My gaming group and I have agreed to start our campaign at 3rd level, so that we're more formidable from the start with all of the perks/abilities that kick in at that level. My question is...... would it be reasonable to allow each player a +1 to either their weapon of choice OR their armor as well as one magic item, considering that they would have feasably attained this by level 3 had we started from scratch at level 1 ?
I'm all for the new focus of 5th edition with magic items being rare, at the DMs discretion, without price tags, and not readily available to players at the local magic-r-us shop, but this was proposed to me by a player and seems like a fair idea.
p.s. If I implement this rule, I would allow the +1 to either a weapon or armor and the magic item would have to be of rare or less frequency in keeping with what would be realistic for a character in the level 1-5 range.
eg: level 3 paladin gets a +1 to this sword and a ring of fire resistance, level 3 druid gets a +1 to her leather armor and horseshoes of the zephyr, etc.
Comments/advice most welcome.
D&D 5e doesn't assume PCs have magic items. If you want to play that way, go for it, but the combats might be significantly less challenging.
By level 3, I think one, maybe two, PCs will be lucky to have any kind of magic item (except potions of healing, of course.)
The DMG suggests that Rare items (such as +1 armour) would normally be found at level 5+ whereas uncommon items (such as +1 weapons) could be found at any level. Of course, you can ignore that but beware of making magic items too easy to come by or they lose their usefulness as adventuring hooks. Also, if you allow the PCs to start overpowered, you will have to make the encounters harder to maintain the challenge.
I would suggest that you allow one uncommon item each at the start, with the proviso that each player has to come up with a backstory to account for them having acquired it in some suitably heroic and memorable way (and not just "it was a gift from my grandfather" or the like). If a player wants armour, allow them to choose Adamantine or Mithral Armour which are uncommon items, rather than straight +1 armour; they have modest benefits, so the players can feel they have something special, without unbalancing the game.
Then tell them that you will place some rare items (such as +1 armour) as treasure to coincide with them reaching level 5. But they will have to "win" their magic items by overcoming challenges.
As Undrhil says, 5th edition doesn't have any specific assumption as to how many or how powerful the magic items your party will have by any particular level.
If you want the party to have some magic at the start of your game, I'd suggest letting everyone pick an equal amount of items of assigned rarity, rather than limiting their choice to +1 equipment, which might be unexciting to some/all of your players.
As for what is "realistic" to have actually found by the time you reach 3rd level, that depends on how "high magic" or "low magic" your campaign is, but the random treasure charts in the DMG and what the DMG says is their "typical" amount of uses indicate that by 3rd level the party has probably already had 2 to 4 treasure hoard rolls on the Callenge 0-4 table, with possible results of 1d6 items from Table A (minor consumables, a bag of holding, or a driftglobe), 1d4 items from Table B, C, or F (which constitute a mix of slightly more potent consumables and minor permanent items like mithral armor, periapt of health, guantlets of ogre power, or a pearl of power), or a single item from Table G (which is mostly mid-range permanent items like a weapon +2, boots of speed, or a ring of resistance).
I'd let then pick wonderous items rather than magic weapons or armor. More interesting, and avoids the arms race.
Solid advice everyone and very much appreciated. I'm going to "cut it back a bit" using the random treasure chart as suggested and allow either a wonderous item or weapon enhancement (no magic armor or very rare items) A character picture and write up on his/her background history will also be a requirement. For fun, I'll share the write-ups and what was earned for same. Many thanks. 