Magic items in LotR were extremely rare. Figure in the whole of the books Frodo got 2-3 'magic' items and most everyone else got squat. The typical role playing group is not gaming in anything close to Lord of the Rings so it makes a bad basis to compare to.
If you are going to slowly put a *few* items like this into the game and never replace them similar to the way items are introduced into Lord of the Rings then it might make sense.
I'll argue the point some. Elven cloaks -- barrow blades, magic staves, elven orc bane blades, lockets of hair, the crystal thing with light in it, anduril...
There were lots of magical stuff for everyone... it was simply named and specific while still being subtle.
They had magical gear, it just was just a 'big little deal' -- big in that it was name and recognized by those in the know, little in that it was shown off at one point and then it's just equipment for the characters instead of being characters in and of itself.
Wraith,
I had forgotten about that particular paragraph. However, the table I referenced is located in the GMG just a couple of pages after that paragraph in addition to being in the Core Book (which is where I referenced it from). I still tend to err on the side of less available in markets than more (depending on where in the world the players are). I have just never been a fan of magi-marts. *shrug*
Even the 75% thing does not assume a magic mart. It just means that somewhere in the city the item is available. My old GM used to make us use gather information checks to find certain items. I am thinking about doing that myself.
@Pendegast: You can't go asking questions then switch things up with houserule. That is a huge variance on the rules, and should be stated up front.
1. Since when is a magic weapon not a magic item since you said it sells for silver?
2. By normal rules it is a bad idea. When you list all of your houserules I will respond to how it might work in your game.
@Tempestorm: That chart is one of the ways to get magic items. Another one is to go by the GMG.Base Value and Purchase Limit: This section lists the community's base value for available magic items in gp. There is a 75% chance that any item of this value or lower can be found for sale in the community with little effort. If an item is not available, a new check to determine if the item has become available can be made in 1 week. A settlement's purchase limit is the most money a shop in the settlement can spend to purchase any single item from the PCs. If the PCs wish to sell an item worth more than a settlement's purchase limit, they'll either need to settle for a lower price, travel to A larger city, or (with the GM's permission) search for a specific buyer in the city with deeper pockets. A settlement's type sets its purchase limit.
That is the one that most people use instead of randomly rolling for items assuming they don't flat out say yes just to keep the game moving.
In most cases people don't have that kind of cash floating around, so IF you really want to sell it bad, they can give you 1/10 price. Thats the "silver standard" way of playing.
We've also played gold standard, but a shop keep might not necessarily have 9k gold for example on hand, so you can take 9k worth of trade of example, or maybe 7k worth of trade and 2k cash...Often, if you don't want to cash it in for "silver" prices... you could find the "right place" to unload it, but this takes RP.
As I stated, thieves guild, mages tower, a king, someone who has that kind, and deals with those amounts of money.
A major metropolis...
Are adventures rare or common in your world. I ask because another adventurer or a party may have the gold on hand. In a normal game I sell that dagger to hook the party up, but if I am only going to get silver for it then the craft magic items feats come into play, and I keep the dagger until I can at least get close to equal trade value for it. There is no way I trade it for silver unless I really really need a particular item even in a silver standard game.
don't think of 'magic mart' as a wal-mart department store, think of it like a 'market' or a 'bazaar'. a series of stalls that sell different things. heck, you could have multiple 'markets' or 'bazaars' in the same city should it be big enough. specific specialty items would likely require a commission. such as +3 flaming frost ghost touch abberration bane adamantine dwarven waraxes. generic 'magetouched' gear would be always available based on community GP limit. the random item chart should be reserved for specialty items few would actually use, like most non big 6 items and certain sets of oddball bonuses. i wouldn't discriminate weapon type as much as the set of bonuses the weapon has. and most healing items are always available. like wands or potions of cure light wounds.
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Magic items in LotR were extremely rare. Figure in the whole of the books Frodo got 2-3 'magic' items and most everyone else got squat. The typical role playing group is not gaming in anything close to Lord of the Rings so it makes a bad basis to compare to.
