Do Magic Item "Shops" wreck the spirit of D&D?

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Doug McCrae said:
The problem of PCs selling most items they find is real and is due to many of the items in the DMG being woefully overpriced. Magic Item Compendium solves this problem.


Doesn't it seem unusual that there's no mark-up in the DMG? I mean who's running those shops..wait...are they selling them for lower than their competitors?

ALWAYS LOW PRICES ON MAGIC ITEMS...WAL-MAGIC

FEATHER FALLING PRICES...WAL-MAGIC.

Doug...you're so luck you don't have to deal with WalMart where you live...
http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=28410
jh
 

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MerricB said:
That's a bad justification, because...

Ok, when you propose that it is a bad justification, its implied that you'll then present evidence which contridicts the justification. But instead, you continue with..

the crafting rules are set up specifically to *stop* PCs selling items.

If that is the case, then the crafting rules are also set up to stop NPC's selling items, and if that is the case then my justification for suggesting that NPCs would not normally sell the items that they create is made stronger by your evidence - not weaker.

If you don't like that, you should propose changing the crafting rules. But the crafting rules as they are, by your own admission, do not encourage the crafting and selling of magic items. Why the rules are like that is irrelevant. The fact is that if the fantasy world simulated by the rules is to be consistant with the rules that simulate it, by your own admission magic items made to be available for sell would be very rare.

Cheers!
 

I think PC's should be able to take magic items apart rather than sell them.

Really, extract the x.p. and gold from them just like oil or something.

:lol:
 

MerricB said:
What's "Horsemen of the Apocalypse", Allan? I don't know that source.

It's an OOP collection of essays published by Jolly Roger Games, written by various industry folks (including Stafford, Gygax, etc.). Gary's essay is quite good, and details the history of his development of the Greyhawk castle, city, and wilderness. I'm reprinting the essay in a book of essays on designing dungeons that I'm working on.

edit - the ISBN for HotA is 1-55878-240-0 (original MSRP $20, published in 2000).
 
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In the Cook/Marsh Expert rules an Alchemist could be hired for 1,000gp per month; he could make potions at 1/2 cost. I was recently thinking that it would be possible to have a "Potion Shop" available... there would only be a few such places in the world. But other magic? It's just too rare and expensive.

But I like to keep a tight reign on magic items anyway. A +1 weapon is a rare find, probably from a time long past. You'll want to keep it, especially since a magical creature may someday be encountered that requires such a weapon to hit it.
 

Magic item shops don't ruin the spirit of D&D, as such, but making them as standard as the rules kinda sorta imply really strains an awful lot of settings. But I think the whole item-christmas-tree issue only really starts to break credibility at the higher levels, where a lot of other things get twisted; having as many high-level characters wandering about as the rules kinda sorta imply also really strains an awful lot of possible settings.

(Personally, the rules behind making magic items don't make any sense to me in a fantasy setting. They sort of make sense in a far-future setting, where credits can be swiftly funneled into appropriate resources, and advanced technology allows fabricating complex, customized equipment faster than we can today, thus: powerful enhancements, in a few days' time. As written, the rules allow a caster to make many magic items, individually craft them, in just two or three or four days! It takes longer to lay out a newsletter. It would sort of make sense if it took a month, or a week, perhaps, to make & enchant the magic gloves, and you had to get the right ingredients to do it. Or, it would make sense if you just sacrificed the gold and part of your heroic soul (XP) and poof! gloves of dexterity. But as is, items made quickly out of completely fungible resources, it makes no sense except as a matter of convenience.)
 

Emirikol said:
Doesn't it seem unusual that there's no mark-up in the DMG?

Ummm, there is. The DMG price is double the cost of making an item. Admittedly, there is the intangible of the xp cost. However, that's a pretty vague thing to put a price on (how many gp is an xp worth?)
 

Celebrim said:
If that is the case, then the crafting rules are also set up to stop NPC's selling items, and if that is the case then my justification for suggesting that NPCs would not normally sell the items that they create is made stronger by your evidence - not weaker.

An NPC can sell an item for full cost. A PC can't.

The D&D Economy is bunk. This is intentional.

There are 10th level Experts out there. How did they gain the XP? By killing monsters? No. How? The rules don't address it. All that actually matters to the game is that you know that they exist, and how to run them in play.
 

Celebrim said:
I mean, when's the last time you saw a PC crafter make items and sell them to total strangers?

Not all that long ago, my PC did that. We had some downtime, and he was short on cash; making some power stones and selling them did a lot to remedy the situation.
 

Glyfair said:
Ummm, there is. The DMG price is double the cost of making an item. Admittedly, there is the intangible of the xp cost. However, that's a pretty vague thing to put a price on (how many gp is an xp worth?)

See graphic for graphic details..
 

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