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DM Advice on dealing with PCs buying/selling magic items
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<blockquote data-quote="jdavis" data-source="post: 513293" data-attributes="member: 8704"><p>Any magic Item a party sells should be lucky to bring half the price the DMG has listed, unless it is very rare or powerful. I would also disallow any down time bartering, that is something that needs to be done in character. The first offer any merchant who deals in magic items will probably be only a fraction of the actual value and should be negociated from there. They should never get full price for anything, how would the merchant make any money reselling it if he bought it for full price. I'd also make them play their stats and skills too, a Barbarian with a 10 charisma and no appraise would have no clue what something is worth or how to go about haggling with a merchant to get a good price. (he might be able to do it but he wouldn't be very good at it at all.) If a item isn't appraised then the characters don't have a clue to what it is worth. Also I wouldn't let them know what they have found, if they have found a sword that shows up to detect magic then they really don't know much about it except that it is magical. To find out they either have to test it or cast Identify (which has a 100gp spell component). Testing a magic item can be quite tricky (how do you test a ring of feather falling unless you jump off of something? what happens if you are wrong about it being a ring of feather falling?) The more they have to struggle to figure out what they have the more magic items will have meaning. Another way to go about it is to have merchants who are willing to trade items but don't want to buy them (most merchants just wouldn't have the gold on hand to by the majority of the items in the book). That way you can still control what items they get. It is also a bad idea to let PC's look through any book but the players handbook during gameplay.</p><p></p><p>As far as buying magic items is concerned, the best way to go about that is to make the vast majority of the magic Items custom made, that way they can either purchase what a merchant has on hand (giving you control over what they can buy) or they have to have the item created. Make Item creation take enough time that it isn't convienent, if it takes 3 months to have a +2 sword made then they might figure they are better off keeping the items that they find. Having the wizard backlogged with orders can drag things out for months, and if they want their item done as a rush job or moved to the top of the list, well that will take even more money beyond the listed cost ("you want it now? that will cost you double.") Most magic items have a exp point cost associated with making them too, a high level wizard probably has plenty of gold, so it is probabaly not worth his time or effort to make something for somebody else for the cost listed in the book. That gives you the oportunity to have the wizard barter for services on top of the gold payment, which is a excellent adventure hook ("you want me to make you a sword, and I want this spell component, when you show up with my Red Dragon's toungue I'll start work on your sword.") I would also just mark off alot of items as not being able to purchase reguardless of where they are or how much gold they have, nobody in their right mind is going to sell off a Rod of Lordly Might or a Staff of Power or any magic items of similar power or value. Finding somebody to make you a Rod of Lordly Might should be a whole adventure in itself, it could take years. Likewise finding somebody to buy a Rod of Lordly Might from your characters should be nearly impossible unless they only want a fraction of it's value.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jdavis, post: 513293, member: 8704"] Any magic Item a party sells should be lucky to bring half the price the DMG has listed, unless it is very rare or powerful. I would also disallow any down time bartering, that is something that needs to be done in character. The first offer any merchant who deals in magic items will probably be only a fraction of the actual value and should be negociated from there. They should never get full price for anything, how would the merchant make any money reselling it if he bought it for full price. I'd also make them play their stats and skills too, a Barbarian with a 10 charisma and no appraise would have no clue what something is worth or how to go about haggling with a merchant to get a good price. (he might be able to do it but he wouldn't be very good at it at all.) If a item isn't appraised then the characters don't have a clue to what it is worth. Also I wouldn't let them know what they have found, if they have found a sword that shows up to detect magic then they really don't know much about it except that it is magical. To find out they either have to test it or cast Identify (which has a 100gp spell component). Testing a magic item can be quite tricky (how do you test a ring of feather falling unless you jump off of something? what happens if you are wrong about it being a ring of feather falling?) The more they have to struggle to figure out what they have the more magic items will have meaning. Another way to go about it is to have merchants who are willing to trade items but don't want to buy them (most merchants just wouldn't have the gold on hand to by the majority of the items in the book). That way you can still control what items they get. It is also a bad idea to let PC's look through any book but the players handbook during gameplay. As far as buying magic items is concerned, the best way to go about that is to make the vast majority of the magic Items custom made, that way they can either purchase what a merchant has on hand (giving you control over what they can buy) or they have to have the item created. Make Item creation take enough time that it isn't convienent, if it takes 3 months to have a +2 sword made then they might figure they are better off keeping the items that they find. Having the wizard backlogged with orders can drag things out for months, and if they want their item done as a rush job or moved to the top of the list, well that will take even more money beyond the listed cost ("you want it now? that will cost you double.") Most magic items have a exp point cost associated with making them too, a high level wizard probably has plenty of gold, so it is probabaly not worth his time or effort to make something for somebody else for the cost listed in the book. That gives you the oportunity to have the wizard barter for services on top of the gold payment, which is a excellent adventure hook ("you want me to make you a sword, and I want this spell component, when you show up with my Red Dragon's toungue I'll start work on your sword.") I would also just mark off alot of items as not being able to purchase reguardless of where they are or how much gold they have, nobody in their right mind is going to sell off a Rod of Lordly Might or a Staff of Power or any magic items of similar power or value. Finding somebody to make you a Rod of Lordly Might should be a whole adventure in itself, it could take years. Likewise finding somebody to buy a Rod of Lordly Might from your characters should be nearly impossible unless they only want a fraction of it's value. [/QUOTE]
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