[EDITION WARZ] Selling Out D&D's Soul?

[Numion]

I think you'd have to be looking pretty askance at those numbers to call it 'even'!

Well, 46,5% have magic shops in their games.

 

[wedgeski]

Well, 46,5% have magic shops in their games.

I suppose. It's all perspective I guess: I don't consider a mage who takes commission to build a magical item to be anything other than a magic shop, on legs, which orders on demand rather than maintaining stocks. The ultimate effect on the game is the same.

 

[Lanefan]

According to some versions of how AD&D was played, you needed to have masses of magic items around to compensate for every time they got toasted by fireball or otherwise destroyed.

That's about how I do it...easy come, easy go. Magic item shopping is possible, but unless they're looking for something real simple there's a chance they won't find it...

Lanefan

 

[Lanefan]

I suppose. It's all perspective I guess: I don't consider a mage who takes commission to build a magical item to be anything other than a magic shop, on legs, which orders on demand rather than maintaining stocks. The ultimate effect on the game is the same.

Not really; the difference being a commissioned item takes (or should take) a long time to build; some months or even a year or more, and not all PC's are willing to wait. A magic shop, on the other hand, has the item *right now*.

Lanefan

 

[Ourph]

Not really; the difference being a commissioned item takes (or should take) a long time to build; some months or even a year or more, and not all PC's are willing to wait. A magic shop, on the other hand, has the item *right now*.

Lanefan

That's obviously not true by the 3e RAW, magic items take on the order of days or weeks, perhaps months for the really expensive items to produce. If a character wants some +5 armor he's got to wait less than a month to get it. Most "magic shops" deal in the low-end items like wands of Cure Light Wounds anyway, which take only a day to make. So the difference between a brick-and-mortar magic shop and buying items on commission is negligible. The commissioned NPC is basically a walking magic item vending machine.

 

[Lanefan]

That's obviously not true by the 3e RAW, magic items take on the order of days or weeks, perhaps months for the really expensive items to produce. If a character wants some +5 armor he's got to wait less than a month to get it. Most "magic shops" deal in the low-end items like wands of Cure Light Wounds anyway, which take only a day to make. So the difference between a brick-and-mortar magic shop and buying items on commission is negligible. The commissioned NPC is basically a walking magic item vending machine.

Time for some minor house-ruling, then. No magic item should take less than a week to make, from start to finish; what were the rule-writers thinking???

Lanefan

 

[jcfiala]

Time for some minor house-ruling, then. No magic item should take less than a week to make, from start to finish; what were the rule-writers thinking???

Lanefan

Actually, I'm thinking that if the high-powered magic items being so powerful is a problem, then what's needed is to up the time costs for making them. Instead of 1,000 gp a day (+3 sword in 18 days, +5 sword in 50 days) you could do something like square the result - something along the lines of a +3 sword in 162 days or a +5 sword in 2,500 days (or about 8 years). That would reduce the chance of a walking commission for god-killing weapons while still allowing the wizards to make use of their Scribe Scroll feat. (That said, 8 years sounds a little high for the +5 weapon...)

 

[Numion]

Time for some minor house-ruling, then. No magic item should take less than a week to make, from start to finish; what were the rule-writers thinking???

Lanefan

No need to houserule. The mage working on order isn't churning them out 24/7. He might have other orders, or he might need a pause to work up the exp.

 

[MerricB]

If there's a 15th level wizard or cleric in a 3e town making +5 armours on commissions... well, obviously that's rather exceptional.

Cheers!

 

[jcfiala]

No need to houserule. The mage working on order isn't churning them out 24/7. He might have other orders, or he might need a pause to work up the exp.

"Look, I'd love to make your sword for you, but I'm all outta juice. I'll get right back on your commission, but first I need to head south and take care of this band of kobold bandits that are raiding our supply caravans first. Be back in a week, unless this is the beginning of one of those 'mega-modules', in which case I won't have it finished until next year. You never know."