Repairing Broken Magic Items

[Aven]

One of my PC's is the sundering type. Not always, mind you, but once in awhile if he comes across a foe with a badass weapon, (raging orc barbarian with a double axe) he'll do his damndest to cut that weapon right in half. it's a rather nice flavor thing and all, but i realized that it has the potential to seriously cut down on the party's loot. (he could break something valuable, after all). Not using his favorite tatic when faced with a dangerous foe simply due to monetary considerations doesn't really seem to have the heroic flavor to either of us, and so i was wondering what rules there are which cover the repair of magic items? Say a +2 Longspear is cut right in half. well, now what? that shouldn't be 4300+gp down the drain, should it ?

Does the SRD cover this? Does anyone? Do YOU have a system that works? i'm at work, don't have access to my b ooks right now...

 

[Lord Ben]

In the books it says that if a magic item is destroyed it's gone forever. Personally if that happened I'd just have another +2 item on someone else that I didn't plan for it.

In my campaign I sometimes allow them to repair it for half-price, no xp and full time. For instance the Bbn lost his +5 mithril breastplate to the armor damage attack of a Bebilith. Well, I let the party wizard (with craft arms and armor) repair it for 12,500gp, 0xp, and 25 days time. The adventure was over by the time they did it though.

If someone rolls a 1 to a fireball and their cloak gets burnt that might just ruin it forever, but a sword breaking in half should be easier to fix and maybe repair.

It is kind of like in Tolkien where he has Aundril reforged.

If you want some control, just say that depending on how it's broke it can be repaired. Mord's disjunction - no, used it to pry open a magic door and bent it - yes.

 

[StealthyMark]

You can mend a broken magic item. That's mentioned in the descriptions of Craft Magic Arms and Armor and Craft Wondrous Item.
You can repair the item for half cost (gold, XP, time).

According to this, a broken magic item is worth half that of a intact one.
For example a +2 holy greatsword
- has a market value of 32,350 GP
- can be sold for 16,175 GP (1/2 market price)
If this sword is broken
- a NPC can repair it for 16,175 GP
- a PC can repair it for 8,087.5 GP + 640 XP + 8 days
- it can be sold for 8,087.5 GP