D&D 5E Rime of the Frostmaiden magic items

[Bacon Bits]

Several of the more recent adventures have been pretty sparse on loot. Dungeon of the Mad Mage was extremely light, and magic items definitely seem to favor casters. I would agree with the general sentiment that it was done to make the modules fit with AL renown items, but the fact that none of these modules mention that to the DM at all is completely unconscionable, IMO. "You don't need magic items to make the math work" is light years away from "players don't get any rewards."

After our experience with DotMM, I would assume that the official modules were simply insufficiently (i.e., incorrectly) stocked.

 

[Markh3rd]

Unless I'm mistaken, the faction rewards once you hit tier 2 are for AL modules. When you play an AL hardcover you play it as is. But I could be mistaken.

 

[tetrasodium]

Several of the more recent adventures have been pretty sparse on loot. Dungeon of the Mad Mage was extremely light, and magic items definitely seem to favor casters. I would agree with the general sentiment that it was done to make the modules fit with AL renown items, but the fact that none of these modules mention that to the DM at all is completely unconscionable, IMO. "You don't need magic items to make the math work" is light years away from "players don't get any rewards."

After our experience with DotMM, I would assume that the official modules were simply insufficiently (i.e., incorrectly) stocked.

It's especially unconscionable when you figure a adding a line somewhere like this would correct it & empower a less experienced gm just getting started to confidently make changes to the adventure RAW. "This adventure assumes that each player will acquire an item such as a +1 weapon +1 wand of the warmage or similar shortly before or after reaching level 5 x y z are some good quests you can place these in with other treasure or you can allow players to acquire them through other means of your choosing.".

 

[jasper]

Unless I'm mistaken, the faction rewards once you hit tier 2 are for AL modules. When you play an AL hardcover you play it as is. But I could be mistaken.

You are mistaken. The renown benefits don't care if it is a module or hardcover. If you are Tier 2, you have access to the items.

 

[Enrico Poli1]

However, the party assassin had much fun with the laser rifles.

Overall, I think that the scarcity of magic weapons in the campaign is a feature, not a flaw. It's an horror campaign. It can be easily played as a gritty, OSR module.

The same complains could be made about encounter balance. The Ancient White Dragon in particular was unexpected but welcome.

I actually appreciated the scarcity of magic weapons and the encounter imbalance.

 

[tetrasodium]

However, the party assassin had much fun with the laser rifles.

Overall, I think that the scarcity of magic weapons in the campaign is a feature, not a flaw. It's an horror campaign. It can be easily played as a gritty, OSR module.

The same complains could be made about encounter balance. The Ancient White Dragon in particular was unexpected but welcome.

I actually appreciated the scarcity of magic weapons and the encounter imbalance.

I agree but think that the thread highlights the validity of the last 5ish years of complaints about how the overly simplified system makes it difficult to provide adequate reward to support reasonable character growth if you don't runone extremely specific style of campaign

 

[Enrico Poli1]

I agree but think that the thread highlights the validity of the last 5ish years of complaints about how the overly simplified system makes it difficult to provide adequate reward to support reasonable character growth if you don't runone extremely specific style of campaign

In my experience, the only two published campaigns with magic item scarcity are exactly RotF and DotMM. All others are just fine.

 

[tetrasodium]

In my experience, the only two published campaigns with magic item scarcity are exactly RotF and DotMM. All others are just fine.

Which has nothing to do with the point I was making. People made those complaints because the system itself is too cut back/streamlined/simplified for people to fill the need when they make/run a campaign of their own that steps outside the blessed style 5e is almost exclusively written for

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Which has nothing to do with the point I was making. People made those complaints because the system itself is too cut back/streamlined/simplified for people to fill the need when they make/run a campaign of their own that steps outside the blessed style 5e is almost exclusively written for

You are stating from and invalid a priori assumption: Players are stupid.

We managed to make our own campaigns perfectly well in 1981 with far fewer rules written and resources available.

It's especially unconscionable when you figure a adding a line somewhere like this would correct it & empower a less experienced gm just getting started to confidently make changes to the adventure RAW. "This adventure assumes that each player will acquire an item such as a +1 weapon +1 wand of the warmage or similar shortly before or after reaching level 5 x y z are some good quests you can place these in with other treasure or you can allow players to acquire them through other means of your choosing.".

The default assumption for 5e is "this adventure assumes that players have no magic items". It's spelled out in the DMG. Magic items are optional. And RotFM works fine like that. Scarcity is a major theme of the story. Regular non-magical gear is in short supply, never mind magic.

 

[TheSword]

I think a lot of monsters are made scarier by the lack of magic weapons. Players have to come up with other ways to deal with them.

In my kingmaker campaign the players confronted large numbers of trolls with fire immunity. The players had to seriously change their tactics against them. Working to together carefully. The trolls were a major challenge.

The same goes for a player who all of a sudden can’t easily hack apart the were creature, elemental or demon.