Purchasing a magic item requires time and money to seek out and contact people willing to sell items. Even then, there is no guarantee a seller will have the items a character desires.

Resources: Finding magic items to purchase requires at least one workweek of effort and 100 gp in expenses. Spending more time and money increases your chance of finding a high-quality item.

Resolution: A character seeking to buy a magic item makes a Charisma (Persuasion) check to determine the quality of the seller found. The character gains a +1 bonus on the check for every workweek beyond the first that is spent seeking a seller and a +1 bonus for every additional 100 gp spent on the search, up to a maximum bonus of +10. The monetary cost includes a wealthy lifestyle, for a buyer must impress potential business partners.

As shown on the Buying Magic Items table, the total of the check dictates which table in the Dungeon Master’s Guide to roll on to determine which items are on the market. Or you can roll for items from any table associated with a lower total on the Buying Magic Items table. As a further option to reflect the availability of items in your campaign, you can apply a -10 penalty for low magic campaigns or a +10 bonus for high magic campaigns. Furthermore, you can double magic item costs in low magic campaigns.

Using the Magic Item Price table, you then assign prices to the available items, based on their rarity. Halve the price of any consumable item, such as a potion or a scroll, when using the table to determine an asking price.

You have final say in determining which items are for sale and their final price, no matter what the tables say.

If the characters seek a specific magic item, first decide if it’s an item you want to allow in your game. If so, include the desired item among the items for sale on a check total of 10 or higher if the item is common, 15 or higher if it is uncommon, 20 or higher if it is rare, 25 or higher if it is very rare, and 30 or higher if it is legendary.

Magic Item Price Table

[1] Halved for a consumable item like a potion or scroll

Complications: The magic item trade is fraught with peril. The large sums of money involved and the power offered by magic items attract thieves, con artists, and other villains. If you want to make things more interesting for the characters, roll on the Magic Item Purchase Complications table or invent your own complication.

Magic Item Purchase Complications Table

Complication:

1. The item is a fake, planted by an enemy.*
2. The item is stolen by the party’s enemies.*
3. The item is cursed by a god.
4. The item’s original owner will kill to reclaim it; the party’s enemies spread news of its sale.*
5. The item is at the center of a dark prophecy.
6. The seller is murdered before the sale.*
7. The seller is a devil looking to make a bargain.
8. The item is the key to freeing an evil entity.
9. A third party bids on the item, doubling its price.*
10. The item is an enslaved, intelligent entity.
11. The item is tied to a cult.
12. The party’s enemies spread rumors that the item is an artifact of evil.*

Resources: Carousing covers a workweek of fine food, strong drink, and socializing. A character can attempt to carouse among lower-, middle-, or upper-class folk. A character can carouse with the lower class for 10 gp to cover expenses, or 50 gp for the middle class. Carousing with the upper class requires 250 gp for the workweek and access to the local nobility.

A character with the noble background can mingle with the upper class, but other characters can do so only if you judge that the character has made sufficient contacts. Alternatively, a character might use a disguise kit and the Deception skill to pass as a noble visiting from a distant city.

Resolution: After a workweek of carousing, a character stands to make contacts within the selected social class. The character makes a Charisma (Persuasion) check using the Carousing table.

• Lower-class contacts: These include criminals, laborers, mercenaries, the town guard, and any other folk who normally frequent the cheapest taverns in town.
• Middle-class contacts: These include guild members, spellcasters, town officials, and other folk who frequent well-kept establishments.
• Upper-class contacts: These are nobles and their personal servants. Carousing with such folk covers formal banquets, state dinners, and the like.

Once a contact has helped or hindered a character, the character needs to carouse again to get back into the NPC’s good graces. A contact provides help once, not help for life. The contact remains friendly, which can influence roleplaying and how the characters interact with them, but doesn’t come with a guarantee of help.

You can assign specific NPCs as contacts. Assigning specific NPCs gives the players concrete options, bringing the campaign to life and seeding the area with NPCs that the characters care about. On the other hand, it can be difficult to track and might render a contact useless if that character doesn’t come into play.

Alternatively, you can allow the player to make an NPC into a contact on the spot, after carousing. When the characters are in the area in which they caroused, a player can expend an allied contact and designate an NPC they meet as a contact, assuming the NPC is of the correct social class based on how the character caroused. The player should provide a reasonable explanation for this relationship and work it into the game.

Using a mix of the two approaches is a good idea since it gives you the added depth of specific contacts while giving players the freedom to ensure that the contacts they accumulate are useful.

The same process can apply to hostile contacts. You can give the characters a specific NPC they should avoid, or you might introduce one at an inopportune or dramatic moment.

At any time, a character can have a maximum number of unspecified allied contacts equal to 1 + the character’s Charisma modifier (minimum of 1). Specific, named contacts don’t count toward this limit—only ones that can be used at any time to declare an NPC as a contact.

Complications: Characters who carouse risk bar brawls, accumulating a cloud of nasty rumors, and building a bad reputation around town. As a rule of thumb, a character has a 10 percent chance of triggering a complication for each workweek of carousing.

