Level Up (A5E) Magic Item Price List

[FitzTheRuke]

I don't think that whether or not an object requires attunement should alter its price. The attunement is there to restrict how many powerful items the PC can have, but beyond that doesn't have any affect.

I agree - what the item DOES should determine its price; attunement IMO is a separate thing, intended to prevent certain abuses.

On the other hand, I think that consumables should be quite a bit cheaper than permanent items, depending on how often you'd usually use them.

 

[jmucchiello]

What an item does is inherently attached to its utility as well. Attunement reduces utility. In world, attunement means certain magic items don't work together. This is measurable within the world and anything that can be attested to within the game world should affect the economy of that world.

"This is a magic mcguffin of protection."
"Can you demonstrate it?"
"No, you have to hug it for an hour before the protection kicks in."

 

[Faolyn]

So either attuned items should have both an insta-affect and an affect that you only get when attuned, or they should cost a lot less.

 

[jmucchiello]

Not necessarily "a lot" less. But not the same price.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Not necessarily "a lot" less. But not the same price.

I didn't mean to suggest that attunement shouldn't be taken into account at all. Of course, if you have two items that are otherwise exactly the same and one req. attunement and the other does not, the second is more powerful (and more valuable) but if you're looking at an ability that is "always on" and all it requires is a little attunement to get started, the attunement is pretty negligible when assessing that item's power.

In our example cases, the attunement requirement of a ring or cloak of protection vs +1 armour, the need for attunement is barely worse than the time-sink of donning the armour.

 

[Kinematics]

Am I missing something?

The PDF referenced by the OP doesn't have any information about whether items require attunement, that I can see. I can make assumptions about items that were in the original DMG, but then there's also a couple hundred new items as well, and no info on them.

 

[Kinematics]

Chain shirt +3 is 2,000. Elven Chain is 5,000. No idea what the difference would be but traditionally, Elven Chain is not +3 to AC. Is the 3,000 gp difference just because of rarity even though both items are listed as "rare"?

Well, Elven Chain is +1 AC, but also grants proficiency with medium armor when worn, which is huge for mage classes without armor proficiencies.

For a fighter, Elven Chain is worthless compared to a Chain Shirt +3, but to a Sorcerer the Chain Shirt +3 isn't even a possible option, while the Elven Shirt is. Sure, it's only barely better than Mage Armor, but it's a spell you don't need to know (if a Sorcerer), and a spell slot you don't need to expend (for any magic user that depends on that for AC), while still being an improvement.

If you spot anything out of whack, please do let us know.

On the giant strength stuff, you have a "Belt of fire giant strength", but no potion of fire giant strength. All the rest have pairs of belts and potions.

Also, you'll want to tidy up whether you uniquely list frost and stone giant items (as you do for the potions), or combine them into a single entry (as you do with the belts).

Same with the potions of Giant Strength. Is a potion of storm giant strength really 45,000 gp "better" than a potion of cloud giant strength?

Earliest able to afford*:

Potion of Giant Strength (hill giant) (300 GP): 2nd level
Potion of Giant Strength (stone giant) (800 GP): 3rd level
Potion of Giant Strength (fire giant) (??? GP): 5th? level (maybe 2000 GP)
Potion of Giant Strength (cloud giant) (5000 GP): 7th level
Potion of Giant Strength (storm giant) (50000 GP): 15th level
​

Note*: For affordable, I'm using the table @Morrus provided, and picking the first level where the starting + gained wealth total is greater than the item cost.

The Potion of storm giant strength is out of scale with the rest of the potions. The others scale up in cost to be affordable (if only just) about every other level (2, 3, 5, 7). However there's then an 8 level jump before the next one is affordable.

What seems more appropriate for the affordability ladder would be a price of approximately 10,000 GP. That would make it possible to buy at 9th level. At worst, 20,000 GP to put it at 11th level on the ladder.

Earliest able to afford ten*:

Potion of Giant Strength (hill giant) (3000 GP): 6th level
Potion of Giant Strength (stone giant) (8000 GP): 8th level
Potion of Giant Strength (fire giant) (??? GP): 11th? level (maybe 20000 GP)
Potion of Giant Strength (cloud giant) (50000 GP): 15th level
Potion of Giant Strength (storm giant) (100000–500000 GP): 17th level – never
​

Note*: Same affordability metric as above, but being able to afford 10 means being able to casually make use of the potion, rather than it being most of your total wealth just to have a single one.

Scaling isn't quite as neat with this one, but at 10,000 GP per storm giant potion, you can buy up 10 at 17th level, whereas at 50,000 GP per potion you will never have enough wealth to buy up 10.

Given that the cost of a belt of equivalent giant strength (of any type) is very roughly equal to 10 potions, it confirms that the storm giant potion is out of scale with the rest of the comparable items, but that a 10,000 GP price would be entirely appropriate.

 

[Kinematics]

So, various different armors. Some additions and removals along the way.