If you are going to slowly put a *few* items like this into the game and never replace them similar to the way items are introduced into Lord of the Rings then it might make sense.
I'll argue the point some. Elven cloaks -- barrow blades, magic staves, elven orc bane blades, lockets of hair, the crystal thing with light in it, anduril...
There were lots of magical stuff for everyone... it was simply named and specific while still being subtle.
They had magical gear, it just was just a 'big little deal' -- big in that it was name and recognized by those in the know, little in that it was shown off at one point and then it's just equipment for the characters instead of being characters in and of itself.
Hmm... I don't recall many magic items in the books but it's been years since I read them. I certainly don't recall anyone having more than a couple things.
In general... not lots of stuff that was clearly 'magic' at all. Certainly not a lot of flashy "Sting" type stuff from what I recall.
Then again, it's been a good amount of years since I read the books and they are sooo purple I had trouble with the details even when I read them.
Yeah the main magical things came from Gladriel in the woods. The elven cloaks (everyone got these), the water that glowed, the locket of hair for Gimli, the bow for Legolas, the rope (which later on 'magically' unknots itself for Sam). Each of the hobbits received a barrow blade except for Frodo who had sting.
A lot of times it was presented as really good gear... but think about it what else would it be to people without the ability to actually detect magic?
The Samilliron (I can never spell that right) pointed out that Gandolf actually has one of the elven rings -- he received it soon after arriving on middle earth from a dying elven lord, and he had Glamdring the foehammer.
Also the elvenbread could be argued to be a limited magical version of heroes' feast, and the water of the entwash which Pippin and Merry drank certainly had an effect on them as by the time they arrived back in Shire they were two of the tallest halflings anyone had seen, a trait they proceeded to pass on to their children.
Aragorn shows that he has ranger magic in the fellowship of the rings, using such to sustain Frodo while they rushed him to Rivendell, and again in The Return of the King when he saved Faramir from the corrupting poison -- Gandolf took over this duty later iirc. I know for sure that both Aragorn and Gandolf were involved in that healing.
I'm not saying that it was 'high fantasy' flaming swords with glowing blades and armor of the stars that allowed flight and such -- but it was certainly more than just mundanely useful stuff.
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Yeah... I think you are right. It's still not a huge number of things considering the scope of the book. Not compared to a typical game where a typical character has half a dozen or more assorted items before 5th level.
I guess my point is, if you are going to justify placing powerful items early because that's the way they did it in the Lord of the Rings that justification is only valid if you meter them out the way they did in Lord of the Rings... something on the order of 2-3 significant items over the characters career and maybe another dozen or so potions or other transient items. Otherwise it quickly turns into a monty hall campaign.
Yeah... I think you are right. It's still not a huge number of things considering the scope of the book. Not compared to a typical game where a typical character has half a dozen or more assorted items before 5th level.
I guess my point is, if you are going to justify placing powerful items early because that's the way they did it in the Lord of the Rings that justification is only valid if you meter them out the way they did in Lord of the Rings... something on the order of 2-3 significant items over the characters career and maybe another dozen or so potions or other transient items. Otherwise it quickly turns into a monty hall campaign.
Yeah the items have to be meaningful and not too common. Some stuff here and there that is 'awesome' for a limited task is alright but you want the good stuff to be the really, really good stuff.
For example a staff that regains a charge a day? Yeah I would love that for a spell caster even if the 'great' spells on it are multi-charge draining. It would be a great "passed down" item... as could be a blessed book from the character's master with a lot of spells in it.
These both give the character grow room with the item, and grant some nice power -- but the staff is not going to be something the character will use lightly (since he can't recharge it himself yet) and the book takes time for its full potential to be used.
