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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lizard" data-source="post: 4129118" data-attributes="member: 1054">Two things:a)Since magic items will have prices in 4e -- and all prices for all items of the same level will be the same -- those who assume "If there's a price, there must be shops" will be very disappointed.b)I don't know where the meme that "3e has magic shops, 4e doesn't!" got started, except from the AICN story which contained, to be generous, a number of errors in terms of lauding features 4e has that 3e allegedly lacks. While it is off-handedly mentioned in the DMG that large cities might have places where magic items can be bought and sold, this does not translate to "There's a Wal-Mage in every town". Rather, buying and selling of magic items can be assumed to be done during downtime via negotiating with private collectors or powerful guilds. Just because this CAN be abstracted to "OK, you sold your +1 swords and bought a +2 suit of mithral plate" doesn't mean it took two minutes down at Kwik-E-Mage. That abstraction can represent weeks of searching, negotiating, and haggling, but the group might not want to play all that out. Magic items ARE assumed in 4e, there WILL be lots of them, and they WON'T all auto-upgrade. So, either the PCs lug every useless item around with them, or -- fancy that -- they'll find buyers. And if there's buyers, one presumes, there will be sellers. (Buying and selling of magic items sounds like a good use for 4e skill challenge system, actually.)The degree to which magic is 'mysterious' or 'mundane' in the world depends solely on the DM, not on the rules. The simplest solution to the 'magic shop' problem is simply to state "You ask around and pull some strings, but no one has that particular item to part with. Sorry." The mere fact something has a price -- in 3e or 4e -- does not mean its available. (Also pay attention to wealth limits for various settlements -- many magic items are beyond the scope of even large cities.)</blockquote>

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