Pricing artifacts

[Li Shenron]

I know, artifacts are priceless. But they're still pretty much just powerful magic items in practice. Epic magic items can be better than DMG artifacts, and have prices, although they are probably also more standardized and so easier to price.

I'd like to know if there has ever been any article or paragraph in a book/magazine/website which spared some words about how much the DMG artifacts or other published artifacts would be worth, if for any reasons they were on sale in a campaign.

 

[Thanee]

The Staff of the Magi we found recently was priced at 500,000 gp (that's what we will trade it for, although it would be fun to keep it, it would be a bit too unbalanced within the group, especially with two arcane casters who would both like to use it, so we decided to trade it in for stuff that we can distribute better ).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Mouseferatu]

The problem, as you implied, is that artifacts aren't standardized. Sure, some are just more powerful or epic items, and those are simple enough. But some artifacts create effects that simply cannot be equated to anything else in the game.

Frankly, if someone did publish an article on pricing them, I wouldn't trust it to be accurate to a great many artifacts. There are just too many variables.

In any given campaign? An artifact is worth whatever you're willing to pay for it.

 

[Li Shenron]

Yes, in fact I was having in mind artifacts such as the weapons/armors/shields, the staves, the books and generally what isn't too far away from other available magic, save perhaps for 1-2 properties.

Pricing a sphere of annihilation or a deck of many things is nearly impossible.

 

[Liquidsabre]

Since Epic Magic items can be crafted I see the need for being able to price them while artifact creation has since been long lost to the mists of time. As Mouseferatu and Thanee already pointed out, there probably isn't a real need for the pricing of an artifact, it's ultimately worth to the PCs however much they can find someone else to pay for it. Did you have something else in mind?

 

[Li Shenron]

Did you have something else in mind?

Yes...

I wanted just a general opinion about how could I try to give a price to a few artifacts. I didn't want to start a thread about what horrible uses I can make of it... If you want to know:

[sblock]Something along the idea of characters coming into possession of magic items which improve as they level up, but with a simpler mechanic than the one used in WoL. I need to be able to estimate the current equivalent value of an item at a given time, at least roughly, until the item gets to its full power/value.[/sblock]

More than a general system to price artifacts, I think I'd rather need someone's estimations for existing artifacts in the DMG for example.

 

[Thanee]

You could simply price them like regular magic items... guessing for the special effects.

Bye
Thanee

 

[TheGogmagog]

Basically, The sell or market value would be based on it's maximum potential, likely making it more expensive than the character wielding it would probably be able to afford.

I have a house rule-interpretation of magic items that may help. Creating a magic item costs experience, my interpretation is that it binds a portion of the essence of the crafter. If this essence is ill-gotten you wind up with a cursed item. You could have a variety of house rules that build on that.

One would be that you can craft a magic item without any exp cost, so the cost would be half the normal market value of the item. This process would then allow a wielder to donate the exp (with restrictions from level or % of total exp) to complete the forging process.
You could also rule that items created in this fashon 'leak' the exp over time, so an epic item or perhaps artifacts who have been lost, would need to be re-charged once found.

I like to track character wealth for balance, so I would always consider the weapon valued at 1/2 of suggested wealth. The abilities gained would be in the order of cost lowest powered abilities first, so a +1 flaming ghost touch would become +1 flaming and then would take a much longer time to become ghost touch. The market value would probably a 'priceless' family heirloom, or could be 90% the cost of a normal item.