Magic for sale?

[Storm Raven]

I've played the various incarnations of (A)D&D for over 20 years. I have a large collection of the old/classic modules. The amount of magic items in the various modules are staggering. In all editions of (A)D&D, magic has never been wonderous and rare -- by the books. Some DMs (myself included) restricted and crossed out many magic items from the core material so that magic became wonderous and rare. But by the core "setting", they were pretty damn common.

Yep. As an example, I'm going through an older 1e adventure published in Dragon. The opposition presented in the module consists of:

A bonesnapper.
An ogre.
A huge trapdoor spider.
10 first level fighters.
3 first level clerics.
8 hobgoblins.
A phase spider.
15 giant ants.
Two giant spiders.
A 5th level cleric.

For defeating all of these creatures (spread throughout the dungeon), the party can obtain (just in magic items):

A ring of etherealness.
A helm of comprehending languages and reading magic.
A rope of climbing.
A +3 dwarven thrower hammer.
3 doses of oil of transparency.
A chime of opening.
3 +1 arrows.
A +1 morningstar.
A belt of phasing (allows the wearer to phase in an out like a phase spider).
8 +2 throwing daggers.
A jug that can produce three potions of healing, two potions of poison, and one potion of invulnerability per day.
An amulet of protection +1.
A ring of regeneration.
A wand of darkness.

That's a lot of magic, for relatively not much opposition. All in an adventure aimed at a party of PCs of levels 1-4.

 

[fusangite]

Joe & Suzi Browning make a good point in their Magical Medieval Society -- even if magical items are for sale from a temple or wizards' guild, they will be, like most pre-modern expensive items, commissioned, not off the shelf. In medieval societies, non-imported retail goods were made on commission by the craftsman who produced them, based on individually negotiated prices.

 

[hong]

Joe & Suzi Browning make a good point in their Magical Medieval Society -- even if magical items are for sale from a temple or wizards' guild, they will be, like most pre-modern expensive items, commissioned, not off the shelf. In medieval societies, non-imported retail goods were made on commission by the craftsman who produced them, based on individually negotiated prices.

And in fact, that's pretty much what the rules say too. PHB p.112: "If you want to buy something not described in this chapter, the general rule is that a character can buy anything that costs as much as 3000 gp. Buying a more expensive item, such as a +2 longsword, means going to a big city where rare items are for sale, making a special deal with someone who makes or can provide the item, or paying a premium price to a merchant who makes a special effort to get what the character wants".

The item creation rules in the DMG are basically a fast, (relatively) simple way of assigning a gp value to things that DMs and/or players might want for their campaign. It's entirely metagame, to avoid people getting caught up in arguments about how much item X is worth. Exactly how the obtaining of these items in-game plays out is left unspecified. There might be magic item emporiums, or you might have to do major quests, or whatever.

 

[jasper]

Yep. As an example, I'm going through an older 1e adventure published in Dragon.A belt of phasing .

Ah memories. One the best is one of my players got this belt. Every time he could he activated it. And laughed at the monsters. Then he met a certain person in the dungeons of Ravenloft. Panic set in, his knees were knocking, he lost 4 or 6 levels before he remembered he was wearing that belt. Also the player when a purchase a shirt with command words on it. ( back then for atmosphere, I made the player say the command word out loud so everyone could hear it.

 

[The_Gneech]

Generally, if I know characters are going to be hanging around a town for a while, I will set up a local merchant who has some magic items "in the back" so to speak. Most of these items are scolls and/or potions, maybe a wand or two (with 3d20 charges, max 50), or spellbooks, which are always a hot item. There are also a few interesting items/weapons/bits of armor ... not everything in the book, just a few things I pick and/or create that the players may or may not be interested in. Usually, the party will pool their resources on a few particularly-wanted items, and ignore the rest.

For the most part, my players tend to keep items they find, even if they never use 'em. "Why are you still carrying around that +1 dagger? You're 9th level." "I'm just sentimental -- it was my first magic treasure!" Among other things, this means they never have the cash to buy new magic items anyway!

-The Gneech

 

[kigmatzomat]

On the subject of commissioning items, however, I couldn't agree with you less. Such items come with an automatic story. On any crafted or commissioned item, one can say "This weapon was forged by the Master Smith Elebac, enchanted with frost by the mighty wizard Tarhelion and blessed with the power of the gods by the Heironean bishop of Rel Mord for the use of Sir Valorek Greymantle in the battle against the traitor, Prince Sewarndt and his allies in Rauxes."

My game world has magic items available but it tends to require a bit of in-character finagling. Most mages won't bother enchanting an item without the mark of a known mastersmith/weaver/etc so they don't waste time & XP on a non-masterwork item.

In the more guild-dominated cities (where the most powerful folks are) there tend to be complicated rules and agreements where Mage Mark will only enchant blades from Smith Steve or cloaks from Weaver Will. Sorceror Jack is the only one who can make staves of fire and the church of Gank is the only authorized seller of healing items. The items can still be had and it isn't a "quest" per se, but it is still in-game work.

Only the most common & inexpensive scrolls & potions are available at a moment's notice and even then no more than a few of each, even after visiting every mage & cleric in the city. There is, of course, the random mishmash of items that other adventurers are selling that I account for by rolling up a random treasure for the city (based on size) each time the players show up. There's no shop, exactly, more of a network of known intermediaries (clerics, wizards, bartenders, smiths & artisans, lesser nobles, thieves guild, etc) that can find out what they are. For a mild fee, of course.