Does your setting have Magic Shops

[The_Gneech]

We tend to have a dwarven smith or a gnome crafter floating around in our various campaigns' main hub who create custom items for big piles of loot -- often using components the PCs bring back. One of my characters has magic armor made from the hide of a black dragon the party slew, for instance.

It's just too cool not to have!

But as for "off the rack magic items out of the DMG," no, we don't have those. There are a lot of shops that have a magic item or two in stock ... but for those the players get a list of what's available for sale at any given time and have to choose from it.

-The Gneech

 

[Maldin]

I think magic shops in general add a lot of flavor to the campaigns (if they make sense in the campaign world, that is) and can provide great adventure hooks.

Agreed!

My campaign has both (shops and commissionable wizards) in the largest cities. In fact, my City of Greyhawk shop was published in the Living Greyhawk Journal #2 (the issue with my poster map of the city) by myself and Erik Mona, and then again later by Erik in a Wormfood article in Dragon Magazine #337 (making it an official location now). For the latter article, I also created a “web enhancement” for the shop on my website, with more details and a map of the sales area, at http://melkot.com/locations/cogh/maldins.html

Having said that, shops like Maldin's shop (and any other shops in my campaign) are not places where you can walk in and pick up any item in the DMG if you have enough gold. It was meant more as a way to unload items from cash-strapped PCs, and as a souce of expendibles (such as potions). Periodically interesting things do go up for sale, though (and sometimes there's a plot reason for it being there). The shop also serves as a source of information and/or employment for many of the PC groups in my campaign.

Denis, aka "Maldin" himself
==========================
Maldin’s Greyhawk http://melkot.com
Loads of edition-independent Greyhawk goodness... maps, magic, mysteries, mechanics, and more!

 

[Scribble]

I chose the second option, because I didn't have one I felt really fit what I do...

I have magic shops for smaller mundane things like potions, and scrolls. There's almost always a potion and scroll shop.

Sometimes they have bigger items.


Commisionable wizards are of course around.

Also, there are shop owners and merchants who would be willing to say, sell you an enchanted sword, but that doesn't mean it's sitting on his/her shelf.

It means they'll make the sword and then get it enchanted, then mark up the price to sell to you.


The way I see it, people buy and sell stuff. It's just how things work. Why should magic be any different.

 

[painandgreed]

Sort of. There are wizards and even clerics that take commision. They can usually handle the smaller and more disposable magic items. Higher level clerics might take commision for greater ones for allies. There are magic item brokers who know who owns what and who is looking for what, and gets them together for a cut. For buying custom, high dollar magic items there are three choices: two are schools of magic run by the main wizards in the game, and the third is a lich who rules over a city populated by monsters.

In all cases, unless there are roleplaying reasons a character may not purchase such an item, it is usually handwaved and they may by it at normal price assuming I determine a mage or cleric of sufficient ability is available to make the device. However, although much of the purchase is handwaved, like all purchases IMC, the prices they pay are assumed to be the result of much haggleing over product and tender. All purchases are assumed to take about 1 minute per GP value of purchase. So spending 60 GP on something with that book value will take an hour of haggling between the buyer and seller till they come to a deal they are both agreeable on. buyers may speed up purchase time to 1 minute per 10 Gp value by paying an extra 10-60%. So, although one can walk into a temple and buy a bunch of potions of healing, this will usually include explaining to the priest who you are, what you're going to use them for, praying with them, listening to sermons, etc. Purchase of a 10,000 GP item will entale over two weeks of discussion as the deal is hashed out. This haggle time does not include time needed to actually manufacture the items in question which usually starts when the deal is agreed upon. A successful diplomacy check might get either a quicker haggle time or cheaper price, but otherwise, the only way to avoid this time needed for purchase is to role play it.

 

[Sledge]

Cheap items like potions and scroll of low level spells, plus the occasional wand etc are available in certain places. High end magic items require commissioning. Medium items can be commissioned or purchased if you go far enough out of your way.

 

[Jdvn1]

Temples of Boccob make excellent magic shops.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

Yes.

No.

It depends.

I base the availability of Magic Items on several factors.

First.

I don't charge XP to create magic items. As such. You can do by RAW, or you can do a bunch of research to determine the special ingredients and arcane formulas needed to create an item without spending XP.

This serves several purposes. 1. Adventuring Hooks Galore. 2. Treasure (IE. Formula to create Ghost Touch Property without giving up XP). 3. I have an extra layer of control over PC Item Acquistion/Creation.

Second.

Potions, Low-Level Scrolls, some Wands are pretty common and can be bought/bartered for in any town with enough Spellcasters. But an actual Magic Shop is pretty rare. At least until.....

Third.

About 15th level or so, Magic Shops start to appear. The PC's at this point have extra stuff they want to get rid of, stuff they want to buy, and the gold to back up that desire.

At high levels, Magic Shops just make it a lot easier and save a lot of time. (Try running 8 25th level+ PC's some time. The Magic Items can really bog things down).

Fourth.

Caveat Emptor. There ain't no return policy. Buy at your own risk.

Yes, I have shops. Only as a tool for the PC's to be able to Trade/Sell their own gear more than anything else.

 

[Sejs]

Sort of.

What there isn't:
~ A 'Magic-Lo-Mart' where you can do your one stop shopping for everything magical that you need, provided you can pay.

What there is:
~ Mages' Guilds, Arcane Colleges, or large Temples that may have certain low level, expendable items, particularly those more related to the concerns or needs of the day-to-day practicioner, rather than the adventurer. Scrolls of Comprehend Languages, holy symbols that are functionally a wand of Guidance, Bless, or Cure Light Wounds, a phial of smoke that when poured out casts Mount. Curios and the like. Some things may be available for commision, with the chance increasing if you're in good standing with them, more so if you're yourself a member.

~ Certain individual practictioners that will accept commisions for cash, or far more often, in barter with another practictioner for something that the other guy has that they themselves want. Or in exchange for a service that's important to them. Find my daughter/kill my rival/I need the spinnerettes of a bebelith and guess who's going to get them for me.

~ Wizards, scrolls, and personal research spells. Wizards publish. That is part of their fuction and what they see as their duty - to expand the body of magical knowledge. Likewise, that's how you become famous amongst wizardly circles: you cook up a really kickass spell, name it after yourself, scribe a few copies of it and distribute it to other wizards in exchange for things they've researched.

 

[Ibram]

IMC it is possible to find alchemists to make low level potions, or other "one-shot" magic items. Anything beyond that, such as weapons or other permanant items, requires alot more effort (finding a spell caster capable, gathering what the caster needs exc...)

permanant magic items are to rare and expensive to be openly sold on an open market, though there are collectors that deal in the sale of such items. Finaly there are curio shops that deal in oddities, which occasionaly turn up an actual magical item

 

[Hussar]

Hrm, looks like a fairly even spread across the board.

And, personally, I fully agree with this spread. Some campaigns, such as one set in Sigil, it will make perfect sense to have magic shops. Other camps, it won't.

Cool. In other words, it's not the rules that make magic shops a default, rather its individual settings. Which, IMNSHO, is exactly as it should be.