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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kigmatzomat" data-source="post: 3526669" data-attributes="member: 9254">I would find the lack of a magic item market to be far more jarring to my sense of disbelief than the existence of magic items themselves.  If there are things and people, there is a market for the things.  it may not be a big market and it might be an expensive market but it exists as long as the sophonts have human-type motivations.  Note that I mean "market" to mean "mechanism for supplying materials" rather than "a location where wares are bought and sold."  I run a vanilla, magic-items-by-the-DMG game and I don't have Wal-Mage stores.  I do, however, have various agents who will put you in touch with someone who is trying to sell the thing you want or is capable of making the thing you want, with the odds skewed towards "make" over "buy."   Even when my party has the weight of the King thrown behind them to help them acquire what they need, they still spend weeks and months awaiting the items' completion.  Sometimes they have to quest to find the rare magical components for their specialty items, furthering the game.I'm curious where this stereotype comes from.  The only "doddering mages" I know from pop literature is Gandalf, Fizban, Miracle Max and Dumbeldorf.  None of which are really fools, though they occasionally cultivate that image. IMO the high level crafter wizard is the one who knows he's soon to die (at least, likely to die before having a chance to get that "extended life" epic feat) and is burning his XPs to leave a legacy (and possibly buy his way into heaven).  The mid-level crafters are either fulfilling obligations to their liege/guild (in line with medieval european tradition) and the low-level crafters have simply decided that the occasional scroll or potion provides enough cash to justify the effort (1 XP = 12.5gp)  or brings a much safer (and therefore boring and uninteresting) lifestyle.   Let's face it, a 1st level character will earn about 75XP from a CR1 encounter which translates into 937gp worth of magic item crafting profit.  If they have that CR1 encounter once a year (say going to/from a fair or just when the bull escapes from the pasture), they can plan on that 937gp as their annual income.  Compare that to Profession, where you earn your skill check x 5sp /week and you have the equivalent of a Profession skill total of 26 (+10 on the die).   Why would any non-adrenaline junkie NOT become an item-making mage if they had the choice?Clerics should be motivated at various times to buckle down and craft items to ensure the survival or spread of the faith.  Plus, that 937gp/year is an excellent way to fund the construction of a church.  Plateauing is a problem for those who don't continue to venture farther afield and go for more dangerous game.  However, that plateau will be based on the types of game each hunter goes for, e.g. rabbit hunters rarely get past 2nd, wolf hunters can get to 6th, boar hunters make it to 10th and bear hunters to 12th.  Same goes for magical craftsmen; are they content to be at the bottom of the magical strata (which is far, far above the peasants or even most craftsmen) or do they swim in the same waters as ambitious nobles, clerics working to further God's Plan, and merchant princes?  I do agree that the population distribution is a bit weird but I was one of the people who hated 0 level commoners.  Save 1st level for adolescents now able to do an adult's work and give their parents another level or three of something that gives them virtually no additional combat ability but significantly more skill points to reflect their experience.  Leveled peasant and craftsman are fine if you have age penalties rob them of any significant combat ability.</blockquote>

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