I've given my players a lot of magic items. Is it reasonable for me to give them harder encounters?












5












$begingroup$


I'm running a campaign for a group of 6 level 8 characters. Last session, they went shopping, and I let them buy about 2 magic items each. On top of this, I let them each start with an extra feat and a free magic item when the campaign started (at level 8).



(Selling magic items to my players was a lot of fun for all of us! My question is not about whether that was a good idea - I believe it was the right call.)



Given how many nice things my players have, I'm thinking about balancing my encounters as though they were for a party of level 9 characters instead of level 8. Is this a reasonable approach for me to take?










share|improve this question









$endgroup$








  • 2




    $begingroup$
    Answerers should remember to support their answers by citing relevant evidence or experience, per Good Subjective. (Good question!)
    $endgroup$
    – V2Blast
    26 mins ago










  • $begingroup$
    For a well-informed answer it would be helpful to know the specific items. Including the benefits of each item would be convenient. Otherwise respondents will have to look up 18 magic items.
    $endgroup$
    – lightcat
    2 mins ago
















5












$begingroup$


I'm running a campaign for a group of 6 level 8 characters. Last session, they went shopping, and I let them buy about 2 magic items each. On top of this, I let them each start with an extra feat and a free magic item when the campaign started (at level 8).



(Selling magic items to my players was a lot of fun for all of us! My question is not about whether that was a good idea - I believe it was the right call.)



Given how many nice things my players have, I'm thinking about balancing my encounters as though they were for a party of level 9 characters instead of level 8. Is this a reasonable approach for me to take?










share|improve this question









$endgroup$








  • 2




    $begingroup$
    Answerers should remember to support their answers by citing relevant evidence or experience, per Good Subjective. (Good question!)
    $endgroup$
    – V2Blast
    26 mins ago










  • $begingroup$
    For a well-informed answer it would be helpful to know the specific items. Including the benefits of each item would be convenient. Otherwise respondents will have to look up 18 magic items.
    $endgroup$
    – lightcat
    2 mins ago














5












5








5





$begingroup$


I'm running a campaign for a group of 6 level 8 characters. Last session, they went shopping, and I let them buy about 2 magic items each. On top of this, I let them each start with an extra feat and a free magic item when the campaign started (at level 8).



(Selling magic items to my players was a lot of fun for all of us! My question is not about whether that was a good idea - I believe it was the right call.)



Given how many nice things my players have, I'm thinking about balancing my encounters as though they were for a party of level 9 characters instead of level 8. Is this a reasonable approach for me to take?










share|improve this question









$endgroup$




I'm running a campaign for a group of 6 level 8 characters. Last session, they went shopping, and I let them buy about 2 magic items each. On top of this, I let them each start with an extra feat and a free magic item when the campaign started (at level 8).



(Selling magic items to my players was a lot of fun for all of us! My question is not about whether that was a good idea - I believe it was the right call.)



Given how many nice things my players have, I'm thinking about balancing my encounters as though they were for a party of level 9 characters instead of level 8. Is this a reasonable approach for me to take?







dnd-5e magic-items balance cr-calculation






share|improve this question













share|improve this question











share|improve this question




share|improve this question










asked 43 mins ago









KevinKevin

8871915




8871915








  • 2




    $begingroup$
    Answerers should remember to support their answers by citing relevant evidence or experience, per Good Subjective. (Good question!)
    $endgroup$
    – V2Blast
    26 mins ago










  • $begingroup$
    For a well-informed answer it would be helpful to know the specific items. Including the benefits of each item would be convenient. Otherwise respondents will have to look up 18 magic items.
    $endgroup$
    – lightcat
    2 mins ago














  • 2




    $begingroup$
    Answerers should remember to support their answers by citing relevant evidence or experience, per Good Subjective. (Good question!)
    $endgroup$
    – V2Blast
    26 mins ago










