The wealth-by-level restricts your choices in 3.x. Technically, you are not even supposed to get a +1 weapon until level 4 or 5. You want to tell me how you make a varied weapon based on that?Which is my point. DnD doesn't have the range to have really loot heavy campaigns. You simply cannot have weapons above +1 before a certain level or you are basically creating walks in the park for the players. That is why Monty Haul campaigns tend to end up being hilariously broken most times.I believe DnD was designed first at low- and medium-level, and then at high- and epic-level, so that explains why the traditional range of weapons is so "limited".
But a +5 weapon is pretty fearsome and potentially game-breaking should you give it away happily to your players at lower levels. I know because I played some campaigns with unfair characters played by people associating with each other, and man was it crap.
And that is before 3.x introduced the wealth-by-level mechanic, which really restricted what you can or cannot do without upseting the whole CR/XP system.
What are you talking about? It is really easy to create interesting and varied items in DnD.
Create items with bonuses against certain creature types, odds to cast spells on specific die rolls, material specific resistances etc.
Only a piss poor DM could fail to create varied loot in 3.x e.
Is the loot system the cause of this problem? Or just the trash mob spam and overall lack of encounter design?I used to think that I loved heavy looting. In principle, I like the idea of finding loot and that everything I see on an enemy can be looted but I absolutely hate it when I have to haul all of that shit and the kitchen sink. At least 1/3 of the time I sank into loot-heavy games are... just managing and hauling the fucking loot. It gets to a point where Loot start playing YOU.
It's actually hidden option C: people who compulsively hoard every piece of shit equipment they find.Is the loot system the cause of this problem? Or just the trash mob spam and overall lack of encounter design?I used to think that I loved heavy looting. In principle, I like the idea of finding loot and that everything I see on an enemy can be looted but I absolutely hate it when I have to haul all of that shit and the kitchen sink. At least 1/3 of the time I sank into loot-heavy games are... just managing and hauling the fucking loot. It gets to a point where Loot start playing YOU.
This.Not much can turn me off an RPG faster than being inundated with shitty loot. I tried Grim Dawn a while back for some mindless hack and slash fun (not an RPG, I know), and it was alright at first, but now I can't bear to boot it up because I find so much loot so quickly and it's so goddamn annoying going through each item and checking if I should save it for one of my other characters. I had a similar experience with Path of Exile, but many times worse. I wanted to be killing shit, not spending half my time in trade channels or reading about the obtuse 'crafting' system.
The problem isn't really that you can pick everything up, it's that many games actively encourage you to do so. There should be no reason and no way to run around carrying hundreds of iron shortswords and metric tons of chainmail.Having ability to strip dead enemies of their armor - sure it is realistic but it is not enjoyable to hoard all that gear to get few coins or a fortune to leave you without motivation to do future quests.
I do not like loot-based RPGs. They ruin the pace and serve as filler content. I liked Fallout 1 and 2 in that regard. All weapons and armor were cool and after you collected a new piece you were left with it for a while to enjoy it but not for long to get bored of it. The loot progressed with the game. .
In practice it does 99% of the time.And no, everything you can see on characters being reflected by their inventory does not automatically mean repeatedly wheelbarrowing mountains of crappy gear back to the merchant.
6 different mechanics working together would prevent 1 thing which would be easier to prevent by simply not doing it. And if something requires prevention, why just not do it to begin with? Just make enemies drop actual meaningful loot instead of trash.Good mechanics will prevent it
Cause muh immersion.The former is great
A simple fix would be merchants simply not wanting to buy all of your shit. Why would an average shopkeeper want to buy a thousand used swords in the first place? I liked Underrail's system, for example, where merchants were only looking to buy specific items, so there was no point in collecting obscene amounts of trash items (although you did still end up with a lot of crap largely because of how important the crafting system was). Deus Ex didn't allow you to sell anything unless you count bribing a couple of NPCs with candy bars or vials of zyme, so you simply didn't need to bother with anything you didn't actually need.6 different mechanics working together would prevent 1 thing which would be easier to prevent by simply not doing it.
Let me guess, you only played the Neverwinter games and therefore got the idea that level 3 is where you are supposed to start. It is different in PnP.You are supposed to start at lvl 3, 1-3 is for learning the basics mechanics of the game.
But there are things you can do with weapon quality and things like cold iron weapons. A lot depends on the DM providing interesting enemies for the players at those lvls though. Rando human fighters are probably not that interesting as enemies.
There are also things such as accessories, limited use items (alch fire, magical ammo, wands etc) that you can use as loot without giving away +1 items.
- make enemies drop 1000 used swordsWhy would an average shopkeeper want to buy a thousand used swords in the first place