Do you let players buy Magic items?

[Zappo]

Depends... in my Dragonlance campaign - no way. Only very big cities would have maybe one magical shop, which will usually have a stock of minor items and a bunch of more powerful things which may or may not be what the PCs were looking for. However, the campaign doesn't usually lead the PCs to big cities.

In the Planescape campaign, on the other hand, I assume that any minor item like potions, low-to-medium level scrolls, and things like can be easily found in Sigil's Great Bazaar. You can also find more powerful things, but you'll have to look a bit carefully and it may take some time. At any given time, the Bazaar may contain some powerful items for sale, but the PCs will have to know where to look. And of course, they will rarely be what the players want.

No way at all that a player says "I want a +4 keen flaming returning shuriken" and has a reasonable chance of finding it.

For prices, I use the DMG prices, slightly increased; the character can use a Diplomacy opposed check to lower it (even below the DMG price, if the check goes very well).

 

[andrew]

Certificates of Authenticity

On the flip side, why would the same smith buy a sword from a adventurer for more than a masterwork price just because the adventurer says it is "magic".

In my campaign, if you want to sell a magic item, most folk need some kind of certificate of authenticity. There are several guilds that will issue one (the Artificers, the Order, etc.). This is usually just a specialized wizard's mark on the item that matches the mark on some kind of physical proof describing the features (the actual certificate). There are shorthand notations for common things like +1 enhancements and such.

The person authenticating something uses the normal identify type spells. And of course, it costs money to have something id-ed. If the item has some sort of history, it's usually beneficial to have this recorded and kept with the cert of authenticity.

Additionally, when creating a new magic item for a comission, it is customary for the creator to have it evaluated by an independent party as part of the service. Of course, there's also a market for forgeries, but you run the risk of annoying several very powerful guilds.

However, there are no magic item shops. Like many other posters, potions and scrolls are pretty easy to get. Minor magic items can be had in adventurer's stores in the larger towns and particularly good arms and weapons dealers may have a few enchanted items. Most magic items that aren't found are comissioned. This has worked out pretty well so far.

 

[Henry]

...If I have an adventure that causes the fighter to lose his +3 Keen Greatsword it's a lot different if he knows he'll only be able to replace it by advenutre and risk compared to him thinking. "what the f**k. Earl's has a discount on +4 swords next week so I'll just go buy one."

In truth, I do allow some magical item purchase in my games, usually placing a cap on the worth of the items available. But even if I have a place where magic items are commissioned and sold, two factors act as a control to the "just go and buy it" routine:

1) I keep the feel as esoteric as possible: It's more like entering a chinese herbalist's shop than a supermarket.

2) Any time a PC makes purchase of a magic item, it is a substantial investiture of their wealth. Any player who loses a powerful magic item knows that it CAN be replaced, but it will ensure they have no money for other commodities or necessities, no money for bribes or luxury accomodations, and most importantly, no money for replenishing the things they have lost such as potions and wands and scrolls. This is the most hurtful thing, since the wealth of an adventurer means that first and second level potions are easy to come by, but 3rd level potions, or any wand over first level, is both expensive and temporary. After you've paid 750 gp of your 10,000 gold net wealth on a single 1 ounce container that will get swallowed in 3 seconds in a life-or-death fight, you start to feel the edge of poverty and the call of money-making ventures once again.

Our players have many motivations for our PC's - avarice, love, revenge, prestige, good looks, etc. - but wealth is without a doubt the lubricant that makes most of this happen in a society.

 

[Kobold Curry Chef]

We allow item purchases up to the limits of the cities and towns in the campaign. With item creation feats in the game, there's little reason to restrict purchases. However, our DM keeps a tight rein on how much cash he hands out in his treasures...so we are rarely able to buy the magic items we want.

 

[Ravellion]

Kobold Curry Chef, I think that is a very valid argument - cash is much more a restrictive argument than it it was in previous editions of the game, because of the well defined rules of magic item creation. Basically, I give out most of my reasure as magic, and a small amount of cash. If they pool everything, they might be able to buy something after two or three adventures, but usually, they have to sell items for it.

Rav

 

[sepulchrave]

No.
Never have, never will.

 

[sfgiants]

It makes no sense

I only allow scrolls and potions of low level power for sale generally. Sometimes something more unique comes along, but rarely. I have a question for those that allow shopping for magic items like groceries: who buys them? The average person couldn't afford the simplest potion even if they saved for a year. Even the aristocracy would not be buying a ton as they would seldom really need it (also there will be only so many aristocrats, only about 1-2% of a cities population would be aristocrats). Items won't be made to sit on a shelf someone needs to buy them. Unless your game world is made up of 50% adventurers (or the town is), there would be very few items for sale. Think about it, where does the money for all these items being bought come from.

 

[LostSoul]

I don't let them buy any magic items.

They may sell them, but I don't think they are going to, for a couple of reasons:
1) They have hardly any time to craft magic items.
2) The "gold piece value" of an item doesn't mean you magically turn gold (or silver, or copper) into an enchantment. This is the cost of the ingredients - troll's blood for a ring of rengeration, etc.
3) Nobody has enough cash to buy any magic off the PCs - except for the people who want to kill them.

 

[LostSoul]

MAGIC has no luster, mo mystery, no "rarity to be cheapened if thats true.

That's one thing that has always bugged me about D&D. I would have liked to have seen different levels of magic proliferation suggested in the DMG, but I guess that would have been too difficult to implement.

 

[EOL]

For me Third Edition has just raised the bar. I use magic item purchasing to help high level characters round out their collection of lower powered stuff (cloak of resistance +2, Gauntlets of Ogre Power, a 2nd level Pearl of Power). The stuff they can find is always better then the stuff they can buy generally 3-5 times the value of the stuff that's available for purchase.

I don't make it just as easy to buy something as find it, I think it works.