How much do you tailor magic items to PCs?

[5eNeedsDarksun]

So, this topic came as a result of discussion in another thread, and it got me thinking.

I'm wondering what process(es) DMs go through to place magic items in their adventures, or change/ add things to published adventures. Is it completely random? Do you leave published stuff alone (if you're using it) or do you modify? When it comes to some items, like weapons and armor, there are no tables (as in past editions) to determine the odds of an item being one thing or another, so then what? Has anyone created weapon, armor, or sword tables?

Does your process change as characters level up? Do you start to tailor items more to a particular PC if they've either been unlucky with random generation or are clearly less powerful than other party members?

[Sigreid]

For the most part I go with Random or whatever the creator of the adventure puts in there. There are 3 exceptions.

1. The players can use their down time to research the potential locations of items they particularly desire.
2. There's an item in that I just don't want in my game so I remove it, swap it with something else or change it.
3. Luck has been against one or more of my players and they've not gotten anything good for them while others in the party have gotten several items. I'll insert or change an item to work with their character.

[MrStabby]

Absolutely. My approach has changed over the years for this.

My guiding principle now is that no magic item should let any player sep on the toes of any other player. Find out what each player wants to be unique or special about their PC and never give out items to other PCs that infringe on that.

If a character wants to be a tank and fights with a sword and shield, then never give a great weapon fighter magic armour that lets them compete on AC. If a player is playing a control wizard then don't give anyone a wand of web. If a player is playing a monk that values thier level 6 ability to be able to damage enemies not resistant to non magic attacks then don't give out magic weapons (though this last one may depend on the campaign a bit - if you are too heavy on fiends then this becomes a balance issue itself).

[BoutsofInsanity]

If I'm running in a more standard setting, with lots of magic then I do a bit of both.

Ill have a healthy mix of random loot from dungeons and monsters so forth. But I will also put really cool, really useful items in the game that are tailored around players. Stuff like an Ax on a chain that can reel the wielder closer to the target and so forth.

If I'm doing a lower magic item game, where magic is rare but powerful, I typically do more custom items that grow in power with the player. Heading into artifact territory by the time they get to Tier 3/4

[animorte]

In session zero (and periodically after), I typically encourage my players to list some magic items that they have an interest in. Depending on the value of these items I will place them on various tables with some other additional items I think will be useful, many of them neutral (irrelevant to class). I run more homebrew adventures than not, so I generally have a good idea of other things the party may need that they didn't come up with themselves. Eventually, they will acquire the items they aspired to, but we have a pretty good understanding of how to encounter or seek out these great achievements.

[Pex]

Always remember that players should not get everything they want is not the same thing as players never getting what they want.

Personal opinion the only thing that must be tailored to the player is when you are ready to give warriors a magic weapon it should be in the form the player wants. If the player has been using great weapon master with a greatsword but you give out a magical maul, that's okish. The player can still use the feat and all other things he wants a two-handed heavy weapon for, but I still need to ask why not make it a magical greatsword? Why would it pain you so much that you denied him a magical greatsword? If he went pole-arm master he gets a magical glaive or halberd, not a rapier. What the magical properties are is up to the DM as normal. I'm talking about the type of weapon. You can have all the Lore History, Grand Adventure Quest, Pomp and Circumstance you want to have the magic weapon be a Special Snowflake for the campaign, but it's in the form the player would enjoy using.

[Gignere]

If I'm running in a more standard setting, with lots of magic then I do a bit of both.

Ill have a healthy mix of random loot from dungeons and monsters so forth. But I will also put really cool, really useful items in the game that are tailored around players. Stuff like an Ax on a chain that can reel the wielder closer to the target and so forth.

If I'm doing a lower magic item game, where magic is rare but powerful, I typically do more custom items that grow in power with the player. Heading into artifact territory by the time they get to Tier 3/4

This is basically what I do, probably around 90% of the stuff I just random roll. But one or two things that makes the PCs special or I want tied to the story I would make it specific to the player. It makes the players more committed and submersed into the story while still retaining the element of surprise uses of magic items that they might need to improvise with.

