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r/Pathfinder2e • … • u/TitaniumDragon

Why do people think PF2E has fewer cool magic items than 5E?

This came up in another thread, but I wanted to break it out as its own topic. The idea came up that 5E has cooler items than PF2E does.

Now, PF2E does have cool items - generally speaking, these are either magic items with cool magic powers (like the Hydra Spear, the Stampede Medallion, the Sash of Prowess, etc.) or things like wands or staves that give you extra spells, or items that simulate spells like the replacement for the necklace of fireballs.

In my experience, you'll generally have a couple of cool items on a character by 10th level or so, plus a bunch of stat boosters.

Thing is, thinking about 5E... this is basically the same.

For instance, Abigail, my Tempest Cleric, had, as her items by 11th level, the Pin of the Sea God (let her swim and hold her breath underwater), Mithril Armor, Boots of Striding and Springing, a Staff of Healing, and a +1 magic weapon to bonk people with. Of those, only the staff of Healing would really count as "cool".

My 17th level Fighter, Zanthor Aurum, a dragonborn, had for his "cool magic items" a blade that ate people's souls on a crit (which actually broke when fighting the final boss, as he used it to put down the Mad Mage for good) which he then replaced with the mage's golf club (i.e. a rod of lordly might, but this was a post-game thing, totally not actually treasure he ever got to use). Otherwise, he had the Horn of Valhalla (which summoned a swarm of berserk minotaurs once a week), an Onyx Dog, and a Cloak of the Bat. So that is, at best, four cool magic items, and the Onyx Dog is honestly pretty marginal in a party where there are multiple other PCs who can do the same task of finding invisible things. The rest of his items were stat boosters or consumables.

I don't feel like I have any fewer cool magic items on a PF2E character than I do on a 5E chararcter. It seems like people only remember the cool items, and forget that most items in 5E are lame, too. Ironically, it felt like 4E had more cool magic items (though I also homebrew magic items a lot for that).

Do other people have a different experience with this? These were both characters who went through official 5E adventure paths (Saltmarsh and Curse of the Mad Mage respectively), I never really felt like I got tons of cool magic gear in 5E either.

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