Magic weapon cap

[HamsterKun]

Can anybody explain to me why magic weapons & armor have a cap of +3, as supposed to +5 in earlier editions?

[Sigreid]

I believe it is to reduce the amount of AC and attack bonus that the opposition requires to still remain some level of a threat.

[MeeposFire]

Can anybody explain to me why magic weapons & armor have a cap of +3, as supposed to +5 in earlier editions?

As Sigreid has said but to give more background weapons only go up to +3 in 5e. I do not believe there are any +4 or +5 weapons currently in 5e. So the spell still does the same thing but only so far as each edition allows.

[The Kool]

It's all a part of the general overarching concept of Bounded Accuracy. By limiting the amount and severity of bonuses, you can more directly control the difficulties and the numbers involved.

In gamed of this style, players like to accrue loot. The longer you've been playing, the more stuff you will have, and the better it will be. This is at the heart of where D&D began, and many players and DMs still use it as a marker of success. Regardless, the longer you play, the better the stuff you will have. In older editions, this meant that players who have been around a while (mid-high level PCs) are going to have gear that gives some pretty good numbers. In order for challenges to remain challenging, they have to account for this. And thus, in order to remain competent against these challenges, the players need to have the gear they are expected to have. In order to facilitate this, the gear is made easier to get, and the more difficult certain challenges need to be, and so on. It's a vicious cycle that leads to phenomena where you can easily have +30 or so to a roll at level 1, in 3.5... In order to combat this, flat bonuses are hard to come by in 5e. By limiting the bonus you can possibly get from a weapon or armor to +3 (and this only in 'very rare' cases), you no longer have to plan for the players having this gear. If they do, it won't completely overrun the challenge, and if they don't, they won't be completely lost.

[Tanarii]

As far as earlier editions go, typically you were only looking at above a +3 bonus if it was a sword in Classic or AD&D.

[Chronos]

MeeposFire, I don't think you were answering the question you thought you were answering.