[False God]

Quite a lot. But typically by providing smiths and such who will craft weapons for players in exchange for loot.

I've no real interest in creating fun an interesting magic items only to see them get chucked in a bag and never heard from again. This is also partly why I tie quests to almost everything.

[Unoriginal]

I don't tailor the magic items to the PCs.

PCs are of course free to seek the items they want and try to acquire them, but items in the world don't exist for the PCs to loot.

I think it's important to make the items a part of the world. Most magic items are either used by NPCs to help with the relevant NPC's goals, or are expensive items NPCs keep just like any valuable but not useful item. I'm not going to make Greysword the Warrior use a magic rapier rather than a magic greatsword just because no one in the party use two-handed martial weapons, for example.

[MrStabby]

I do like to add items to the game not tailored to the players. From a world building perspective, it just makes more sense.

Do we think that no one ever uses +1 weapons if the party has +2 weapons? Do we expect that just because someone in the party likes halberd that there are no magic shorts word in the world.

Just treat these superfluous items as "gold" in your calculations but a type of gold that tells a story about the world.

[DarknessEternal]

Zero, just use what the randoms decide. It's more fun that way.

[da newt]

I don't tailor - but I do allow my players to trade undesired items for desired items (usually one lower rarity) or pay to have an enchantment moved from one item to a mundane item. This way they can get something they want / like but there is also a cost ($ and time). This also allows me to keep a hand in balancing things as the NPC merchants / enchanters.

Sometimes this is quite beneficial as it creates a sense of accomplishment, there is some anticipation, and possible plot hooks / side quests. It seems to work well for me / my games ...

(I also like to homebrew magic items so that a vanilla +1 sword is often tweaked to a sword that does +1d4 XX damage type or something with just a bit more flavor)

[KorvinStarmast]

Has anyone created weapon, armor, or sword tables? Don't need to. And if I roll on a table and think the result is weird or a bad fit my first step is to revers the digits.
Say I roll a 57. The item is a "WTF?" so I quickly look at what item 75 would be? Most of the time it's a better fit.

Do you start to tailor items more to a particular PC if they've either been unlucky with random generation or are clearly less powerful than other party members? I have lately been giving 'one time tattoo' (second or third level spells so far, per Tasha's) rewards to players when a quest arc is done.
I absolutely tailor those gifts to the PCs.
It's a consumable, and it gives them something they don't usually use or have.
Mind you, only 4 of 8 have used them.
But then, I had to remind the dwarf that he had a horn of valhalla one time ... :smalleek:
And our barbarian that he had a bead of force ...

I have home brewed a couple of items, but honestly, it has so far not been worth the effort other than the mask of vengeance. And it's so darned fiddly now, as we've tried to figure out the edge cases, that I'll not do another one like that any time soon.

[Monster Manuel]

I make a distinction between attuned and non-attuned items. If an item is going to use an attunement slot, I tend to put my finger on the scale a bit more, and try to make sure that it's a good fit for one or more players. If a roll on a random table results in an item a player will need to attune to, I may tweak its' properties on the fly to make it a better fit. For non-attuned items, let the chips fall as they may.

One other thing I like to do, for a game that I expect will continue for some time, is designate each character a "signature item". Something that they use all the time as a touchpoint for their character. I'll allow that to grow in power over time, essentially giving it a new rarity level at each tier, and new or enhanced abilities. My houserules for this are EXTREMELY loose, I essentially make it up as I go. But, it takes away a lot of the sting of a treasure hoard not having anything the party really wants, when they know that their favorite greataxe will remain relevant throughout their career. It also means I can hand out less random stuff and players are still happy with their loot and gear.

[JLandan]

I keep found items pretty generic. But I encourage the players to produce their own magic items. That's what tool proficiencies are for, not just to start a business and quit adventuring.

