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Message: <blockquote data-quote="painandgreed" data-source="post: 1854118" data-attributes="member: 24969">Let's look now at magic item manufature and avaialbility since this is a hot topic here it seems (see "magic shop" thread).Without DM intervention, how many wizards do we have that could make items? The population should be increased if I add any towns but I don't want one city with 180 villages (which would result in an average of 450 3rd level, 450 2nd level and 900 1st level wizards acording to DMG p.139) I'll assume that there are 3.5 times the number of lower sized establishments than the one above it, skipping small cities. This gives us one large city, 3 large towns, 12 small towns, 42 villages, 150 hamlets, and 525 throps assuming max size for each and comes out to roughly the right population. Now we can figure out the number of wizards and their levels according to the DMG p.139. Taking the low side of average, we end up with 1 11th level, 1 6th level, 3 5th level, 5 4th level, 16 third level, 65 2nd level, and 300+ 1st level in our kingdom.What items can they make? We;ll assume that these wizards will have any capable artificer feats since they are non-adventuring NPCs and otherwise make their living at least in part by making such items. Well, nobody can is able to make Staves or Rings because they aren't high enough for the feat. There is only 1 person capable of making Rods. There are a total of 5 people capable of making Arms and Armor or Wands. 26 total people capable of making Potions or Wonderous Items. Everybody can scribe Scrolls.How much would such items cost? Considering that the markup on magic items is less than normal items, x2 to x3, I think it's safe to say that Market Price listed in the DMG is for cases where there is plenty of supply to meet demand. If there isn't a good supply, then the price will go up to match demand.What is our demand? Let's take out Royal and 100 noble families and assume they spend 3.5% of their annual income on magic items. For things that are functional and likely a matter of life or death in some cases, I don't think that's too much. I'll explain why I picked that number in a minute. That comes out to 200,000 GP a year spent on magic items in out kingdom. One half from the king alone. Let's say this is their annual magic budget for buying magic items and having spells cast, but we're assuming it mostly goes to magic items for purposes of demand. Almost everything takes 1 day per 1000gp to make, resulting in 79 workdays a year for making magic items. Not a big enough demand to tax even one wizard, so everybody can pretty much get what they want. The only special cases will be for items that can't be made and for items that only one person can make. Items that can't be made are essentially priceless. They are only placed in the world by the DM and are owned by NPCs or monsters. Our one 1st level wizard is the only person that can create Rods, so he could have the option of bumping up the price of such as well as scroll and potions he makes at his level since nobody else can do it. We'll say his prices are higher than Market Price (DMs adjudication) since he can ask such because demand is there because he is the only one who can supply them. The same goes for our 6th level wizard for items that can't be made by the 5th or lower but not as high as since people could always go to the 11th level. If the 11th level doesn't jack up his prices high enough, then the 6th level is left chargin Market Price. At 5th and lower level there are plenty of competing wizards to say that anything made at 5th level or lower is Market Price as listed in the DMG.Arms and Armor are going to be the big items that everybody wants in our violent medieval world. The highest the 11th level can make is +3 enchantment so's the best that can be purchased. Anything more powerful will be just as rare as Staves or Rings. Likewise, only one other person can make +2, so hopefully, if the 11th level wizard isn't to hard up for work, then both the +3 and +2 enchantments items will be higher than normal price. Let's say double of Market Price and do some hand waving to say that half of the magic budget goes to arms and armor. If both our 11th and 6th level wizard make one items they can at double the price for the 11th and 1.5 for the 6th. We end up with 24,000 GP spent every year on a +3 and a +2 items every year. The other fourth and fifth level wizards jump in there and make a +1 item on demand each per year. That gives us about 32,000 out of the 100,000 for armor and weapons. This puts 30 magic weapons/armor into circulation every year for 101 families means each family get a magic weapon or armor every three and a third years. Assuming that the land is stable and such items are going to be passed down without issue, I'd say that the actual number of magic weapons/armor made will be a little less and more towards the higher end as families will be inclined to save up and buy quality, rather than quanity. This would suggest that the king, his close freinds, and powerful nobles will be in +3 while their families probably have +2 items. Other nobles could have +2 items with other fighters in the family decked out with +1. The older and more powerful the family, the more abilities they'll have. Another consideration is the money spent on such items by the king and other really powerful nobles. It's not enough to have a +3 items with some special abilities for the king if 10 other nobles are also going to have similar swords. instead he'll probably have something like a +3 sword with special abilities that is also a 50,000 GP work of art above and beyond the masterwork and magical nature. If the DM chooses to include any special NPCs who can provide magic items, then there would be even more.Now, why did I choose a magic budget of 3.5%? Simply put, because that averages out to about a 1GP per level per day for all the NPC wizards. This is their salaries and makes for a good living in a medieval world. This is assuming that all their income is from making magic items. We could say that they only need about half from such sources and that the nobels spend less on magic every year which results in less magic items in the campaign. Since we have only about 10 wizards making the vast majority of the magic items out there, how does it get to all the 3rd level and lower? ...and why are there 300+ 1st level wizards living in just about every small group of people? Well, half the cost of those magic items goes to material components. When paid 1315 GP for a +1 longsword, the wizard doesn't just melt that 500 gold and abosrb it with the masterwork weapon. Instead it goes towards material components gathered and prepared by all these lower level wizards. They're out there looking for special herbs, woods and ingrediants which they gather by hand and work at. They sell them to the wizard making the item in question as well as collect other material components for spells and such. It would be possible for the wizard making the item to save on costs of the material compoents by collecting them himself, but for simplicity and because he supposedly has better things to do than hunt through the woods for small magical mammals who are neither ferocious nor treasure bearing just so he can line the inside of the magic helmet with their fur. on top of that, some of the wizards may even be the craftsmen making the masterwork items that get enchanted by the other wizards. A 3rd level wizard with full ranks in weaponsmith, a good Int and masterwork tools, could have over +10 and be able to take 10 to complete masterwork items to supliment his income.</blockquote>

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