.

[Elminster298]

I have always been a huge fan of items that make a character more adaptable to their surroundings... water breathing, flight, climb walls, daerns instant fortress, spell storing, catch missiles, etc. I will generally take these types of items over more "powerful" items.

[ZorroGames]

Items that allow me to play my character (class/race/personal madness... I mean foibles) better and/or stretch my abilities a bit.

GWF gets Mace of Smiting... sigh. Though it does give me something to overcome resistance to normal weapons in an emergency.

Ring of water breathing or walking. That is great for roleplay or narrative purposes.

Depends a lot on my character design. What works for my Mountain Dwarf Bard/Paladin might not work so well for my Mountain Dwarf Champion, at least initially.

[JellyPooga]

I really enjoy having mundane stuff. Not your +1 Sword or whatever, but the minor things; the Driftglobe is one of my favourite items in 5ed, for example. I also enjoy things that do something unusual; a Bag of Holding is handy, no doubt, but...it's kind of boring. I'd rather have a Bag of Tricks or the Iron Bands of Billaro (or whatever they're called). One item from 3ed that hasn't yet (to my knowledge) made the transition to 5ed that I always wanted to play with was a set of Ring Gates; the possibilities were almost endless. Not particularly useful in most situations, but for a creative player could solve a lot of unexpected problems.

[Pex]

Something I can use and is permanent.

Consumable items are fine. I don't want only consumable items.

Be useful. If the game is not about marking off rations except for the one particular adventure it matters, I do not want another Ring of Sustenance I've lost count how many of my characters since 2E have had one and never needed. No more Bracers +1/+2 it's worse than just casting Mage Armor please (Non-5E games).

[RSP]

In terms of Attunement items, I usually go Story Reason to have it>makes character better at what they do>powerful

For instance, I had a Lore Bard who found a sword that could talk. Story wise that really interested the Bard who attuned to it, though the Bard only used it in combat I think once in the campaign. Otherwise, they were getting items that made them a more effective party member (like Instrument of the Bard).

[pagnabros]

I am a pretty simple bladesinger, just give me a moonblade and I'll be happy

[KorvinStarmast]

As a spell caster: Wands

As any character: cloak or protection or ring of protection. +1 to AC and +1 to save are pretty nice in the bounded accuracy model.

As any player: ring of spell storing. (For those emergencies when you need feather fall, or a web, or something like that)

As martial: a magical weapon so that I don't have to deal with that resistance/immunity grief.

Favorite weapon in this edition so far: +1 longbow, for a ranger or ranged fighter, or for an elven monk.

[Quoxis]

Played a goolock with the „beast speech“ invocation once, had him talk to his staff of the adder. Hilarious intel about how life is for a snake whose body is an immovable staff. I generally liked talking to things that don’t usually talk.
Other than that: depends on the character. On a spellcaster, i prefer simple things with a flat out +1 bonus like certain weapons, the cloak of protection etc., because those guys generally have enough options without their gear.
On martials or mixed classes those items aren’t wasted either, but i also like what’s been described as „fiddly“ on them, for added utility outside of combat.

[MrStabby]

I usually give a mixture of magic items and other mechanical rewards. I tend to try and give things that accentuate the difference between characters.

For example a party with a battlemaster in might get a dueling blade that gives a superiority die, knowledge of a homebrew manoeuvre and adds +1 to all rolls of a superiority die. Something tailored to the subclass to make them different to other martials.

A beastmaster ranger might get the ability to turn their companion into a figurine to help them keep the same creature through the hazards of adventuring.

I also like items that don't overlap with more powerful items. Just because a party goes to places where rare weapons are found spent mean there are no more +1 weapons in the world. Minor rings of small effects, pearls of power and the like are pretty well represented in my games.

Finally I add homebrew spells as rewards. Spells intended to represent a casters specialism, their faith, their background or whatever.

