Where does the gold go?

[KarinsDad]

In my campaign, the Cleric wanted to create a +1 weapon for the Fighter.

As DM I said: "No problem. Go to the city (tech level 8 in a Judges Guild campaign) and buy the appropriate materials and craft it whenever you wish."

Cleric: "Why can I not just buy the materials here in the village (tech level 4)?"

DM: "Because those materials are not available in the village. Nobody here usually crafts magic items, even the clerics in the local temple. And even if they did, they would still order or acquire the materials from the city."

 

[Darklone]

In low magic campaigns, I often use the availability of magical materials as balancing factor. The wizard may live in the wilderness near a small village, but shadowy figures visit him at night and sell strange stuff...

 

[Gez]

I consider that, when the creation cost for an item (half market cost, usually) becomes high -- more than 1000 -- one is not going to find it quickly.


As a house-rule of mine:
In a metropolis, you have to make a Gather Information check DC 20 per each 1000 gp in creation cost. This represents lots of research to find the proper shop, with the proper crazy-eyed old weird shopkeepers that will have the proper exotic-powdered-root-mixed-with-newt-eye-jelly spice that you need. Success means you find the wares you need (you just have to buy them now), in one day. Failure by 5 or less means it takes you 1d4 days instead. Failure by more than 5 means you find nothing. You'll be able to start again next week.

In a large city, it's for every 500 gp. Small city, 250. Large town, 100. Small town, 50. Village, 25. Hamlet 10. Thorp 5.

 

[Darklone]

Someone got a table for the chance that an ingredient might be illegal ?

 

[Rel]

IMC, I require that components for magic items be purchased in advance. Because most of the action tends to take place well away from civilization, the party pays attention to opportunities to purchase these components and "stocks up" when they get a chance. I've divided the components into a few categories:

"Wizard's Ink" - Used for Scribe Scroll as well as the cost for putting new spells in a spellbook.
"Alchemical Ingredients" - Used for Brew Potion and the various other alchemical concoctions. Also used for identifying potions as noted in the Alchemy skill.
"Enchanted wood and metals" - Used for all Craft Arms and Armor purposes.
"Other magical materials" - A catch-all category for Craft Wonderous, Craft Ring, Craft Rod, Craft Wand and Craft Staff.

To me, one of the best parts about this is that I can sprinkle these things as treasure throughout the campaign. I can also make some of these components unique if I want to. For example I could say, "The magical components you find in the laboratory of the Stinger Queen count as 300 GP worth of Alchemical Ingredients. But you note that it contains a rather large quantity of "Phase Fungus" and if you use it to create potions of Blur, Blink or Invisibility, it reduces those costs by a further 10 percent."

 

[KarinsDad]

I've divided the components into a few categories:

"Wizard's Ink" - Used for Scribe Scroll as well as the cost for putting new spells in a spellbook.
"Alchemical Ingredients" - Used for Brew Potion and the various other alchemical concoctions. Also used for identifying potions as noted in the Alchemy skill.
"Enchanted wood and metals" - Used for all Craft Arms and Armor purposes.
"Other magical materials" - A catch-all category for Craft Wonderous, Craft Ring, Craft Rod, Craft Wand and Craft Staff.

To me, one of the best parts about this is that I can sprinkle these things as treasure throughout the campaign.

Good idea.

 

[Staffan]

When I get my Dark Sun campaign going, I will have serious limitations on what sort of items people can make just by spending gold. See, in Dark Sun arcana magic is outlawed in most places, and clerics and druids aren't exactly well-loved either by the authorities. So, most components needed will be outlawed too, which means the prospective item-maker will be forced to deal with some rather shady characters and/or go get the components himself.

 

[andargor]

Well, at least that makes a lot of sense. It does mean that 'adventuring-types' have their own little private economy going:

Need dragon parts to create magic items -> hire adventurers to kill dragon -> adventurers get reward -> adventurers use reward to get magic items -> dragon parts are needed create the magic items they need -> etc.

So THAT's why there are no more dragons and magic items!



Andargor

 

[Thanee]

It actually says in the PHB, that the money is often not actually spend, especially in the high amounts, which are sometimes required for magic items (it talks about buying them, but this could also be true for getting the materials to create them).

p. 112 PHB v3.5

Bye
Thanee

 

[Altalazar]

A fascinating question.

I play with the "power item" rule - where certain items can reduce the cost and/or EXP of creating a certain item - such as having a red dragon heart for a protection from fire item.

I really think it boils down to what someone jokingly said above: A sacrifice to the game-balance gods.

I wonder, though, if it wouldn't be a great idea for someone to sit down and come up with some comprehensive "charts" of really where that money goes when it is "spent".

One side-effect of that, for good or ill, is it would allow shortcuts around it. For instance, if it turns out that 10K of the cost is in gathering books from a magical library for some item, if you just found one or otherwise have access to one for free, you could cut that expense from the item. I suppose that gets us back to the "balance" issues. If you had an actual breakdown of the costs, that would leave lots of room for finding cheaper means, but then the item won't "cost" what the book lists anymore. But perhaps exchanging cost for role-playing ingenuity isn't such a bad thing.