Does your setting have Magic Shops

[FireLance]

Fundamentally, I do not see that there is anything inherently special about magic. It is a commodity like any other, and can be bought and sold accordingly.

Magic item shops are a convenient in-game handwave to allow the PCs to get the gear they want, and to do so before the game session starts so that we don't have to waste precious gaming time rolling Gather Information and Diplomacy checks to fill out the characters' equipment lists.

 

[Old Fart]

I voted "sort of" as it came closest to what exists in my campaign.
Clerics/temples make minor curative items - mostly those that require a CL of 3 or less.
There are wizard types who make a living creating minor magical items - things like everburning torches, items to clean a stained outfit, potions to prevent hair loss or tooth decay, etc. Basically "household" magic for those wealthy enough to afford them.
Mage's guilds in large cities make a brisk business of selling magical supplies, such as spell components, inks for copying new spells into spell books, and the various and sundry things those with item creation feats need to create magic items. For example, if one spends 1250 gold to create Boots of Elvenkind, they spent the money buying some rare & exotic components.

If the PCs want to buy something out of the DMG, they don't go to a "shop," they go to a broker - a rich and well-connected merchant who will try to find what they are looking for, and arrange transportation of the item to them - which is of course, why items sell for less than they cost. The PCs have on occasion made a "friend" of NPCs w/ item creation feats, and have managed to commission some things on a one-shot basis, but the broker model is far more common.

That being said, PCs do have a chance to acquire some magic items. The campaign world is gearing up for a multi-nation war. IRL, nobility historically have financed military operations by selling jewels, gems, artwork, etc. The fantasy equivalent of that is selling magic items - after all, that cloak of charisma that's been in the family for three generations is nice, but what they really need is the cavalry and infantry its sale will finance.

There have also been occasions where the PCs have donated to one or another cause, or accomplished a great feat for a given organization, and were rewarded with a magical item as a "thank you."

Basically, I just have a problem with magic item shops being economically viable in my campaign. Never mind the huge theft target thay would be, it's just not feasible to have that much capital sitting in one's inventory, gathering dust on a shelf and waiting for some adventurer to buy it. So I came up with some more "realistic" alternatives.

 

[Umbran]

Not as such, no. Nor are wizards know to take commissions commonly available. This is because in the current game, people wealthy enough to use such services are rare, and higher-level spellcasters are not common.

 

[Mallus]

I voted 'yes', because 'yes, but...' wasn't a poll option.

My campaign world of CITY has magic shops, mostly in the form of alchemists shops, where you can purchase everything from love charms and impotence cures to some run-of-mill DMG potions. Luxury-goods stores like Urbane Outfitters in Narayan:CITY sell costlier magic items, albeit the kind wealthly, young dilettante adventures prefer, say like silver-pommeled flaming rapiers +1. A lot of the temples do a good business selling cures and protective wards. And of course black-marketeers sell all manner of more dangerous equitment, including military-grade magic munitions.

CITY is part Paris, part rural Afghanistan, when it comes to the availibility of goods...

I handwave the purchse of potions, most wands, and scrolls. However, dealers in anything more are part of the story. I figure that people who sell such interesting goods must lead interesting lives, making for interesting times, in the old Chinese curse sense...

 

[Mallus]

Magic item shops are a convenient in-game handwave to allow the PCs to get the gear they want, and to do so before the game session starts so that we don't have to waste precious gaming time rolling Gather Information and Diplomacy checks to fill out the characters' equipment lists.

So you don't employ a lot of non-standard 'gear'? The kind the players need to learn about, or experiment with, or work to make useful? The kind they can't really buy 'off the rack'?

I've been gradually moving away from standard, utlilitarian items in my game. I make most potions and such readily available, but the major items have been increasingly... idiosyncratic.

Like the Handy Haversack which is actually just a bag with a magic portal sewn into it, which connects to a frat house on the campus of a major university of magic.

Or Philip, the armor-plated, VTOL-capable griffon contruct, who can dispense cofee, tea, and a high-quality gin in flight (and is vaguely related to a Figurine of Wonderous Power).

So far, my players have been eating this stuff up. Its made 'gearing up' a lot more interesting...

 

[shilsen]

CITY is part Paris, part rural Afghanistan, when it comes to the availibility of goods...

Shirac with AK-47s ... just what I always thought the game was missing.

I handwave the purchse of potions, most wands, and scrolls. However, dealers in anything more are part of the story. I figure that people who sell such interesting goods must lead interesting lives, making for interesting times, in the old Chinese curse sense...

And if they didn't lead interesting lives, they certainly do after meeting Burne and the rest of the crew.

To answer the original question, both of my Eberron games have magic shops, but that's mainly because they are based in Sharn. Depending on where they are in Eberron the PCs might have more trouble locating an actual magic shop, but being able to purchase magic items - or, at least, low leverl magic items - would generally be possible in all reasonably urban areas.

 

[FireLance]

So you don't employ a lot of non-standard 'gear'? The kind the players need to learn about, or experiment with, or work to make useful? The kind they can't really buy 'off the rack'?

Short answer: no.

Partly because my players don't really appreciate weird items, and partly because I want to make the characters, and not the equipment, the stars of the game.

 

[eris404]

Both and then some.

I have an organization called the Artificers Guild which will make items on commission (the campaign setting I'm using predates Eberron, so I might go back and update with that in mind). Other individuals will make items on commission as well.

Sometime back I found a line of PDFs that were specialized magic shops (one was a tattoo parlor, for example) that I just love and had to use in my game.

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.

 

[lukelightning]

...making for interesting times, in the old Chinese curse sense...

You mean "apocryphal old Chinese curse sense." As that saying is neither old nor Chinese.

 

[Mallus]

You mean "apocryphal old Chinese curse sense." As that saying is neither old nor Chinese.

Thanks. Apparently I meant to demonstrate my ignorance of yet more facts...