1. A pickpocket lifts 1d10 x 5 gp from you.*
2. A bar brawl leaves you with a scar.*
3. You have fuzzy memories of doing something very, very illegal, but can’t remember exactly what.
4. You are banned from a tavern after some obnoxious behavior.*
5. After a few drinks, you swore in the town square to pursue a dangerous quest.
6. Surprise! You’re married.
7. Streaking naked through the streets seemed like a great idea at the time.
8. Everyone is calling you by some weird, embarrassing nickname, like Puddle Drinker or Bench Slayer, and no one will say why.*
9. You accidentally insulted a guild master, and only a public apology will let you do business with the guild again.*
10. You swore to complete some quest on behalf of a temple or a guild.
11. A social gaffe has made you the talk of the town.*
12. A particularly obnoxious person has taken an intense romantic interest in you.*
13. You have made a foe out of a local spellcaster.*
14. You have been recruited to help run a local festival, play, or similar event.
15. You made a drunken toast that scandalized the locals.
16. You spent an additional 100 gp trying to impress people.
17. A pushy noble family wants to marry off one of their scions to you.*
18. You tripped and fell during a dance, and people can’t stop talking about it.
19. You have agreed to take on a noble’s debts.
20. You have been challenged to a joust by a knight.*
21. You have made a foe out of a local noble.*
22. A boring noble insists you visit each day and listen to long, tedious theories of magic.
23. You have become the target of a variety of embarrassing rumors.*
24. You spent an additional 500 gp trying to impress people.

Crafting an Item

A character who has the time, the money, and the needed tools can use downtime to craft armor, weapons, clothing, or other kinds of nonmagical gear.

Resources and Resolution: In addition to the appropriate tools for the item to be crafted, a character needs raw materials worth half of the item’s selling cost. To determine how many workweeks it takes to create an item, divide its gold piece cost by 50. A character can complete multiple items in a workweek if the items’ combined cost is 50 gp or lower. Items that cost more than 50 gp can be completed over longer periods, as long as the work in progress is stored in a safe location.

Multiple characters can combine their efforts. Divide the time needed to create an item by the number of characters working on it. Use your judgment when determining how many characters can collaborate on an item. A particularly tiny item, like a ring, might allow only one or two workers, whereas a large, complex item might allow four or more workers.

A character needs to be proficient with the tools needed to craft an item and have access to the appropriate equipment. Everyone who collaborates needs to have the appropriate tool proficiency. You need to make any judgment calls regarding whether a character has the correct equipment. The following table provides some examples.

If all the above requirements are met, the result of the process is an item of the desired sort. A character can sell an item crafted in this way at its listed price.

Creating a magic item requires more than just time, effort, and materials. It is a long-term process that involves one or more adventures to track down rare materials and the lore needed to create the item.

• Resources Needed:

  • Appropriate tools.
  • Raw materials worth half the item's selling cost.

• Time Required:

  • Time to craft = (Item's gold piece cost) / 50.
  • Multiple items can be crafted within a single workweek if their combined cost is 50 gp or lower.

• Collaboration:

  • Multiple characters can reduce crafting time by dividing the total time by the number of characters involved.

• Proficiency:

  • Each character must be proficient with the necessary tools.

• Selling Items:

  • Crafted items can be sold at their listed price.

• Special Requirements:

  • Requires a specific formula (like a recipe).
  • Typically involves obtaining an exotic material, which may require a quest or adventure.

• Time and Cost:

  • Common: 1 workweek and 50 gp.
  • Uncommon: 2 workweeks and 200 gp.
  • Rare: 10 workweeks and 2,000 gp.
  • Very Rare: 25 workweeks and 20,000 gp.
  • Legendary: 50 workweeks and 100,000 gp.

• Tool Proficiency:

  • Must have the appropriate tool proficiency or be proficient in the Arcana skill.

• Complications:

  • 10% chance of complications every five workweeks.
  • Example complications:
    • Rumors about the item's instability.
    • Theft of tools.
    • Interference from rival NPCs.

• For Nonmagical Crafting:

  • Theft of tools or materials.
  • False rumors about the quality of work.
  • Rivalry or accusations of using stolen techniques.

• For Magic Item Crafting:

  • Theft of rare ingredients.
  • Interference from other magic users.
  • Accusations of using stolen magical lore.

• Time and Cost:
  • Basic Potion of Healing: 1 day and 25 gp.

• Resources Needed:

  • 1 week of time and at least 25 gp for gathering information.

• Resolution:

  • Series of skill checks with chosen DC based on desired profit.
  • Outcomes vary based on success level (none, partial, or full success).

• Resources Needed:

  • 1 workweek of effort and a stake (at least 10 gp).

• Resolution:

  • Series of three checks: Wisdom (Insight), Charisma (Deception), Charisma (Intimidation).
  • DC is random based on competition.
  • Outcomes range from losing the entire stake to doubling the bet.

• General Complications:

  • Unexpected events, rival interference, or mishaps specific to the activity.
  • Each workweek spent increases the chance of a complication by 10%.

• Specific Examples:

  • Crime: Getting caught, bounty placed on your head, etc.
  • Gambling: Accusations of cheating, run-ins with crime lords, etc.
  • Magic Item Crafting: Stolen materials, interference by other spellcasters, etc.

Steps for Distributing Magic Items

1.	Choose a Magic Item:
•	Select a magic item of any rarity for which the current tier allows (i.e., the entry in the current tier’s row for that rarity is not 0).
2.	Update Your Notes:
•	After the characters obtain the item, adjust your notes to reflect this. Subtract 1 from the corresponding entry in the table for the rarity of the item.
3.	Handling Rarity Tiers:
•	If the Desired Rarity Isn’t Available:
•	Lower Tiers: If the current tier has no items of the chosen rarity left (i.e., the entry is 0), but a lower tier still has available items, deduct the item from that lower tier.
•	Higher Tiers: If no items are available in the lower tiers either, then deduct the item from a higher tier’s count.
•	Example:
•	If you want to give out a “Rare” item in Tier 3 (levels 11-16), but the “Rare” entry for this tier is 0, you would check Tier 2 (levels 5-10). If Tier 2 still has “Rare” items available, you subtract from there. If not, move to Tier 4 (levels 17-20) and subtract from that.