Here's there a place to find the price of Magic items?
On internet, I see some people write 500 gp, others 5000 gp for a javelin of lightning for example, or a +1 item, or potion, etc. Is there a place where to find the correct prices?
There are some nice suggestions for this in Xanathar's Guide to Everything. If you can't get access to that, might I suggest the Sane Magical Prices PDF? Available for free at Sane_Magical_Prices.pdf - Google Drive
As far as official rules go, there are only wide suggested price ranges based on rarity.
Common 50-500gp, uncommon 500-5000gp, etc. That kind of thing.
You are encouraged to set your own prices based on your setting and if you even choose to sell magic items in the first place. There are a few fan made price lists like Sane Magical Prices around. You can use those as a starting point if nothing else.
If you're willing to spend the $2, The Discerning Merchant's Price Guide is a great resource that gets updated as new magic items are added to the D&D canon.
I have to say that it really irks me that WotC doesn't bother to price items for you. Pricing thousands of items so that I have functioning shops in my VTT world just sucks. Sane Magical Prices helps, but I shouldn't have to do this crap in the first place. Just WotC making more busy work for you... Yes, I'm salty.
Here's there a place to find the price of Magic items?
On internet, I see some people write 500 gp, others 5000 gp for a javelin of lightning for example, or a +1 item, or potion, etc. Is there a place where to find the correct prices?
Regards,
There are multiple sources for rules for this, which disagree with each other:
You can use the DMG rules for making a magic item and then double the cost for a selling price.
As 1, but the Xanathar's rules for making the item.
Xanathar's has rules for buying magic items in what amounts to auction houses, which will generate radically different values, in general, than 1 or 2 here.
Xanathar's page 174 suggests some specific magic item prices which don't match 1-3, but only in Adventurer's League.
There's no one "correct" price - in fact, they don't have prices, these are just ways to determine how much they should sell for when bought by a PC. Them not having a price is why you can't use Booming Blade with any magic weapons, for example. And the above rules have many consequences which are absurd beyond belief - for example, a suit of plate armor is radically cheaper when it's magic than when it's mundane. Some of these consequences are easier to fix yourself than others, such as making plate armor cost 1500 + magic, while others are much harder - e.g. any magic item where the mundane base item has no known price, so you can't apply the same logic.
Wizards of the Coast gives you guidelines for prices that are pretty simple in the DMG. Xanathar's expands on them if you need more than that. There is no need for a price on each individual item if you don't want there to be, and third party projects can give you that if you really must have them. I might also point out that they give *guidelines* because each DM gets to decide how much money the characters have. That varies a huge amount depending on the type of setting and campaign. A game that is primarily about nobles and political intrigue is going to have characters swimming in gold, but a street level Thieves Guild kind of game will have the characters pinching their coppers.
Consider the prices given for normal, non-magical items in the Player's Handbook. People kvetch about those a lot. The price of Plate Armor seems all out of whack. Various mounts cost too much or too little. I saw a debate about goats and chickens vs the expected earnings of a farmer. There is a 1000 gold piece Spyglass of questionable utility. Poisons cost an awful lot. If each magic item had a price tag, you'd only get the same kind of arguments and discussions. This or that item isn't as good as the other, and shouldn't cost so much. That item is way overpriced for its limited utility, and the other item ought to be a priceless artifact. With magic items it is much worse than normal ones, given that the costs for non-magical items are based around the amount of gold characters are given at the start. That is something that Wizards can know in advance. Not so much with the magical stuff.
Magic items also suffer from the fact that different settings and campaigns have different levels of magic. In a low magic setting the DMG points out that magic items might be so rare, and therefor valuable, that they are only sold at invitation-only auctions, but in Eberron they might be for sale at the local vendor for cheap.
You want prices in your VTT it makes perfect sense for you to have to do it. Only you know how much money the players have, so only you can set the prices, and given that neither Wizards nor D&D Beyond have a VTT of their own, if you want built in prices, you should make contact with the people who make the VTTs.
I'd highly recommend AGAINST selling magic items. Simply put, the more you give to your players, the less you have to give. Magic Items should be rewards and upgrades, not purchases in a marketplace.
After all, how many peasant markets sell bread, daggers, rope, and magical flaming swords encrusted with a gem that contains the soul of a Phoenix?
For our current campaign DM allows us to buy items, so the pdf will be useful.
