The availability of magic items

[hopeless]

Items in 4e

The first magic item I got playing 4e was a horned helm and to be honest the warlord character i was playing would have been better off with a mundane ranged weapon given how many times the dm chose to overlook either money or when we asked about purchasing such a weapon after it became obvious the melee weapons were using wasn't helping the wizard pc when we kept running into ranged attacking opponents.

I ended up giving up and only an online game at paizo kept me interested in 4e, the facebook game I'm still playing but at least you've got a better chance of overcoming that problem provided you either lucky with the treasure or gain enough money to buy your own.

Have you ever run or played a game where a magic item was either sold or looked over for something the player felt was more necessary to their character?

Improved armour, weapons, potions or perhaps even in return for a favour that might even be character story related rather than improving their character's abilitites for example, had any of those crop up?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Personally, I'm a big proponent of the free market model.

This means that, while everything and anything may be for sale, it isn't necessarily in stock in this location at this moment...and it might not be offered for sale at the price seen in the books.

Also, appraisals matter. If someone thinks they're offering up a Holy Avenger, but what they're really selling is a +3 long sword scavenged from the body of an assassinated Paladin, the price may be MUCH higher than you'd expect to pay. Similarly, a shopkeeper in a small town may not realize the magic staff he's selling isn't just a +1 stick.

Caveat Emptor!

 

[hopeless]

Okay...

Also, appraisals matter. If someone thinks they're offering up a Holy Avenger, but what they're really selling is a +3 long sword scavenged from the body of an assassinated Paladin, the price may be MUCH higher than you'd expect to pay. Similarly, a shopkeeper in a small town may not realize the magic staff he's selling isn't just a +1 stick.
Caveat Emptor!

The only time i witnesed that was when it involved a cursed scroll that turned an elven wizard into a halfling!

(By that I mean I ran a character in that game and wasn't the gm involved)

The PC then went and killed a local and got off the murder charge by paying a blood debt.

Every other time I played they knew full well what the item was, I ran a game where a family of halfling travelling merchants sold magical items to the PCs but I made a point of making sure their stock was limited although they got what they paid for and in retrospect maybe too much Monty Haul maybe i need to reread a few books on the matter...

 

[Mercurius]

Maybe even preparing by securing the residium they need for the upgrading of their existing item perhaps going so far as to introduce tales of powerful items either growing weaker over time to disappearing entirely since their new owner is unaware of their legacy so that when the PC gets their hands on it their persistance is paid off by the revealtion that the item they're carrying has a back story ala the one ring but not so evil centric but gives a reason why they hold onto it even if ultimately its because they prefer their character to be known for carrying that item perhaps turn it into a family heirloom from the viewpoint?

Right, that's the general idea - there are numerous possibilities, really, that can be customized to the campaign setting. Now I believe that the 3.5 book "Weapons of Legacy" had a similar approach, but I don't know the details.

Magic items losing their "charge" like a battery is an interesting idea. AD&D used to have limited charge items, and I'm not sure why this was written out of the rules. It also gives an interesting avenue for campaign development; in one of my settings, the time is a thousand years after a magical golden age during which great magical items were crafted and are no longer possible to make. It could be that part of what was lost was the ability to make their powers permanent and growing. Items made in the current era are not only less powerful, but don't "mature" over time and will instead gradually lose their power. This is a good way to limit what can be bought--maybe what is available in stores are "disposable" items.

 

[Rechan]

I can tolerate buying healing potions, but I really do not like magical item stores. Like someone said above, it's loot, not gear. Commissioning is possible, but I prefer to drop what a player wants into a treasure than to have it purchasable. Magic item stores just hurts my idea of fantasy. Besides I prefer the notion that adventurers are rare, thus no one would be around to buy the items. Trading with a dragon or having a fey lord hand one over as a reward for a great deed, or a deal with a devil, fine but buying, no.

The other problem I've found, with 4E at least, is out-growing well-loved magic items that have a story to them.

Items can be upgraded. I.e. if it's a +1 flaming sword, it gets turned into a +2 flaming sword. There are multiple ways to do this. Either the PC drops the money difference and someone upgrades it, they do the ritual themselves via residuum/gold, or that it's a reward and some more powerful entity does it/the item grows period.

I like items being enchanted on the spot. Slaying the red dragon turns that +1 sword into a flaming burst sword (or upgrades that +1 to a +2). You simply spend a treasure parcel on the equivalent level of the item and say that magic went from x to the item. For this reason I like the Boon alt rewards in the DMG2.