It's a bit sad there are fewer items like this for the martial classes. Some ideas that jump to mind is a bow with a strength rating higher than the character has but good pluses on it (say a +3 seeking distance bow strength rated 20). As they level they can put their bonuses into strength until they can fully use it without penalties. A 'broken' magical sword could work too and is a classic trope as well. Perhaps a personally built weapon the warrior is focusing his talents on/ in... starts out made of a special material and 'grows' with the character.
For the skill guys like rogues and bards you can be good with a lot of 'fairly significant' knick-knackery.
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and every attempt by game designers to build these sort of legacy weapons has been pretty full of blah.
I don't think it's the designers fault though. The problem is that this sort of item needs to be very personal to the player and the specific character.
Rather than a fairly generic +3 weapon I would be include a +1 Bane sword in the game which has a bane which the player would be more likely to encounter at higher levels. It works particularly well if you can plan for the group to encounter a small number of the creatures at lower levels where that player can really shine for brief momemnts. A +1 undead bane sword might be a good candidate. It will make the character shine a lot in certain encounters but otherwise it's just dormant.
I guess I just don't get the point. Why toss out something at low level that is potentially going to throw a monkey wrench in the works? With your house rules it will most likely not be an issue but really, why?just cuz it's something different.
They didn't sell sting when they found it, did they? Do you suppose elrond would have bought it if they wanted cash?
I find it odd they didnt try to, you would think that group of dwarves needed to be better outfitted to take back the lonely mountain than they were?
Magic items in LotR were extremely rare. Figure in the whole of the books Frodo got 2-3 'magic' items and most everyone else got squat. The typical role playing group is not gaming in anything close to Lord of the Rings so it makes a bad basis to compare to.
If you are going to slowly put a *few* items like this into the game and never replace them similar to the way items are introduced into Lord of the Rings then it might make sense.
The original DnD was based heavily on things like LoTR and Elric/Hawkmoon.
I remember a high level fighter I had in 1e who never got more than a +2 sword because er well ah, he never found anything better, unless you count the +1 sword, +2 vs. rabbits, +3 vs. rabbits if they threatened you...That being said, combined with the fact we really don't buy much magic (last time we did that was second darkness in 08/09 and it literally broke the campaign), not that we don't go to the store LOOKING for magic, it's just incredibly rare we buy anything based on price/availability.
We buy potions when we can nab them (we will buy literally ANY potion available if we can afford it, because you never know when you can buy one again and you never know when you can use it)
but to give you a good idea of what kind of treasure our groups bounce around with, it's what we find in pathfinder APs, which can be pretty scant.
Example: our party is in SS. They are 10th level. Aside from anything found in the actual print, the party managed to buy a +3 shield, +1 mithral chain shirt, and +2 cloak of resistance in eleder as they were randomly available and the loot from the shiv enabled them to trade for such. They have gone into The Crypt of Savith (side quest not in print) and fought several CRs way above their level, lost all their animals companions (no surprise) and have come to the tomb, which I had guarded by a two headed dragon.
The loot I'm thinking of giving them, includes a +2 huntsmans dwarf axe, a +1 flaming dragon pistol, a ring of maniacal devices, and boots of friendly terrain. (they have also found the final part to an artifact, which they have been collecting for some time, which equates to a +7 intelligent weapon, but the artifact is story driven at this point)
Until now, the dwarf has been swinging a mundane dwarf axe.
The Side group, who is not yet 2nd level, who Im toying with giving this +3 dagger to obviously has nothing.
No one really whines about anyone having better weapons, or someone getting something else. Pretty much, if some gets the +3 dagger, for example, then they next pick that comes down the line, they are last in line for.
Often times, you will see players treating something like a +3 dagger as having the cooties, because they'd rather not give up their pick on the next goody.
I think our best games have always been "lord of the rings style magic" and our most common magic items are usually things like rings of feather fall and boots of the winterlands..
Yea I never understood why they didn't set out with weapons.
I know they were extremely poor, but like i said, I would have thought they would have at least left rivendell equipped.
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Look up Restov, Brevoy. That town is loaded with all the good stuff that we can't seem to get in Stagfort. :P
Seriously, if you're playing the game as designed, large cities are gonna have some, or all, of the things listed here.