[Willie the Duck]

As others have said, there is always a market for a simple +1 item simply because of monsters resistant to non-magical weapons. However, if at all possible, I would rather a magic weapon (or magic item in general) do something different, rather than just raise the numbers. And that's a general truism--I want to be able to do new things, not do things better. As much as I and my groups do mostly sandbox gaming and the encounters are not scaled to our power level, we still amazingly find ourselves in a narrow band of encounters within X deviations of our own power level (it is just self-selected, rather than DM imposed), so increasing my combat prowess just isn't that meaningful.

So slippers of spider climbing, winged boots, helm of comprehending languages, chime of opening (naturally all of these might be relatively useless depending on party composition). ____ of water-walking or water-breathing is an interesting one--it ought to be really useful, but a number of DMs have soured me on it is that all it does is allow you to go into the water (where you otherwise wouldn't) and then get into trouble ([monotone voice]"Oh look, we went into the underwater dungeon, and the monsters attacked our water breathing and we drowned, conveniently circumventing all the precautions we put in place. Who could have seen that coming."[/monotone voice]).

[Arkhios]

The answer depends a lot on what kind of character I have, so I'm going to reflect upon my current one.

As a Paladin, with Strength score up the wazoo (we rolled) I couldn't care less about additional bonuses to hit and damage – though I won't turn it away if I get a weapon like that – I'd like to get magic items that would let me do things beyond my normal capabilities as depending on my class and race.

For reference, my stats (and feats) are:
18/9/16/11/10/16
Dual Wielder, Tavern Brawler.
Sword and Board two-weapon fighting (yes yes, you might disagree if it's possible: my DM doesn't and that's enough).
He has a well-known archmage as a distant ancestor, and it's been a family tradition to study the arcane texts left behind by his ancestor (it's unknown if he ever died – he just disappeared), so he has proficiency in Arcana.
I plan to improve intelligence at some point to 13 so I can MC into wizard, and as such, I would like to get Headband of Intellect.

Just an example.

I might still reconsider MC in Sorcerer because there are certain things that would speak in favor of sorcery in his veins.

[Zanthy1]

I like the kind of magic items that up my versatility. Yeah some are cool bonuses to my abilities, but I don't want magic items that make what I'm already good at better, I want magic items that will make what I'm not good at better. For example: I play a paladin now. I want magic items that help with mobility, spellcasting, and enemies who are far far away. Some examples:

Ring of Spell Storing (more spells, and even ones not on my list if necessary)
Anything that grants a fly speed (would most eliminate the need for a ranged option)
Something that grants me a ranged cantrip or something

I also like items that can be used outside of combat for cool effects such as a crystal orb or ring of water walking.

Though I should note (in case my DM is reading this) that I will never turn down a Holy Avenger or other magical armor/weapons

[EvilAnagram]

I'm rarely upset to receive a magic item. Sure, a Wand of the War Mage is kind of boring, but it frees me to take a feat without falling behind. A staff that gives me a suite of spells that can supplement my own? Hells yes. Ring of the Ram? Please do.

[mephnick]

A barbarian of mine had a ring of jumping which meant I could leap my whole 40ft movement without a running start. Jumping from the street to a rooftop and throwing a dude off felt pretty badass.

I like items that give me those little moments.

[DarkKnightJin]

A barbarian of mine had a ring of jumping which meant I could leap my whole 40ft movement without a running start. Jumping from the street to a rooftop and throwing a dude off felt pretty badass.

I like items that give me those little moments.

That sounds like they could go Hulk on a poor sod..

[oxybe]

Once I have some of the basics covered (magic weapon if a martial, some sort of storage option, save DC boosters for mages or damage boosters for martials, etc...), i prefer getting quality of life items or stuff that grants extra options are my go to in D&D.

Murlynd's spoon, everfull canteens, restful bedrolls, portable campfires, trollgut sausages, gloves of the apprentice, hand of the mage, flying broom/winged boots/magic carpet, etc...

consumables tend to bore me, as i often find myself in the Final Fantasy Potion conundrum (IE: i save the item until i really need it and eventually i outlevel it's usefulness). Exception being stuff that grants benefits that are good regardless of level, like gaseous forms, or panic buttons (curse removal, petrification removal, etc...). the latter is less a "I want/would like to have" and more "always nice to have on hand because stuff happens and you don't want to be in a situation without it".

