jgsugden
Legend
I thought I'd drop some thoughts down on the cost of having some NPC make a magic item for a PC based upon the rulebook information. Please note that this is different than the prices I'd expect to see charged for "used" items found while adventuring... those would sell for cheaper, but there is less control over what is available. I'd use the DMG guidelines for those items, but I tend to stock the shelves of splaces that have magic to sell with items that are randomly generated.
The DMG has "downtime" activities costs for making Magic Items. Those costs ar reflected in GP and Hours (8 hours per 25 GP in cost). These reflect the materials costs.
What if a player wanted to hire an NPC wizard (or multiple spellcasters) to make an item? Clearly, the raw material cost must be paid. What about the fees the spellcaster(s) would charge?
Obviously, there is no single "right" answer as this would be a negotiated rate. However, I started my thoughts on how spellcasters would value their time using the economic concept of opportunity cost. What else could that wizard do with their time?
A low level wizard (in a large town) could make at least gp per day selling spellcasting services, per the PHB suggestions. A wizard capable of creating a rare magic item (at least level 6) could wipe out a first level dungeon on their own - meaning a haul of several hundred GPs for a few days work (plus potentially some magic items, etc...), although there would be some risk.
A wizard capable of making a very rare item might be able to collect a treasure horde of several thousand gold (and more magic items) with relative ease - we're talking about an 11th level spellcaster taking on a 6th level small dungeon, solo. There may not be an unlimited supply of adventures with this type of treasure haul, but they can also get money casting spells for fees, etc... We'll start to widen the range of costs for labor might be charged in our final analysis below to reflect the difficulty in finding opportunities to adventure for money.
A wizard capable of working on a legendary item might clear 30,000 GP for a few days of adventuring in relative, but not complete, safety.
If we offset the value of the magic items/jewlery against the value of the risk and assume the adventuring takes about a half week to a week, we can extract what a wizard might charge. Again, there are a lot of assumptions here, but this framework at least has some reason behind it based upon book materials.
So, if we use 20 GP per day for wizards making common and uncommon items, 50 GP for rare, 1000 GP per day for very rare and 5000 GP per day for a high level wizard making legendary items, we see that the cost to have an item made should be:
A common item? 100 GP for materials and about 80 for labor. Not too bad, but not too useful, either. I'd say 150 to 200 would be a reasonable range to contract a common item from a 3rd to 5th level spellcaster for that week of work.
Uncommon? 500 GP Materials and 400 GP for labor. A level 3 to 5 spellcaster might charge anywhere from 700 to 1250 GP for those 4 weeks.
Rare? 5000 GP for Materials and 10,000 GP for labor. A level 6 to 10 spellcaster might charge 7,500 GP to 25,000 GP for those 40 weeks (it is like having a baby!)
Very Rare? 50,000 for Materials and 2,000,000 GP for the 8 years of labor. Maybe a level 11 to 16 spellcaster would ask for 500,000 to 5,000,000 for those 8 years.
Legendary? 500,000 fo Materials and 100,000,000 GP for the 8 decades of labor (8 hours per day, 250 days per year). 25,000,000 GP seems like a reasonable floor.... 250,000,000 GP a reasonable ceiling.
If we think about this in terms of real world salary parallels (1 GP= $US 2) would be:
A common item is like hiring a bookkeeper to get your small business books in line over a couple days for a couple hundred bucks.
An uncommon item is like hiring that bookkeeper prepare your books for an IRSaudit over several weeks for about $2K.
A rare item? You're hiring a small town lawyer for an 8 month trial. Very rare? You're hiring a big city law firm to repesent your large business for 8 years. Legendary? The lifetime earnings of a breakout (kid) movie star that works from a young age until their mid 80s and stays in demand that entire time.
Obviously, those labor costs for very rare and legendary are insane, but I doubt many capable of these feats is sitting down and saying, "I'd like to spend the majority of my remaining years making an item to get more gold than I could possibly spend" ... or that purchasers are willing to wait that long and risk that the person making the item is taken from them early by death or some other problem. Essentially, the idea of hiring someone to make these is cost prohibitive. They'd only be made as labors of love or out of a sense of duty at great personal sacrifice.
