D&D 5E magic items prices
Gecko85
Explorer
Ah, wasn't sure. His Wikipedia page says he "...has worked for Wizards of the Coast", and his Twitter profile says "Writer, D&D storyteller, Dungeon Master, and proud owner of a Chiweenie named Milo", so it sounded like perhaps that was in the past.
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
Always a thorny issue.
First, some base-line assumptions - if these do not apply to your game so be it, but I think they apply to most:
1. The played adventuring party is going to come back to town with magic items found in the field.
2. Not all of those magic items are going to be of any use to the party either now or later.
3. That same adventuring party is going to also come back with gold, gems, and other valuables found in the field.
With me so far? OK. Now things get a bit more complicated. The next assumption:
4. The party is going to naturally want to get some sort of return or profit (perceived or real) for the magic items they themselves cannot use.
So, we now have a sort-of supply end for the market model. On to the next assumptions, then:
5a. The played adventuring party is not the only adventuring party out there. (and if there are no other adventurers, where do the PCs come from who replace the fallen in mid-campaign?)
5b. Whether or not 5a is true, there are probably individuals out there who can make use of magic items the adventuring party cannot. (most often, these people would be part of 5a)
6. Whether or not 5a is true, those individuals are likely to have significant resources to offer in exchange for items they desire or need or want.
7. The played adventuring party is going to seek out items they can use that others are willing to part with.
And now we have a sort-of demand in the market.
The only remaining obstacle is bringing together the supply and demand somehow such that transactions (in whatever form) can take place. This can be the back alleys, the artificers' or magic-users' guilds, ye olde magic shoppes, chatter leading to barter in the taverns, or whatever.
Now, a DM can arbitrarily interrupt this process at any step by simply nulling one or more of the above assumptions; and this is fine provided all involved realize such intervention is completely arbitrary and not very (or at all) realistic. In my own case, for example, I arbitrarily dictate that an item's price is its price, period - I have no desire whatsoever to play out buy-low-sell-high scenarios ad infinitum (which would happen if I let it) and my players are all aware of this, and of why I've done it.
And due to all the above assumptions, a price list in the 5e DMG would be useful. As there doesn't seem to be one (yet), it's left to each DM to either make up her own or fall back on a list from an earlier edition.
Keep in mind this all intentionally ignores yet another assumption, prevalent in more recent editions:
8. The played adventuring party can create its own magic items.
Personally, I prefer (and use):
8. The creation of magic items is beyond the purview of the played adventuring party; it is a long, expensive process, but someone with enough patience and resources can commission an item now for completion sometime much later.
Lan-"sheer logic dictates a magic item market of some sort, if magic items are to be in the game"-efan
First, some base-line assumptions - if these do not apply to your game so be it, but I think they apply to most:
1. The played adventuring party is going to come back to town with magic items found in the field.
2. Not all of those magic items are going to be of any use to the party either now or later.
3. That same adventuring party is going to also come back with gold, gems, and other valuables found in the field.
With me so far? OK. Now things get a bit more complicated. The next assumption:
4. The party is going to naturally want to get some sort of return or profit (perceived or real) for the magic items they themselves cannot use.
So, we now have a sort-of supply end for the market model. On to the next assumptions, then:
5a. The played adventuring party is not the only adventuring party out there. (and if there are no other adventurers, where do the PCs come from who replace the fallen in mid-campaign?)
5b. Whether or not 5a is true, there are probably individuals out there who can make use of magic items the adventuring party cannot. (most often, these people would be part of 5a)
6. Whether or not 5a is true, those individuals are likely to have significant resources to offer in exchange for items they desire or need or want.
7. The played adventuring party is going to seek out items they can use that others are willing to part with.
And now we have a sort-of demand in the market.
The only remaining obstacle is bringing together the supply and demand somehow such that transactions (in whatever form) can take place. This can be the back alleys, the artificers' or magic-users' guilds, ye olde magic shoppes, chatter leading to barter in the taverns, or whatever.
Now, a DM can arbitrarily interrupt this process at any step by simply nulling one or more of the above assumptions; and this is fine provided all involved realize such intervention is completely arbitrary and not very (or at all) realistic. In my own case, for example, I arbitrarily dictate that an item's price is its price, period - I have no desire whatsoever to play out buy-low-sell-high scenarios ad infinitum (which would happen if I let it) and my players are all aware of this, and of why I've done it.
And due to all the above assumptions, a price list in the 5e DMG would be useful. As there doesn't seem to be one (yet), it's left to each DM to either make up her own or fall back on a list from an earlier edition.
Keep in mind this all intentionally ignores yet another assumption, prevalent in more recent editions:
8. The played adventuring party can create its own magic items.
Personally, I prefer (and use):
8. The creation of magic items is beyond the purview of the played adventuring party; it is a long, expensive process, but someone with enough patience and resources can commission an item now for completion sometime much later.
Lan-"sheer logic dictates a magic item market of some sort, if magic items are to be in the game"-efan
FormerlyHemlock
Hero
IMHO, games are better off if you set up the world such that (5a) doesn't apply. A world crawling with "adventurers" loses a lot of dramatic potential. Replacements for the fallen come from the pool of 1st level Soldiers/Acolytes/Entertainers/etc. out there, or sometimes from converted NPCs => PCs.
