D&D 4E Points of Light, Dawn War, and Magic Item Economy (4e)

[S'mon]

What about the way item prices balloon with level? Where's the clearing house for Paragon & Epic items?
City of Brass? Does Erathis run an Epic Amazon Fulfillment Center out of Hevestar? (Heh, I wouldn't put it past Her.)

IMC you'd typically go to the City of Brass for level 26-30 items, but you could get up to level 25 in Waterdeep if you had the residuum or reagants. I limited Fallcrest to level 8 though.

The way the 4e item economy works, IME generally PCs of level 4+ are crafting their own items - either they are the only people of high enough level in the vicinity, or just to avoid the 10-40% markup. It's extremely unusual for a PC to have enough money to buy an item of above their level; more typically they're crafting or buying stuff several levels lower.

 

[S'mon]

I didn't have a market for magic items in my 4e game, but instead relied on the pcs disenchanting and then enchanting their own (or relying on whatever loot they found).

My games pretty much worked like that, even though some places like Waterdeep did have an item economy. 4e PCs (pre-Essentials) are very self reliant and don't need to interact much with the economy, if it exists.

I recall PCs ca level 10-12 going to the (level 25) NPC Savant-Sage of Waterdeep with an evil ring they had acquired that was too powerful for them to Disenchant, so he turned it into a 125,000gp pile of Residuum and made a few items for them - while keeping most of the residuum for himself, naturally.

 

[Garthanos]

In 4e items are weak but very easy to make. That's just how it works. You can always convert an item to residuum and make new ones.

5 plus 1 items in and 1 plus 1 item out.. yes

 

[Garthanos]

I recall PCs ca level 10-12 going to the (level 25) NPC Savant-Sage of Waterdeep with an evil ring they had acquired that was too powerful for them to Disenchant, so he turned it into a 125,000gp pile of Residuum and made a few items for them - while keeping most of the residuum for himself, naturally.

As the DM you can certainly arrange that possibility

 

[S'mon]

As the DM you can certainly arrange that possibility

Well it was the player idea, they knew of the NPC already.

 

[Garthanos]

Well it was the player idea, they knew of the NPC already.

you mean you let players create high level npcs on their own and decide their abilities wow... /sarcasm
I might not even have 1 level 25 npc able to disenchant any given item let alone exactly the one the pcs have... ofcourse I do not presume npcs have the same abilities pcs do either.

 

[Garthanos]

There is text in the Players Handbook about unusual items ... an evil ring you mentioned sure might come in under that category = it mentioned you might even need a special ritual just to find out how they work... presuming every item also is subject to standard disenchant seems to make little sense in light of that

 

[Garthanos]

Just saying you missed out on an adventure possibility you know... like a volcano somewhere and a hobbit quest

 

[Tony Vargas]

Just saying you missed out on an adventure possibility you know... like a volcano somewhere and a hobbit quest

Sounds trite. A wizard teleporting or taking Giant Eagle Airlines, would be more realistic. And a short story, rather than a trilogy.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Any level 10 character with Enchant Item Ritual and some arcane reagants or residuum can make any item up to level 10 in an hour. So items are crafted to order (at a 10-40% markup). There aren't big inventories of already existing items.

This is a way of looking at it, but from the PC's standpoint making items is not usually a big option, since treasure parcels give out relatively little gold as a fraction of value. As I pointed out earlier, this could be subverted to whatever degree by a GM so that enchanting is a bigger deal, but even at best at-level items are weaker than standard parcels normally hand out.

I don't think items in general are 'weak' at all. Some are really very powerful! It is just that they aren't radically more powerful than a character's inherent abilities. This is the sense in which 4e removes items as the backbone of characters. In AD&D a level 9 fighter with Gauntlets of Ogre Power and Girdle of Hill Giant Strength is literally 2x or even 3x more powerful than one without those items. Even with casters having a Wand of Fireballs vastly increases the character's ability to use his spell list effectively. The way items provide entirely unique and often game-changing functions means they really dominate the game (or else you have to play a MUCH different sort of game without them). 4e items simply don't stand out THAT much.

4e provided Artifacts as its answer, they ARE game-changing! They also don't last and require the PC to insure concordance, and act as a sort of NPC. The upshot being that AD&D artifacts are just stupendously powerful versions of magic items and work the same as other items, fundamentally. 4e artifacts OTOH don't, they add a dimension to the story, one which doesn't permanently dominate play and is more story directed vs just being a 'power up'.