Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Forrester" data-source="post: 118177" data-attributes="member: 1279">No, this isn't a post regarding how you store owners protect your Warhammer miniatures from 12-year olds with sticky fingers. It's how you small-town store owners, with your scrolls of 1st-3rd level and your +1 swords, protect yourself against:Charm PersonHypnotismSuggestionDetect ThoughtsDominate Personand protect your goods from thieves with:InvisibilityGaseous FormPolymorph SelfDimension DoorTeleportand so on. Many of these spells are accessible to a lousy 5th level spellcaster. And one of the biggest potential problem spells -- Charm Person -- is available right at first level. So what do you small-town shop owners do? I'm assuming you carry some magic items, of course. But those of you who carry a nice selection of masterwork weapons and armor should likewise be concerned. And how about you medium-sized town shop owners, that cater to adventurers and others of up to 9th or 10th level? And how about you city shop owners, that might carry goods that are *extremely* valuable? I ask because I'm in the midst of creating an Underdark society for my campaign, and there will be places that sell a few magic items, places that sell many, and places that sell almost anything you wish you could get your hands on. And damn, but if this isn't a tough question. 3E seems to have been written by CRPG addicts, who believe that Magic Items Make The Adventurer, especially after 6th or 7th level. But there's no way in hell that a "Baldur's Gate" type of environment is realistic when it comes to magic shops; no shop is going to carry tens (or hundreds) of thousands of gold in items without needing very serious protections against the kind of thievery that a group of high-level rogues and high-level wizards, working in concert, might plan. Perhaps the best answer is that there ARE NO MAGIC SHOPS. Someone posted, in an economics-of-3E thread, that in his campaign those who wanted to purchase magic items had to work through a "broker", who would track down the items. Because everything went through a middleman, the chance of theft was driven down. But I'm uncomfortable with doing this all the time. It would seem to me that there have to be wizards out there churning out potions and scrolls in something other than complete secrecy. Ditto clerics. So assuming there *are* shops . . . shops that sell a few cheap magic items, shops that sell a moderate amount, shops that sell a lot, and shops that sell EVERYTHING -- what should be the approximate resources of each of the merchants who run these shops, and how would they protect their goods?Any suggestions? I don't want to limit you (us) to spells in the PHB or splatbooks -- if you have any ideas for new magic items that might be within these merchants' reach, or some new spells that make sense/would come in handy, shoot! (Permanency on a Globe of Invulnerability, centered in the shop, is a possibility. Because it's based in a location, and not portable, it'd probably be cheaper to create than normal. What do you think?)</blockquote>

Verification