Do your players expect discounts for party made magic items?

[cthulhu_duck]

[Apologies in advance if this is in the wrong forum]

When players in your D&D group get (or look to get) magic items made for their characters by other characters (PCs) in the party - do the players expect and get discounted prices for those items or do they pay full market price?

One of my players has taken a wizard with multiple item generation - and the negotiation with another player is causing problems since that player expects to get things at a discount...

 

[WayneLigon]

Huh. Normally when someone has those feats, an extra party share of treasure is set aside for item creation or people just pay the wizard/cleric/whatever his costs.

 

[Alhazred]

Huh. Normally when someone has those feats, an extra party share of treasure is set aside for item creation or people just pay the wizard/cleric/whatever his costs.

Agreed. Any group with which I've ever played - either as a player or DM - sets aside funds for item creation. The assumption has always been that, since these items benefit the entire party, even if only one PC actually receives the tangible (read mechanical) benefits, no additional payments beyond the item creation costs are expected. For instance, the party fighter, subject to the effects from a potion of haste which was brewed by the party wizard, increases the potency (and survivability) of the party as a whole, even though the fighter is the only character to receive the potion's benefits.

I suppose that if a PC requests an items which provides no benefits to the party, the item's maker could request additional payment. However, what sort of item that might be, I cannot imagine.

 

[Mark Hope]

In our current Eberron game, we pay for the artificer to make items out of the party fund, assuming that they are for use by or for the benefit of the party as a whole. There are a couple of items I'd like him to make for myself - I imagine that I'll fund those entirely myself. I wouldn't expect a discount - he is paying XP to craft those things, after all.

That said, a psion PC in the Dark Sun game that I run made a pair of boots of skating for another party member and gave them to him as a gift, free of charge. So I guess it works either way.

I'd say that, as the crafter of magic items, you can set your own prices. If the buyer doesn't like it, he can clear off and buy from someone else. I used to play in a high-leve 2e game where the only priest in the party would charge 5,000 gp for cure spells when we were out on adventure and in dire need of help. He was a real swine about it, but there wasn't much that we could do at the time. Another cleric in a different game that I ran used to refuse to give out healing magics to those who had transgressed the dictates of his faith. The moral of this, right or wrong, is that when you are the one with the magic, you get to dictate the price and conditions of sharing that magic (and, of course, taking the consequences of your behaviour should your associates take offense). There's a good reason that Magic-Users used to get called Magic-Usurers back in the day, after all...

 

[frankthedm]

Considering that the other party members have spent a lot of time protecting the wizards ass, the caster should be expected to provide Items for the party at cost, not inflated market value. Otherewise he can lose the XP he is trying to hoard to being raised from the dead since the tanks won't be protecting someone who does not know how to play on a team. and that is if ther raise his coniving carcas.

 

[EdL]

We usually do it as party treasure for items that are party property (wands and such), and everyone pays for anything else they want at maker's cost, or a little more (depending on the maker). But I usually brew up, and give to party members free, potions of Cure Light when playing a Cleric, because it's in my character's best interests, and the party's, to do so.

 

[Flyspeck23]

Considering that the other party members have spent a lot of time protecting the wizards ass, the caster should be expected to provide Items for the party at cost, not inflated market value. Otherewise he can lose the XP he is trying to hoard to being raised from the dead since the tanks won't be protecting someone who does not know how to play on a team.

While there's some truth to your words, I'd never take any item creation feats in that campaign...

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Magic items cost XP to create and take time. While the wizard is slaving away 8 hours a day for varying lengths of time and weakening himself in the process the fighter is in the bar drinking and going to houses of ill repute. You better believe my wizard expects more GP than just the creation cost.

 

[Harmon]

Our group has only had one big time magic item maker and he was quite generous with the items, though I think he was skimming off the loot to finance his making habit, but that campaign was pretty generous with the coin.

I do have a wizard that makes wands and scrolls. Our House Rule allows the wizard to sit down with the cleric to make wands, scrolls and such, so when the cleric needs a new CxW Wand the group puts in the wizard plays for the xp cost and the cleric has to spend X number of days with the wizard. A few times the wizard has said- "you guys pay for my share of the component cost," but that is seldom.

 

[arscott]

I'd agree that charging full market price for items is ridiculous, but I think that it's also reasonable to charge a stipend for XP loss in creating Items as well. I figure that the 1 xp = 5 gp standard has about the same 'markup' as everything else, and therefore a 1xp = 2.5 gp standard would be reasonable.

In practice, this would mean that you pay 50% of the Book cost for components(in addition to buying the base item, if any), and then an additional 10% stipend to the enchanter to compensate for xp loss.

This doesn't seem particularly unfair to either party.