D&D 5E Sane Magic Item Prices

[pming]

Hiya!
[MENTION=6704530]Saidoro[/MENTION], are you taking into account anything other than "in combat how effective would this be"? If you are, then ok, off you go. If you aren't, then you are only half-way there.

For example, there is the whole "attunement" thing. That's a pretty big one. Also, if you rule that potions that duplicate spells follow the same Concentration restrictions; that makes a big difference. Additionally, say, the Broom of Flying; easy enough to just rule that when you are flying it, you need to have both hands firmly grasping it to control and steer it, and/or you need to Concentrate. POOF! No more casting spells with Concentration requirement, or Somatic requirements, no shooting bows, etc; basically, its a means of transportation. Period.

Of course, my "fixes" are only needed if it's a problem in a game to begin with. In my game, it's not. I think in the 10 (?) months we've been playing (me DM'ing every single game), my players have found a grand total of about 6 magic items. I think there was a cloak, a staff, a dagger, and a couple of potions. Lack of magic items hasn't made a lick of difference.

That said, I took a look at your price list. If you want to do the whole "Magick Shoppe" thing for your campaign, it looks like you at least have a good solid base price list that you are happy with. It is much more detailed than that in the DMG, so it should be easy for you to adjust as needed much easier. The only thing I'd look into is the spell-scrolls and potions; they seem a bit cheap, overall. A spellcaster being able to spend a few hundred (or thousand) gold to permanently increase his spell-count in his spellbook is a huge thing.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Fanaelialae]

In those encounters where the wizard is not threatened, why does the wizard not just tell everyone else to leave while he handles things? I know exactly why he doesn't do that from an OOC standpoint, but from an IC tactical one the party is just making a horrible decision by putting people at risk when they don't need to be.

Because monsters typically don't stand by idly while the rest of the party strolls away? Because if the wizard could do that, and a flying/ranged enemy showed up during the encounter, the wizard would be toast without the party's support? It's not uncommon in my games for the noise of combat to attract additional attention.

Final answer: because the wizard isn't suicidal.

 

[Saidoro]

For example, there is the whole "attunement" thing. That's a pretty big one. Also, if you rule that potions that duplicate spells follow the same Concentration restrictions; that makes a big difference. Additionally, say, the Broom of Flying; easy enough to just rule that when you are flying it, you need to have both hands firmly grasping it to control and steer it, and/or you need to Concentrate. POOF! No more casting spells with Concentration requirement, or Somatic requirements, no shooting bows, etc; basically, its a means of transportation. Period.

Of course, my "fixes" are only needed if it's a problem in a game to begin with. In my game, it's not. I think in the 10 (?) months we've been playing (me DM'ing every single game), my players have found a grand total of about 6 magic items. I think there was a cloak, a staff, a dagger, and a couple of potions. Lack of magic items hasn't made a lick of difference.

That said, I took a look at your price list. If you want to do the whole "Magick Shoppe" thing for your campaign, it looks like you at least have a good solid base price list that you are happy with. It is much more detailed than that in the DMG, so it should be easy for you to adjust as needed much easier. The only thing I'd look into is the spell-scrolls and potions; they seem a bit cheap, overall. A spellcaster being able to spend a few hundred (or thousand) gold to permanently increase his spell-count in his spellbook is a huge thing.

The problem is, that's not actually how the broom of flying works. The broom of flying doesn't even require attunement, and there's nothing in its rules text to suggest that it particularly requires either use of your hands or your concentration, at least no more so than doing anything in combat does. Yes, you CAN apply these sorts of spot patches to every magic item in the game, but by the time you're doing that , you aren't really saving any effort over what I've done.

Still, if you're having fun without really interacting with magic items in any bigger way that's fine too.

Yeah, I'm thinking of tweaking the scroll prices a bit. I'm not sure that adding to the spellbook is really a huge deal given that cleric is a thing, but the lower end ones are seeming a bit to common on further inspection.

 

[brehobit]

Answer: much of the item rarity stuff is messed up. Just ignore it. And I _think_ consumables are priced via a different table. Otherwise they are really really messed up.

Also, the items in this edition feel fairly flat. Less flat than 4e, more than 3e. They just aren't all that cool in description or power. 1e is still the best at having cool items that don't have all the crunch but are cool.

 

[Hussar]

This might be a holdover from 3e. Both broom of flying and winged boots in 3e are the same price (well 16k and 17k) while Wings of flying are 54 k. Considering the item descriptions are almost word for word the same from 3e, it appears that that's what they went with.