  • $begingroup$
    For a well-informed answer it would be helpful to know the specific items. Including the benefits of each item would be convenient. Otherwise respondents will have to look up 18 magic items.
    $endgroup$
    – lightcat
    2 mins ago








2




2




$begingroup$
Answerers should remember to support their answers by citing relevant evidence or experience, per Good Subjective. (Good question!)
$endgroup$
– V2Blast
26 mins ago




$begingroup$
Answerers should remember to support their answers by citing relevant evidence or experience, per Good Subjective. (Good question!)
$endgroup$
– V2Blast
26 mins ago












$begingroup$
For a well-informed answer it would be helpful to know the specific items. Including the benefits of each item would be convenient. Otherwise respondents will have to look up 18 magic items.
$endgroup$
– lightcat
2 mins ago




$begingroup$
For a well-informed answer it would be helpful to know the specific items. Including the benefits of each item would be convenient. Otherwise respondents will have to look up 18 magic items.
$endgroup$
– lightcat
2 mins ago










1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















5












$begingroup$

In part it depends on the magic items. Did you give them magic items that were useful in combat? Like, have they mostly got +3 plate armor or have they mostly got sovereign glue?



Broadly, the answer to your question is yes: it's probably appropriate to give them more difficult encounters because they have nice stuff. But, especially at higher levels, the encounter tables are a very loose guideline anyway. You'll have to get a feel for what your group can handle.



Here is what I do when I'm uncertain: I start with an encounter that I'm expecting to be fairly easy, and then if the players seem to be winning too hard, I tell them reinforcements are showing up and I add more monsters of the same type.



The good news is that most players don't really want or need you to give them a super-difficult-but-still-survivable battle. If you give them a battle where everyone gets attacked once, and everyone gets to show off their cool abilities or items at least once, generally they'll be happy.



(source: I run a lot of games and this is what I do)






share|improve this answer









$endgroup$













    Your Answer





    StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function () {
    return StackExchange.using("mathjaxEditing", function () {
    StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.creationCallbacks.add(function (editor, postfix) {
    StackExchange.mathjaxEditing.prepareWmdForMathJax(editor, postfix, [["\$", "\$"]]);
    });
    });
    }, "mathjax-editing");

    StackExchange.ready(function() {
    var channelOptions = {
    tags: "".split(" "),
    id: "122"
    };
    initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

    StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
    // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
    if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
    StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
    createEditor();
    });
    }
    else {
    createEditor();
    }
    });

    function createEditor() {
    StackExchange.prepareEditor({
    heartbeatType: 'answer',
    autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
    convertImagesToLinks: false,
    noModals: true,
    showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
    reputationToPostImages: null,
    bindNavPrevention: true,
    postfix: "",
    imageUploader: {
    brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
    contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
    allowUrls: true
    },
    noCode: true, onDemand: true,
    discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
    ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
    });


    }
    });














    draft saved

    draft discarded


















    StackExchange.ready(
    function () {
    StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2frpg.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f142638%2five-given-my-players-a-lot-of-magic-items-is-it-reasonable-for-me-to-give-them%23new-answer', 'question_page');
    }
    );

    Post as a guest















    Required, but never shown

























    1 Answer
    1






    active

    oldest

    votes








    1 Answer
    1






    active

    oldest

    votes









    active

    oldest

    votes






    active

    oldest

    votes









    5












    $begingroup$

    In part it depends on the magic items. Did you give them magic items that were useful in combat? Like, have they mostly got +3 plate armor or have they mostly got sovereign glue?



    Broadly, the answer to your question is yes: it's probably appropriate to give them more difficult encounters because they have nice stuff. But, especially at higher levels, the encounter tables are a very loose guideline anyway. You'll have to get a feel for what your group can handle.



    Here is what I do when I'm uncertain: I start with an encounter that I'm expecting to be fairly easy, and then if the players seem to be winning too hard, I tell them reinforcements are showing up and I add more monsters of the same type.



