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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 4078585" data-attributes="member: 58197">But it assumes that the items are acquired.  That's the problem.The system assumes that the PCs can sell any item they find, for 50% of list price.  It also assumes that they can purchase any item off the list in the DMG at the given price.  Changing these assumptions has a dramatic effect on game balance.No, this does not require Magic Item Wal-Mart in the sense of "one giant superstore where you can buy any item."  But it does require Magic Item Wal-Mart in the sense of "every item is available for sale at list price, and every item can be sold for half list price."  Whether the DM makes up hoops for the players to jump through in order to find the necessary traders is immaterial; the game expects you to have those traders and make sure the PCs find them every level or two.The 3E rules do not cope well with a world where the magic item "market" is mostly nonexistent; where magic items are highly prized and seldom traded, and you cannot count on being able to find any given item X for sale, or on being able to find a buyer for item Y at anything resembling its listed price.Your magic item shops can be giant superstores or hard-to-find dealers in back alleys, but the option to not have them at all isn't there.  Furthermore, because both DMs and players quickly tire of hoop-jumping when they could, as you say, be butt-kicking, the hunt for magic item dealers typically ends up getting handwaved and you end up with de facto, if not de jure, Magic Item Wal-Mart.At the risk of sounding like a crotchety old grognard, I played a bunch of 2E games without a single magic item shop anywhere, and never once did I see PCs trying to offload magic gear.  Magic items were too rare and precious.  If you found a necklace that let you understand the chittering of squirrels, you damn well hung onto that necklace and started keeping an eye out for squirrels.  Who knew when it might come in handy?And if you wanted to give it to the innkeep for room and board?  More power to you, and that innkeep would be your best friend for life.  You could probably even get a little gold for it--drop the price low enough and somebody would pay.  What you couldn't do was sell it for two thousand gold pieces and head off to buy a +1 sword... because there simply weren't that many people around with two grand to drop on magic items, or with +1 swords they wanted to sell.  Sure, the old warrior in the tavern might have a +1 sword, but he got that sword from his grandfather who had it from his, and it saved his life in battle half a dozen times, and he wasn't parting with it, nohow.</blockquote>

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