I agree with your overall point though, which is that a magic item economy "of some sort" is likely to exist--and that's what 5E assumes too! The DMG has rules for selling magic items, given a little bit of investment in time, investigation, and persuasion.
None of this implies that the PCs will be able to buy magic items, especially not items-on-demand. It just implies that they may be able to sell that bottle of Keoghtom's Ointment to a duke who wants it on hand for horseriding accidents, for gold that they value more than they value the spell slots the Ointment would save them. Presumably they plan to use the gold on something else they also value more, like paying their small band of mercenary hobgoblin archers, or comfortable houses. Otherwise they wouldn't sell it, and then your economy disappears again.
You can't really have a "buyer's market" magic item economy unless NPCs are mass-producing magic items somehow. In 5E this implies that you could have a magic item economy for Uncommon items (Goggles of Night, Winged Boots, Brooms of Flying, Adamantine Plate Armor/Mithril Plate Armor) since the RAW rules for producing them are so very cheap once you manage to find a formula--so all the DM has to do to enable a Broom of Flying economy is to say, "someone found the formula, and there are enough 6th level NPCs who can churn one out every three weeks for 750 gold that Brooms of Flying are as common in this setting as Ferraris are in the USA." Or if he doesn't want that to happen, just don't give out the formula.
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
Now there I disagree. One of the more engaging things about the FR setting, for example, is the idea of large adventuring Companies made up sometimes of several parties each.
Items on demand, no; but completely random gype that other parties are trying to flog...why not?
True, and to me this is a flaw with the RAW: producing items is flat-out not costly enough. But, easy to fix.
Lan-"if we're the only adventurers in the world this must be a pretty sorry world"-efan
FormerlyHemlock
Hero
Tastes vary. That's one of the things I hate about FR. Too many cooks spoil the drama, er, soup. Just look at Rise of Tiamat: the dramatic tension relies entirely on fridge logic! "Why are Szass Tam and Elminster leaving this 'apocalyptic threat' entirely in the hands of medium-level adventurers if they're so interested in it? Elminster isn't even offering them a free Clone spell, or a divination? Furthermore, if warfare is about getting there the 'firstest with the mostest', why are all those dragons I recruited sitting out the battle with Tiamat instead of in here helping me fight?"
Although for some reason I don't hate Spelljammer organizations like the Long Fangs/Tenth Pit/Company of the Chalice/etc. I think wildspace is vast enough and sparse enough that you can still have unique adventures there even if there are other adventurers around--although this may also be a result of Spelljammer's focus on "cosmopolitan/exploration fantasy" over "epic fantasy"/save-the-world stuff.
And yes, Spelljammer is very, very explicitly built around a magic item economy, in particular the purchase and sale of spelljamming helms.
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And such a world also loses immersion and is hard to explain why you are the only adventurers out there, especially considering how lucrative it tends to be. "You are the chosen ones" only works so often.
FormerlyHemlock
Hero
It's not hard to explain at all. "Everybody in the army but you is dead, except for a few frightened survivors. Now Desdemoria has lots of enemies and no defenders but your first-level selves. Better step up to the plate and fight quantity with quality."
It's not lucrative but it's better than seeing everyone you know die horribly. Again.
It's not lucrative but it's better than seeing everyone you know die horribly. Again.
Ahrimon
Bourbon and Dice
And immediately put Potions of Healing and Holy Water on the Adventuring Gear list in the PHB.
They then handed Potions of Healing out like candy in LMoP along with a half dozen or more other magic items.
I classify potions of healing as a more mundane item. Slightly magical but not so much that it's not on the mundane item list. I think this was a conscious design choice to help eliminate the need to have a dedicated healer. By having basic healing potions be something you can easily get your hands on it frees up the players to play the characters they want. No one is "stuck playing the healer" anymore.
I haven't seen LMoP so I can't comment on the amount of magic items in it.
Now, the reason, as I see it that there is no price list in the DMG, is that even though there is both supply and demand, the market is not liquid (as in financial terms). Not having a set price on items makes sense if depending on a situation, the price assumed for a Longsword +1 is either 100gp, 1000gp or 10.000gp with a variance big enough that using an average makes no sense at all.
The technology level also matters a lot. If travel is fast, cheap and safe, the likelihood of an actual magic item marked is much higher than in a market where travel is slow, expensive and dangerous. In the latter situation, you could maybe sell a magic item for 100gp in one location and have to pay 10.000gp in another location (6 months dangeours travel away).
So, in other words, if they wanted to supply lists of magic item prices, it would have to be some multi-dimensional table accounting for magic item rarity in the setting, location, the wealth level and how stable the society is and if there is any permanent magic item production or not.
I think leaving out magic item prices from the DMG makes sense, just as you couldn't buy plate armor from a shop in medival times. You could order it, but making it would take a lot of time and cost you a lot of money up front.
tl;dr
No prices in the DMG for magic items reflects an illiquid market for magic items with very few buyers, sellers and items.
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