Tellerian Hawke
Defender of Oerth
I absolutely LOVE that magic items do not have standard market prices in 5e (the same with spellcasting services), and that the DM is encouraged to keep the concept of magic item marts rare via this mechanism. [...] It makes heroes much greater by comparison and answers the question: "why can't some other group of adventurers take care of the manticore harassing the village?" Because there aren't that many around! Your character is a unique and powerful individual in the world!
The way I handle it is as follows:
Most temples will sell minor curative potions, and spell components to their parishioners. That means you have to follow that deity, and attend services regularly at that temple. If you miss a holy day or two, you may have to tithe or perform some other act of penance.
Most mage guilds will sell minor potions, components, and scrolls to their members for a moderate fee, or to non-members for a HEFTY fee.
Thus, it is essential that the mage in the party belong to the guild, and that the cleric in the party belong to a temple.
That also goes a long way toward having "local connections" for the purposes of Gather Information.
But if you want a major magic item, then you have to either do the research and make it yourself, or pay someone A SMALL FORTUNE to do it for you. And that's assuming they don't betray you / con you / cheat you, etc.
I have found that most player-created magic items tend to be utilitarian in function, such as a vestment to protect the wearer from the ill effects of a particular plane of existence that the party plans to travel to, or perhaps a pair of goggles that grants +10 to spot checks, etc. Basically, a player decides, "Hey, we need something that will help us do this task," and then they pitch in and get the party's mage to piece it together.
Every once in awhile, a player wants to create something special, like a nifty sword for the party's fighter, or perhaps the mage wants to make himself a proper staff. Those types of items involve much more than ticking off gold and xp off of your character sheet. Those are the types of items I call "quest catalysts."
Also, I have noticed that players tend to spend a lot of time, money, and xp developing new spells. In fact, I'd say 75% of all gold that the party spends on "magic" is spent here. Especially when you're talking high level spells, or even epic spells.
If someone opened up a magic shop in my campaign, they'd have the local mage guild come down on them HARD. Mage guilds make a lot of money selling minor items, and allowing their senior wizards to accept commissions for major items. If you're not with them, you're against them.
And yeah, I agree, adventurers are rare.
Well, at least successful ones are.
In my campaign, there are basically two PC groups (two different games I run) and there are 3 NPC groups that I drop hints about every so often. If my players ignore an adventure hook, and wander off on a tangent, I DO NOT railroad them back into "taking the bait." Instead, after a week or so into their wild goose chase, I say, "As you sit down to have your ale at the tavern, you overhear the people at the table next to you talking about how the Riverboat Boys accepted a commission to clear out a Goblin cave near the village of Coth, only to find that the Goblins were being controlled by a young red dragon! One of their members died in the fray, but they killed the dragon, and now they're hometown heroes!" etc... heh heh heh.
The moral of the story: if you don't play the part of the hero, someone else will. There are a lot of foolhardy adventurers out there, most of whom are doomed, but there are a few solid groups who will steal your thunder, if you're not careful.
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