Hypersmurf
Moderatarrrrh...
Sorry, can you clarify?
Do you mean characters shouldn't be allowed to make items?
Or do you mean that because they are allowed to make items, they shouldn't be able to buy items?
-Hyp.
-
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Buying Magic Items & Healing
- Thread starter Bystander
- Start date
Sorry, can you clarify?
Do you mean characters shouldn't be allowed to make items?
Or do you mean that because they are allowed to make items, they shouldn't be able to buy items?
-Hyp.
SpikeyFreak
First Post
If you want a game like that, play WoT.Boone said:
D&D 3E just has a higher magic content. I don't like it much either, but that's the way it is.
The CR system is based on it, and fiddling with the magic level starts to screw with other things.
That being said, you don't have to allow any item to bought, but you should make them available somehow.
--Capitalistic Spikey
Deadguy
First Post
A Market for Magic Items?
I guess it depends on how many magic items are actually up for sale at a given time. If there aren't many, then there's no real market, and every purchase and sale is a private contract between individuals that happen to have what each other wants. if there are more second hand items, then a market develops. It becomes worthwhile there being specialist merchants to arbitrage the deals, i.e. a magic "merchant" who buys and sells secondhand magic items.
I actually suspect, looking at the amount of magic a PC party carries round that there are merchants who deal with simple and basic magic items in large cities, you know things like basic +1 swords, potions, simple wands. But unless there are an awful lot of adventurers (maybe Scarred Lands?), then there won't be a continuous market for powerful magic items. it might be more like the market for expensive High Art. There are people who know people who can get there hands on goods, or can commission them from someone else, but things take time and it costs money.
Actually, I quite like that model of Magic Item Supply and Demand! It carries within it an inherent limitation, and allws for stories. And the Thieves' Guildss must be part of all this process: stealing magic items to order!
Mal Malenkirk said:
I guess it depends on how many magic items are actually up for sale at a given time. If there aren't many, then there's no real market, and every purchase and sale is a private contract between individuals that happen to have what each other wants. if there are more second hand items, then a market develops. It becomes worthwhile there being specialist merchants to arbitrage the deals, i.e. a magic "merchant" who buys and sells secondhand magic items.
I actually suspect, looking at the amount of magic a PC party carries round that there are merchants who deal with simple and basic magic items in large cities, you know things like basic +1 swords, potions, simple wands. But unless there are an awful lot of adventurers (maybe Scarred Lands?), then there won't be a continuous market for powerful magic items. it might be more like the market for expensive High Art. There are people who know people who can get there hands on goods, or can commission them from someone else, but things take time and it costs money.
Actually, I quite like that model of Magic Item Supply and Demand! It carries within it an inherent limitation, and allws for stories. And the Thieves' Guildss must be part of all this process: stealing magic items to order!
Gold or Potion cap?
I know some people do this...
In my campaigns, we don't keep track of carried weight too much. We eyeball it, and keep it to common sense.
But there are two main factors that sometimes give us trouble:
Do any of you put a limit on how much gold, or how many potions a PC can carry at any given time?
My one DM allows one potion for every point of STR your character has. Just because he thinks str doesn't count for enough to most characters.
And my next question:
If a player is carrying a bunch of potions- Do you have any system for determining if they get broken when the character is in melee or something? Or are they unbreakable unless targeted by an attacker?
I know some people do this...
In my campaigns, we don't keep track of carried weight too much. We eyeball it, and keep it to common sense.
But there are two main factors that sometimes give us trouble:
Do any of you put a limit on how much gold, or how many potions a PC can carry at any given time?
My one DM allows one potion for every point of STR your character has. Just because he thinks str doesn't count for enough to most characters.
And my next question:
If a player is carrying a bunch of potions- Do you have any system for determining if they get broken when the character is in melee or something? Or are they unbreakable unless targeted by an attacker?
Sorry but i really don't get the "item inflation" worries...
You are playing in a game, dnd3e, where it is EXPECTED for half your PCs to be able to wield magic of their own, to cast spells, to summon fireballs, to conjure undead or celestials, to force undead back or destroy them, to fly for hours, to go invisible , to freeze enemies in there tracks, to turn into mist, to blind opponents permanently, etc... and i haven't even left third level spells yet.
