How much do higher levels rest on the use of magic items?

[anglefish]

I had a ton of them in AD&D and now they are requried in 3.5, how goes it with C&C?

[gideon_thorne]

I do believe its entirely possible to run a long term campaign with C&C and not see a single magic item.

Not vital in other words.
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Peter Bradley

[Combat_Kyle]

I would concur, but some monsters require a magic item to hit. Other than that players can be fully independent without magic items.
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[Arioch]

Item are only as necessary as the Ck wants them, just like any edition of the D&D AD&D BXD etc.

In my games it is the character and the player not the gear that matter

ken
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[Maliki]

I believe it is possible to run a C&C game at any level, without magic items. The CK would have to find other rewards for the players, but the game would go on.
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[PeelSeel2]

Combat_Kyle wrote:
I would concur, but some monsters require a magic item to hit. Other than that players can be fully independent without magic items.

If I ran without magic items, they could be hit by higher level charcters, just like high HD critters attack as 'magic weapons'.
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[gideon_thorne]

Combat_Kyle wrote:
I would concur, but some monsters require a magic item to hit.

Bring a monk.
Gives the class a bit of a chance to shine in this circumstance and puts forth the whole 'mysterious powers of the east' kind of thing.
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"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

[JediOre]

I'd be boiled in camel oil if I stopped with the magic items.

And since my wife would supply the cook pot, I'll be insuring magical treasures appear from time to time.

Curse that "ring of DM control!"

[Tadhg]

I'm looking forward to magic at higher levels. For us, magic is an integral part of our fantasy/adventure world. Magical beings, creatures, items, weapons and spells make it the best it can be.

But I'm careful to limit all of that, so the magic can be fun and amazing when presented.
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[Treebore]

I'm definitely "there has to be magic" kind of gamer.

[anglefish]

I don't have anything against toys.
But in previous editions there were more of a neccessity for one reason or another.

It's a lesson I learned from Pendragon. The less the players understand magic and less they need it to get the job done, the more wonderful it seems when it does crop up.

[JediOre]

Angelfish -- I like your style. That's my thoughts on magic as well. One of the things that I dislike about 3rd edition is the idea that magic is truely common place.

[Jyrdan Fairblade]

Ditto.

I think an apt illustration of magic items and higher levels (at least in a game running on "standard" fantasy) is contained in an old Dragon Magazine editorial about a paladin and a demon, where the paladin is reduced to grappling the demon in mid-air, stabbing it with a dagger, because that was the only weapon he had that would harm the monster.

JediOre wrote:
I'd be boiled in camel oil if I stopped with the magic items.

[moriarty777]

Combat_Kyle wrote:
I would concur, but some monsters require a magic item to hit. Other than that players can be fully independent without magic items.

I can immediately think of two solutions:

As opposed to an enchanted weapon, consider weapons of special material -- silver being an easy one or go more exotic (and expensive). You could also have a cleric bless (whether or not you want to go with the spell if up to the CK) the weapon or hero. By doing something like this, you could theoretically delay magical weapons or other items indefinately... or slow them down to a precious trickle.