I tend to represent the school of thought where the more powerful and useful items (such as Firepipe or Brooch of Shielding) should generally be just as attainable for players with mediumish time on their hands as for those with a lot of time.
Most utility items, to me, strike more as being of atmospheric flavor than of any actual use. Many of them are way too rare, or bulky, or just lack particular usefulness. Quintessance is a pretty good example of such an item. It takes a lot of space, is five times heavier than a potion, has only one use (of Cure Serious (or Moderate) Wounds) and is well too rare to really be gathered in useful amounts. I'd like if items such as this were somewhat more common to serve a bit more purpose.
And generally, however rare/expensive an item is that
can drop in a dungeon at all or be bought for a lot of coin, there will still be a group of players who has a good and reliable access to it. I tend to consider it fairer that that this group is relatively large and not an exclusive one that requires a lot of time, or very good dungeoning skills, or excellent network of friends. Hence, I overall feel that as it is, many magical items are too rare a sight, if even attainable at all to most.
Uh.. And.. Uh... It's
halved, as the root word is
to halve...