New DM new players when do I start giving out magic items

[Foxolicious]

I've only been dming for about 2 months now and I want to reward my players with magic items but at the same time I don't want to break the game. I need multiple ideas because I have 7-11 players depending on the night

Players are level 5
Dwarf/cleric
Half orc/barbarian
Drow/rogue
Half elf/bard
Halfling/rogue
Goliath/paladin
Gnome/wizard
Teifling/warlock
Elf/druid
Human/fighter
Elf/rogue

[Koo Rehtorb]

Depends how powerful the magic items are, and other factors like that.

A spoon of making things taste good is probably not game breaking.

[Darth Ultron]

In a general sense you want to give the players rewards often. It's no fun to play the game time and time and time again and get nothing.

There are tons of weak items and ones that get used up, like potions and scrolls. A lot of items also have charges per day.

A good one for spellcasters is a wand with only a couple charges....like a wand of lightning bolt with six charges.

The ''power'' of magic does depend on your type of game. Some player only see ''power'' as pure damage, but some players see it as a useful effect. So you can give the players things like that.

[JAL_1138]

It's impossible to answer this question without knowing the system. In 3.PF and 4e, characters will get magic items sooner and much more often than in 5e, because they need them to keep up with the game math, whereas in 5e a +1 weapon can potentially still be a solid item to get all the way up at level 20.

[TheCountAlucard]

There's few magic items more broken than having eleven PCs.

That said, yeah, system and level (if applicable!) would be preferred, please.

[icefractal]

I think even in 5E, you can reasonably be giving out magic items by 5th level. In earlier editions, even more so.

[Shinn]

By checking the heroic NPC equipment charts in Pathfinder :

At level 5, a NPC is supposed to have 3450 GP of equipment : 40% (1400 GP) of them is about weapons (mundane or magic), attack wands or staves ; the same amount is headed to protection, wether armor (mundane or magic) and items upgrading AC and saves.
15% (350 GP) of material is about expensable objects, such as scrolls or potions, while you have 5% (200 GP) of other equipment.

If you use it on an average 5-level PC, assuming you're under 3.0, 3.5 or Pathfinder, you get :
- 4200 GP of attacking stuff : this is enough for a +1 sword, or wondrous items casting Magic Missile or another 1st-level spell

- 4200 GP of defending stuff : enough for a +2 armor, shield or items with Mage Armor/Shield on them.

- 1575 GP of one-shot items : plenthy of potions, scrolls, or, if we want to get cheesy, wands with only one charge inside (cost divided by 50).

- 525 GP of other equipment : most of the once-a-day wondrous items based on cantrips and 1st level are good here.

Thus you can work around that and the NPC equipment chart by level to see when they could get some magic item by their WBL.
Also, don't forget about NPC spellcasters favors.

Dwarf/cleric
Half orc/barbarian
Drow/rogue
Half elf/bard
Halfling/rogue
Goliath/paladin
Gnome/wizard
Teifling/warlock
Elf/druid
Human/fighter
Elf/rogue

Here are my suggestions for each magic reward :

- Barbarian : maybe going through magic weapons and armor, but can you please give more details about the character ?

- Drow Rogue : he's a drow, right ? Why not a hand crossbow that can fire a spider web ? (1st-level spell usable with an attack action, CL 1, 1800 GP)

- Half-Elf Bard : I need to know more about him : the Bard is really versatile, and the Half-Elf race doesn't help.

- Halfling Rogue : Same as the Half-Elf : the Drow one was easy thanks to the race, but I have to know the Halfling's role in the group.

- Goliath Paladin : I guess you can't go wrong with a magic armor or shield. Why not one which gives some Spell Resistance ? The SR13 version is just under our price. (CL 15, +2 equivalent)

- Gnome Wizard : I suggest a wand of a 1st-level spell under either his banned school (for versatility) or his favored school (for saving spell slots). Can you please give me his party role and favored school ? It'll be better for choosing.

- Tiefling Warlock : Warlocks and Witches are often seen as potion-makers, more than Wizards : give him a huge load of potions as a donation from his organization's patron, with varied effects and mimicked spells.

- Elf Druid : Why not having some higher-level Druid of his circle giving him a free boon, such as a Scrying or a blessing ? It would count as a scroll for the one-use thing. A bit overpriced for our WBL, but would be highly flavorful, and leading to great roleplaying between the PC Druid following his "master" during a ceremony. (CL 8, Scrying, 800 GP)

- Human Fighter : can you explain a bit more his role please ?

- Elf Rogue : same as the Half Elf Rogue.

[Quertus]

In a general sense you want to give the players rewards often. It's no fun to play the game time and time and time again and get nothing.

I'm going to second this. Reward often, even if only with small rewards, like berries that stay fresh for years and taste like random foods, wooden swords made of wierwood, adamantine ingots, paintings that seem to always be watching you, or even random potions & scrolls.

- Drow Rogue : he's a drow, right ? Why not a hand crossbow that can fire a spider web ? (1st-level spell usable with an attack action, CL 1, 1800 GP)

Know your players. I think I'd take this item with almost any of my characters.

