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Message: <blockquote data-quote="akbearfoot" data-source="post: 4803993" data-attributes="member: 33560">The assumption is that anything under the GP limit is available to purchase.  If a town has a GP limit of 3,000gp then you should be able to find nearly anything you want up to that value.  You can even buy really cool stuff like light mithril armor etc...'Magic item shops' are a DM created limitation...saying u can only get magic items from a specific shop is unrealistic.  That would be like me shopping for a toaster oven, but somehow I can only look for it at stores called Nappa Auto Parts.  There are any number of other ways one could procure magic items.  It's meant to be kept abstract, so that the DM doesn't have to detail out 980 shops and NPCs and individual inventories.  Most of the time you see the party go to town and offload their treasure, then they spend a week or 2 in town looking for the things they want, most of the time any individual PC is only looking for 1 or 2 specific things.  Or in the unfortunate cases they have a list of 10-15 things they want because the DM never lets any items they want be in stock, or the DM does the dreaded %(and its always small) chance roll on every single item.  1 of 2 things happens, the PCs will sit there for months if they have to until they find what they want, or the DM will force them back onto the story arc, annoying the PCs in the process because they are gaining more levels but they can't find gear that NPCs 3 levels below them get for free (of the DMG).  Especially since most of the time, the PCs want items that make sense for someone to create.  Stat bonus items, cloaks of resistance, magic armor, rings of protection, magic weapons are all things that anybody could deal in and find buyers/sellers.I find the assumption that only adventurers can create magic items flawed...Unless the DM rules that killing things is the only way to get exp.  NPCs can get Exp from other things, just like PCs typically can (story rewards, completing quests/goals, political intrigue etc...).  Plus who's to say that Bob the 5th level wizard with 2 crafting feats doesn't occasionally go visit his cousin Daryl the next town over and help thin out the local Gnoll population.Trying to disect character knowlege vs player knowlege is another DM cop out...It's a really really bad idea unless you want characters to keep detailed lists of every item they've ever learned about and the title/contents of every book their character ever read, every conversation with the wizard, etc...Plus it makes the players say silly things like 'I ask bob the wizard to tell me about every magic item he knows how to create, what items can I know about shopping for now?'  or 'Hrmm...I'd really like to find a magic ring that somehow protects me from getting hurt'  then the DM goes 'ZOMG u meta-gamed! 50 DKP minus!'I've played in games where finding anything at all,  required knowlege local checks or gather information checks.  If I wanted to buy a horse I had to make 2 rolls...once for the horse and again for the tack/harness, thankfully we could find food without a roll.  Shopping turned into 4 hour roll-a-thons and usually ended with the 10-15 item list I talked about earlier.  The only characters who always had what they wanted were the rogues and bards because they had the social skills.  Something is wrong when you have 3-4 items PER SLOT you're willing to settle for with 20k price differences and none of it is ever available...or you get the 'Oh  you found someone willing to make it for you, but you have to pay for it now, and it won't be ready for 3 months'  Cuz by then you'll be 9 levels higher with 100k more in unspendable gold.We're currently doing Age of Wyrms campaign, and we've only been adventuring for like 2 months but we've gone from 1st to 11th level.  Thankfully this game has much more relaxed 'shopping rules' or we'd still be waiting on those +1 swords we had comissioned at 3rd level.</blockquote>

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