The last several patches noticeably increased the amount of rare and/or magical items in the game. I like the diversity we got, but I have several concerns about the implementation:
1. Contextual items placed randomly on the world map. By contextual here I mean an item with a story, portrayed through either description or its unique properties.
A bad example - The Sparkle Hands (and almost all of the other 'lightning charges themed' items). Why would gloves which have a mention of some Yrre the Sparkstruck in the description casually wait for you in the fetid bog in the middle of nowhere? How does it connect with wooden woads and mud mephits nearby? Why is there a chest here in the first place?
There are a lot of examples like this in the game, to name a few: Speedy Lightfeet (windmill cellar), Haste Helm (blighted village square chest), Hamarhaft (a magical maul in a burnt inn) Circlet of Fire (necromancer's laboratory) and so on and so on.
A good example - Amulet of the Lost Voices. An amulet related to a scribe of the dead which allows you to communicate with the fallen is found in a chest inside the temple of Jergal. It is a perfect fit for this location.
2. Class items are tied to class actionsA bad example: If I am not a bard, I have no use for
Blazer of Benevolence, Cap of Curing, Boots of Brilliance. If I am not a barbarian, I have no use for
Reason's Grasp. Those items are useless outside of their class and it makes getting them from enemies or treasure chest an irritating rather than rewarding experience.
A good example - Bloodguzzler Garb. Even if this item is barbarian themed, any class can make use of its effect. I can even build a mage armor melee dex-wizard around it. A very good design here.
3. Pixel hunting for magic items.Having to fully zoom in, then search for a tip of a skeleton's arm popping from the tall grass to loot a magical ring from it is a no go. Containers, or corpses, should be visible to the player, especially when they contain rare items. Or at least there should be a perception check to help you spot those containers.
There are two
bad examples I can recall from the memory - A
Smuggler's Ring and an
Explorer's Ring. Both require exquisite levels of pixel hunting.
4. Quality over quantity.I'll just quote another user here:
There are far too many magic items already. So many that it's impossible to put them in proper context. It's starting to feel like Diablo, or Divinity where gear exists only for an MMO style grind where you are upgrading gear every 5 minutes and selling 90% of it. That's not D&D, nor does a video game need that. It's just an attempt to put "more game" in a game, at the expense of credible world building which might not matter in an MMO but it matters in a story driven single player RPG.
I wish they would show restraint here because more is not better. It's quantity over quality. It's like grabbing a burger at McD rather than eating at an Italian restaurant. I for one am annoyed at being showered with magic items that have weird conditional or nonsensical properties and funny names. In BG1 finding magic items felt really rewarding and special. In BG3 it's just more stuff.
I think if those issues are resolved, then looting and finding treasure in the game would feel much more natural and rewarding.
