Do you "find" magic items or "buy" magic items?

[demon_jr]

In our campaign, we do a little of both.

For very minor magic items and in rare cases, not so minor magic items, we can usually find someone we can purchase them from, albeit at an inflated market price. We play a Forgotten Realms campaign, so our main source so far has been the Red Wizards.

However, for the more powerful magic items or more useful ones, we usually speak to the DM about what we want. Hopefully, the item in question, or something similar, will be found in upcoming adventures.

 

[Tyrrell]

In our game we have on occaion commisioned the creation of magic items from NPC's that we know. This has included improving the weapons used by our fighting folks and the creation of two hefty wands. (in addition to more petty magic creation)

 

[Kae'Yoss]

It depends.

Let's take our epic campaign (26th-level chars now): It's forgotten realms, and we have no Problems getting to places like Waterdeep, Silverymoon, Calimport, and even the odd extraplanar Metropolis. So we have no problem buying the non-epic stuff we want (this was so from early on, since Silverymoon is in the area we started in), and we do so, usually (sometimes we have to visit two or three cities to find it, but that's OK). Of course, we also find treasure with enemies, and we use the useful stuff (I'd never have bought a periapt of wisdom, but the party druid got a better one and I got the old one), and some things we even commision (usually improvement of items, particularly my sword, since it's an intelligent Item and I won't part with it).
But it's something else with the epic stuff! As those items are far from commonplace (as epic characters aren't all that common, and not all of them create), we have to look for those things, if we want to buy them (sometimes there's only a single one in the Realms, and that doesn't have to be for sale, or it's whereabouts known, so we must seek, negotiate, and sometimes go on an interplanar shopping spree, and some things must be taken from hostile creatures, or be earned with a quest).

In other games, the items' availability (and the freedom of the party) is not so high, and we can only buy what they have, and they have less than everything there is, so we must be glad with the stuff we find (either in a shop or as treasure). Both systems are funny.

 

[ashockney]

In our most recent campaign, the rule was that you could buy minor and medium magic items from a town of prominent size to handle the item (per the DMG standards). Fortunately they were near enough to Waterdeep to facilitate these transactions.

All major, rare, and unique items had to be found. There were of course other mundane, minor, and medium items found.

You could sell magic items for 1/2 their value in order to buy others.

Access to the magic item creation feats allowed you to make any item, and do so at 1/2 the cost (which allowed you to have more items than your peers). It was a nice incentive to take the feats, even through there were still some significant drawbacks to using the feat to create items.

 

[Apok]

It depends on the kind of atmosphere the DM is trying to create, but our "standard" method is this;

Potions and Scrolls; typically can be bought at medium to large cities or smaller places where a wizard or cleric has retired and set up shop. Usually found at temples or alchemist-type shops. Availability is limited depending on the Potion or Scroll. Healing & Restorative is fairly common, others less so. Having a cleric in the party with ties to the church in question comes in real handy here.

Minor and Some Medium Magical Items; can be bought in large cities or trade centers. Typically have to go through an independant seller or trade company, so the price can vary from the DMG by alot. In FR, Thayan Enclaves sell at this level.

Most Medium and Major; are either found adventuring or can be custom made by a wizard or cleric. If the latter, the price is negotiable and often involves more than just spending cash. Sometimes these items can be found in underground "black market" shops or through other shady characters. If that's the case, purchase at your own risk.

Unique items and Artifacts; found through adventuring only or given as part of a specific quest. Can never be bought and can only be made under very specific or special circumstances.

Of course, the players can always create their own items provided they have the feats & materials necessary. Selling magical items was typically done through an intermediary (a polite term for a pseudo-legit fence) and the gp value varied.

 

[kigmatzomat]

As a GM, I generally encourage purchase of items. It's not that I don't give out items, but that items are appropriate to the situation rather than wishes. Some items are truly random and may be odd, but I let the dice pull those up. After all, many of the NPCs loot came from someone else and doesn't have to fit their idiom. And

As a result there are several contacts IMC for weapons, armor, wands, and misc. wonderous. In addition to their regular suppliers, the party also uses contacts within guilds and churches to buy and sell items. They've learned that doing so will help bypass some societal biases ("Well, it's against tradition for cloaks of elvenkind to be tailored to a dwarf, but I'll make an exception for a fellow follower of the faith...").

Just because I don't front-load the treasure doesn't mean I don't keep tabs on the kinds of loot the PCs are after. It could be that some items they want are uncommon where they are but that a road-trip could make aquiring the stuff easy. That lets me plan out some side adventures and gives them more control of their lives. (Well, do we visit the arctic to pick up some rings of warmth or head to the equatorial islands for pearls of the sirines?)

 

[Crothian]

Mostly find and make in my games, the lesser stuff like potions, scrolls, and wands can be bought if you ar lucky and rich

 

[Stalker0]

There are stores IMC for low level magic items, although I allow stronger magics to be commishioned. It never made sense to me to have a high level magic store, that place would get robbed by high level evils and extraplanar creatures a fair amount I'd wager.

 

[Xeoble]

We do some of both

At level 1, we found a minor artifact (priceless) and a ring of spell storing (90k) but we have yet to find much cash to buy things with

 

[demon_jr]

For those of you that commission magic items or get existing ones enhanced, how do you go about it?

For our game, no one has really approached the DM about doing such a thing, although the DM has mentioned that if such a thing were done, it may not be that easy as a result of the NPC item-creater sacrificing both time and experience points.