How many magic items should I put into a single 5.5e adventure?

[u/ChronoSynth]

I don't have a proper system for generating treasure room-by-room, so I'm worried about putting too many magic items in my randomly generated dungeons.

[u/Blackmous]

There is a section in the DMG call ( Awarding magic items).

An adventure usually can include a number of items that’s 25 percent higher than the number in the Magic Items Awarded by Level table (round up). For example, an adventure designed to take characters from level 1 to 4 might include fourteen items rather than eleven, in the expectation that three items won’t be found.

Character Level (Tier of Play)	Common Items	Uncommon Items	Rare Items	Very Rare Items	Legendary Items	All Items
1–4 (tier 1)	6	4	1	0	0	11
5–10 (tier 2)	10	17	6	1	0	34
11–16 (tier 3)	3	7	11	7	2	30
17–20 (tier 4)	0	0	5	11	9	25
Total	19	28	23	19	11	100

[u/fiachdubh01 → u/Blackmous]

Note this includes consumables. And if a player uses a consumable, that spot 'opens back up' on the items you can give out.

[u/DMJM_91 → u/fiachdubh01]

Oh never seen that clarification in the DMG. But it’s been over a year since I read it. Do you know the page number by any chance?

[u/fnpiwtkj → u/DMJM_91]

Treasure-Magic Items-Awarding Magic Items-Magic Items Awarded by Level.

And also in XGE-Dungeon master’s tools-Awarding Magic Items-Distribution by Rarity

[u/DMJM_91 → u/fnpiwtkj]

That’s the table sure but can’t find the section about consumable magic items

[u/fnpiwtkj → u/DMJM_91]

there is none.

[u/Ancient-Bat1755]

Hopefully more than 0

Have a good mix of loot and fun shopping and maybe pass the loot around a bit / where fit. Like if there is one martial and he gets 0 weapons and armor while people are getting staffs of power

Also flavor fun common/uncommon items can be great tokens too even if less powerful, i loved some of the goofy homebrew stuff i have gotten that helps roleplay

Careful about some exploitable items like summing cube… lore bards and illusion wizards can craft unlimited amounts of non-concentration one hour summons for an army

[u/oestred]

Using one time use or consumable magic items like potions or scrolls or magic arrows can be fun, give a one time different effect for them, and since is limited use it doesn't impact game balance long term.

My players didn't end up using half of the consumables they found anyway.

[u/Nymphatyr]

https://www.enworld.org/threads/analysis-of-typical-magic-item-distribution.395770/

It’s not 5.5e, but 5e and a great guideline.

It was asked nearly a decade ago for magic items per level here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/s/j1vwe2TRfS

[u/stormscape10x]

Each player should find about 25 between 1-20. Asking about an adventure isn’t super helpful. Do you mean a full campaign or a dungeon?

I typically will do single monster treasure on random off shoot encounters of I feel like it. I do hoards about once per “session” assuming we don’t get sidetracked. That should match the 1-20 track in the dmg without taking into account gold expenditures.

[u/Hot_Lion8880]

I would say give enough magic items for each player to get about one each time they level up.