How do you handle (mundane) item pricing?

[drnuncheon]

In Warwick castle (I believe) I saw a suit of plate that would have done any halfling proud. It was made for a young prince. Maybe he should shop around at the castles of some lords whose children may have outgrown their armor?

I would say that the halfling has very little chance of finding anything "off the rack", but any competent armorer would be able to repair or replace their armor, given enough time to do it. I doubt it would cost more money to do so.

Anyway, in a realistic medieval economy, I'd say that your players were right. Certainly masterwork armor would need to be commissioned, or at least adjusted to fit the character more properly. But D&D doesn't have anything approaching a realistic medieval economy. I mean, the default world supports shops which sell "adventuring gear"...

J

 

[Tonguez]

Base cost = 75% of PHB cost

Add
25% of PHB = Normal items
50% of PHB = Non-Standard
75% of PHB = Unusual Items
100% of PHB = Rare Items

So you need to now determine if Halfling armour is Non-Standard or Unusual within your setting

 

[WayneLigon]

To get back to part of my query: This region doesn't have many small folk so making any armour for them is rare. ... The arguement then descended into that I knew nothing of smithing and that everything is custom made. I pretty much dissagree with that because I assume most of the stuff in the PHB is "off the rack" so to speak.

For the specific instance, I'd just charge him normal PHB price but make him wait for a suit to be made if such things are so rare in that region. The armor materials would only be half what they would be for a human, but the extra measurements, the special order and such would cost more; I'd say it would just even out to speed things along. I wouldn't think you'd be able to easily alter a suit to half-size, and would suppose it would just be easier to make a half-size suit from scratch.

I know next to nothing about real-life blacksmithing, armor-making or weapon-making. In most of the books I've read that bother with these details armorers, weaponers and the like would have some peices sitting around for sale, but those are mostly to show off what they and their journeymen are capable of. Advertising, in other words. When someone goes to get a sword, they have to take measurements or do a good job of eyeballing it to get the balance right.

You might want a rule in there that 'off the rack' swords had a -1 to hit, but that's generally more detail than I want to bother with.

Armor, I'd think, you would have a lot more leeway with and could pick it up 'off the rack'.

 

[John Crichton]

I could just kill myself. I was just about to post a huge response in quoting all the advise so far as to address everything to individuals but I mistakenly pressed a link by accident and lost everything. Now, I am reduced to just posting a general response. *sigh* I hate that. Here is my summary:

• The PC's are starting off @ 3rd level and are being allowed to purchase items out of the PHB at whatever prices are there to allow for things like they are not from the region or at least left it for a short while and would have had time to seek out the specific places for items.
• The total halfling population in the area is very very low. The total population of gnomes, dwarves and halflings is less than 2%. Short answer: The gnomes all live in one place that is not here. The dwarves are mostly in slavery. And the halflings are gypsy-like and travel around a ton. So while there may be halflings about, they are not common in the region (while not unheard of) so armor of that type (1/2-plate) would be difficult to find just sitting around.
• The PC was told that buying replacement armor of the type he currently wears would most likely cost more because there aren't many halflings around to make for. I was also operation under the assumption (maybe wrong?) that because most of the smiths wouldn't be making armor that small that they may have a small difficulty in making it smaller so while they would be able to do it, it would cost a bit more.
• The problem is really only in this area. There are a region or 2 where elves and humans will run into the same issue of finding armor to buy that will fit them. Naturally, it would cost more in these situations for those characters.

There have been great responses so far and I'm getting a better feel for how others handle things like this. So thank you all.

But I do have a final, watered down question, now that I am clearer on things (Mark SMG actually touched upon this a bit already): Do you assume in your world that most shops/smiths have armor to buy "off the rack" or is it all done by commissions? In most cases this would prompt skill checks of some type by either the smith for making the adjustments or the PC making some nifty Diplomacy rolls and some fancy talking. So: Off the rack (which assumes alterations for size and therefor money for the time spent) or commission?

