For one, I wouldn't really see my PCs keeping an magical object or weapon or armour for more than a scenario (or small campaign if said object is relevant).
So, not especially fond of stealling things to the PCs out of game, I'd give them objects with a limited utility, be it because of the very few charges they have or because they were designed specifically for a certain situation or enemy.

Philosophically, I'm with you, nDervish and Odysseus. But I'm not quite sure how to get my players on board! So far they've found a +0 long sword that allows the sword to be used without penalty by any class (actually, that has been absorbed along with its wielder by Aurorus and now is part of the eldritch lights that fill the skies of Hyperborea; campaign journal to be updated soon!), a dagger that detects as magical but that they don't know the function of yet; a Hyperborean tube wand (wand of magic missiles) that yanked energy from the Ever-Breakking Dawn between worlds (now depleted), and some +1 scale mail. Oh! And some magical leather thongs that bind and loose on command. Plus a bunch of potions. It's actually more magic than I tend to give out in my AD&D game, but I have the same feeling expressed here, that it should all be impermanent. The NPC ranger has the scale mail, and I'm thinking I will have her trade it for training when she hits level 2 to show how ephemeral magic items can be. But I'm not sure how to have the game mechanically lead to this for the PCs. Item saves don't really do it, esp. not at low level when no one is tossing fireballs around. I suppose one option is to keep them poor enough that magic items often go for training costs--and the Drunk and Debauchery table is great for this! Any other thoughts on how to make the game reflect it without being overly pushy or removing magic items entirely?

Heh. No. They've already been betrayed by a town guard who wanted to get their stuff and bring the Esquimeaux to the king for brownie points. He came to a bad end, though, and the party was able, just, to fight off the bandits he was going to split their loot with--and find the bandit lair! Now they have mules!

Mostly I just changed the definition of "magic item." I use wrought iron as the baseline metal for everything found in the equipment list and then I use bronze, crucible steel, orichalcum, meteoritic steel and mithril to give arms and armor special properties without making them common, easy to attain or cheapening the word "magicical." In general, that means if anything possesses an enchantment it's probably going to have some side effects and they can't be sussed out with a simple identify spell, only trial and error.

It's all just semantics, but this is the best compromise I could come up with between my own desire to keep things low magic, but still let my players find and possess items that grant them certain mechanical advantages in combat or certain other challenges.

Last edited by NAJones (4/23/2014 11:58 pm)