Featured Image by u/jamesrichardperrett
A common questions for DMs in D&D, is “How often do I reward my players with magic items?” My solution is not an original one, but it does fit into my style of DMing, which I am calling Four Color Design. Four Color Design is meant to emulate comic books of old, where stories were thematic, and clear to follow. In Four Color stories, heroes often had special items, or weapons, that they used often. Sometimes they would have an item just for a single story, and sometimes their magic items help define them. Thor’s Mjolnir is an easy example of a defining, Signature Item.
Signature per Tier
Let’s start with the big items, the ones that always grab your attention when you’re looking at the pages of Magic Items in the DMG. For this, we want to start with your Player Characters.
Every character has a Signature Item, whether or not they call it that. For most, in this combat-centric game, it is a weapon, the Ranger’s bow, the Rogue’s dagger, the Paladin’s Sword. For some, it is not a weapon, like the Bard’s lute, the Wizard’s staff, or the Rogue’s Thieves tools. Take a minute, and think about each of your PCs, and try to determine what their Signature Item is.
You want to limit these major magic items to once per Tier of Play. The tiers are usually:
- Tier 1 (Levels 1-4): Local Heroes.
- Tier 2 (Levels 5-10): Heroes of the Realm.
- Tier 3 (Levels 11-16): Masters of the Realm.
- Tier 4 (Levels 17-20): Masters of the World.
Usually you accomplish one adventure within a Tier. Dragons of Stormwreck Isle is a Tier 1 adventure, Curse of Strahd is Tier 2, Against the Giants in Tales of the Yawning Portal is Tier 3.
As you are running an adventure, it’s usually right before Act 3, or the final home stretch of the adventure, that you want to reward the Signature magic item. It is a reward for all their hard work, but they can then use it in the final boss fight finale. They might not have been able to handle the finale if not for this Signature Item that matches their play style.
After Tier 1, you want to avoid giving the same style of magic item. If you gave a sword in Tier 1, you don’t want to give another sword in Tier 2, because then they’ll toss the first one, and magic items lose their narrative value. If you are having a hard time thinking of another Signature Item, I talked about an Aquaman style hero in my Four Color Design article. Make a whole outfit for the character, with magic abilities that synergize. Weapon, armor, a piece of jewelry, etc.
Consumable per Level
Of course, we aren’t going to give only one magic item every 4-6 levels. Next, we are going to give some single-use items more frequently. These will be granted early on each level, with no clear moment to use it. You want your players to feel like they have options, so these are coming more often, and with more variety.
Potions and Scrolls are great for this. I give Potions of Healing out more often than this, but that’s more to balance the math of the game, then as a magic reward.
Again, you want to give this before most of the problem solving of the level. Perhaps this can be randomly rolled loot from a random encounter, leading up to the dungeon. Below is an example of a random table you can make.
| 1 | Potion of Climbing |
| 2 | Dust of Disappearance |
| 3 | Dust of Sneezing and Choking |
| 4 | Dust of Dryness |
| 5 | Oil of Slipperiness |
| 6 | Philter of Love |
| 7 | Potion of Animal Friendship |
| 8 | Potion of Fire Breath |
| 9 | Potion of Growth |
| 10 | Potion of Poison |
| 11 | Potion of Water Breathing |
| 12 | Potion of Resistance |
| 13 | Potion of Giant Strength |
| 14 | Oil of Etherealness |
| 15 | Potion of Clairvoyance |
| 16 | Potion of Diminution |
| 17 | Potion of Aqueous Form |
| 18 | Potion of Gaseous Form |
| 19 | Potion of Heroism |
| 20 | Potion of Invulnerability |
None of these are necessarily meant to help with a specific problem, it is up to the PCs how and when they want to use it. Find items that you think are helpful, but not overpowered.
Unique per Highlight
Lastly, we have the unique items per highlighted moment. When you are prepping a session, you can usually tell if there is a particularly interesting stand out moment happening. This isn’t often, but it’s also rarely planned on any timeline. Maybe it’s fighting a weird but notable monster, like a Mimic or a Gelatinous Cube. Maybe it’s if they find a secret location by going through an optional puzzle (read here about my Puzzles and Traps). Maybe it’s a roleplay moment, that if it goes well they might get a gift by an NPC. You will know it when you see it.
When you come to these highlighted moments, it’s a great opportunity to look through the magic item tables, and find something that you normally wouldn’t give out. I often like to use the items that rely on randomness for these moments.
- Bag of Tricks
- Folding Boat
- Necklace of Prayer Beads
- Quaal’s Feather Token
- Robe of Useful Items
- Wand of Wonder
These are items that are for a frequent moment in many adventures.
The characters are stuck, perhaps trapped, perhaps in a dead end, and they don’t know what to do.
They begin brainstorming, and scouring their character sheets.
One of them sees a note that says Robe of Useful Items.
“Where did we get that?
“That was from that random dead body we found behind the poison dart door.
“Oh yeah, how is that going to help?
“I don’t know, but I don’t have a better idea, do you?
“No, I guess we can try?”
We love seeing characters have to be resourceful, and think outside the box, in order to succeed. This gives them a tool that they usually can’t rely on, but might just give them a weird solution to a difficult problem. When these moments happen, let them get away with something, lower the DC, make the otherwise useless item useful, just for this moment. The item is used, might be left behind, but they will remember not only the moment they used it, but it will also solidify the highlighted moment they got it. That makes for a fun story.
The Nerdd 