Give me MAGIC!!!

[K'Plah Q'Houme]

I'm under the impression that magic items of no higher than +4 can be bought in "magic shops" across Faerun, this is how we do it in our game anyway. Offcourse it is not common business that you buy items of this magnitude, but it can be done. My DM agrees in this. Furthermore I think that items of +10 enchanment's should be avaliable also through trade and connections the player character may have. This way a character in my opinion would be able to acquire a +5, holy (+2), keen(+1) long sword (+8) given his connections or reputation, and the size of his purse. My DM seems not to like this idea. Offcourse I know, that the gameworld (Faerûn) essentialy is, what the DM want's it to be, but what do you guys say? Is this a limited world, where magic is rare and very sought after, or is it an original D&D world, where magic is every where and fairly easy to come by?

 

[Crothian]

When I run potions and scrolls of lower level are really the common things. Weapons and armor that are magical are just to valuible for people to get rid of. A sword +1 becomes an heirloom for a family. There are a few places that have people didicated to building magical items, but usually, there is a backlog of special orders.

 

[K'Plah Q'Houme]

So magic in your campaign must be very expensive and hard to come by, which makes me think, that if a character sold one of his heirlooms he would make a bundle of money. You would say (I suppose) that a character dosn't sell his stuff because it's so rare, but lets say anyway that he/she found a similar item and he/she sold it. What would he/she do with this money?
Isn't magic items the stuff you buy, when you are rich enough? What do a fighter who just slayed a great wyrm do, with his newfound treasure if he can't buy magic items? In my view money looses it's value, and thereby the whole gaming experience goe's awry. How can we play D&D with no magic items? And most important: Why do DM's fear magic items? I'm confused!

 

[Crothian]

DM's don't fear magic items. But having then as common as dirt makes them less important and not a great find. I don't want players to find a magic item, and thing "Oh, it's only a +3 weapon...just toss it in the back with the rest."

High level characters have alot of options when it comes to spending money. They can use it to buy land and titles. They can make a big donation to the church and appease the gods. They can spread it amung the poor and less fortunate to make sure they get food. They can use iut to raise an army. They can buy wagons or ships they use in travel. They can afford rare fruits and foods that need to be shipped half way across the world.

 

[Coredump]

? Is this a limited world, where magic is rare and very sought after, or is it an original D&D world, where magic is every where and fairly easy to come by?

You are making an assumption here that some (including myself) don't agree with. Just because you read the books and decide that magic shops are the 'norm' does not mean that is the 'way it is.' The rules, as written, actually allow for quite a bit of flexibility in how they are implemented and interpreted. I have not problem with you wanting tons of easy magic flowing...but that does not define it as 'an original D&D world'.

I would expect it near impossible to buy the sword you mentioned. Simply because there just are not very many of them in existence. If the only thing you wanted was a +8 valued weapon, maybe...but with those exact features...not a chance.

 

[K'Plah Q'Houme]

I see your point, and so does my DM, this is his reasoning as well. But the rules state things otherwise. Offcourse DM's are always free to bend the rules to fit any DM's design, but i'm sure that the intention of the game, is to have magic items involved. The campaign setting of forgotten realms has a lot of magic about it, then why not use it? I like your reasoning, and I approve of it, but also I think that it's a crying shame to see endless possibilities go to waste (I would personally like to play a "low magic" game, but that is not the kind of game i'm involved in at the time being).
When you talk about money it makes me think, that we may not be talking about the same thing. Personally i'm involved in this game (D&D), not because I want to be wealthy and have titlees and endless lands at my dispossal. I wan't to wield power, and not power because of my possions and status, but power given to me by endles years of traning, fightning and the collection of magic items. Isn't this way most people play D&D? To attain something that you can't attain i normal life (everybody can become rich!). Offcouse I know that I speak for myself, and this is how I feel. So i say: Give me magic to wield over the head of my enemy... grant me the power...

 

[Staffan]

The way I see it, only low-level scrolls and potions are regularly available for sale. You can buy other stuff, but it usually has to be custom-made, especially if it's a high-level item or one with special abilities (you'd be more likely to buy a +3 sword over the counter than a +1 holy sword). High-level stuff you can buy straight away are usually stuff someone found but didn't want - no-one is going to make a +4 sword in the hopes of finding a buyer and be out 16,000 gp in case no-one wants it.

I use the town rules to determine how good items you can get in various places. For example, IIRC a metropolis (like Waterdeep) has a gp limit of 100,000 gp. That doesn't mean you can buy a holy longsword +5 (value 98,315 gp) from the nearest "magic shop", but that you can find a wizard (or more likely, a cleric) willing to make one for you. You're going to have to wait for 98 days before you can get it, though, because that's how long it's going to take.

 

[K'Plah Q'Houme]

Staffan.
And this is exactly what I mean. I don't expect to find a shop in any given town and purchase a +10 sword. I say, that in towns (metropolis size) you can buy up to +5 items. This dosn't mean though, that higher items is impossible to get. You could perhaps know of high level characters that would be willing to make an item for you, perhaps you did a "favor" for a high level character and such an item was your price for a job well done etc. Hard to come by yes, but not impossible to attain.

 

[DanMcS]

Sorry, you're wrong. If you'll look on page 74 of the old grey box Forgotten Realms boxed set, it specifically says that only Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue carries magical items of any sort, and not even they have ones of that magnitude.

Sorry, I made that up, I couldn't resist.

Your DM is correct, you can't buy magical items like that. If you want to run a game where magical items can be bought and sold like candy, run one, but don't come to some random web forum and expect to find people to back you up in your intragame disagreement.

 

[the Jester]

Actually, the gp limit of a community is just that: a limit. You cannot find an item for sale worth more than the limit in that community. If you want to buy more high-powered items off the shelf, you'll probably need to go to a planar metropolis or even bigger community.

Honestly, live with your dm's judgement. I don't know of many dms (if any) that would let you find stuff like you're talking about for sale; imc you might be able to commission one if:

a) Your pc buddy with the item creation feats is willing to do the work; or

b) You can find an npc high-enough level, with the right feats and spells, and make it worth his while to do it (which prolly means a lot more than just paying for the item in question!)

Once in a while the party imc finds high-valued items on the market, but they have to decide whether they want to buy (for example) a +4 flaming keen longspear, rather than seeking out the undead bane greatsword +5 that they really want.