So why should a wand throwing fireballs or a sword that works better against undead or a ring of invisibility be some mystical wondrous sacred rare "oh my gosh, its a MAGIC item" limited thingy?
In LOTR, every use of magic was shown as a wondrous thing and the main PCs had no magical abilities to speak of. They were more like normal guys thrown into the realm of lots of magical NPCs (lumping gandalf in the NPCs.)
Relative to the amount of magic power wielded by the PCs, orcrist, the mithril shirt and such, the "ooohhh ahhh its a magic item" stuff from LOTR would be artifacts in 3e. Playing something like full 3e with all the PCs classes going and making a +1 orc bane shortsword weapon an "ohhh ahhh a magic item" thing would just sound silly.
Aragorn: "This sacred item orcrist glows when orcds are present and is dangerous to them, it likes to kill them, to cut deeply into their...."
Jiminy the sorcerer: "Yeah fine, look show me the orcs and i will blow them to smithereens at 200 yards. Why let them get to shortsword range?"
But in a world where your main characters are expected to have one wiz and one cleric at least and where odds are the wiz BY CLASS can make scrolls at least, trying to make items that do what the PCs can already do (but the items are typically weaker) is just off.
In a 3e setting, several options exist for creating the feel...
first, without high level spells only 1 power of an item is revealed, so the "commerce" in magic would have to be in mostly if not totally, one power items like wands and other "simple" items. Any item with more than one power would through 10th level be relatively unidentifiable and thus fall into the rare or wondrous mysterious category.
Also, shudder, there are artifacts, which for 3e and most of the dnd editions in fact, do fit the feel of rare and wondrous, especially if you have them not do "these spells" but rather things PCs cannot do.
If you want a LOTR feel where a wand of firballs is a wondrous thing... you need to not have PC classes who can toss fireballs around by 5th level.
You are playing in a game, dnd3e, where it is EXPECTED for half your PCs to be able to wield magic of their own, to cast spells, to summon fireballs, to conjure undead or celestials, to force undead back or destroy them, to fly for hours, to go invisible , to freeze enemies in there tracks, to turn into mist, to blind opponents permanently, etc... and i haven't even left third level spells yet.
So why should a wand throwing fireballs or a sword that works better against undead or a ring of invisibility be some mystical wondrous sacred rare "oh my gosh, its a MAGIC item" limited thingy?
In LOTR, every use of magic was shown as a wondrous thing and the main PCs had no magical abilities to speak of. They were more like normal guys thrown into the realm of lots of magical NPCs (lumping gandalf in the NPCs.)
Relative to the amount of magic power wielded by the PCs, orcrist, the mithril shirt and such, the "ooohhh ahhh its a magic item" stuff from LOTR would be artifacts in 3e. Playing something like full 3e with all the PCs classes going and making a +1 orc bane shortsword weapon an "ohhh ahhh a magic item" thing would just sound silly.
Aragorn: "This sacred item orcrist glows when orcds are present and is dangerous to them, it likes to kill them, to cut deeply into their...."
Jiminy the sorcerer: "Yeah fine, look show me the orcs and i will blow them to smithereens at 200 yards. Why let them get to shortsword range?"
But in a world where your main characters are expected to have one wiz and one cleric at least and where odds are the wiz BY CLASS can make scrolls at least, trying to make items that do what the PCs can already do (but the items are typically weaker) is just off.
In a 3e setting, several options exist for creating the feel...
first, without high level spells only 1 power of an item is revealed, so the "commerce" in magic would have to be in mostly if not totally, one power items like wands and other "simple" items. Any item with more than one power would through 10th level be relatively unidentifiable and thus fall into the rare or wondrous mysterious category.
Also, shudder, there are artifacts, which for 3e and most of the dnd editions in fact, do fit the feel of rare and wondrous, especially if you have them not do "these spells" but rather things PCs cannot do.
If you want a LOTR feel where a wand of firballs is a wondrous thing... you need to not have PC classes who can toss fireballs around by 5th level.
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