Recently I have been trying to set a rule of thumb as of when it's time to reward my players with that +1 magic sword or when will they find that stash of X gold in it. Can somebody provide me a guide with what power should players have at each level from 1 to 20? For example: By level 2 they should have 50g each. By level 3 they should have found at least 1 magic item as a party. Etc...
If you need more clarity please tell me, Thank you in advance!
If you are building encounters and campaigns based on the rules in the Dungeon Master's Guide, you will not require any magic items and only fundamental gear (such as the starting gear).
This concept is built into the core and magic items are only optional benefits that a GM can provide. This is backed by this tweet from Christopher Perkins, one of the 5e designers:
If your 5E characters have no magic items, the game would still be balanced.
I think I remember Jeremy Crawford commenting on this fact in a podcast, but I can't seem to find it again.
