Magic. You just cannot get enough of it. Who can? certainly not an ancient Lich like me. This is Malcon the Firebringer here to discuss my favorite subject with you. Magic is what makes Dungeons and Dragons different than other role playing games. There were many copies of Dungeons and Dragons back when this game was new. Some thought that the magic system in D & D was too draconian. The whole Vancian magic thing seemed too restrictive to designers of other fantasy games that came shortly after Dungeons and Dragons arrived.
Vancian Magic. For those of you who play other editions of Dungeons and Dragons than the early versions like AD&D or OD&D magic was limited. Individual spells had to be memorized. The caster was able to memorize a limited number per level of experience. Each spell had to be “prepared” in advance by memorizing it and having the necessary spell components on hand to cast it.
In my opinion this is one of the things that Dungeons and Dragons got absolutely right. Magic has to be restricted or else it becomes cheap. Which brings me to another point I want to make early in this article.
Never sell magic to your players. It always bugs me when I hear of Dungeon Masters who allow their players to walk into a magic shop in some city or town and buy that +5 Holy Avenger that they always wanted. Talk about cheapening the value of magic in your games. Magic items should be earned not bought. The sword would be far more valuable to your players when take it in an epic battle with some powerful creature after slaying it in it’s own lair. That is what legends are made of. And legends are what magic items are about.
Sources of Magical Items For 1st and 2nd Edition
There are lots of good sources for magical items out there for Dungeons and Dragons. In fact…I wrote one myself. It is called my “Tome of Magic.”
This tome if filled with new magical items for OSRIC. But of course, like all magical items, they are easily converted to whatever edition of this game that you are playing. One thing that I noticed about the Dungeon Master’s Guide and other sources of magic items is that certain classes seem to be favored with magic items specific to them. But classes like monks, assassins, illusionists, druids and bards are sort of neglected. This tome attempts to correct this deficiency by adding lots of new items specific to those classes. It is a pay what you want product on Drivethrurpg.
Tome of Magic 2E – TSR made a book called Tome of Magic for 2nd Edition which had many spells and new magic items.
Unearthed Arcana 1E – The Unearthed Arcana provided 1st Edition some new spells, classes and magic items.
The Magic Encyclopedia 2E Volume I – 2E came out with a set of volumes of items of all types.
The Magic Encyclopedia Volume II
The Encyclopedia Magica Bundle 2E
Volo’s Guide to All things Magical 2E
Magic Items for 5th Edition
There are sources for new items for 5th Edition as well.
Magic Items – Volume One From Terran Empire Publishing
Forgotten Magical Items – Volume One – From Stainless Steel Dragon
Forgotten Magical Items – Volume Two
Other Sources of Magical Items
Of course there have been many published works on Magic for Dungeons and Dragons in it’s many versions. There is no way that I could possibly list all of them here. But there are many possible sources for these items. Choose them wisely.
