D&D 5E No Magic Shops!

Fauchard1520 · Jan 24, 2018

5e has been out for a while, and it's been a bit since I last wrote about the cash/power economy. Are you guys happy with the lack of magic shops in 5th? Do you ever miss them? Do you find yourself itching to homebrew systems for turning gold pieces into magic items, or do you prefer to play it as written, thank-you-very-much?

Warmaster Horus · Jan 24, 2018

There is no lack of magic shops in 5e if you, as a DM, don't want there to be. Hell, Xanathar's has a whole section on buying/selling/creating magic items.

jaelis · Jan 24, 2018

I am also pretty happy that this is left to the discretion of the DM.

ad_hoc · Jan 24, 2018

I am very much relieved that there are no magic shops in 5e. Magic items feel special again. Finding them is both a cause for celebration and an opportunity to find creative uses for them.

That said, I like the downtime rules in XgtE for buying and selling items. While I'd change the prices a bit, I think it is the right way to implement a magic item market.

I would also like to see some tables for creating a common magic item shop. One that some common items from XgtE as well as the weaker potions and scrolls.

epithet · Jan 24, 2018

I've done all right, I think, implementing a magic item store. Still, I would like a more robust system that I could drop in without much work.

Fauchard1520 · Jan 24, 2018

epithet said:
I've done all right, I think, implementing a magic item store. Still, I would like a more robust system that I could drop in without much work.

Which price list are you using?

Fanaelialae · Jan 24, 2018

I'm not partial to magic item shops, so I prefer they're not the default.

That said, I do allow a sort of magic shop with an extremely limited rotating selection along the lines of this: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...on-style-quot-magic-shoppes&highlight=Auction

Shiroiken · Jan 25, 2018

I LOVE the fact that there are no magic item shops. Even the most innocuous ones ruin the economy. I've removed Potions of Healing from the equipment list, and replaced it with healing herbs (basically the same, but take 1 Minute instead of an Action) so that potions are valuable and treasured. Since I do random magical treasure (removing anything I don't want in my campaign), I've modified the Xanthar's downtime to work for a trade/barter system for magic items. This allows people to trade away items they don't use for something they might, or to seek out specific items they want, so long as they're able to trade enough away.

Caliban · Jan 25, 2018

Magic Item shops are present in the larger cities in my campaign, with hedge wizards and herbalists shops having a much more limited selection of items in rural areas.

I use the "Sane Magical Prices" PDF as baseline:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8XAiXpOfz9cMWt1RTBicmpmUDg/view?usp=sharing

iserith · Jan 25, 2018

I'm playing it as written, thank-you-very-much:

DMG, page 136: "In your campaign, magic items might be prevalent enough that adventurers can buy and sell them. Magic items might be for sale in bazaars or auction houses in fantastical locations, such as... the planar metropolis of Sigil."