Table 15-1: Available Magic Items
Community Base Minor Medium Major
Size Value
Thorp 50 gp 1d4 items — —
Hamlet 200 gp 1d6 items — —
Village 500 gp 2d4 items 1d4 items —
Small town 1,000 gp 3d4 items 1d6 items —
Large town 2,000 gp 3d4 items 2d4 items 1d4 items
Small city 4,000 gp 4d4 items 3d4 items 1d6 items
Large city 8,000 gp 4d4 items 3d4 items 2d4 items
Metropolis 16,000 gp * 4d4 items 3d4 items
* In a metropolis, nearly all minor magic items are available.A large city, as designed, may have 4d4 minor items on hand. Of course nothing says those minor items are going to be specificaly what the players are looking for.
Here is a random for a Large City that should have all of the items mentioned above: scroll; potion; scroll; wand; scroll; potion; scroll; wand; weapon; weapon; scroll
So, they get the +3 dagger... manage to find a buyer...
A thriving Metropolis on the other hand may have, by design, *nearly* all minor magic items available. This is all well and good, but doesn't help much when you are in Sandpoint or Falcon's Hollow or any other numerous backwater areas spread throughout the setting (which is more the type of areas I tend to have my players in). And by the time the characters are high enough level and can really start thowing around gold, you are back to 4d4 or 3d4 items for medium and major magical items in a Metropolis.
Sure, I can say that a merchant has exactly the item the group is looking for... and when I have a merchant have an item it is typicaly going to be something useful. However, they are more likely to craft/find/be gifted said item than they are to buy it in a mini-mart magic shop.
You're ignoring the rules, which say that if an item costs less than the base value of the city there is a 75% chance that it is in that city, this isn't the GMG as wraithstrike said, this is the standard pathfinder rule book. You looked at the chart and ignored the actual rules that accompany that chart. So in a large city there'll be 4d4 magic items that are available and a 75% chance to get anything else less than 8000 gp.
For the record, I don't follow those rules, I stick to just to the chart, and ignore the 75% chance rule, but I tell my players that I do so, and they understand that they are playing a low magic game.
No, that is a common misconception that the game is designed that way.
You have to factor in, Low Fantasy, Standard Fantasy, High Fantasy.
You don't give characters say a 10 point buy, and make it a high fantasy world. 10,15,20 or 3d6 re roll 1s (around 12 points avg), 4d6 take the highest (20-25 points avg).
It depends on what kind of fantasy you are playing with.
The rules DO NOT say the things HAVE to be there and you HAVE to roll dice to see what's available.
That's what people want to hear who read that section and want those items.
There are several many variables contained in the very same book to modify these things.
They aren't so much hard fast rules (like movement and spells) as they are guidelines for what may be available, according the the fact that Pathfinder's Galorion is "High Magic" (which I find odd because their APs which take place is said world are always wimpy on the treasure.)
I've said this many times, even in this thread alone, Our gaming group does not prefer to buy things as it breaks games at around 13th level.
So we all prefer to be challenged panicked and running for our lives for the majority of the lower levels, so we CAN play at say 18th level.
Two of our players (brothers) play in all manner of other campaigns that usually have them running characters that can't be killed, and My character died so my cohort unicorn is now my character and other silliness that, we generally do not like to play.
In second darkness we bought our own goodies (standard pathfinder style, well it was beta back then) and at the part we met the 18th level wizard which was not supposed to be killed, we killed her.
It was too easy, we had too much stuff and it wasn't fun.
So we play low fantasy now. And if we really feel like messing around we play silver standard (which makes even potions hard to buy).
In reality, I can't remember the last time any of the characters step foot in a large city or metropolis, id have go back and look what was eleder?
No I just looked small city, and Like i said, they were able to buy a +3 shield, +2 cloak or resistance and +1 mithral shirt (randomly rolled) and a bunch of potions.
but that's still figuratively limited compared to 'outfitting' your entire party.
