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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Metheus" data-source="post: 65010" data-attributes="member: 2148">As a player who is trying to responsibly create magic items, this is something that I've thought about for a while.     -I dont think there are that many mages/clerics willing to give up the time and XP to create items. I know how much I hate to give up XP even for minor things, and I dont expect NPCs to be any different.  There is only a finite amount of XP that an higher level mages are going to gain if they spends most of their time creating items and not adventuring.  How many of them are going to be willing to part with that time and XP for some punk adventurer who wants a shiny new toy, or for some store to sell for a quick profit.   -The prices in the DMG, which really shouldn't be looked at by players, are a guide to creation costs more than buying costs.  The idea of there being a 'book value' for magic items or even equipment is pretty silly.  Even in our connected society, you can find different prices on the same item from one place to another.  In a place where info doesnt really travel quickly (at least for the commoner) the prices would be highly different. Not every longsword in every FR store from the jungles of Chult to Thay, to the tundra of the North is going to cost 15gp. The availabilty of materials and crafters changes prices from place to place.  Beyond that, the market gets what it can, so if a place has a lot of adventurers willing to shell out 20gp for that sword, it will cost 20gp. When you start considering the supply of displacer beast hides, beholder eyes, and red dragon blood, magic item creators are going to become pretty scarce.    -Quests to find material is key. If some adventurer wants mithril chain, they should darn well have to find it themselves.  The idea of walking into a store and buying a chunk of mithril is pretty absurd, even in the largest of markets.  What little supply that would come into a store would be reserved beforehand or exchaged for favors.  Items like that have a much greater price than their gp 'book value' states, no PC could ever walk into a store and just buy it, or even order it for gold. Whatever adventurer found those supplies will have found enough gold and items to make some less bold PC adventurer's offer laughable.   -Because of the above factors, most of the magic items found for purchase will either be stolen- from crypts, dungeons, houses, caravans, ect.  Just because someone finds something in a dungeon doesnt mean that there isnt an adventurer's family, possibly with scrying spells, looking for the family greatsword +3.  If something comes cheap, that could mean there is an irate nobleman looking for the Brooch of Charming that was taken from him.  Dont go overboard with this, not every +1 ring has people chasing after it, but the major items, if taken from somewhere, are surely going to be looked for.</blockquote>

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