5 Magical Item Rule

[Kieddicus]

I like the rule of fives as a mechanic, because it lets you collect magical items early on without causing to much snowballing later in the game. However I find it feels weird from an RP stance. No matter how many enchantments are on your magical items once you have five items picking up more has no effect what so ever, doesn't sit right with me.

My idea is instead of setting a hard limit at five, make it that magical items in close proximity tamper with each other. Thus the more you have on your person the more likely that they will break or have negative side effects.
I do however exclude a wizard's staff from this as I see staves more of extensions of the wizard's being than as magical items.

Unfortunately for the poor Battle Mage his flaming sword was siphoning mana from his power stone til zapped it all gone bursting into a torrent of flame consuming the Wizard.

[JimmyPlenty]

Once you get five items with five enchantments each, yes there is no where to go. But considering the cost and rarity of items with five enchantments, any character that has that many should be so close to retirement they are collecting social security on the jobs table.

[Kieddicus]

Originally Posted by JimmyPlenty

Once you get five items with five enchantments each, yes there is no where to go. But considering the cost and rarity of items with five enchantments, any character that has that many should be so close to retirement they are collecting social security on the jobs table.

Yes five items each with five enchantments would get very pricey, but you can also get five items each with only one enchantment for just over the cost of fine plate armor.

[Helborn]

I'm not sure I understand what bothers you about the rule?
Since you are only limited in the number of actively usable magic items at one time and can carry any number of magic items as long as they are in your pouch or backpack or in a sheath, what's the issue?

[Kieddicus]

Originally Posted by Helborn

I'm not sure I understand what bothers you about the rule?
Since you are only limited in the number of actively usable magic items at one time and can carry any number of magic items as long as they are in your pouch or backpack or in a sheath, what's the issue?

The fact that only certain items are active is the issue for me. Again from a balance point it is good. I am talking about slightly changing things for aesthetic reasons, so say when you have 3-5 items you notice some irregularities with them but they still work, at 5-6 items they start misfiring or cause minor negative effects, and 7+ is a ticking time bomb.

[hcobb]

Have five active magical items while you pick up the dead wizard's staff.

[Steve Plambeck]

Long before it's a game with 5 items of 5 spells in play, it's ceased being a game about characters and tactics, and not one I would enjoy. I don't want a cup of coffee with half a cup of sugar in it.

[phiwum]

Originally Posted by Steve Plambeck

Long before it's a game with 5 items of 5 spells in play, it's ceased being a game about characters and tactics, and not one I would enjoy. I don't want a cup of coffee with half a cup of sugar in it.

I tend to agree, but I'm sure plenty of people like overly sweet coffee.

I just received the PDF of experienced characters, which is quite good. But there are two Stone Flesh rings and one of the owners of such a ring also has two other significant magic items. I have to say I like the character (the most experienced, 41 points) and may make use of her as an NPC, but I'd hate for my guys to take her down and loot the corpse.

[Kieddicus]

Either I am misunderstanding everyone who is replying, or everyone is misreading my post.
I am not suggesting that people are running around with lots of magical items, or that players should be able to easily get decked out with top of the line gear. I don't think the rule of five almost ever gets used (and I have never seen it come into play myself). I am simply pointing out that it is clunky and doesn't have an in-game/lore reasoning, so I was spit balling an idea that keeps the spirit of the rule intact while making it have interesting lore ramifications.

Also Cobb I am pretty sure it doesn't work that way. Just because you can't use more than five magic items doesn't mean you can't be affected by magical items if you are already holding five. If an Exploding Gem is set to detonate when picked up, wearing five rings of light won't save you. Otherwise everyone could avoid every magical trap by wearing 2.5K of jewelry.

[Helborn]

Originally Posted by Kieddicus

Either I am misunderstanding everyone who is replying, or everyone is misreading my post.
I am not suggesting that people are running around with lots of magical items, or that players should be able to easily get decked out with top of the line gear. I don't think the rule of five almost ever gets used (and I have never seen it come into play myself). I am simply pointing out that it is clunky and doesn't have an in-game/lore reasoning, so I was spit balling an idea that keeps the spirit of the rule intact while making it have interesting lore ramifications.

I have run into the 5 item limitation in the original game (I did play it for over 20 years). It's a mechanic. Just like only being able to wear two rings in D&D was a mechanic. There is no logic to the limitation except for game balance and game fun. Given enough time and enough money you can gain some really effective items where you don't need any more. But at that point the fun is gone. The character is just about invulnerable. Adding your suggestion of negative effects is fine for your campaign and, perhaps, your players. But I wouldn't use that approach in my games. It comes across as a munchkinization.