D&D 5E Magic Item Shops in Your Campaign

[PhiloPharynx]

The official rules don't work for Eberron. This is an official world where many lower level items are off-the shelf. There's an artificer class and a house based on crafting magical wonders. You should be able to find many basic items for sale. In 3.5, the assumption was that NPC's of caster level 1-5 were pretty common. Beyond that, it was pretty rare. You would need to find them in ruins or seek out a broker in exotic items or craft them yourselves. I understand not wanting to go to the 3.5 era "infinite magic store", but providing no official support for this when one of your worlds would definitely have this doesn't make sense.

What's more, I've heard of people who end up with lots of gold and nothing to do with it. We don't have the OD&D assumption that people would hire companies of hirelings and build strongholds. Some character concepts have things to invest large sums in, and others don't.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Type: random.
Rarity: random.
Availability: random, limited.

When they get to a city I'll randomly generate a "shopping list" of what's available in town (if they look for it) from a whacking big excel file that takes care of the rarity factor in generating said list. The length of this list is also somewhat random, based on my roll for, relative to normal, how much happens to be available right now.

Poll doesn't really cover these options unless I vote for everything on the list, except doing that would wrongly imply everything's for sale all the time. So, no votes from me.

Agreed, although "random but the chance goes up the harder you work for it" is more accurate.

Aside from maybe healing potions, I treat buying magic items like buying fine art: you don't just walk into a shop and look for the right aisle. You become friends with a noble/organization who needs cash, or contact a broker and pay them a fee to track down what you want, or commission the work from a famed craftsperson (or do it yourself), or maybe (if you're really really rich and people know it) get invited to an auction. Buying a magic item is as big a deal as taking it from the cold, dead fingers of the giant who was just using it to try to kill you.

I didn't vote because "everything, really" wasn't an option, and I didn't feel like clicking on all the boxes.

 

[NotAYakk]

I am fiddling around with a "enterprise" system. Where you invest gold (or di tasks for it) to grow it, and it throws off opportunities. Like magic items you can buy.

But, it doesn't have to be systemic if I pretend it has mechainics to the PCs. Which makes me lazy.

Having a bag of kinds of events to tie to the enterprise may still be useful.

 

[el-remmen]

Late to the party here, but while it depends on the setting, generally I run "No magic shops" type games. In my current homebrew selling magical items is seen as gauche and dangerous (matter of commerce are profane in comparison to the arcane mysteries of the universe) - but trading is less rare. Early in my current campaign, the PCs traded a single pretty powerful ring that none of them could use very well for four lesser items from a local sketchy wizard.

Some potions and scrolls might be found for cash, but that requires negotiation at a temple or with a wizard, etc. . . I just came up with homebrew rules (no pun intended) for PCs to brew some potions during extended rests (a week of downtime).

 

[Laurefindel]

Depends on setting, but in the settings that I tend to use, magic shop usually exist to various levels of accessibility.

Most of the time, "magic shops" are boutiques catering to spellcasters, principally selling spell components and whatnot, but also selling potions and scrolls. The more "adventurer-friendly" the setting, the more shops will cater to them as their main or side-clientele with weapons, armours, and portable "goodies" at relatively high price. The more widespread magic is in the setting, the more shops will cater to the ordinary folks, providing magical solutions to "ordinary" needs (growing crops, healing disease/rheumatism, repairing stuff) at relatively low price. Typically in my campaigns, they both exist but not necessarily together, or in the same place.

For what it's worth, I consider wandering merchants, temples, and everything that isn't a private auction as a "magic shop"

 

[Charlaquin]

I don’t really have a simple rule like “potions and scrolls” or “common and uncommon items.” I also generally don’t have shops with magic items just… in stock. Generally if you’re looking for a magic item, you’ve got to hunt around for a seller as part of your downtime. If you’re just looking for magic items for sale in general and not for a specific thing, I’ll roll on the magic item tables to determine what you find. If you’re looking for something specific, you may or may not be able to find that thing, but there’s a pretty good chance you can at least find something similar.

Potions of healing are a bit of an exception; since they’re on the standard adventuring gear table, they don’t take special effort to track down. You can find them for sale in most settlements.

 

[Laurefindel]

I don’t really have a simple rule like “potions and scrolls” or “common and uncommon items.” I also generally don’t have shops with magic items just… in stock. Generally if you’re looking for a magic item, you’ve got to hunt around for a seller as part of your downtime. If you’re just looking for magic items for sale in general and not for a specific thing, I’ll roll on the magic item tables to determine what you find. If you’re looking for something specific, you may or may not be able to find that thing, but there’s a pretty good chance you can at least find something similar.

Potions of healing are a bit of an exception; since they’re on the standard adventuring gear table, they don’t take special effort to track down. You can find them for sale in most settlements.

There is indeed a difference between "this place has magic items" and "this place has the magic item you want".

 

[Lanefan]

I don’t really have a simple rule like “potions and scrolls” or “common and uncommon items.” I also generally don’t have shops with magic items just… in stock. Generally if you’re looking for a magic item, you’ve got to hunt around for a seller as part of your downtime. If you’re just looking for magic items for sale in general and not for a specific thing, I’ll roll on the magic item tables to determine what you find. If you’re looking for something specific, you may or may not be able to find that thing, but there’s a pretty good chance you can at least find something similar.

Pretty much the same here, except if you're looking for something specific and can't find it there's less chance of finding something similar, countered by the (usually-available) option of commissioning an artificer to construct your item provided a) it's not something crazy e.g. an artifact and b) you don't need the item right this minute and are willing to wait some time* for it.

* - scrolls and potions don't take long - a day or two or three unless you're after something quite rare (potion) or a very high-level spell (scroll). For permanent items it's weeks, or months, sometimes a year, depending on what you're having made.

Potions of healing are a bit of an exception; since they’re on the standard adventuring gear table, they don’t take special effort to track down. You can find them for sale in most settlements.

As for finding items during downtime, most decent-size cities have Wizard guilds^, who sometimes act as clearing-houses in their own right but more often just know who to ask and-or where to look and-or who might be selling or trading what right now; and can get buyers and sellers (or traders) together. PC Wizard-types^ generally learn this during pre-1st-level training and can pass it on, thus most adventuring characters know how/where to look for items - meaning I can usually handwave the process in-game and just generate a list of what happens to be available, provided they have a few days of sdowntime to work with.

^ - for basic martial items (weapons, armour, etc.) Warrior or Mercenary guilds often serve a similar function for fighty-types.

 

[LordEntrails]

For the campaign I'm running now, Waterdeep has a limited amount of items for sale. Each week the party is interested in buying, I roll on a table I've made. Anything else is role playing where they have to reach out to contacts etc. Usually it more about trade than purchase.

 

[Stormonu]

It depends.

In my home brew, you might be lucky to find some healing potions for sale at the local church. And if you ask the abbot/priest, he might be able to put together a low-level scroll for the party’s cleric to use.

Other than that, if the party looks around town, they might find an item or two - the blacksmith has some magic arms or armor left at his shop from the last group that passed through and never came back. If there’s a town mystic, he might have some arcane scrolls, a wand or a strange item that came into his possession. A retired adventurer might toss an old item from day gone by into the pile used to pay the adventurers.

Larger cities, may, of course have more opportuties for magic items to pop up.

And I do have a merchant house that specializes in custom-made items, but they keep on the move to avoid being robbed - and always ask for payment up front anyways.