There simply weren't enough items present there (for example) to outfit a party with 'equal amounts of stuff'.
If they were to go to a place like that again, say, then I would only re roll for new items based on what they didn't buy (which would still be there.)
So let's say I rolled a 1 for number of major items, then there would be no new major items, since they didn't buy one that was there last time (ie it is still there)
What was westcrown? Large city? (not going to dig to look up) but that had to be the biggest place the group has been recently, and I don't recall them buying a darn thing (one of the rare APs where there is ALOT of treasure, not the norm)
I know in Kingmaker you could trade with incoming caravans and all, but we had magic items pretty limited in that AP as well.
Plus for example, the party finds an extremely powerful and rare weapon late in the AP, what are you going to do? Make things available for purchase at a store that is 'equal' to that item, so everyone doesn't feel left out?
Yeah... I think you are right. It's still not a huge number of things considering the scope of the book. Not compared to a typical game where a typical character has half a dozen or more assorted items before 5th level.
I guess my point is, if you are going to justify placing powerful items early because that's the way they did it in the Lord of the Rings that justification is only valid if you meter them out the way they did in Lord of the Rings... something on the order of 2-3 significant items over the characters career and maybe another dozen or so potions or other transient items. Otherwise it quickly turns into a monty hall campaign.
Whether the items in LotR compare to D&D depends on just how flashy the magic is. A lot of people make the assumption that D&D magic is all pretty flashy compared to literature. But it doesn't need to be that way at all. The blades pulled out of the wight's barrow, forged by the men of Westernesse, almost certainly count as magical in D&D terms. They were ancient but hadn't deteriorated in the barrow and one of them succeeded at crippling the Witch King. So those 4 hobbits were armed with magical weapons before they got more than a few days out of the Shire. They could have been relatively lowly +1 blades... or considerably more significant, but because of the subtlety of the magic in LotR, we have no way of knowing. Assigning a set of game stats becomes a question of art.
If we treated many D&D magic items in a similar fashion, magical by the rules but with the effect only being subtle, characters can be fairly well kitted up and still not be all that distinguishable from LotR. Imagine a lucky amulet or other token that provides a deflection or natural armor bonus. How about a well-made cloak that does a better job of protecting its wearer? Armor that is harder to penetrate with fewer vulnerabilities to exploit (fortification property)? For many defensive items or items that add a simple bonus, the effect of the magic may be utterly unnoticeable save through achieving statistically better results in the long run. All of the Fellowship could have been geared up with minor bits of subtle magic without anybody readily noticing it.
I would do this for an otherwise low-magic campaign as well. Relatively minor items that just gave bonuses of +1-+3 would probably not even be readily identifiable as magic and I wouldn't shortchange the martial characters a bit in their dependence on fighting gear.
You don't give characters say a 10 point buy, and make it a high fantasy world. 10,15,20 or 3d6 re roll 1s (around 12 points avg), 4d6 take the highest (20-25 points avg).
In a 10PB game, magic item availability become even more important than it already is. Especially if you're not properly scaling down the beasties.
Note: the game assumes that you're using the RAW. The world that you describe is quite different from what the books suggest is the norm. You wanna play that way, go for it. But you're altering the game, is all.
You don't give characters say a 10 point buy, and make it a high fantasy world. 10,15,20 or 3d6 re roll 1s (around 12 points avg), 4d6 take the highest (20-25 points avg).In a 10PB game, magic item availability become even more important than it already is. Especially if you're not properly scaling down the beasties.
Note: the game assumes that you're using the RAW. The world that you describe is quite different from what the books suggest is the norm. You wanna play that way, go for it. But you're altering the game, is all.
Typically we don't scale down the baddies (otherwise you aren't running away screaming). There are a few cases where something becomes unhittable or undamageable or some such crazy immunity or uber high AC.
It's not common for the PC's to run into these types of creatures unknowingly, and so there faerie queen of the wood may tell them they must seek the night cleaver of frost in the forgotten wastes before the dread troll mage can be defeated.
