Do Artifacts have a market cost?

[BlackMoria]

Anything that another person is willing to pay or barter for has a market value. And the market value is exactly the highest amount anyone will pay.

In short, if there is only one person in the campaign world who is willing to pay for an artifact and the most he will pay is 10,000 gold, then the artifact is worth 10,000 gold, irrespective of its perceived worth to the owner. That is how market pricing works.

Its like a rare painting, like a original Picasso - the painting sells for 3 million dollars in auction, hence its market value is 3 million dollars. It could have just as likely to have sold for 5 million if someone was willing to pay that, or 300,000 if that was all someone is willing to pay.

 

[frankthedm]

They don't have a market price so players can't sell off the plot hook.

 

[Slife]

This is interesting to me, as the meatgrinder I'm almost done playing in just turned up a deck of many things. Just for giggles. Frankly, I was a little bummed, because here is this immensely valueable item, and we can't sell it. Of course everyone has the opportunity to draw...but based on the game we're playing now, a couple of the good cards (the one that gives you a keep, and the one that gives you a knight) aren't really useful to us. Of course there's always the chance for wishes...but there's a hearty chance for having your soul imprisoned, too.

I'm still in the air over whether I'll draw.

Charge a modest fee for people to draw from it. Ask for a cut of the benefical cards (one out of the three wishes used on your behalf, 10% of the gold, whatever.)

They don't have a market price so players can't sell off the plot hook.

And, since they don't have a market price, and there's the BOVD spell which has an artifact as a material component...

Well, look at this (from the SRD):

Spell Component Pouch

A spellcaster with a spell component pouch is assumed to have all the material components and focuses needed for spellcasting, except for those components that have a specific cost, divine focuses, and focuses that wouldn’t fit in a pouch.


In other words, because artifacts don't have specific prices, the pouch is assumed to have every single artifact that can fit inside it.

So artifacts cost a maximum of 5 gp.
Enjoy.

 

[Nightfall]

Yes, there should be prices on them....astronomical ones.

I prefer Infinite ones.

 

[Nightfall]

Everything has a price...

Bye
Thanee

Yeah and some costs a billion souls.

 

[Moonstone Spider]

Charge a modest fee for people to draw from it. Ask for a cut of the benefical cards (one out of the three wishes used on your behalf, 10% of the gold, whatever.)


And, since they don't have a market price, and there's the BOVD spell which has an artifact as a material component...

Well, look at this (from the SRD):

Spell Component Pouch

A spellcaster with a spell component pouch is assumed to have all the material components and focuses needed for spellcasting, except for those components that have a specific cost, divine focuses, and focuses that wouldn’t fit in a pouch.


In other words, because artifacts don't have specific prices, the pouch is assumed to have every single artifact that can fit inside it.

So artifacts cost a maximum of 5 gp.
Enjoy.

I just wanna say this is hilarious, you've made my day, Slife.

 

[Garboshnik]

As several people have pointed out, not all artifacts are that powerful. Some examples from the DMG:

The Shadowstaff -- +4 to AC and reflex saves is nice, as is the ability to summon a Nightshade (though only once a month) but the rest is pretty blah. I'm not sure how many players would pay 200,000 gold for this. And this is a major artifact?

Talisman of Zagy -- This should be easy to estimate. A scroll of Wish costs 30,000 gold and this item at best can provide 5 or 6 of them. Plus the 10,000 it leaves behind makes 190,000. This ignores the 5% chance of this happening and the fact that it takes up your amulet slot for a while.

Most of the others are quite powerful, but certainly nothing worth attracting legions of thieves and assassins. At least not compared to the value of all of the other magic the characters are probably hauling around...

The only reason for not including a price is that the rarity of the items means that they are never for sale. I imagine that if they were assigned prices to indicate their power level the results might be a little underwhelming.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

The problem with trying to attach a price to Artifacts is that by definition, they tend to do things that are either beyond the scope of the rules for normal items, or they do things that are not exactly covered by the rules.

Consider for a trivial example, a bag of limitless gems. That is a suitable artifact power. So what would the GP value of that be?

Going through my 2nd Edition book of Artifacts for example, there is an artifact called Kuroth's Quill. The primary power of this artifact is that once every 6 hours, anything you write with it becomes true. How do you put a price on being able to cast Wish at essentially no cost (other than the DM being very literal in the interpretation of the wish) to the user?

And how about the Rod of 7 Parts. Its not as outright game breaking as Kuroths Quill or the Throne of the Gods. But fully assembled, it grants the following (Remember, my source here is a 2nd edition book):

Cure light wounds 1 / day
Slow 1 / day
Haste 1 / day
Gust of Wind 5 / day
True Seeing 1 / day
Hold Monster 1 / day
Heal 1 / day
Fly at Will
20% Magic Resistance
Control Winds 2 / day
Shape Change 2 / day
Wind Walk 1 / day
Restoration 1 / day
20 Radius of Law that panics all enemies who fail a Save vs Spell

Now, I am sure that the Rod does not exactly seem overpowering. But aside from the chance of the Rod spontaneously breaking, these powers never run out or need to be recharged. And what would the Save DC for a Hold Monster from the Rod of 7 parts be anyway? A United hand and Eye of Vecna has save DC's of 25, so lets say the Rod is comparable. A Wizard with 20 Int and Heighten spell casting Hold Monster as a 9th level spell sets a DC of 24 before Feats. But someone with the Rod could do that at ANY level.

So aside from the classic drawbacks / curses of an artifact, you need to remember a few things.

1) Artifacts generally do not run out of power / charges.
2) Artifacts generally do not have class based user restrictions (usually)
3) Artifacts can often do things that no other items can.
4) Artifacts are often the equivalent of combining many other items into a single item. (Such as a sword with a +6 bonus that can heal the user, cast bless, grant a Str bonus, Dispel magic, turn undead, and make toast)

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Nyeshet]

Giving an artifact a price is like trying to state a price for something utterly unique: the Mona Lisa, the Hope Diamond, a hole in one on a par four, and so forth. Some things truly are priceless. (And, no, Mastercard is not necessary /needed for every thing else. )

 

[Musrum]

This is interesting to me, as the meatgrinder I'm almost done playing in just turned up a deck of many things. Just for giggles. Frankly, I was a little bummed, because here is this immensely valueable item, and we can't sell it. Of course everyone has the opportunity to draw...but based on the game we're playing now, a couple of the good cards (the one that gives you a keep, and the one that gives you a knight) aren't really useful to us. Of course there's always the chance for wishes...but there's a hearty chance for having your soul imprisoned, too.

I'm still in the air over whether I'll draw.

You never sell the DoMT, you *lease* it.

Offer one draw each to anyone with nothing to lose.
Take a generous cut of the postitive cards, offer protection and a gp bonus to the negative cards and make it clear that some stuff can't be mitigated.

Plenty will draw, some will die and the rest get a quick ticket out of poverty.

And with your generous commision, you get a ticket out of the wealth-by-level rat race...