Comments on: That’ll Be 180,000 gp, Please

By: DM’s Guide to Dealing With Treasure « Jonathan Drain’s D20 Source: Dungeons & Dragons Blog

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:23:11 +0000

[...] buy the ones they want, so two wrongs make a right. Not everyone likes this approach: it leads to magic supermarket syndrome, vendor trash hoarding and poor realism. There are solutions to these problems, [...]

By: Omar

Omar — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 08:48:06 +0000

The world determines whether or not you can do these things.

D&D is high magic generally speaking. Eberron and Forgotten Realms are extremely magical. It makes perfect sense you would find/buy/make/sell items.

There are already more powerful items that the party can only find, these are called artifacts.

The one ring of Lord of the Rings fame, is not a “Ring of Invisibility”, it is a Cursed Artifact. You can’t make it or buy it.

The swords that could kill the Ringwraiths?

Crafted by mortal men of Numenor. Probably extremely rare, but buyable at one stage.

By: Alex

Alex — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 20:55:11 +0000

I would almost never let a party go shopping for high level items, but selling lower level items? That’s a different matter. If the party thief outgrows their old +1 magic dagger when they get a +3 short sword of level draining, I wouldn’t have a problem having them flog the old item – and higher levels offer role play material in that you could sell it to a fairly high ranking individual who could use it to reward a later group of adventurers (if you have a persistent campaign setting, even better – imagine a previous party selling a +2 staff of healing to the high priest of a town, only to later get it with a different character on a different campaign who completed a quest to investigate the evil cult outside of town). Mass selling should be infeasible, but unless the characters are avoiding civilisation entirely, I’m unlikely to ever make it so they have 15 swords, two enchanted bucklers and about 10 or so suits of magic armour spare in the cart that they want to sell.

4e handles the matter much better; it’s entirely possible as a GM to say that you can’t sell the sword and if you want it you’ll have to disenchant it and find someone who’ll take the marginally more tradeable residuum.

By: Stone2065

Stone2065 — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 06:10:18 +0000

I warn you all… old fart rant coming…

The first time I played AD&D was around 1982 or so, so I started on the concept that there was no such thing as “making” a magic item by anyone but a NPC, and even then, simply throwing money at said NPC didn’t get you anywhere. If you wanted a magic item, you adventured for it… after the adventure, if say you had an item that was class specific and your party didn’t have that class member, you either held onto it for trade barter or left it. (Remember, you got xp for finding the item, regardless if you kept it or not.)

When 2nd ed came around, my big hosanna was for being able to have an elf ranger finally, and sort of fell into the concept of being able to actually purchase my new +2 longsword, etc. Third ed came along and now I could just make the stuff myself. Again, I just fell into the other aspects of the “improved” version, instead of the fact that you could make more money with the right character setup by making and selling magic items (and masterwork too, for that matter) than EVER setting foot in a dark, damp, dangerous dungeon. The market economy mindset had arrived at AD&D.

Personally, I now play 3.5 with some friends for fun, but I have recently been going over my old 1st ed stuff, and the more I re-read it, the more I like the original concepts put down there. I would love to either find a DM to run a 1st ed game, or find players without the Monty Haul mindset that want to play for the storyline aspects of the game as in 1st ed, and I will run the damn thing…

…just my two cents worth…

(rant done)

By: MrCompetition

MrCompetition — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:05:32 +0000

My (regular) GM handles buying and magic items in a rather practical way. Low-level potions and scrolls can be obtained if there’s a church in the area (or practicing wizard/alchemist). The local smith has a 50% chance of being able to even make or obtain magical weapons and/or armor, with only a 25% chance of having any available and then only up to +2 in any situation other than large city’s. Prices for these fluctuate depending on the situation and how the town feels about the players. This is just the buying end of the equation.

On the selling end, good luck unless your willing to slash your prices. The npcs almost never have enough coin to pay the usual prices up-front (Unless other players are buying from that source). Our usual route is to use our old +1 sword or amour in place of some coin in payment for a +2 sword or armour or for a better +1 sword or armour. Good luck on getting a +3 outside of a dungeon.

By: AWizardInDallas

AWizardInDallas — Sat, 10 May 2008 17:16:08 +0000

I think of it in terms of a story. How exciting would it be to read about a hero going to the store to buy his magic sword to slay the dragon with? I think the buying and selling of magic items is very unheroic and anti-climatic. Questing for or even commissioning a magic item from a myserious wizard or priest is far acceptable to me, especially if the characters have to go on quests to collect the items or spells necessary for the item. The play is the thing. The buying selling and trading of magic items sullies the story-telling spirit of the game.

By: John

John — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 04:54:43 +0000

While I think it should be somewhat difficult, I think it’s exceeding realistic to have items of fantastic value in any setting. I think the second temple in Jerusalem is the perfect example. Everything from the marble stones to the gold inlay to the very doors of an edifice that ultimately comprised a staggering portion of the entire walled city (the total area of the temple complex being larger than most of the neighborhoods in the city at the time) was crafted and imported. The Jews did not invent what must have been extremely uncommon commissions of hundreds of thousands of tons of finely dressed marble from other countries and moving carved wooden doors that according to legend could sink ships from Africa. Those economies and skills all existed already. So, just because 99.99999% of the population is completely incapable of accessing those markets, they clearly do exist and have existed throughout the world, for thousands of years.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 22:38:31 +0000

I’ve seen both types of games (always using 3.5), and I really think it does come down to DM control. I have one regular DM who tends to make relatively low magic worlds, where a +1 weapon/armor or minor item can be found without too much difficulty, but others require the aid of powerful mages that request more than mere gold. On the other hand, I’m running a game where magic permeates the entire world. Although it’s not to the point of Final Fantasy’s magic shop in every tiny town, a larger city in any of the major nations will have shops that specifically sell a variety of minor and medium items and some mage’s consortiums even have a sort of mail-order catalogue from which one could potentially order a +1 sword and receive it in the mail a week or so later. The question for the DM is really how magic works in the world they’ve created (or are using). More magic will often translate into more magic items (I’d pay a fair amount of money for something to make me smarter). But if magic is a rare thing, then those few magic items that do exist will be treasured posessions not quickly surrendered. In terms of balance, I had one DM who ran a low magic campaign but made available non-magical weapons that gave bonuses equivalent to a +1 or +2 item.

By: Rick

Rick — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 11:28:04 +0000

I’m all for the 2e approach. Minor items can be bought or sold, but usually at the local church/alchemist or other institution. “Ye old shop O’ magic” has no place in my campaign…save in the biggest, most wonderous city and even they would only handle low level items.
Our party went back to the 2e rules for magical item creation (without the con price for perminancy) which makes searching for the components and constructing the item a memorable, personal experience. In our campaign it is not easy to commission an item unless the party turns up on the door with all components for the item ready and a sack of gold for his time.
Minor items should be common enough to give the party a little help, but a character should be as uniquely recognizable by his items as by his name and deeds.

By: MadMaxJr

MadMaxJr — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 04:39:17 +0000

It depends entirely on the setting, as to how available magic is. Forgotten Realms has a high magic setting where I understand there is even the occasional magic item shop. In my games, they come across magic items.. But come time to sell them, the place they want to sell it better have an economy capable of paying the price. No 160,000 GP sale to the villagers please. It’s just another facet of how the DM wishes to control power/economics of the party. Use fair judgment and make sure the players are still having fun.

Of course, most importantly, any sufficiently powerful magic item, will have other people looking for it, even in the hands of your players….