Heck, my signature wizard, for whom this account is named, has over 20 Balor vorpal blades, because the party wanted to just sell them. He took them as his part of the treasure, because cool.

[wardeng]

More often is better than not. You are the DM. Nothing can be overpowered because you are in charge and if you want to either alter the weapon stats down or the monsters up if things go south, you can do that. It's up to you.

I usually just give out random and see what happens. It's more interesting as a DM for me to just see how things go. I never worry about things not working the way I thought. Instead, just go with the flow.

Deck of Many Things, whatever man. Just do it. That's Dungeons & Dragons.

[Foxolicious]

Players are level 5
Dwarf/cleric- set on becoming a battle healer and has good AC

Half orc/barbarian- path of the berserker REALLY likes killing yhings

Drow/rogue- arcane trickster became a arcane trickster for a weasel

Half elf/bard- college of valor heavy RP player

Halfling/rogue- assassin likes stealth an I mean REALLY likes stealth

Goliath/paladin- praises a death god bless more then likely will stab someone in the party eventually

Gnome/wizard- rides a mastiff school of transmutation

Teifling/warlock- battle mage spams the crap out of Eldritch blast

Elf/druid- beast form druid extremely new player

Human/fighter- dual wielding Eldritch Knight

[shuyung]

How do you see the next 4-8 sessions going? You have an abundance of PCs, and that provides some advantage to them, by itself. Magic items are another form of advantage. All of it factors into their total capacity to overcome obstacles. So what obstacles are you looking at introducing? Are you wanting to provide them with challenges that will require magic items? Are you wanting to provide them challenges that will be easier to deal with if they possess magic items? I think your real question is "when do I give them magic arms and armor". Obviously, lesser magic items, such as bags of holding, as useful as they may be, don't really have an impact on the capabilities of your PCs. So you need to think about your PCs, and think about what you want them to encounter, in order to determine when you want to start funneling a few magic items their way. And what do your players want to do? Are they asking about magic items? You need to get a feel for their expectations, as well.

[Quertus]

I forgot to mention: if this is 3e D&D, then the simple answer is, when = "whenever they fall below WBL"; what = "doesn't matter, just let them sell it for whatever they want".

[Stealth Marmot]

Shinn pointed it out.

3.5 and similar games have a wealth by level guideline. A character should rarely have more than double that in total wealth, and should also rarely have 50% or less, UNLESS you are specifically playing a game where it is high or low magic accordingly.

There is a reason for wealth guidelines per level: It affects the ECL of the party. If you have a crew who is level 3 with +5 mithril plate and a Holy Avenger on the paladin and a wizard with scrolls of meteor swarm and wands of max level fireball, a group of 10 orcs won't last a round much less be a decent fight for the crew. On the other hand, if the party is facing things with DR 10/Magic and by that point literally don't have enough money for a +1 sword, then your party is going to die.

It is a GUIDELINE of course, so you will have to eyeball it, but it is a good indicator of where the players sit. Also keep in mind when they are carrying things that don't have any practical use to them (a lyre of building is hardly an item a party could possibly make use of when no one has perform as a class skill much less has ranks in stringed instrument). In those cases, the item only has the use of being sold (so half value). Other items that have limited or narrow uses should also be considered a bit less valuable.

I do think that the people writing in this thread have the right idea about rewarding players though. Include lower level or single use magic items early on. They make the adventurers feel like they are actually moving forward and gives a bit of strategy towards them. Give a third level wizard a scroll of fireball and suddenly they have to think about when to use it or whether they want to wait and scribe it when they hit 5th level. Give a fighter a vial of magic weapon and they wonder when to use it, is it worth the standard action etc.

When you roll for magic goods, be ready to fudge some rolls to make sure your players get some relevant stuff, lest they get creative in the worst way.

Fighter: "Magic nunchucks, I need new SWORDS! What good are magic nunchucks...unless..."

[Malimar]

It's impossible to answer this question without knowing the system. In 3.PF and 4e, characters will get magic items sooner and much more often than in 5e, because they need them to keep up with the game math, whereas in 5e a +1 weapon can potentially still be a solid item to get all the way up at level 20.

This.

There's few magic items more broken than having eleven PCs.

Also this.

Still, in most editions of D&D, going below the wealth the game expects is much worse than going above it.

To wit: A wizard can always contribute no matter how little wealth you throw at him, whereas a fighter needs constant investment in armor and weapons just to stay relevant. A fighter with lots of wealth is much more effective than a fighter with little wealth, whereas a wizard with lots of wealth is only slightly more effective than a wizard with little wealth. The Christmas Tree Effect, though much-maligned, is an effective partial solution to the balance problems of Linear Warrior Quadratic Wizard.

Which is to say: generosity doesn't break the game, it fixes it.

[Knaight]

As has been pointed out, this is system dependent. Any edition can work with any amount of magic items, although there's some extensive necessary modification needed to make 3.x and 4e work well (especially 3.x). As you're a new group though I'd stick to guidelines - 5e has guidelines on treasure distribution per monster, earlier editions have that and the WBL table, yet earlier editions don't really have much but do have tons and tons of example modules.

