Why do people even buy or sell magic items?

[The 13 Wise Buttlords]

With the exception of a very small subset of items, such as a ring of teleportation or a crystal ball, why would anyone bother selling most of this crap?

For example, in Shadowrun, people wouldn't wipe their ass with a +2 pistol of whatever the fuck. Or rather, they would, but if anyone tried to sell them with a markup comparable to what they get in D&D they'd get laughed at. Hell, even as a random drop a pistol that shoots electric bullets is a less exciting find than a rocket launcher or an ATV with a .50 cal mounted on it.

And this is a setting where magic effects are supposed to be fundamentally less impressive than D&D.

So, seriously, what's with all of the fetishism towards magic items (especially weapons) in D&D? Who really gives a crap about a +1 flaming lucern hammer? If you want your hammer to be on fire, just put some pitch on it.

Unfortunately, 4th Edition seems to be trending into the phenominally stupid direction of making people go crazy over +1 boots of whatever the fuck. What gives?

[CatharzGodfoot]

The generic D&D setting is one where the distribution of wealth is absurdly unequal, and 'do what thou wilt' is the whole of the law.

So a slight improvement in combat ability is worth an arbitrarily large amount of money because your life depends on your combat ability, and you have wealth inconceivable to most people.

[UmaroVI]

Yep. If you're an adventurer - what are you going to do with your money that's more important?

I'm not gonna defend the 4E magic item system though.

[SunTzuWarmaster]

I remember in 2nd ed. we found a Bowl of Commanding Water Elementals. Our next campaing was going through the dessert, no kidding.

A Bowl of Commanding Water Elementals, in price, is roughly equivalent to a +3 weapon and a sack full of healing potions. You will never guess what we did.

Have you really never been in a campaign where your level 7 characters for a Wand of Polar Ray with 12 charges at caster level 2? Some magic items suck, and the fact that you can trade them for things that don't suck is important.

[RandomCasualty2]

For example, in Shadowrun, people wouldn't wipe their ass with a +2 pistol of whatever the fuck. Or rather, they would, but if anyone tried to sell them with a markup comparable to what they get in D&D they'd get laughed at. Hell, even as a random drop a pistol that shoots electric bullets is a less exciting find than a rocket launcher or an ATV with a .50 cal mounted on it.

There's your difference. In Shadowrun weapons are generally so deadly that you don't need to amp the damage and accuracy.

In D&D, that's really not the case, because your standard longsword generally does not kill in one hit, nor does it hit every time. So you constantly get people spending outrageous sums for better weapons.

[The 13 Wise Buttlords]

There's your difference. In Shadowrun weapons are generally so deadly that you don't need to amp the damage and accuracy.

I'm not talking about just the damage and accuracy, I'm talking about the Rule of Cool.

Just from a strict stylistic standpoint, no one cares about how uber your sword is. No, really, they don't. Were lightsabers cool because they were glowy, hummed, and could reflect lasers, or because they cut through anything? Keep in mind that this is the setting with vibroblades or whatever and no one gives a care about those.

Balance issues aside, things like +3 flaming swords and pearls of power are just out and out lame. Things like Bag of Tricks and Pavillion Tents bring the boys to the yard.

[Maxus]

Magic items have become expected in DnD. You're automatically assumed to have had them. They're pretty bland.

And then the generic power list (flaming, bane, vorpal, etc), doesn't do anything to help the coolness.

The individual magic junk they list is cooler, because it's more creative. When outfitting a heavy-hitting LE BBEG, you don't need to look much further than the Demon Armor and that spine-shooting shield. Things like Shatterspike and the Sword of Subtlety are cool because their powers are more creative and, well, interesting than the stuff off the list.

And they still doesn't answer the question of when it's appropriate to have an artifact, which can often be genuinely interesting.

[Jerry]

I hate how bland magic seems at mid-high levels.

[SunTzuWarmaster]

"Balance issues aside, things like +3 flaming swords and pearls of power are just out and out lame. Things like Bag of Tricks and Pavillion Tents bring the boys to the yard."
(quote tags have been replaced with quotes because the quote tags suck)

So you are saying that if you had a +3 flaming sword you would want to trade it for a Bag of Tricks and Pavillion Tent....

Just because people use bland items does not mean that you campaign has to use them. Many people enjoy the Flaming Sword and Screaming Bow concepts. However, nothing is preventing your particular weapons from being awesome, you can freely use the enhancements in the F&K pdf, make your own, or rip off a popular fantasy book.

[K]

I've always thought that 90% of 3e's magic items sucked. It's the price of their attempt to get Blizzard to make a Diablo-style DnD video game.

I mean, back in the day a Frostbrand gave fire resistance and even put out magic fires like Wall of Fire.

That's cool. You can write a story about that.

However, I dare you to write a story about +6 Dex boots. Seriously. Even if you try some objective test like shooting arrows, you still might only get a result that looks like a statistical anomaly.

And that's why people don't care if you buy and sell items for gold. Bullshit items demand bullshit treatment. Considering that fighting characters can't even play their character without all those tiny bonuses because the math on monsters is bad, half the PCs in the game need to be able to buy those bonuses just to be effective in the party because they can't take the chance that the DM will just provide those items.

Heck, in the my last longterm game the Rogue and Sorcerer(me) went from level 3 to 7 before we took a single item, and that was only because we found a halfling-sized mithral breastplate (only fit the Rogue) and the third and fourth Ring of Protection +1.