How does one make magic weapons?

scottchiefbaker · 2nd November 2009, 07:05 PM

Say I want to buy the "Wand of Shield" from page 244 of the PHB.

#1) Do I just go to the nearest city and find the magic dude and buy it? Do I need to have a "blank" wand for him to enchant? If I have an existing wand that has another ability can I switch it?

#2) I'm assuming I can't use a Level 8 shield until I'm level 8? Can I buy it at level 7 and carry it until I'm level 8? Or does the level of the item not matter.

#3) Critical says "+1d6 per plus" does that mean the the level 18 Wand of Shield (which is +4) would do +4d6?

chitzk0i · 2nd November 2009, 07:15 PM

If you have a ritual caster, you can make it using the Enchant Magic Item ritual in the back of the PHB. However, if you have the money, you should be able to just buy it in a large enough settlement. All your question will be answered by page 223 of the PHB.

Mentat55 · 2nd November 2009, 07:16 PM

1) Depending on your DM and your game world, you may be able to buy some magic items. However, the most direct way is to use the Enchant Magic Item ritual.

2) You can use an item of any level. However, to make an item using the Enchant Magic Item ritual, you need to be equal to or higher than the level of the desired item. Item level is also used by the DM to roughly gauge what to give the party in terms of treasure.

3) Correct.

Starfox · 3rd November 2009, 10:42 AM

What the actually DMG suggests is that whenever a player needs to bye a particular item, a "mysterious stranger" appears with that item for sale. In other words, if you got the cash, the mysterious forces of the DM has the wares. How to express this in each campaign is up to the DM. However, there is a 30% to 70% markup. If you enchant your own stuff, you avoid the markup, but cannot make items over your own level.

Note that the rule saying you only get 20% of an items worth if yous ell/disenchant it almost guarantees you'll be cash-starved, so don't expect to be buying/making many items in the points-of-light economy.

Nightson · 4th November 2009, 06:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starfox

What the actually DMG suggests is that whenever a player needs to bye a particular item, a "mysterious stranger" appears with that item for sale. In other words, if you got the cash, the mysterious forces of the DM has the wares. How to express this in each campaign is up to the DM. However, there is a 30% to 70% markup. If you enchant your own stuff, you avoid the markup, but cannot make items over your own level.

The suggested markup is 10%-40%