Reduced magic item pricing

[Lauguz]

I'm working on a high octane UnderDark campaign and one of the obstacles I've run into is the pricing of magic items. In order to accommodate low ECL races and have characters with some oomph I've set starting PCs at 6th level. However the starting gp for a 6th level character isn't enough to get into the fun magic items. The obvious solution is to increase PC starting level, however I've been out of the d20 scene for a couple of years so I'm not ready to jump into high level play.

One solution I've considered is reducing the price of magic items, which would both increase available PC items but also reinforce the idea that magic items are more common in the citadels of the UnderDark (and idea I'm attached to due to my early exposure to the D series of 1E modules where all the drow are walking around with +3 or better everything).

So my question is this: has anyone worked through the mechanics of reducing magic item pricing? Does it do totally whacky things to campaign balance?

 

[MarkB]

Why not just give them more gold? Treat them as a level or two higher for purposes of starting wealth.

Alternatively, buy the Magic Item Compendium, which has plenty of cool items at the lower end of the price scale.

 

[Lauguz]

Why not just give them more gold? Treat them as a level or two higher for purposes of starting wealth.

I'd considered bumping everyone up on the starting gp scale, but decided that lower prices reinforces the setting economy.

Alternatively, buy the Magic Item Compendium, which has plenty of cool items at the lower end of the price scale.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check it out.

 

[irdeggman]

Another option is to start PCs with a different gp worth of funds then is listed in the book.

I started to run AoW and had my PCs start with 1200 xp (to allow for LA races and crafting scrolls before game start) and with 950 gp.

This allowed them to get a tad more than they were "entitled" to but the adventure path is real deadly and I figured they needed all the help they could get. Also this was "starting gear" anything after that was going to be harder to come by (just not a lot of Magic Shops in diamond Lake if you know what I mean.

 

[pawsplay]

Just double their gold. It will even out pretty quickly. If you do lower the price of items, there will be consequences later.

 

[Mark CMG]

However the starting gp for a 6th level character isn't enough to get into the fun magic items. The obvious solution is to increase PC starting level, (. . .)

Naw. The obvious is what MarkB suggested in starting them with more wealth or lowering the prices like you say. But you might want to put an individual item price cap so they don't wind up like clones in paranoia walking around with nuclear handgrenades. Unless that *is* your idea of "fun magic items."

 

[MarkB]

I'd considered bumping everyone up on the starting gp scale, but decided that lower prices reinforces the setting economy.

Greater wealth and lower prices have exactly the same effect in-game, and using the former means you don't need to bother re-calculating the price of every item the PCs buy and sell.

Just choose a an effective level-adjustment for wealth purposes (i.e. +2), and use it for both starting gold and for calculating monsters' treasures, and thus your setting's economy will be adjusted without you needing to alter any of the in-game figures.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Magic Item Compendium greatly increases the number of fun magic items. Without it, everyone just takes magic weapons, metamagic rods, ac, save and stat boosters. Of them, I'd say only weapons are cool. If you don't use MIC maybe you should ban the vanilla items.

 

[MerricB]

Definitely get the Magic Item Compendium. It has fun items for a low price... and for higher prices as well. It's one of the best books this year. No, wait - it is the best book this year.

Cheers!

 

[blargney the second]

Another voice in the chorus of Magic Item Compendium. It does exactly what you're looking for.
-blarg