Rock Bottom Prices!!

[Skrag Fellhand]

Whats the best deal you have gotten on an other wise expensive item in a low level game? And was its purchase reallly the "deal" you thought it was? And what level where you


My old dm had us come across a travelling gnome merchant once.. I bought a saddle of the pegasus from this merchant at a mere 600 gold(market price is like 16,000,somewhere in that area)I was lvl 2 when i purchased this.

Needless to say i failed my ride check the first time i used it, my horse panicked and i was thrown into a 120 foot deep canyon...I tried to jump over the canyon...it cost my party a day to go find me 2 days back track to the nearest town with a cleric capable of bringing me back to life...and i never found my horse

[Morithias]

Whats the best deal you have gotten on an other wise expensive item in a low level game? And was its purchase reallly the "deal" you thought it was? And what level where you


My old dm had us come across a travelling gnome merchant once.. I bought a saddle of the pegasus from this merchant at a mere 600 gold(market price is like 16,000,somewhere in that area)I was lvl 2 when i purchased this.

Needless to say i failed my ride check the first time i used it, my horse panicked and i was thrown into a 120 foot deep canyon...I tried to jump over the canyon...it cost my party a day to go find me 2 days back track to the nearest town with a cleric capable of bringing me back to life...and i never found my horse

When I was first dming our party often didn't have a cleric. One time a merchant sold them potions of cure light wounds for 5 gp each.

This was like, when I didn't even own a DMG.

[Rubik]

When I was first dming our party often didn't have a cleric. One time a merchant sold them potions of cure light wounds for 5 gp each.

This was like, when I didn't even own a DMG.Hey, that almost makes healing potions worth it!

[Saidoro]

That actually makes healing potions very worth it, they're cheaper per hit point than a wand of lesser vigor.

[Rubik]

That actually makes healing potions very worth it, they're cheaper per hit point than a wand of lesser vigor.Good for out of combat healing, but the action cost during a fight makes them niche at best.

[falloutimperial]

I once got a ring of prestidigitation. Not the shiniest bauble, but all I had to do to get it was to play a game of chicken using a Deck of Many Things.

[rockdeworld]

I'm curious as to the outcome of that chicken game.

Our DM rolled us 4000gp-worth of random loot at level 1, twice. First time: "Huh, I got a 9. It says 'roll again on the magic item table.' Huh, 9 again. You get... Guantlets of Ogre Power!" The second time made it awesome.

[TopCheese]

I've always found that as a player the prices for magical weapons and armor to be.. Way to high (along with healing potions).

As a DM I've dropped many thing's prices throughout 3.5 and Pathfinder. Wonderous items tend to stay the same since they are most "toys" that you don't need (some exceptions) but weapon, armor, and shield prices are slashed by half or more.

One of my old DM's came up with a way to get more bang for your buck...

When you get a weapon and pay for the +1 you get to add ANY +1 enchantment for free. When you pay for a +2 weapon (price difference between a +1 and a +2) you get to add ANY +2 or lower enchantment for free... This continues on until +5. You still pay for the (+) cost but no longer for the enchantment cost.

So for the price was drastically dropped and customizing your favorite weapon was useful and fun as hell.

A +5 Keen, Holy, Speed , Dancing, Vorpal Falchion for 50,000 gp? Hell yeah! Still didn't hurt game balance since by the time you hit high gp values your spell casters still have spells :p

[Dairuga]

So, I just thought I would chip in a little bit of story here. Perhaps not a -deal- per say, but given the costs gone trough in order to get to keep it, perhaps it could be looked at, that way.

So, in this one game, I think my character was level 7 or 8. The GM had handed us an item called a "Trump", this one-way portal to the Plane of Fire from anywhere, an item that created an Avoid Planar Effects on the travelers for the duration of their stay, so that the characters were not broiled alive.