But I'm a fan of unpacking items. Personally I think PCs should have very few magic items that are multi-purpose.

 

[Mercurius]

I can tolerate buying healing potions, but I really do not like magical item stores. Like someone said above, it's loot, not gear. Commissioning is possible, but I prefer to drop what a player wants into a treasure than to have it purchasable. Magic item stores just hurts my idea of fantasy. Besides I prefer the notion that adventurers are rare, thus no one would be around to buy the items. Trading with a dragon or having a fey lord hand one over as a reward for a great deed, or a deal with a devil, fine but buying, no.

Well again, it depends upon the specific campaign world. If it is a high magic world, or one in the "Golden Age" of magic, then Ye Olde Magick Shoppes make sense. Or if adventurers are plentiful, it also makes sense - and magic items can be considered gear, especially if magic is somewhat plentiful.

Items can be upgraded. I.e. if it's a +1 flaming sword, it gets turned into a +2 flaming sword. There are multiple ways to do this. Either the PC drops the money difference and someone upgrades it, they do it themselves via residuum/gold, or that it's a reward and some more powerful entity does it/the item grows period.

I like items being enchanted on the spot. Slaying the red dragon turns that +1 sword into a flaming burst sword (or upgrades that +1 to a +2). You simply spend a treasure parcel on the equivalent level of the item. For this reason I like the Boon alt rewards in the DMG2.

But I'm a fan of unpacking items. Personally I think PCs should have very few magic items that are multi-purpose.

Yeah, I realize you can upgrade items in 4E, the problem is the wacky gold piece curve. I understand what they were trying to do, it is just...well, wacky. I would have rather seen a softer curve of increase.

I like your idea of the sword becoming a flaming weapon through interaction with a dragon--this is a nice approach to interacting with an enchanted world, that the very nature of reality is magical, enchanted, and with different laws.

 

[catsclaw227]

What I like doing is having magic items "unpack" in terms of power as a player goes up in level. This would be a "rare" item, even a "baby artifact" one that was created in an era in which magical crafting was superior. As a general rule, once the PC is three levels higher than the magic item's level, the item "levels up" to the next tier (+5 levels, or +1 bonus). For example, when a character turns 12th level, their 9th level magic item "levels up" to 14th level in terms of bonus, but also maybe adding some kind of power.

This approach also helps get around the problem of trading or selling off old items in favor of new ones, and allows for a PC to find a powerful magic item at an early level but not know its full abilities until later on.

I've been doing this since the beginning of 3e with magic items, since I've never really liked the "Ye Olde Magik Shoppe" paradigm.

What I do to make the change more RPish is when the above example character is 12th level, some event in the game will trigger the change. I.E. the killing blow of the great Frost Giant. Or a cinematic critical. Or the discovery of a pool of mystical energy that the item reacts to, when dipped inside triggers the change. It is easy to tie it all together with the "story" the player has been creating with their PC over the past few levels. and even making the even related. A flaming sword that slew the Frost Giant becomes more fiery.

Also at mid-late paragon it's fun to have a unique item gain some type of sentience or bond with the PC. You can do this for multiple items per PC, even the big three.

The shopping and residuum enchant/disenchant can be used for more mundane stuff like healing potions, alchemical items, and stuff like Boots of ThisOrThat.

 

[was]

I make minor magic items available (ie potions), but the rest comes from questing

 

[IstraRaugir]

I have to agree with catsclaw here. Minor magic items containing low level spells/cantrips or those that can be explained via alchemy (healing potions and the like) should be readily available in well supplied areas. But major item (aka just about anything that makes the players go "that's cool!" should be either scavenged from treasure or created/augmented via story driven events.
Of course what would be common and what would be uncommon is wholly dependent on the setting in which the game takes place.
I personally like to leave item creation as mysterious as possible to avoid players (read: PC spellcasters) exploiting the system. This also helps to keep magic items interesting and uncertain.

ie: That twisted staff that throws fireballs once a day on command is mighty usefull. But the fact that its color gets a little darker each time it's used is kind of creeping me out. And we never did find out what those crazy runes that the spellbinders carved into it mean...
Gee, better be careful with that thing. Who knows what might happen?

 

[Jhaelen]

Whatever makes the most sense for your homebrew setting! Surely you have an idea what's it's supposed to be like?