[5eNeedsDarksun]

Wow, there are a lot of different approaches here, which is definitely thought provoking. One thing I didn't ask in my original post was about having items grow in power as characters level up; interesting that a few of you mentioned you do this, as I do on occasion. I'm just prepping my next campaign, so I have to think about how to incorporate some of this.

[IsaacsAlterEgo]

I create custom-tailored homebrew magic items for my players that suits their character or playstyle, especially if I can see there is one aspect of their character where they are falling behind for whatever reason where they should be excelling, and I tend to give these as "end of arc" rewards for successfully accomplishing whatever major goal they managed to accomplish . I try to keep aesthetics of the character in mind as well, for example if someone has a character with an extremely important family sword, instead of giving them a magic sword which makes them have to decide between flavor and mechanical strength, I'll give them a magical scabbard that confers some magical ability onto their sword when it is drawn.

During the adventure itself, though, I'll typically pepper in a few "generic" items that could go to any member of the party that just made sense to be where they are, or are just something fun I think the party as a whole could use, particularly if it's something that helps fill a niche that the party is sorely lacking in (magic items that can help with healing, if the group has zero healing magic, for example) but no one particular person sticks out as someone who would want it most.

[animorte]

I have given out magical items that "formed" to the player after being used, something they may pick up and use a few times before discovering what it actually is capable of.

Many years ago, a friend was running a PC that was planning to be a necromancer, but was also in the front-lines fighting (I don't recall the actual class). He stole a +1 Longsword that would let out a scream every time he drew blood with it. After some time, a random guy who had been tracking him, approached claiming it was his sword. It must be rightfully paid for by the PC, gifted to the PC, or the previous owner slain by the PC. Otherwise the sword would rebel and send out a signal to its owner (hence the scream). Once that was finally settled, the PC discovered that, once per long rest, this sword would allow him to raise a recently slain corpse under his control until PC is incapacitated/sleeping/dead or the corpse itself was again reduced to 0 HP. Sounds bit like a Hexblade...

[Jophiel]

I never use the random tables. At most, I might scan them for ideas but all the items are there because I decided to put them there. I also never run published modules (I used to run AL but that doesn't count for this)

As others said, I start with the NPC and give them items that reflect their race, class, power level, goals, personality, etc. This tends to get the party enough standard items without needing to deliberately seed Longswords and Shields +1. I use a number of items that are more "weapon/armor/trinket with a quirk" than direct +1 items, especially at lower levels (but may use some later as flavor anyway).

Later in the game, as characters develop, I will add more tailored items either as a quest reward, loot from a major foe's hoard, etc.

[Telok]

Not specific to this edition but a thing I do all D&Ds and most other systems.

This is informed first by a setup to get awesome but tied to the setting items into PC hands. Second by studying ancient, dark ages, & medeval trade & society links. Third by the rules & tropes inherent in the system. Any concerns about "balance" are pretty much dismissed or ignored. The actual design of items & setting usually stops those sorts of issues.

I typically run sandbox type games that have a lot of stuff mapped out before the PCs are even made. Among those pre-defined bits I put the powerful custom items with plots, histories, & ties to the setting. They're generally weighted towards class preferences that I feel are one the weaker end of the spectrum. These items are always either "lost", the current possessor has no way of knowing/using what they have, or being actively used by someone.

Some sufficiently powerful NPCs have custom items they've personally made, quested, or comissioned. Those are always nasty fights because the NPC is powerful and has an item they use well & suits them. Everything is expected to fall into the PCs hands, even though they often skip or miss and sometimes even lose.

Typically my settings have some sort of magic academy or training, with varying implementations. But a constant is the requirement to make an actual magical thing in order to graduate. AD&D being sufficiently harsh & post-apocalyptic it was just a custom low level spell. The academy then sells effectively a small randomized selection of low end items (mostly/85%ish consumables & scrolls) at usurious prices, that slowly rotates on a slow timed basis. These are often the only semi-reliable way to get magic ranged weapon ammo, given magic ranged weapons tend to be extra rare.