[EvilAnagram]

At the moment, my sorcerer Ronaldo has a cloak of billowing, and I talked the DM into letting its command word be Ronaldo. This way, it billows dramatically every time I introduce myself.

I then talked him into making all of the vocal components for my spells "Ronaldo" so that my Cape billows dramatically every time I cast a spell.

I need a broach of dramatic Spanish guitar music, and I'll be set.

[Lombra]

I like Iconic items. My paladins don't want to leave home without a Holy Avenger, and every arcanist should have an appropriate colored robe of the archmagi.

Ya know. Magic items made by a class for a class.

I'm on the exact opposite side of the spectrum lol. I like items that allow me to fiddle with stuff that notmally my character wouldn't be able to do.

[Wilb]

I like items that allow my character to fiddle with planar travel and items that ensure better sleeping and traveling conditions, such as a tent that goes to a safe demiplane upon command or a self propelling, Fainting couch that floats just a feet above the ground, anything to break from the wizard "hut" ritual and warhorses that aren't much more than a living baloon with a blunt spike.

So mostly custom stuff.

[Gwalchavad]

My bard has a rapier that is basically a re-specced flame tongue, a Mac-Fuirmidh Cittern, and a necklace of fireball.

His/my favorite item? A cloak of billowing. All out of inspiration to hand out (or conserving it for later encounters) but I still have that bonus action and just landed an impressive blow - my cloak billows for dramatic effect.

[DarkKnightJin]

At the moment, my sorcerer Ronaldo has a cloak of billowing, and I talked the DM into letting its command word be Ronaldo. This way, it billows dramatically every time I introduce myself.

I then talked him into making all of the vocal components for my spells "Ronaldo" so that my Cape billows dramatically every time I cast a spell.

I need a broach of dramatic Spanish guitar music, and I'll be set.

I'm sure that Broach is also a Common Magic Item, just waiting somewhere for Ronaldo *dramatic billow* to find it.

[Dr. Cliché]

I think it can sometimes be fun to have a strong item with a downside.

In a game a while back, my Paladin ended up with a flaming sword that happened to be possessed by a malevolent Genie. At times, the Genie would attempt to control me in combat. My paladin was aware of this danger, but he was also aware that the results of the party failing their mission would be devastating. What's more, there were frequently reasons for him to use it - for example, at one point the party was running as the floor behind them collapsed, but were suddenly confronted by a huge web blocking their path. He used the sword to quickly burn away the webs and clear a path.

It was a strong weapon but it also gave some fun role playing opportunities.


Something I can use and is permanent.

Consumable items are fine. I don't want only consumable items.

Be useful. If the game is not about marking off rations except for the one particular adventure it matters, I do not want another Ring of Sustenance I've lost count how many of my characters since 2E have had one and never needed. No more Bracers +1/+2 it's worse than just casting Mage Armor please (Non-5E games).

I think this is good advice.

Regarding the consumable items thing, I like that wands now have few charges but replenish them at dawn.

[Pex]

I do not mind +# items. In 5E they are worth more than previous editions. Of course I like an item that does something inteteresting, but a buff is ok with me.

[Potato_Priest]

If I have a magic weapon, regardless of +X modifiers (class features can count for this), then I want something that lets me do new stuff like the cloak of the manta ray. If I don't have a magic weapon, I want one.

This flowchart describes my approach to weapons specifically, but also magic items in general.
https://i.imgur.com/PpxDeCY.jpg

[SociopathFriend]

I love me an item that lets me play in new ways. A Ring of X-Ray Vision for example. With that one item, I (briefly) can play in a way that cannot to my knowledge be attained by any other means.

[Joe dirt]

The best magic item I had was actually a group award... it was a flying island that had a small keep and a control room... the adventure was centered in part on us defending our prize from interlopers and rivals... super fun for all