Rules for Upgrading existing items

[Nuntius]

Hi again!
This time I would like to ask the following: Are there rules to enhance existing Items?

Suppose you have a +2 Chainmail and you want to make it a +3 (or add some special property that equals a +1 enhancement) and suppose you are at a big big city with everything you may need at your disposall: Are there any rules to upgrade your chainmail instead of having to sell it and buy a new one? And I don't mean it just for the emotional value a particular piece of gear may have, but I'm also supposing that upgrading should be cheaper than creating from scratch.

Thanks!

 

[Sekhmet]

You pay for the cost of a one point upgrade in this scenario.
In this case, a 5,000 GP difference.
All information you need is on Table: Armor and Shields at the beginning of the magic items section in your DMG.

 

[orion90000]

also for upgrades that don't have a plus value beside it (like +1, +2) you can add virtually any upgrade to your armor/weapon/ring/cloak etc by paying 1.5 times the cost. I.E. to add +2 Dex to your armor you look up the Gloves of Dex +2 = 4000 gp x 1.5 = 6000 gp to put it on your armor instead.

This is a great way to buff your characters instead of choosing between two items... if you got the gold anyways.

 

[Vegepygmy]

The rule you're looking for is on page 288 of the 3.5 DMG, under "Adding New Abilities."

 

[Nuntius]

Thanks for your answers!

You pay for the cost of a one point upgrade in this scenario.
In this case, a 5,000 GP difference.
All information you need is on Table: Armor and Shields at the beginning of the magic items section in your DMG.

Hahaha i have to admit something: when we looked at the rules we didn't find anything about upgrading (in fact, i sitll don't find anything that specifies that you can / can't upgrade items) but when we thought about upgrading we noticed that if you payed the +1 bonus for every upgraded, the item price would drop considerably (a +9 item would only cost 9.000 gold).
This was absurd, ergo, items weren't ment to be upgraded.

Hahahahaha, now your point it's far more intuitive and It certainly makes a lot of sense. It's funny we didn't thought about that earlier xD
My player's will be happy to hear about this one

 

[Aluvial]

There is also a good chart in the appendix of the Magic Item Compendium.

 

[Vegepygmy]

(in fact, i sitll don't find anything that specifies that you can / can't upgrade items)

"Thus, a +1 longsword can be made into a +2 vorpal longsword, with the cost to create it being equal to that of a +2 vorpal sword, minus the cost of a +1 sword." (3.5 DMG, page 288)

How much more specific does it need to be for you?

 

[Nuntius]

"Thus, a +1 longsword can be made into a +2 vorpal longsword, with the cost to create it being equal to that of a +2 vorpal sword, minus the cost of a +1 sword." (3.5 DMG, page 288)

How much more specific does it need to be for you?

Hey! Thanks for the quote! Yet I'm afraid we are using the 3.0 books, not the 3.5. I've been creating a lot of threads lately and I forgot to specify it in this one. If you would happen to know were that rule is in the 3.0, that would be specific enough

[Even though I guess it would be ok to import the rule into the 3.0 system, in case the rule doesn't happen to be already there xD]

 

[TanisFrey]

It was the same in 3.0. A quick look in my 3.0 DMG p. 246 has a section titled Adding New Abilities uses the same language that Vegepygmy quoted for you.

 

[Nuntius]

It was the same in 3.0. A quick look in my 3.0 DMG p. 246 has a section titled Adding New Abilities uses the same language that Vegepygmy quoted for you.

THANK YOU! I kept looking for it on the item creation section (in Player's Handbook) and in the beggining of the weapon/armor reward (where it explains the whole enhancement mechanic).

Thank you all for your replies. My players will be very glad with this news ^^