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

[clark411]

Find and buy.

If you never find magic items, it's hard to save up to buy them.. and if you can never buy magic items, there's really no point in saving and saving unless you plan on building a castle and ruling armies, or you've got a roleplayed money sink (be it patroning another adventurering company, keeping the family well off.. owning one pair of every type of shoe from every above average cobbler in the multiverse).

 

[Hypersmurf]

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

Anyone else just flash a Mastercard commercial?

-Hyp.

 

[Kraedin]

Our party would buy things, if we had any money. All of our gear so far has been siezed from the dying hands of the enemy.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

In the games I run and play, we're insanely stingy with magical items and treasure, and typically have far below standard wealth for our levels.

As a player, I lean towards generous characters who turn down rewards, spend money like water, and generally don't hoard wealth. Wealth is a fickle friend-- goodwill generally isn't.

The only character I have with considerable wealth is epic level-- most of his magic items were self-made, and his wealth comes from taxation and conquest more than this adventures. He also generally spends most of his money on salaries, recruitment, and his magical experiments.

 

[Li Shenron]

As a DM, I strongly encourage Item Creation: in my campaigns it is the best (and sometimes the only) way to get exactly what you want, and when you want it. I think spending a feat, some XPs and time to craft magic items should bring more reward than just the 50% discount to the price.

Of course, there are shops (not necessarily in public places), but they are mostly for consumable items, i.e. Scrolls (lower levels), Potions, Wands. Other magic items are quite rarely bought, unless the party is little magic oriented, in which case I usually introduce a couple of spellcasting NPCs friends who can craft something.

I don't like the random generation tables for magic treasures, because they tend to come up with items that the PCs really don't like, especially Weapons and Armors. At higher levels, a fighting character who has spent 3 or 4 feats to specialize in one weapon is not going to be that happy to find a wonderful magic weapon but with which he can't get advantage of those feats. And I don't think it's nice to see the recurring situation of PCs with a new load of magic item, to pick up the 2-3 useful stuff and everytime sell the rest. Generally the "found" items are NPCs gear in our games.

 

[Darklone]

Usually you can't buy magic stuff in my campaigns except scrolls and some alchemical potions in some real big cities at special shops.

Ah well... there's that plane hopping Magickal Things shop though that makes his appearance in every campaign I DM.... Nothing ordinary there though. And most of the times the players sold more stuff there than they bought.

 

[Shallown]

In the campaign I am running I kept the group magic item and money poor for several levels (like up to 7th or so) which actually balanced out with the tendency to have only a single fight or so a day or every few days. (A lot of cross country travel in dangerous uncivilized areas.)
So to even things out I gave them magic items as gifts tailored for them by a powerful friend who owed them so to speak. They also appreciated the items more this way, I think.

I prefer top give out items this way so I can tailor them while still controlling what they get with in game logic.

They have now started making their own items which I control A little bit by having certain materials available.

They also buy items of low power and I tend to have certain items harder to find due to who makes them and who uses them for example. The party scout/rogue wanted elven cloak and boots. Even in the major city he couldn't get them since they were mainly made by elves and the only contacts he had were underground ones and the item was too valuable to rogues to be readily sold. I would have let him buy one but at three times the DMG price since that was the market price here. When he was in elven lands a month later he had one made for near book price.

I tend to do more commisioning things to be made then having vast store rooms of stuff available. The party wizard is friends with the Wizard's college magic shop director (Their toad familiars are lovers). So he goes out of the way to find items for the party at decent prices, though sometimes this takes a few days.

I do try to control the items available but I don't think I have ever said no to anyones request for an item. I control things more by giving the players tough but not impossible choices to make. Do they want to wait a week while racing against the enemy organization to make, find or commision items or take what is avaiably and keep moving. I don't deny the wizard use of his creation feats but I don't make iot easier either some feats are tough choices just like a fighter deciding when Power attack is worth using or expertise. I leave it in the players hands.

Just a few thoughts

Later

 

[KnowTheToe]

I prefer to find magic items and only like to buy low lvl stuff with an occasional "find" of something more powerful. As I prefer lower magic campaigns, I dislike item creation, it is too easy.

 

[Stalker0]

I don't like the random generation tables for magic treasures, because they tend to come up with items that the PCs really don't like, especially Weapons and Armors. At higher levels, a fighting character who has spent 3 or 4 feats to specialize in one weapon is not going to be that happy to find a wonderful magic weapon but with which he can't get advantage of those feats.

I actually think this is one of the good reason to allow some kind of buying in teh game. A fighter who has specilized in the spiked chain just "happens" to find a +4 spiked chain in a dungeon somewhere. Wow, isn't that convienent

Its things like that that I do like some item buying, it allows me to put out more realistic treasure. If the fighter wants a special spiked chain, go find someone to make you one.

 

[magnas_veritas]

We do everything.

A lot of our equipment comes from looting our victi...er, villainous opponents. Some are very nicely equipped, too, though now with BoVD, some of the stuff that drops is just plain useless to us.

We make a ton of our own, too. All the casters have at least one item creation feat, and some specialize. The cleric is practically specialized in cranking out Armor of Heavy Fortification.

Some that we can't make, we commission. My character just got his paired shortswords upgraded for free, and is trying to find someone who can make his +2 keen ghost touch sithral* bastard rapier into a Sun Blade. We've found that people will often do it if they like you, or if you pay them enough.

We also occasionally go shopping. We were dragged out to the planes for Lord of the Iron Fortress, and spent vast quantities of cash on rare, useful magic items.

Brad

* - Mithral, modified by sith alchemy. Yep, we've gots Jedi, though not in the party currently.