But for the campaign I want to DM, I will probably make my players buy one magic item in a selected list after a special quest. But the other magic items will be awarded randomly.
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Hello,
Here's there a place to find the price of Magic items?
On internet, I see some people write 500 gp, others 5000 gp for a javelin of lightning for example, or a +1 item, or potion, etc. Is there a place where to find the correct prices?
Regards,
There are some nice suggestions for this in Xanathar's Guide to Everything. If you can't get access to that, might I suggest the Sane Magical Prices PDF? Available for free at Sane_Magical_Prices.pdf - Google Drive
I hope that helps.
<Insert clever signature here>
As far as official rules go, there are only wide suggested price ranges based on rarity.
Common 50-500gp, uncommon 500-5000gp, etc. That kind of thing.
You are encouraged to set your own prices based on your setting and if you even choose to sell magic items in the first place. There are a few fan made price lists like Sane Magical Prices around. You can use those as a starting point if nothing else.
If you're willing to spend the $2, The Discerning Merchant's Price Guide is a great resource that gets updated as new magic items are added to the D&D canon.
I have to say that it really irks me that WotC doesn't bother to price items for you. Pricing thousands of items so that I have functioning shops in my VTT world just sucks. Sane Magical Prices helps, but I shouldn't have to do this crap in the first place. Just WotC making more busy work for you... Yes, I'm salty.
There are multiple sources for rules for this, which disagree with each other:
There's no one "correct" price - in fact, they don't have prices, these are just ways to determine how much they should sell for when bought by a PC. Them not having a price is why you can't use Booming Blade with any magic weapons, for example. And the above rules have many consequences which are absurd beyond belief - for example, a suit of plate armor is radically cheaper when it's magic than when it's mundane. Some of these consequences are easier to fix yourself than others, such as making plate armor cost 1500 + magic, while others are much harder - e.g. any magic item where the mundane base item has no known price, so you can't apply the same logic.
Wizards of the Coast gives you guidelines for prices that are pretty simple in the DMG. Xanathar's expands on them if you need more than that. There is no need for a price on each individual item if you don't want there to be, and third party projects can give you that if you really must have them. I might also point out that they give *guidelines* because each DM gets to decide how much money the characters have. That varies a huge amount depending on the type of setting and campaign. A game that is primarily about nobles and political intrigue is going to have characters swimming in gold, but a street level Thieves Guild kind of game will have the characters pinching their coppers.
Consider the prices given for normal, non-magical items in the Player's Handbook. People kvetch about those a lot. The price of Plate Armor seems all out of whack. Various mounts cost too much or too little. I saw a debate about goats and chickens vs the expected earnings of a farmer. There is a 1000 gold piece Spyglass of questionable utility. Poisons cost an awful lot. If each magic item had a price tag, you'd only get the same kind of arguments and discussions. This or that item isn't as good as the other, and shouldn't cost so much. That item is way overpriced for its limited utility, and the other item ought to be a priceless artifact. With magic items it is much worse than normal ones, given that the costs for non-magical items are based around the amount of gold characters are given at the start. That is something that Wizards can know in advance. Not so much with the magical stuff.
Magic items also suffer from the fact that different settings and campaigns have different levels of magic. In a low magic setting the DMG points out that magic items might be so rare, and therefor valuable, that they are only sold at invitation-only auctions, but in Eberron they might be for sale at the local vendor for cheap.
You want prices in your VTT it makes perfect sense for you to have to do it. Only you know how much money the players have, so only you can set the prices, and given that neither Wizards nor D&D Beyond have a VTT of their own, if you want built in prices, you should make contact with the people who make the VTTs.
<Insert clever signature here>
Wow, thank you, that will hep a lot.
Hello everyone,
Thank you for your advises. I play now, but little by little I am tempted to DM and your advises will help in the future.
Regards,
I'd highly recommend AGAINST selling magic items. Simply put, the more you give to your players, the less you have to give. Magic Items should be rewards and upgrades, not purchases in a marketplace.
After all, how many peasant markets sell bread, daggers, rope, and magical flaming swords encrusted with a gem that contains the soul of a Phoenix?
For our current campaign DM allows us to buy items, so the pdf will be useful.
But for the campaign I want to DM, I will probably make my players buy one magic item in a selected list after a special quest. But the other magic items will be awarded randomly.