Light armors: Studded leather is removed. Instead, Brigandine (both cloth and leather) is available as a medium armor. "Cloth" and "Leather" become "Padded Cloth" and "Padded Leather". The price scaling seems to assume +4 from Dex, but an extra tax because it can still go higher with higher Dex.

Medium armors: Half plate is moved to heavy armor. Brigandines are added, and the base AC for Hide seems to have been bumped up to 13.

Heavy armors: Ring mail and Chain mail have been removed. Hauberk was added instead. "Splint" was misspelled as "Split".

Pricing seems to be mostly scaled so that all armors with the same AC have roughly the same price. Any differences from this seem to suggest some extra bonus or penalty from the armor type.

The streamlining of prices looks good, and the armor updates are appreciated. Nothing problematic other than the misspelling. I do have to wonder about what benefits there are among the different armor types to justify choosing a different armor when it otherwise looks like you're just paying for the AC you want.

Assuming you want to buy new armor using a large portion of your starting level wealth (using @Morrus's table, and figuring you're also wanting to consider weapons and other stuff), you're looking at AC 16 by 3rd level, AC 17 by 5th level, AC 18 by 7th level, and AC 19 by 10th level. Heavy armor users should be able to hit AC 20 by around 13th-14th level. With the usual guesstimating caveats, overall it feels reasonable.


Light armors:

Padded Cloth [11]
Padded leather [12]
​

Medium armors:

Hide [13]
Chain Shirt [13]
Cloth Brigandine [13]
Leather Brigandine [14]
Scale Mail [14]
Breastplate [14]
​

Heavy armors:

Hauberk [16]
Splint [17]
Half Plate [17]
Full Plate [18]
​

Medium armor AC includes +2 from Dex. Light armor AC includes +4 from Dex.

Armor	Bonus	Type	AC	Cost
Padded cloth	0	Light	15	5
Hide	0	Medium	15	10?
Chain Shirt	0	Medium	15	50
Cloth Brigandine	0	Medium	15	50?
Padded cloth	1	Light	16	65
Padded leather	0	Light	16	10
Hide	1	Medium	16	150
Scale mail	0	Medium	16	50
Chain Shirt	1	Medium	16	150
Cloth Brigandine	1	Medium	16	150
Leather Brigandine	0	Medium	16	???
Breastplate	0	Medium	16	400
Hauberk	0	Heavy	16	???
Padded cloth	2	Light	17	500
Padded leather	1	Light	17	400
Hide	2	Medium	17	500
Scale mail	1	Medium	17	250
Chain Shirt	2	Medium	17	500
Cloth Brigandine	2	Medium	17	500
Leather Brigandine	1	Medium	17	400
Breastplate	1	Medium	17	500
Hauberk	1	Heavy	17	450
Splint [sp]	0	Heavy	17	200
Half plate	0	Heavy	17	750?
Padded cloth	3	Light	18	2,500
Padded leather	2	Light	18	2,500
Hide	3	Medium	18	2,000
Scale mail	2	Medium	18	2,000
Chain Shirt	3	Medium	18	2,000
Cloth Brigandine	3	Medium	18	2,200
Leather Brigandine	2	Medium	18	2,200
Breastplate	2	Medium	18	2,000
Hauberk	2	Heavy	18	1,500
Splint [sp]	1	Heavy	18	1,500
Half plate	1	Heavy	18	2,000
Full plate	0	Heavy	18	1,500
Padded leather	3	Light	19	10,000
Scale mail	3	Medium	19	8,000
Leather Brigandine	3	Medium	19	8,000
Breastplate	3	Medium	19	8,000
Hauberk	3	Heavy	19	6,000
Splint [sp]	2	Heavy	19	6,000
Half plate	2	Heavy	19	8,000
Full plate	1	Heavy	19	6,000
Splint [sp]	3	Heavy	20	24,000
Half plate	3	Heavy	20	32,000
Full plate	2	Heavy	20	24,000
Full plate	3	Heavy	21	96,000

 

[jmucchiello]

Why are you assuming Dex for the cost of an item?

 

[Kinematics]

Why are you assuming Dex for the cost of an item?

Because the costs aren't comparable without including that, but fall neatly in line if you do.

I was writing notes for each armor in the listing as I came across them, and how the costs compared to each other. Medium armors worked out so that the same AC values led to approximately the same prices. For example, Breastplate +2 (16 AC) has the same cost as Chain Shirt +3 (16 AC): 2000 GP.

This didn't require any Dex, because they were all the same armor type. Then when I started examining the heavy armors, I realized they fit on the same scale if you accounted for the expected Dex bonuses. Anything hitting AC 18 costs approximately 2000 GP. Heavy armor doesn't get any Dex bonuses, but the medium armors that had a 16 total were also priced in the 2000 range. Since the max Dex you can add in medium armor is +2, and that's easy to achieve for any class that can use medium armor, it makes sense to apply that to the AC total to understand how the armors compare, price-wise.

And later, light armor fit in if you assumed a +4 Dex. If you assume +5 Dex, the base armor values break down (padded cloth becomes 10 AC, which is the same as no armor at all), so it can't be that high.