Once more - a resold item would usually be much cheaper than hiring someone to build one.
Thoughts?
The DMG has "downtime" activities costs for making Magic Items. Those costs ar reflected in GP and Hours (8 hours per 25 GP in cost). These reflect the materials costs.
What if a player wanted to hire an NPC wizard (or multiple spellcasters) to make an item? Clearly, the raw material cost must be paid. What about the fees the spellcaster(s) would charge?
Obviously, there is no single "right" answer as this would be a negotiated rate. However, I started my thoughts on how spellcasters would value their time using the economic concept of opportunity cost. What else could that wizard do with their time?
A low level wizard (in a large town) could make at least gp per day selling spellcasting services, per the PHB suggestions. A wizard capable of creating a rare magic item (at least level 6) could wipe out a first level dungeon on their own - meaning a haul of several hundred GPs for a few days work (plus potentially some magic items, etc...), although there would be some risk.
A wizard capable of making a very rare item might be able to collect a treasure horde of several thousand gold (and more magic items) with relative ease - we're talking about an 11th level spellcaster taking on a 6th level small dungeon, solo. There may not be an unlimited supply of adventures with this type of treasure haul, but they can also get money casting spells for fees, etc... We'll start to widen the range of costs for labor might be charged in our final analysis below to reflect the difficulty in finding opportunities to adventure for money.
A wizard capable of working on a legendary item might clear 30,000 GP for a few days of adventuring in relative, but not complete, safety.
If we offset the value of the magic items/jewlery against the value of the risk and assume the adventuring takes about a half week to a week, we can extract what a wizard might charge. Again, there are a lot of assumptions here, but this framework at least has some reason behind it based upon book materials.
So, if we use 20 GP per day for wizards making common and uncommon items, 50 GP for rare, 1000 GP per day for very rare and 5000 GP per day for a high level wizard making legendary items, we see that the cost to have an item made should be:
A common item? 100 GP for materials and about 80 for labor. Not too bad, but not too useful, either. I'd say 150 to 200 would be a reasonable range to contract a common item from a 3rd to 5th level spellcaster for that week of work.
Uncommon? 500 GP Materials and 400 GP for labor. A level 3 to 5 spellcaster might charge anywhere from 700 to 1250 GP for those 4 weeks.
Rare? 5000 GP for Materials and 10,000 GP for labor. A level 6 to 10 spellcaster might charge 7,500 GP to 25,000 GP for those 40 weeks (it is like having a baby!)
Very Rare? 50,000 for Materials and 2,000,000 GP for the 8 years of labor. Maybe a level 11 to 16 spellcaster would ask for 500,000 to 5,000,000 for those 8 years.
Legendary? 500,000 fo Materials and 100,000,000 GP for the 8 decades of labor (8 hours per day, 250 days per year). 25,000,000 GP seems like a reasonable floor.... 250,000,000 GP a reasonable ceiling.
If we think about this in terms of real world salary parallels (1 GP= $US 2) would be:
A common item is like hiring a bookkeeper to get your small business books in line over a couple days for a couple hundred bucks.
An uncommon item is like hiring that bookkeeper prepare your books for an IRSaudit over several weeks for about $2K.
A rare item? You're hiring a small town lawyer for an 8 month trial. Very rare? You're hiring a big city law firm to repesent your large business for 8 years. Legendary? The lifetime earnings of a breakout (kid) movie star that works from a young age until their mid 80s and stays in demand that entire time.
Obviously, those labor costs for very rare and legendary are insane, but I doubt many capable of these feats is sitting down and saying, "I'd like to spend the majority of my remaining years making an item to get more gold than I could possibly spend" ... or that purchasers are willing to wait that long and risk that the person making the item is taken from them early by death or some other problem. Essentially, the idea of hiring someone to make these is cost prohibitive. They'd only be made as labors of love or out of a sense of duty at great personal sacrifice.
Once more - a resold item would usually be much cheaper than hiring someone to build one.
Thoughts?
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