I've been thinking for a while now about the excessive multiplication of magic items in D&D.
Whether through random tables or official modules, players quickly become overloaded with items. And this ends up stripping away all the special character these items should have. Many times I've asked myself (and others) if this aligns with the literary works that inspired D&D (Appendix N etc).
Sometimes Moorcock's works are cited, since Elric has several magic items and so does Corum. there are examples on Tolkien too. But I think there's a distinction to be made there:
It seems like most of these stories have just one magic item that clearly stands out above the rest: Stormbringer, in Elric's case, Excalibur, in King Arthur's case, or the Holy Grail, in other Arthurian stories, or The One Ring, in Tolkien's case, the decks of cards in the Amber series, and so on.
And D&D-based literature seems to follow the same line, from The Crystal Shard, which gets its own book, to Dragonlance, which lends its name to an entire series.
Of course, even when there's just one protagonist item per campaign or setting, there are several other items as well. In Tolkien's case, for example, we have Andúril, the (quite powerful) Palantíri, and even Sting and mithril armor. Stormbringer itself has its twin sister sword, which gets less attention in the book.
However, what definitely does not happen in most of the literature mentioned is the constant accumulation of magic items by a single character, or quickly swapping those items for better ones. Every magic item carries a story, which is why simply discarding it seems to diminish its value and importance.
In addition, such legendary items should play a central role, not something you find in a random dungeon or that is easily traded. Think of the Arkenstone in The Hobbit, which has monetary value but also a sentimental/historical values that may cause or resolve a war, and ends up feeling more relevant than The One Ring at least for this book.
So why do D&D PCs get so many (disposable) items?
One of the reasons this happens is that, in older versions of D&D, magic items worked as a way of making PCs not only more powerful but also more unique. Often, equipment was what differentiated one character from another, in the absence of feats or even talents that could be chosen with new levels. Two tenth-level fighters, for example, would differ greatly from one another depending on the items they carried.
Now that modern D&D has feats and new class talents as you level-up (well, even BECMI and AD&D eventually got their skills, proficiencies, etc.), the magic item treadmill feels unnecessary.
But having only "meaningful magic items" is not an easy thing to apply at the table, precisely because D&D players are so used to, and expect, receiving more and more magic items.
Another problem is that D&D wizards essentially have no clear ceiling on their power. A D&D wizard with enough XP has more power than a Palantír (or a dragon, making dragonlances somewhat pointless), so many magic items may become worthless as wizards level up.
Maybe one way would be to separate legendary items from more disposable ones more clearly. Something I've been using in my (science-fantasy) campaign is making some of the supposedly "magic" items mass-produced. You could do something similar by saying that a +1 sword is just better quality and can be safely traded for a +2 sword without any regard for its story or "magic".
Since I don't like writing a post about a problem without at least trying to offer a solution, here are a few attempts:
Multiplication. A magic sword that doubles or even triples its damage, for example. If a regular sword deals 1d8+1 damage, the magic sword deals 2d8+2. But if the character, for whatever reason (strength, proficiency, etc.), deals 1d8+5 with a common sword, the magic sword deals 2d8+10. That way, it's ALWAYS meaningful, but it's far more dangerous in skilled hands.
Absolutes. Items that simply bypass the rules in an absolute way: this item is completely immune to magic, or it's basically indestructible like "the One Ring", or it simply negates any possibility of resurrection, or ignores armor completely. D&D itself already has a few items like this, they just need to be part of the setting's history instead of thrown into a lsit of artifacts.
Items that grow with the character. The longer the character keeps the item, the more they learn from it and bond with it. Something I've suggested before, but which would also work with sentient items like Stormbringer, or mysterious items like the Claw of the Conciliator, whose effects, even by the end of the book of the same name, aren't 100% clear (which is also the case with The One Ring and Stormbringer).
