Wizards of the Coast is releasing a Magic Item Compendium reprinting 750 magic items from previous publications and Dragon Magazine articles, while adding in 500 new items.
In anticipation of its release later this month, they're running a series of articles by Andy Collins, one of the book's designers. In the first article he talks about how many players focus on a six specific classes of magic items and tend to ignore almost everything else. He's right -- when creating or buying their own magic items, players tend to focus on what gives them their biggest bang for their buck, so items like +1 long swords and gloves of dexterity +2 win out over rods of enemy detection or helms of underwater action.
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