    The good news is that most players don't really want or need you to give them a super-difficult-but-still-survivable battle. If you give them a battle where everyone gets attacked once, and everyone gets to show off their cool abilities or items at least once, generally they'll be happy.



    (source: I run a lot of games and this is what I do)






    share|improve this answer









    $endgroup$


















      5












      $begingroup$

      In part it depends on the magic items. Did you give them magic items that were useful in combat? Like, have they mostly got +3 plate armor or have they mostly got sovereign glue?



      Broadly, the answer to your question is yes: it's probably appropriate to give them more difficult encounters because they have nice stuff. But, especially at higher levels, the encounter tables are a very loose guideline anyway. You'll have to get a feel for what your group can handle.



      Here is what I do when I'm uncertain: I start with an encounter that I'm expecting to be fairly easy, and then if the players seem to be winning too hard, I tell them reinforcements are showing up and I add more monsters of the same type.



      The good news is that most players don't really want or need you to give them a super-difficult-but-still-survivable battle. If you give them a battle where everyone gets attacked once, and everyone gets to show off their cool abilities or items at least once, generally they'll be happy.



      (source: I run a lot of games and this is what I do)






      share|improve this answer









      $endgroup$
















        5












        5








        5





        $begingroup$

        In part it depends on the magic items. Did you give them magic items that were useful in combat? Like, have they mostly got +3 plate armor or have they mostly got sovereign glue?



        Broadly, the answer to your question is yes: it's probably appropriate to give them more difficult encounters because they have nice stuff. But, especially at higher levels, the encounter tables are a very loose guideline anyway. You'll have to get a feel for what your group can handle.



        Here is what I do when I'm uncertain: I start with an encounter that I'm expecting to be fairly easy, and then if the players seem to be winning too hard, I tell them reinforcements are showing up and I add more monsters of the same type.



        The good news is that most players don't really want or need you to give them a super-difficult-but-still-survivable battle. If you give them a battle where everyone gets attacked once, and everyone gets to show off their cool abilities or items at least once, generally they'll be happy.



        (source: I run a lot of games and this is what I do)






        share|improve this answer









        $endgroup$



        In part it depends on the magic items. Did you give them magic items that were useful in combat? Like, have they mostly got +3 plate armor or have they mostly got sovereign glue?



        Broadly, the answer to your question is yes: it's probably appropriate to give them more difficult encounters because they have nice stuff. But, especially at higher levels, the encounter tables are a very loose guideline anyway. You'll have to get a feel for what your group can handle.



        Here is what I do when I'm uncertain: I start with an encounter that I'm expecting to be fairly easy, and then if the players seem to be winning too hard, I tell them reinforcements are showing up and I add more monsters of the same type.



        The good news is that most players don't really want or need you to give them a super-difficult-but-still-survivable battle. If you give them a battle where everyone gets attacked once, and everyone gets to show off their cool abilities or items at least once, generally they'll be happy.



        (source: I run a lot of games and this is what I do)







        share|improve this answer












        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer










        answered 36 mins ago









        Dan BDan B

        37.8k869144




        37.8k869144






























            draft saved

            draft discarded




















































            Thanks for contributing an answer to Role-playing Games Stack Exchange!


            • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

            But avoid



            • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

            • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


            Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.


            To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




            draft saved


            draft discarded














            StackExchange.ready(
            function () {
            StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2frpg.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f142638%2five-given-my-players-a-lot-of-magic-items-is-it-reasonable-for-me-to-give-them%23new-answer', 'question_page');
            }
            );

            Post as a guest















            Required, but never shown





















































            Required, but never shown














            Required, but never shown












            Required, but never shown







            Required, but never shown

































            Required, but never shown














            Required, but never shown












            Required, but never shown







            Required, but never shown







            Popular posts from this blog

            404 Error Contact Form 7 ajax form submitting

            How to know if a Active Directory user can login interactively

            Refactoring coordinates for Minecraft Pi buildings written in Python