Funny enough, despite being exactly the same in 3e, they weren't a problem.

 

[fuindordm]

I've noticed these discrepancies too, but after combing through the magic item list and trying to build a more sensible price table, I came to the conclusion that there weren't too many things that needed adjusting. I did divide each rarity range into three prices, and flag some items as being at the high or low end.

Anyway, items that give flight were definitely the category that needed the most adjustment, and it's ridiculous that two of them were only uncommon rarity. Here's the list I came up with:

Boots of Levitation (rare -- low) 1000 gp
Broom of Flying (rare -- high) 5000 gp
Carpet of Flying (very rare -- medium) 25,000 gp
Cloak of the Bat (rare -- medium) 2500 gp
Winged Boots (rare -- medium) 2500 gp
Wings of Flying (rare -- low) 1000 gp

 

[Saidoro]

This might be a holdover from 3e. Both broom of flying and winged boots in 3e are the same price (well 16k and 17k) while Wings of flying are 54 k. Considering the item descriptions are almost word for word the same from 3e, it appears that that's what they went with.

Funny enough, despite being exactly the same in 3e, they weren't a problem.

Well, apart from that thing where in 3.5 everyone started flying around like superheroes all the time past level 10 or so. Either way, "3.5 made this mistake first and we grandfather it in" isn't a convincing reason for this sort of silliness.

 

[SkidAce]

Well, apart from that thing where in 3.5 everyone started flying around like superheroes all the time past level 10 or so. Either way, "3.5 made this mistake first and we grandfather it in" isn't a convincing reason for this sort of silliness.

I didn't see this problem IME. Likely because we edited the magic items list. Not everything in the book existed in the world, and even if a particular thing did exist, we had to discover it in character.

 

[vandaexpress]

I can see why the OP chose to bump up the rarity. In my experience, one item that made me scratch my head in WTFness was the Doss Lute under instrument of the bards. I recently awarded one to my party, but I treat it as a higher rarity level because even if it's the weakest of the bardic instruments, there is no way it's in the same league as a wand of detect magic. Disadvantage to resist charm, fly, invisibility, and a slew of other spells... Uncommon? Okay....

 

[Jester David]

The price to craft a very rare item and the base price upon selling a very rare item are 50,000. While it's presented as a range, the claim that it actually is one is just flat-out incorrect.

Ignoring the optional crafting section, yes, they do have a range. The crafting section likely went high to semi-discourage crafting, but for a campaign with more magic the middle or lower values can easily be swapped in.

And the crafting rules are a little... light. The cost of making a consumable shouldn't be as high as making a permanent magic item. That's a pretty annoying omission.

And sure, a single melee focused character may not automatically win all fights as a result of being able to fly. (Though they'd still get a massive advantage with the ability to start out of reach, move into reach to attack twice, and then move back out of reach in the same turn.)

While provoking an Opportunity Attack for leaving a creature's reach.
And also leaving the creature free to go attack allies.

But any character at all with the ability to fly and at least one ranged attack gains the ability to singlehandedly defeat any opponent who cannot fly or make ranged attacks, which is quite a fair number of them (any beast, any giant bug, a whole bunch of monstrosities). And anyone flying and focusing on ranged attacks can generally beat most encounters made of creatures which have ranged attacks, but not strong ones. And if the whole party can fly those sorts of encounters just become trivial.

But the game is not played solo. There's an entire party at the table. If the monster can't attack one, it moves after another. While the flying rogue is untouchable, he'd be just as untouchable behind the cleric.

If the whole party can fly the DM - who gave out 3+ flying items - deserves what they get.

Still, I've played a fair bit of high level Pathfinder where everyone is flying and half the minis are on dice boxes to denote elevation and it wasn't a huge problem. Some encounters they slapped around, but that's okay. Not every fight has to be a gritty fight to the death. And at that level, most monsters do have a ranged option. And many fights were in a dungeon with low ceilings, or against large creatures with lots o' reach, so flying didn't impact the power much

Even if they were the same price, it's still a consumable that is lost while the boots of flying are not.

The price of consumables is a little funky. A price adjustment (x.25 or something) should be all that's needed. Still only a problem with using the optional crafting rules or buying, which won't affect many games. The fact a potion of flying is unusually expensive doesn't matter when you find it in a dragon hoard.