 

[John Crichton]

Base cost = 75% of PHB cost

Add
25% of PHB = Normal items
50% of PHB = Non-Standard
75% of PHB = Unusual Items
100% of PHB = Rare Items

So you need to now determine if Halfling armour is Non-Standard or Unusual within your setting

Not a bad rule of thumb to use. I was thinking that just because of the region and if the desired armor was non-masterwork that the PC would probably have to pay (assuming average Diplomacy rolls) an extra 10-20%. Not that big a deal, but enough to warrant me telling the PC about it beforehand as to not get slammed with this question in-game.

In most other parts of the game world where the little folks are a bit more plentiful, the armor would be a standard item.

 

[John Crichton]

Re: Re: How do you handle (mundane) item pricing?

For the specific instance, I'd just charge him normal PHB price but make him wait for a suit to be made if such things are so rare in that region. The armor materials would only be half what they would be for a human, but the extra measurements, the special order and such would cost more; I'd say it would just even out to speed things along. I wouldn't think you'd be able to easily alter a suit to half-size, and would suppose it would just be easier to make a half-size suit from scratch.

I am thinking the same thing at this point. When it was intially brought up, I was thinking that special orders would in almost every case cost more. Even just a bit. I was also going on the whole familiarity thing I mentioned elsewhere. Hmmm.

I know next to nothing about real-life blacksmithing, armor-making or weapon-making. In most of the books I've read that bother with these details armorers, weaponers and the like would have some peices sitting around for sale, but those are mostly to show off what they and their journeymen are capable of. Advertising, in other words. When someone goes to get a sword, they have to take measurements or do a good job of eyeballing it to get the balance right.

You might want a rule in there that 'off the rack' swords had a -1 to hit, but that's generally more detail than I want to bother with.

Armor, I'd think, you would have a lot more leeway with and could pick it up 'off the rack'.

Oh, I know squat about smithing as well. Unfortunately, this player claims to have a good of deal of knowledge concerning such things (after 2 years of playing I find this out so I was a bit shocked). So not having any real arguement against his claims that it is no harder to make smaller armor than regular armor it got a bit heated. Anyway, I figured that a really good smith could make just about anything while a lesser one may have to make some checks and at that point determine to possibly charge the PC more for his time.

And just to defend myself a bit, I don't typically dwell on such things to this extent. I like to keep things moving but since this is pre-campaign I want to set things straight for myself and the players. I sorta feel bad because I can see my player thinking that I am gunning for the small races because this issue hasn't come up before and I mentioned it in response to what equipment he had. But I'm known to be fair and I didn't think it would be such a huge issue (considering he already was able to buy the armor he has now at base price, the issue is only for future purchases made in this region). Okay, I'm done whining now. Please continue with all your helpful words, folks.

 

[Golandrinel]

Bespoke armour only John ... we're so different that it could be fatal not to have something so important as perfect a match to your own shape as you can get.

 

[John Crichton]

Bespoke armour only John ... we're so different that it could be fatal not to have something so important as perfect a match to your own shape as you can get.

Yeah, I'm mainly concentrating on armor here. Other items shouldn't be so hard to get, compared to 1/2-plate for a smaller PC.

 

[Datt]

(considering he already was able to buy the armor he has now at base price, the issue is only for future purchases made in this region).

So he is complaining about possiblely having to buy future replacement armor. Man, that just doesn't sound right. Is he expecting to lose his armor all of a sudden or something? IMC the DM always adjusts prices according to area. As a dwarf, if I wanted to buy full plate in a city that hasn't seen a dwarf in months and that dwarfs make up less than 1% of the population I would be lucky to find a smith to make it for me.

 

[John Crichton]

So he is complaining about possiblely having to buy future replacement armor. Man, that just doesn't sound right. Is he expecting to lose his armor all of a sudden or something? IMC the DM always adjusts prices according to area. As a dwarf, if I wanted to buy full plate in a city that hasn't seen a dwarf in months and that dwarfs make up less than 1% of the population I would be lucky to find a smith to make it for me.

Hmmm. It wasn't so much the possibility of getting replacement armor as that he was arguing that making the armor smaller (either custom or off the rack) would be no problem for any smith. And you pretty much have the jist of it with your dwarven example. Add to it that halfling paladins that would need that kind of armor are rare to start with...