Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Uthrac Sep 10, 2014 14:49:47	One thing I am concerned about is access to magic items. Will the first DDEX adventure with a useful magic item get replayed to death? I liked LFR's Treasure Bundle X (an item up to your level) as a way to give general access to magic items, but I suspect a similar system will not work with 5e.   So, here's my proposal to provide broad access to some core magic items, while keeping the flavor.   Each faction could have a list of magic items available to its members. The cost for each item would have a minimum faction rank requirement (keeping powerful items at high levels) and a downtime cost. The idea being that spending downtime doing side-quests for your faction would result in a faction-specific magic item. Descriptions would still be flavorful, and access would be broad.   The types of items would be dependent on the faction and expandable over time. For example, the Emerald Enclave which typically appeals to druids, rangers, and barbarians might offer +1 medium armor with vine and leaf motifs and the faction emblem centered in the back to members of at least Rank 2 who spend 90 downtime days (presumably doing work for the faction).   That's the basic idea. With a list of magic items (which will need to wait for the DMG, at a minimum) available for each faction, accessibility becomes less dependent on which adventure a PC plays and becomes tied more closely with "generic resources earned" such as downtime.
#2 Alphastream Sep 11, 2014 2:50:20	My worry with that would be that we might see the same behavior we did in Living Greyhawk with metaorganizations, where players (especially those with a PC of a certain class) felt they had to be part of a certain metaorganization to get a particular magic item. "I joine the Emerald Enclave because I wanted access to magic item x."   So far, the only really strong magic items have been found during the official printed adventures and in the EPIC (and no, I didn't have anything to do with the choice of items). For the time being, item access has been more random than anything else. But, I could see problematic development starting up if players feel they must play a particular adventure, join a certain faction, etc. It can become especially nasty if players try to control the outcome: "I am only going to play if everyone agrees to let me get the magic item in this adventure."   I don't really see great ways to avoid that. Hopefully the vast majority of the player base won't engage in that kind of behavior. If the campaign truly wants to prevent the behavior it either has to remove item access for anything that would trigger the behavior (which then makes magic items unexciting) or allow for them to be obtained in other ways (so that the adventure access is nice but not essential). It will help if magic items aren't overly strong, but we can see already that the game provides some truly potent magic items.    The more story-based the campaign is, the less it will happen. The more that the threat level is reasonable, the more that players won't feel they need specific magic items. The more that they know they will eventually get fun magic items, the less it will happen.
#3 Uthrac Sep 11, 2014 5:41:43	Alphastream1 wrote:
#4 Blade2718 Sep 11, 2014 6:38:36	I don't think it would be the worst thing in the world if factions granted access to +1 weapons and armor, the most common of magic items. Anything more complex than that should come for adventuring.