If the system has crafting rules they're available, often tweaked/limited for more ties into the setting and/or flavor. But PCs are usually happier to trade favors + piles of money + underused magic items to powerful people (sometimes bored insane villianous ones) in exchange for getting a middling power item in a couple months. Trade is always a thing, but more often trends towards commissioned brokers and doing favors for powerful people in powerful organizations. Random shops with a selection of magic armors & weapons are right out (short of an wicked trickster/fate diety that likes to **** with people and then its a once-off that should rightly ring all sorts of warning bells because the prices are things out of Grimms fairy tales).

A couple times I've used the gods lists from Stone Soup Dungeon Crawl, a rogue-like c"rp"g. Those include dieties (and a hidden faith/favor score) that can be placated or pleased by certain acts that often involve sacrificing things of value on consecrated altars. In those cases I have failed, cursed, insane, or just plain bad idea magic items prepped in some places. These items are technically valuable, but often pretty trash for D&D combat-first style stuff. They're stuff people who aren't complete idiots (or successfully defrauded by the PCs) won't pay more than a token amount for. Fully intended to be sacrifices, often to the more chaotic or greedy gods. Nasty gods usually prefer sacrifices of people, and all will accept stuff opposed to their sphere of influence (altars to gods of healing & life are a quite rewarding way to dispose of lich phylactries).

[Angelalex242]

It depends on what the item is.

If I were the DM, and a Paladin player wants the trademark Holy Avenger...

He isn't going to find it in the lair of a demon, or a lich, or whatever.

No. He gets to go Mt. Celestia where such weapons are forged. Their, the mighty Solars that make the thing will test the content of his character, try his spirit, and only after he proves himself worthy will he be given the blade. The Solars don't focus much on combat...if you're powerful enough to approach them in the first place, you obviously know how to smite things. No, they want to know what motivates you, why you fight, for whom you fight, and so on.

[Dork_Forge]

Mostly random, I will remove some stuff that I don't want them to have for power reasons, but also choose some things that are not completely useless (all the time at least).

Players normally get tailored items through crafting or, rarely, through seeking certain things for purchase.

[Cheesegear]

I'm wondering what process(es) DMs go through to place magic items in their adventures, or change/ add things to published adventures.

I never add magic items to a published adventure, unless I am explicitly told to (e.g; Storm King's Thunder). I modify plenty of things in published modules...But never the magic item distribution.

I presume that a published adventure has an intended difficulty, and that all items - magical or otherwise - are intended to overcome that difficulty. Adding more magic items into a pre-determined module only really serves to make the challenge of said module, trivial - and I'm just not that DM. A Ghost is hard to fight, because the party doesn't have magic weapons at that point in the module. If I gave them magic items before the Ghost fight...What's the point of the Ghost fight?


Is it completely random?

In my homebrew adventures, almost everything I do is ad hoc - including the treasure. Luckily, the DMG has these sweet magic item tables I can roll on instead of showing blatant favoritism to any one player.

Who gets their first magic item, and why does the DM favour that player? This is bulls***.


Has anyone created weapon, armor, or sword tables?

Yep. I have my Google Sheets which is easy enough to access on my phone. I use it when I'm determining magic weapons and scrolls.

Tasha's lets you change your Fighting Style...And anyone who complains that a magic item doesn't fit their 'build'...TF are you talking about...What 'build'? How can you have pre-determined your entire character when you don't even know the story or challenges I'm going to set you against?

You find a Level 3 Scroll! ...Cool. What Class, what Spell? ...Uhh...


Do you start to tailor items more to a particular PC if they've either been unlucky with random generation or are clearly less powerful than other party members?

Do I show blatant favourtism? What a question. :smallamused:

No. Sometimes I may grant downtime. The players start looking for magic items. Usually I'll roll a d4+2 or a d6+2, those are the number of magic items they find, and then I randomly generate them the same as I do for everything else. If out of a fairly generous amount of magic items, the player doesn't want to buy or acquire any of them...They can wait until next Downtime when I roll again.

