kaomera wrote:IME a well-played M-U spent a lot of time and energy trying to out-think the opposition, so that he could put his spells to the best use without exposing himself to more risk than was absolutely necessary.
Right. I didn't mean to imply that every M-U character had every item in the book they wanted; just that any player who managed to level an M-U to 10th level or higher has had a lot of time and resources devoted to considering what the key risks are and mitigating them to the greatest extent possible. The basic weaknesses are bad AC, bad HP, and certain bad Saves; and the solutions to all of those are well tested and available to the creative players who work on them.
kaomera wrote:The point of D&D is fun, after all, and getting "Stuff" is fun.
Personally, I've found that some "stuff" opens up fun options, but in general the more stuff you get / the less you work for it, the less significant and therefore fun that stuff is.
Personally, I'm with you on that. I'd rather have one named sword strongly associated with character (e.g., Excalibur) than ten swords to choose from. But my players have a more Final Fantasy "collectors" mindset. They just want to have "all the stuff", to "clear the level", etc. just for sake of completism. They don't create a "magic item economy" though because they never sell anything. I swear, if there was a Hoarders episode for D&D players they'd be on it.