Price of magic items

[dogheadedman]

I am new to Basic Fantasy, and find it great. I am used to the 80's Basic and Expert rules of D&D and find the layout of BF to be much better. I also like the tweaks that I have discovered so far. This will be a great introduction to get my children playing tabletop RPG instead of computer games. So far that are very enthusiastic. (I have just ordered my hardcopies from Lulu and hope they arrive soon.)

One thing I am wondering though, is the price of magical items. Has anyone given any thought to what a magical item could be valued at reasonably. That is selling looted magic items, or commissioning their creation from a local magic user. I have found supplementary material on this site with all kinds of things, but nothing relating to the cost of magic items.

PS: Great work to everyone who has contributed to this site. And thanks.

Cheers

[Dimirag]

There is no set price for trading magic items, you can search online for some ideas or use other games values, but the most common value used is the one that the GM want based on campaign and character's money.

If magic items are common then it will be plenty of them and their cost will be low, OTOH if they are really hard to make and are extremely rare they will cost lots of money but probably won't be easy to sell or carry freely.

[dogheadedman]

Thanks for that. After I posted my question, I started to think that buying magic items probably wouldn't be that good anyway. They should be rarer than that, and finding them as part of a treasure should be something special. Thanks.

[Solomoriah]

No materials being shared here, so not a Workshop post. Moving to GD.

[Hywaywolf]

I think potions would be plentiful to buy in a populated city/town near an adventure rich area. Wizards and the like need money to pay for their towers and their research. Selling potions made either by themselves or their lackeys would seem to be a very practical use of their abilities. You might be able to find magic weapons available brought up by successful adventurers who already have useful magic weapons, or sold by adventurers down on their luck. Plus, if you have enough money you could hire a wizard to create you any weapon you desire.

So, its possible to luck into a weapon being sold at a low price by a fighter who owe money to the wrong moneylenders and needs it quickly. Or you might have to pay out of the nose for one if their aren't many wizards around to make you one and thus charge you an outrageous price. Its all part of world building.

[Dimirag]

Potions are the most common purchasable magic item, followed by +1 equipment, but, as Hywaywolf said its a matter of world building.

Maybe the churches are the ones that sales healing potions or maybe they are costly alchemical products.

Some magic items could be in the hands of the family of some adventurer as part of his legacy, be it as a treasure or as part of the old gear.

Some magic items could be on the halls of some museum or important place.

It finally comes to a matter of you as the GM wanting to give the magic item or not, if you want to give an easy access then sell them on shops, otherwise they might be able to "purchase" it from the "right" people.

[bjmorga]

Like several others have said, I generally don't have magic items for sale in the games I've run. I usually have wizards, apothecaries, and clerics that carry potions of various types. Wizards and some special blacksmiths can also enchant items, but at a price measured in both gold and time.

Prices for the time I played 5e D&D during the playtest phase was around 2,000-3,000 gold for something that was a +1 item. I never had anything on the market in games that was a +2 item because I felt like no adventurer, collector, or general villain would want to lose or sale such a valuable item. I tend to save my +2 or higher magic items for treasures found while on quests. It's not that I run magic-lite campaigns, I just want magic items to be a little harder to come by that they were for 4th Edition D&D.

[Metroknight]

When I use to run magic item stores in my games (decades ago) my rule of thumb was 5,000 for a +1 then it doubled with each increase. +2 was 10k, +3 was 20k, etc... If it was something without a plus but was magical that item would be a consumable or have charges that once expended it was done (no recharge). That item also had the base price similar to the other plused items.

I don't do that anymore, every magic item in my games has a reason to be there. Even the measly +1 Sword is considered an artifact (minor) that should have a history attached to it. It might be nothing more than "Fang, the troll slayer" which could be a +1/+3 vs regenerative creatures sword. You could then do a short history on the sword that a bard could sing about in a game session.

Now with that in mind, why would a barbarian character be willing to give up "Fang, the troll slayer" for a shiny nifty new sword unless the player was metagaming or some such? As the others have stated, don't worry about the price. If you can make it a desirable item in game with just the history then most players will never want to get rid of it.

[mTeasdale]

When I really need to get the price of a magic item (which pretty much never happen, unless for potions of healing), I check out Gary Gygax AD&D DM guide, which gives an idea. Needless to say, if the players are selling the item, the price will be much lower, and much higher if they want to buy it.

[Metroknight]

(unless for potions of healing),

Hehehe. I never prices those in gold but in favors instead. The clergy is always willing to heal and help but only if you will help them with something then or later. If the characters have a change of heart with helping to many times afterwards they soon discover that the clergy are not able to help them anymore due to their Deity's commands.

The Gods are fickle that way.