If a character is clearly less powerful than other party members...It's usually not because of a lack of magic items.

[Emongnome777]

I started in the 1e/2e era, and I was used to items falling fairly frequently. To be fair, classes never really got new abilities on level up back then, so magic items were about the only way to get to do new things. There was a lot different then compared to now, but I play with those same old grognards, so we tend to distribute items more often that 5e seems designed for. It's easy enough to rebalance encounters, but that's not the topic here.

As for how I choose, I do try to make sure every character is fairly balanced with each other in terms of equipment that adds flat modifiers. If the fighter has a +1 sword, then within +/- a couple of levels, the ranger will have a +1 bow and the sorcerer will have a +1 bloodwell vial. After that, I try to sprinkle in more miscellaneous items, some of which I don't know when or how they will use (they can be creative with them, so I don't try to shoehorn my ideas into how they get used). In my ToD campaign, the characters are almost level 5 and I've given them a wondrous figurine (bronze griffon), boots of false tracks, tankard of plenty, stuff like that. I also use consumables quite a bit.

Most magic items come from named NPCs they fight (which they use when they fight the PCs of course!). I don't use magic stores, occasionally items are gifted when it's part of the story, and that's about it. Of course, we can't forget a dragon's treasure hoard. Those are always good fun.

[Unoriginal]

One thing I didn't ask in my original post was about having items grow in power as characters level up; interesting that a few of you mentioned you do this, as I do on occasion. I'm just prepping my next campaign, so I have to think about how to incorporate some of this.

The Fizban's has an interesting take on this, I think.

[Dame_Mechanus]

I'm wondering what process(es) DMs go through to place magic items in their adventures, or change/ add things to published adventures. Is it completely random? Do you leave published stuff alone (if you're using it) or do you modify? When it comes to some items, like weapons and armor, there are no tables (as in past editions) to determine the odds of an item being one thing or another, so then what? Has anyone created weapon, armor, or sword tables?

Completely. I am constantly tailoring any magical items found in games I run to be things that the PCs not only will want but will produce interesting changes in the way that they play, becoming an important cog in the machine. I take a faintly Wildermyth approach to magical items, feeling like a given magical item should be something that players not only want but hold on to and becomes part and parcel of the character. That doesn't mean I won't take it away if the story requires it, but the goal is to take away to replace it with something more suitable or cool.

While I rarely use published adventures, yes, this extends to them as well. If replacing something with an item my group of players will actually want results in a wild reduction in difficulty? That's unfortunate on one level... but my goal, above all else, is for everyone to have fun and make things memorable. If I'm doing my job leading a game, what players are getting is a wild adventure that's fun and memorable and filled with neat turns and twists. Sure, maybe it turns out giving the Paladin a greatsword that she wanted results in her suddenly being way more powerful than expected, but for one thing, she got that greatsword by pulling it free of the stone and corpse where it had been impaled as the party is fighting off cultists in a crumbling tower as bits and pieces collapse and fall away in a magical storm. For another, if I handle it right that means I can just summon more minions for her to cleave through while the rest of the party is busy fighting the warlock leading this chapter of the cult up on the higher portions of the collapsing staircase... and if not, I think they'll remember the adventure more than remembering if technically the Paladin ensured they were never in any real danger.

In short, magical items should feel fun and memorable and have their own story while being a part of the character story. And while I might use random generation to give me a place to start from, it's never my one-stop shop. This is a D&D game, not a run of Diablo.

[Drascin]

A lot. Basically, nobody in my group tends to make characters with any kind of profit motive, so loot that is neither useful or in-aesthetic to their specific characters might as well not be loot, because they get either thrown into a cupboard and forgotten forever, or sometimes not even picked up. The difference between "no treasure at all" and "treasure that will never be used" is a null value.

So I much prefer to have fewer magic items but ensure that they are things the players will actually use, over tables of random crap that will not matter.

