Hey y'all!

First, I am super excited that D&D and Curse got together to create this for us. Great, right? Now, I have been running my first D&D 5th Ed game and have had kind of a problem/annoyance. I have ran multiple games over the years, everything from old 3.5, World of Darkness, Rifts and even Pathfinder. This so far is my favorite game to run, with one exception. I feel like a fool for not being able to figure out how much to charge for magic items and how much coin to give out for resale. Now, the chart n the book and the description for how to deal with magic item cost is pretty clear, I guess my annoyance is that I actually have to price every single item they want or want to sell. Has anyone came up with a price guide that will make it easier for DM's such as myself that don't want to price ever item? Or maybe a way to figure out pricing? 

I mean, if they are in Waterdeep prices will be pricier depending on the district, I get that...but I just have this inert laziness when it comes to pricing everything. 

Also, if you haven't played it yet, Storm King's Thunder is AMAZING! Okay, thanks y'all! I appreciate the help! Also, I have a poll below just to see what everyone thinks about the Unearthed Arcana's Mystic class. The link for it will be below. If you want to comment on the class, you can as well! :) 

http://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/UAMystic3.pdf

From my understanding, in 5th, magic items aren't supposed to have prices as they are essentially their own currency by rarity.  However, I agree that for home games this does make it rather difficult.  At one point I found a very nice price listing of items by rarity by a non official but still rather authoritative source (as in they had enough experience to know what they where talking about), but I have since misplaced the link.  I am curious what other people have come up with.

I would love if they released a pricing list for Magic items. Would make things much easier in a home campaign.

With the advent of the artificer and the Kaledesh (SP) PDF we now have a good idea of how to make magic items. I still personally prefer cost by rarity for much my games. 

Reply to Cedriciii

It would make my game a helluva lot easier. Though we are playing SKT I still want my players to buy and sell magic items. I never really thought of them as currency. I don't know why I haven't thought of a magic item barter system. So, thanks for bringing that up! And that's why I was asking...I know there has to be some magic item cheat sheet out there to make it easier. If you ever find that link, please let us know so we can check it out! :) 

Reply to GarrettKP

It really would. I love what they've done with magic items but would kill one of my PC's for a pricing list! (Jk,or am I? We'll see Friday...)

The way I see it, in a campaign it is very difficult to raise the amount of money necessary for magic item (rare or very rare). Magic items of that rarity are meant to be found by side quests or other means.

But I would see that Uncommon magic item can be bought in the great cities, like Waterdeep, Neverwiner or Baldur's Gate.

Someone IRL pointed out to me that there is a chart on page 135 of the DMG with info on magic item prices.  However, after looking at it, it is rather more vague than I would like.  It gives *very* large price ranges rather than a set value.  (imho, too large a range to be very useful...)

Yep, as a DM, all depends on how many magic items you want to put in your game.

Quote from Stormknight >>

There's actually a fairly good reason for that - whilst I can understand that having a price for every item would be handy, many DMs don't want their players to be able to purchase whatever item they like, so want to set their own prices and restrictions on availability.

Also, if there is a set price for each item, that info will inevitably end up all over the internet, including in player guides with stuff like, "by the time you're 5th level, you can buy <magic item x> which only costs 500gp" and this then means DMs have their players expecting to be able to buy these items at those prices and the inevitable pressure involved in that.

For prices list, as mentioned above, 5e's thought process was to not have a price for everything annd tone down the over powered players that had a million magic items - things like the attunement rule was bought in.

That being said - there are community created prices - The main one that is used is Sane Magic Item Prices. The thread there gives a whole heap of reasoning as to how it was put together, there is also a link to a pdf someone created.

Quote from Sorce >>

For prices list, as mentioned above, 5e's thought process was to not have a price for everything annd tone down the over powered players that had a million magic items - things like the attunement rule was bought in.

That being said - there are community created prices - The main one that is used is Sane Magic Item Prices. The thread there gives a whole heap of reasoning as to how it was put together, there is also a link to a pdf someone created.

Quote from Stormknight >>

 

Remember though that there isn't a right or wrong way to play the game, as long as those involved are having fun and not harming anyone else, it's all good. :)

Well, I know you know this... but your the DM... so do what you want

but I tend to do the following:  ps. I only give out random items depending on CR level of the encounter, or of the encounter to come... (I also know how much the party has Total before we start play)

1. How much do they want it?  Guess their desire, and see what they will do for it.

2. Will it be helpful soon?  If I get an item from the table (particularly at a store) that will be quite beneficial in the near future... it becomes super "rare" especially if the merchant knows the quest or enemy the PCs will be up against.

3.  Do you want them to have it, and have they been searching (successfully) for the item?  If you don't want them to have it, make'm roll for it, 20 and they can have a chance, no 20 no item.  How long have they been seeking X item? Have they done research on it, do they know someone that could make it?  And other things that might help them acquire it for cheaper or even have to go fetch materials for... 

I'm curious though, how the heck are we DMs going to filter out a huge number of item listings for d20 table we want to create, or add to our adventure.

its fine now that there isn't much content, but heck, wait until all the home brew and new wotc content starts coming in.

i want to be able to filter search these items at least, and a gp value or even a cr scale is needed in the listing itself. Just saying "choose an item that suits yours needs" feels really short sighted when the amount of content here becomes immense.

In 5th edition, the only thing you have to determine the general power of an item is its rarity. Then it is up to the DM deciding how many and how powerful items you want to make available for the party.

For the cost, there is a table in the DMG (p 135), always based on the rarity.

Quote from filcat >>

In 5th edition, the only thing you have to determine the general power of an item is its rarity. Then it is up to the DM deciding how many and how powerful items you want to make available for the party.

For the cost, there is a table in the DMG (p 135), always based on the rarity.

I once charged 200 platinum for a quiver of Ehlonna. 

Personally I use about 100 gp for uncommon items, 300-700 for rare, and 1000+ for very rare, and nearly unpurchaseable for legendary, then modified for effectiveness. A nearly useless very rare item can sell for about 400 or 500, and a highly effective uncommon for up to 500.