[Freed]

I'd say go for it. Just don't let them get new ones every session until they get into higher levels (high paragon- epic) As said though, make sure the items are not game-breaking and fit the character's levels.

[DodgerH2O]

I think it's about time for them to start enjoying the idea of magic items. If they're already stomping encounters then I'd give them utility gear. Magic ropes, potions/oils, modern items disguised as magic items (lighter, flashlight, voice recorder, camera or the like) are pretty good for this. Example: Stone of Sound Storage. An ordinary (or carved) rock, but when activated records any sounds within 10' and can play the most recent sounds back on command.

If they need a bit of help mechanically then the tailored rewards (like Shinn mentioned) should be helpful.

Or you know, do both. I find the mechanical upgrades are best if they're personalized rewards given all at once though. Especially with the size of your group I wouldn't have them dropped one at a time as normal treasure. I've had the party Fighter end up with the item I meant for the Rogue, for instance. Not a problem with a few players but with such a large group I'd be worried about the discrepancy, like what if one player ended up with 8-10 of the items?

[Pugwampy]

Dude thats so mean . Give em one magic goodie per session .

What about you ? Dont you want to attach magic goodies to your monsters then let PC,s have em aftarwards ?

[JAL_1138]

Dude thats so mean . Give em one magic goodie per session .

What about you ? Dont you want to attach magic goodies to your monsters then let PC,s have em aftarwards ?

I'm inclined to think OP is playing 5e from the class/race list, but to my knowledge all those combinations could be found in 3.5 as well (except maybe College of Valor? I can't recall the 3.5 bard but I don't think that was an option).

One magic item per session is waaaay more than 5e's default rules and game math assume. Major magic items like weapons, wands/staves/rings, Whatevers of Protection, etc. shouldn't typically appear before level 5. Potions and (minor) scrolls can be more frequent, and magic items that only serve a limited utility function can show up before level 5. Nothing before level 5 should give a mathematical bonus to attack rolls, saving throws, or AC, generally.

My current PC is a level 7 bard with two magic items at the moment, and I kinda think that may be a bit much because of how strong they are. The +1 hand crossbow means I ignore most damage resistances and am more accurate than a typical character (other than Fighters or Rangers with Archery style) of my level (and will help offset the accuracy penalty for Sharpshooter when I take it next level), although that's not a huge deal for a bard (yet--it will be at level 10 when I pick up Swift Quiver or Elemental Weapon), and the arguably-more-powerful item, the Ring of Spell Storing, really throws off the resource-management balance by effectively giving me free spell slots and letting me cast spells from other classes if I can get them to charge the ring up; it makes me a much stronger caster than a typical character of my level.

The game tries to make magic items rare, and meaningful when found. Like I said in an earlier post, a +1 weapon can easily last a character's entire career. The Christmas-tree effect where characters are loaded down with dozens of magic items is going to dramatically throw off balance...not that OP has much balance left with eleven players, but an excess of items is going to make it even worse.

[Pugwampy]

One magic item per session is waaaay more than 5e's default rules and game math assume.

Actually the stingyness or generosity depends on how many players there are . My 5-6 players felt starved with me using that rule .

I am actually thinking of giving players at level one a draw from the Deck of Many things after i take out all the bad cards. That should pep things up .

[Mr Blobby]

This question requires so much extra information; from the PC's abilities, the players desires and just how much a reward you wish to give 'em. Options...

#1: Give 'em a fair chunk of cash, then allow them to spend their next downtime in a town which actually has a decent amount of shopping.

#2: Get them to do a mini-quest. Raid a dungeon? Help a master enchanter? Whatever. They find the stuff within the loot.

The rewards don't all have to be magic bling, just something which is better than the kit the players currently have.

[Morphic tide]

The biggest thing is to give them items that fill in needed functions. If the mundanes can't fly and flight is badly needed for them to properly participate, then give them items to let them fly one at a time. If a character is significantly behind on damage, get out an item chosen to work best for them.

Basically, use magic items as part reward and part spot fixing of broken party balance.

[Pugwampy]

Getting Magic goodies from the forest floor or a corpse,s stomach is half the fun for the players .

Why do you want to deny the players their fun ?

As Dm you can handle anything including players stuffed with shop load o magic goodies on every part of their body .

Its more homework for DM no doubt but it adds to the fun .

No one had to say it has to be an artifact item . I found that half the magic goodies I "offer" them is sold for moonie.

I myself rejected a +5 greataxe in favour of a +4 greataxe with 1D4 fire damage and then later swopped that for a +3 BloodAxe with 1D6 sonic damage .

I also had the fun to wield a +8 katana that slayed earth elementals and golems . <generous DM> That helped but i was not totally invincible .

[Mutazoia]

There is no one answer to his.

If you are running a low magic campaign, then you don't give out magic items very often (but you may have to scale the CR of each encounter back a little to compensate).
If you are running a high magic campaign, then you can dole them out like candy (but you may have to scale the CR of each encounter up a bit to compensate).