In the rare case they get ambushed by something they aren't equipped to handle, its run away screaming dragging bodies time.
Recently we had a tangle with four Alchemical Golems (which I never read up on too much) they were insanely nasty. I did let the Ronin Sunder one of their legs to keep it from moving up and attacking easily, most of the party members ended up staying away from it while they focused on the other three.
Impromptu Pc doing something cool is better than crushing everything you meet because of all the 'stuff' you have.
But even assuming these mooks find a +3 dagger, and say that they can travel to some place than can A) afford to purchase it and B) has available otherthings to purchase.
You still arent going to do much damage, with 9k gold, spread across 4 characters, what are you really going to come up with? a few +1 weapons?
I would think keeping the +3 dagger without traversing the world to sell it would be the more likely choice.
I mean really, once you're the right level to get a +3 dagger what is it , but an ornament to hang on your belt?
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No, that is a common misconception that the game is designed that way.
Um, I wasn't actually saying my comment to you, just to the person who quoted the chart and said that a large city would have x (and also letting wraithstrike know that those GMG rules he quoted are actually core rulebook rules as well). And he would actually be right in my games, but like I said, doing so is deviating from the standard rules.
And for the record, I would love to play in your games the way you described them. I like getting magic items from adventuring rather than shopping.
No, that is a common misconception that the game is designed that way.
Um, I wasn't actually saying my comment to you, just to the person who quoted the chart and said that a large city would have x (and also letting wraithstrike know that those GMG rules he quoted are actually core rulebook rules as well). And he would actually be right in my games, but like I said, doing so is deviating from the standard rules.
And for the record, I would love to play in your games the way you described them. I like getting magic items from adventuring rather than shopping.
It's hard for me to describe it, really, because I make it sound like there is no magic shopping. But it does happen.
We are all tolkien/Melnibone fans, we want the cool stuff to have meaning and significance and we want to focus on the characters and their achievements.
It all started with the birth of beta and the second darkness campaign, where we just bought and sold literally whatever.
It did totally trash our campaign, that and the fact we missed a rule and mis interpreted another, so we ended up with this returning arrows with a gajillion properties on it because of 'major power re reroll' coming up and the eldrtich knight that had it killed everything.
Anyway, we said to ourselves that this was wank, and we needed to have some level of control on the magic items, all having played 1e before except my wife, and remembering the days of you get what you find... we just decided to play low fantasy.
10-15 point builds or 3d6 re roll 1s is how we start out, and (depending on the campaign) either gold or silver standard...but silver usually means the characters are dead between 5-7th level (because they can't buy enough healing)
But if you stick to low fantasy with gold standard and make the PCs role play trying to buy/sell yea, magic is pretty limited.
It does have it's draw backs (like the 9th level ranger not being able to hit/damage anything lately) but then you can fix that with a larger treasure and stick in a +2 axe without it seeming like "dude he's just heaping stuff on us now"
My wife has expressed wanting more treasure lately (SS is pretty lean) but that doesn't mean +5 vorpal swords, it usually means rings, potions, boots, just neat things....
It's hard for me to describe it, really, because I make it sound like there is no magic shopping. But it does happen.
And that's cool; player A is shopping for X, but finds Y instead. What could be a negative event (I didn't find X) can be turned into a positive event if Y can be used in cool ways.
It all started with the birth of beta and the second darkness campaign, where we just bought and sold literally whatever.
My group started out with Second Darkness as well; it was magic item overload. Every single Drow, it would seem, is born with a Ring of Protection +1. Really? We got tired of it. Kingmaker has been very different, and I think everyone is enjoying a lower magic item threshold.
It's hard for me to describe it, really, because I make it sound like there is no magic shopping. But it does happen.And that's cool; player A is shopping for X, but finds Y instead. What could be a negative event (I didn't find X) can be turned into a positive event if Y can be used in cool ways.
