Doctor Futurity
Hero
Anyone not using the selling rules in the "downtime" section of the DMG is missing out on the fact that it's pretty hard to get full value on magic items.
Although I agree that the economy of the game is borked, I feel this is nothing unusual for every edition. After four and a half years of a default magic-item economy and massive escalating gold earnings in PF I have thoroughly embraced 5E's distinct non-economy. When PCs go out to find magic items they find that every item generally has an unwilling owner or a quest involved with it. "Want an Alchemist's Jug? Sure, i know a guy in the Capitol who owes me....I just need some gold to get the jug imported, and as a favor I'd appreciate it if you took out a local gang of assassins for me..." "Oh, a broom of flying? I heard that the Witch in the North Mountains knows the secret of how to make one. You'll need to seek out the old cursed duke who knows the secret path to her hut, but he'll probably want you to deal with the banshee that haunts his lands..."
I live in glorious ignorance of concern about everything that the OP has problems with by fully embracing the creation/selling rules and emphasizing the true worth of magic items in my game, such that no one ever sells them. Just pretend it's a gun economy....in a world where almost no one knows how to make guns or bullets, and those who do need to go mine for ore and find the right chemicals on their own in a monster-haunted land.*
*Yes, a gun economy where a saturday night special might be very rare while a bazooka might be uncommon. I'm not sure there's a rule that says you can't have it that way....and even less so now that it seems these are carry-overs from 3.5
Although I agree that the economy of the game is borked, I feel this is nothing unusual for every edition. After four and a half years of a default magic-item economy and massive escalating gold earnings in PF I have thoroughly embraced 5E's distinct non-economy. When PCs go out to find magic items they find that every item generally has an unwilling owner or a quest involved with it. "Want an Alchemist's Jug? Sure, i know a guy in the Capitol who owes me....I just need some gold to get the jug imported, and as a favor I'd appreciate it if you took out a local gang of assassins for me..." "Oh, a broom of flying? I heard that the Witch in the North Mountains knows the secret of how to make one. You'll need to seek out the old cursed duke who knows the secret path to her hut, but he'll probably want you to deal with the banshee that haunts his lands..."
I live in glorious ignorance of concern about everything that the OP has problems with by fully embracing the creation/selling rules and emphasizing the true worth of magic items in my game, such that no one ever sells them. Just pretend it's a gun economy....in a world where almost no one knows how to make guns or bullets, and those who do need to go mine for ore and find the right chemicals on their own in a monster-haunted land.*
*Yes, a gun economy where a saturday night special might be very rare while a bazooka might be uncommon. I'm not sure there's a rule that says you can't have it that way....and even less so now that it seems these are carry-overs from 3.5
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