[5eNeedsDarksun]

I started in the 1e/2e era, and I was used to items falling fairly frequently. To be fair, classes never really got new abilities on level up back then, so magic items were about the only way to get to do new things. There was a lot different then compared to now, but I play with those same old grognards, so we tend to distribute items more often that 5e seems designed for. It's easy enough to rebalance encounters, but that's not the topic here.

As for how I choose, I do try to make sure every character is fairly balanced with each other in terms of equipment that adds flat modifiers. If the fighter has a +1 sword, then within +/- a couple of levels, the ranger will have a +1 bow and the sorcerer will have a +1 bloodwell vial. After that, I try to sprinkle in more miscellaneous items, some of which I don't know when or how they will use (they can be creative with them, so I don't try to shoehorn my ideas into how they get used). In my ToD campaign, the characters are almost level 5 and I've given them a wondrous figurine (bronze griffon), boots of false tracks, tankard of plenty, stuff like that. I also use consumables quite a bit.

Most magic items come from named NPCs they fight (which they use when they fight the PCs of course!). I don't use magic stores, occasionally items are gifted when it's part of the story, and that's about it. Of course, we can't forget a dragon's treasure hoard. Those are always good fun.

You bring up something here that I rarely see mentioned about 5e. While you put magic in the hands of the baddies, almost all magic in published adventures is in a horde and not in the hands of someone who might use it against the party. I also started in the 1e/2e era and I find this just weird and an opportunity missed. Not sure how this dovetails with my original question, but it seems worth considering.

[KorvinStarmast]

You bring up something here that I rarely see mentioned about 5e. While you put magic in the hands of the baddies, almost all magic in published adventures is in a horde and not in the hands of someone who might use it against the party. I also started in the 1e/2e era and I find this just weird and an opportunity missed. Not sure how this dovetails with my original question, but it seems worth considering. I gave Wave to the water elemental in White Plume Mountain to use against the party (he was mounted on the back of that gigantic crab).
That made for an interesting fight.
I didn't give Whelm to the vampire dwarf since the story in the adventure indicated a deep personal shame for having used it to kill other dwarves. (Plus, that NPC had sufficient abilities and legendary actions that made the fight somewhat squirrely).
Black Razor and the Oni do not match alignment, so that was done for me.

[5eNeedsDarksun]

I gave Wave to the water elemental in White Plume Mountain to use against the party (he was mounted on the back of that gigantic crab).
That made for an interesting fight.
I didn't give Whelm to the vampire dwarf since the story in the adventure indicated a deep personal shame for having used it to kill other dwarves. (Plus, that NPC had sufficient abilities and legendary actions that made the fight somewhat squirrely).
Black Razor and the Oni do not match alignment, so that was done for me.

I often put the magic items in the hands of baddies as well, where appropriate. But I still don't really see why the designers don't do more of this by default. Do they think their CR system is so well balanced that by putting items in the hands of foes the whole balance will be thrown off? (I think we'd have broad agreement that if this is their perception they're way out to lunch). As I reflect more on this I'm realizing that when NPCs do have magic items, they're often NPCs that you aren't necessarily supposed to fight. Since I DMed it recently, DiA comes to mind in this regard. In terms of 5e set on 'easy' this would seem to be just one more contributing factor.

[Nidgit]

I tend to pick out items that I think will be interesting or helpful to players because otherwise they'll just forget about them. Some of them are soft patches to try and help them keep up, and others are just because they're goofy, like a Propeller Helm. Only the extremely powerful and plot-relevant items get much customization.

Of course, that doesn't help when those magic items don't go to characters who could clearly use them the best. Our table has a Cleric with +0 Strength who insists on using a longsword to melee, despite having 14 Dex. I introduced a Dragontooth Dagger treasure as an alternative, but the Sorcerer took that. How about Gauntlets of Ogre Strength? Nope, the Land Druid likes those.

Perhaps the nearby, obviously cool Frost Brand rapier will do the trick. But they'll probably decide to bypass that too.