It all started with the birth of beta and the second darkness campaign, where we just bought and sold literally whatever.My group started out with Second Darkness as well; it was magic item overload. Every single Drow, it would seem, is born with a Ring of Protection +1. Really? We got tired of it. Kingmaker has been very different, and I think everyone is enjoying a lower magic item threshold.
Are we the only group that simply stops collecting loot off of dead bodies?
After a bit we simply leave the dead lay, or bury them/burn them. Not worth the time to pick up every +1 ring we come across honestly.
It's hard for me to describe it, really, because I make it sound like there is no magic shopping. But it does happen.And that's cool; player A is shopping for X, but finds Y instead. What could be a negative event (I didn't find X) can be turned into a positive event if Y can be used in cool ways.
It all started with the birth of beta and the second darkness campaign, where we just bought and sold literally whatever.My group started out with Second Darkness as well; it was magic item overload. Every single Drow, it would seem, is born with a Ring of Protection +1. Really? We got tired of it. Kingmaker has been very different, and I think everyone is enjoying a lower magic item threshold.
Well add to the fact that 2nd darkness had tons of items, but our group actually robbed a magic store .It was funny because the group comes in to the ye olde magic shoppe and finds a fellow behind the counter, they want to buy/sell/trade. Through some sense motives checks etc, they figure out this guy has no idea what his inventory is, Long story short they interupted a group of thieves that were already robbing the place, get a battle, win and rob the place blind with a pair of bags of holding (well one was a bag of devouring but they didnt find that out til later)
So we were literally inundated with stuff. It was bad.
After a bit we simply leave the dead lay, or bury them/burn them. Not worth the time to pick up every +1 ring we come across honestly.
And that is my point, exact. Don't worry about the magic item economy. It's just not worth it. At some point, the players will get tired of it themselves. There is just no need to make shopping for items so difficult and time consuming. Players will police themselves, I think.
our group actually robbed a magic store
We just avoid this sort of entirely; the DM would totally step-up and make it a painful event if we tried, and as players I think we're all nit interested in that sort of thing... much... well, okay, we could be tempted...
Are we the only group that simply stops collecting loot off of dead bodies?After a bit we simply leave the dead lay, or bury them/burn them. Not worth the time to pick up every +1 ring we come across honestly.
My group are like vultures. As soon as the last baddie hits the floor 9 out of 10 times the next thing we hear is "I loot the bodies!" I'll actually here this more often than "How much XP do we get?"
It's a bit OOC, but it's just the way we've played. We usually get a good laugh about it. We also tend to stay a bit under the WBL in any of our campaigns so that probably doesn't help much.
Are we the only group that simply stops collecting loot off of dead bodies?After a bit we simply leave the dead lay, or bury them/burn them. Not worth the time to pick up every +1 ring we come across honestly.
My group are like vultures. As soon as the last baddie hits the floor 9 out of 10 times the next thing we hear is "I loot the bodies!" I'll actually here this more often than "How much XP do we get?"
It's a bit OOC, but it's just the way we've played. We usually get a good laugh about it. We also tend to stay a bit under the WBL in any of our campaigns so that probably doesn't help much.
Can't say we are always leaving bodies/ashes in our wake, but at higher level it becomes fairly common. We have had a character in a party before that would start looting in the middle of the fight.
Managed to end the fight once because she got the 'thing' that was needed to turn the whole encounter off. Threw the GM for a loop as well as the other players when everything just stops attacking the PCs.
(A "Wait you grab what and put it on? Well crap let me think a minute guys.") Saved our bacon actually.
mithral in 1st ed was automatically +3
Not quite -- IIRC, +3 weapons were assumed to be made of meteorite iron (but not all meterorite iron was automatically +3), and +5 gear was assumed to be made of adamantine ("adamantite" in 1e) as the only material that would hold that level of enhancement (but, again, not all adamantite automatically had a +5 enhancement bonus). Mithral ("mithril" in 1e) had no particular enhancement that I can recall.