Economics of Magic Items

[Delta]

does anyone remember how much a King's Ransom officially was, I can't find it for the life of me...

150,000 marks for Richard I.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_I_of_England

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

If I'm quite happy to accept that making a magic sword costs me 1,000gp for the enchantment, I'm curious to know what this money goes towards, and if it is possible to avoid any of this costing in leiu of doing some of the work (gathering, refining) yourself. If so, how much cheaper could we theoretically make a +1 weapon?

Theorectically? If I were DM, as low as zero.

But you would have to sit your PC out of the action for a period of time that will probably be disruptive to maintaining his important status in the narrative of the campaign.

So this would not make sense unless we were playing in a campaign where each player had multiple PCs, or the particular player was temporarily retiring. Then the DM could bring him back at a later time: "Your old friend Tim the Wizard is here. Has not levelled up as much as you guys, but he has been hard at work at his own projects that have paid handsome dividends in XP and coin."

The written rules are for PCs, although sometimes the NPCs adhere to them as well. Other means for creating magic items exist in the campaign world, but not ones that would interest the players so we do not bother to write them down.

 

[werk]

The 1,000gp that my Wizard spends has to go somewhere, right? Where?

It goes to the extraplanar that is selling you a level one soul to power your +1 magic weapon, be that a devil, hag, or some other soul-hording being.

During the enchantment of the weapon, your money disappears and the blade is infused with magical power.

Handwave and mechanics!

The only way to get around paying is to supply your own sacrifice, but you still lack the knowledge of how to trap the soul in the weapon and make it function.

 

[kenobi65]

150,000 marks for Richard I.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_I_of_England

Or, in other terms:
- A +3 keen, flaming, ghost touch, holy weapon
- A +1 shocking, defending weapon
- A +1 weapon
- And a handful of gp

 

[Len]

Well... theoretically... you can spend 1 copper on the materials needed to craft three coppers.
And those three coppers on the materials needed to craft nine coppers.
And those nine coppers on the materials needed to craft 27 coppers.
And those 27 coppers on the materials needed to craft 81 coppers....
And so on, and so forth, until you have enough coppers to craft all the Gold Coins you'll need to buy your materials.

You can craft the first copper or two by punching a commoner. No capital needed!