So, long story short; we were visiting this Wizard that had taken hold in an ancient castle, a day's travel outside the City of Brass, because she could hold the key to find one of the four quest items we had been sent to gather; this one being an Orb of Cold Fire. Yada, yada, long story short, before meeting her, we went scouring trough her castle. My kobold, the unhygienic little thief that he is, rolled a natural 20 on his Search check, resulting in him succeeding on the DC 35 search check to find the extremely-hidden compartment on the underside of the barrel, that the eccentric wizard had installed and hidden a random major item inside.

This magic item was; DM rolled on the table of wonderous items, Ta-daa, a Robe of Eyes. At level 8, that's an unimaginable powerful item, and the most expensive one I had ever seen. Of course, we would never be able to keep it as it was, so the first stop the party did with a bit of convincing from me (The wizard of the group), was racing back to the City of brass for some "urgent buisniess", finding a decent illusionist, hosing up a good deal of gold ( 5500, in fact) and the Red, Eye-covered robe got Permanent Image'd into a royal-blue, elegant robe, entirely unlike the robe they had found. Then, a constant application of Nystul's Magic aura to suppress its magical qualities and make it seem like an entirely normal robe, and the wizard was never the wiser. After finishing up with said wizard, we skedaddled away from there and never threaded into his castle again.

I am still wearing that robe to this day, and the party was never the wiser. 5500 gold is an excellent price for a Robe of Eyes.

[falloutimperial]

I'm curious as to the outcome of that chicken game.

I drew two cards. The first gave me a burlap sack full of jewelry. The sack was the better half, I like to think. The next card said that an outsider now had a vendetta against me. I thought that was a gimme, as I was in a one-off and had already annoyed an outsider. The guy I was betting with drew "wanted by the law" and "betrayed by your friend" card. Instant prison.

It was only later, after we extended the adventure past a one-off, that I eventually learned of an evil god trying to get me killed. It's sent its' agents multiple time to kill me, turned my greatest friend against me, and isn't done yet.

Yes sir, I'm not sure I'm done paying for that ring.

[Dr Bwaa]

Yes sir, I'm not sure I'm done paying for that ring.

Any time the Deck is involved, you never stop paying.

On topic, we got a fortress once, for dirt-cheap. It was technically a "dungeon" chock full of pirates, monsters, and an Aboleth living in the lake/dock area underneath enslaving all of them. We cleaned it out with minimal casualties, hired the newly-freed pirates (we allow them to use our fortress as a base of operations while we're not there in exchange for 10% of their plunder (as long as they give us anything we're making a profit) and they're responsible for keeping the place monster-free.

[Morithias]

My friend reminded me of one time that happened.

When I DM I often use the "Treasure" table (3-5).

It was a level 3 fight, first fight of the game. Pretty basic stuff

"Okay time to roll the treasure that the goblins had."

*rolls*

"96, and 8" you find 80 PLATINUM PIECES.

*rolls*

"97 and 2" You find 2 pieces of art.

*Rolls*

"52, and 97"

*rolls*

"You appraise the art to be worth, 800 gp, and 7000 gp respectively."

*rolls*

"You find 1 minor magical item."

*Rolls*

"It is a weapon"

*rolls*

"87, it is a specific weapon"

*rolls*

At this point I misread the table, and by the time I had realized my mistake it was the next session, too late to change it.

"75, you find a frost brand."

All in all the level 3 encounter gave them around 60k worth of goods.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Not sure how much of a deal this was. Warish game, we had just recently stormed the capital of one of the opposing nations (we didn't take it, but the Party carved a path). During the attack we raided their treasury (Yes the entire treasury). DM said that we had lifted roughly 40% of the countries bullion inside our Portable Hole.

As a reward (we were hired by the king of the the other country), he gave us our choice of land in his country. This is an airship game on floating continent kind of world. We chose a plot of land on the edge of the continent. We built a huge fort/castle, dug into the continental shelf and built a dock for our growing personal armada. We tricked out the castle with a load of things. A Teleportation Circle relay keyed to several key locations (including our dock which was about 2 miles through solid rock on the underside of the continent).

We never got hard numbers, but the land, castle, dock, the Circle relay and 2 miles of digging through bedrock was all covered by the loot. We stole a lot of gold. I'm pretty sure the DM didn't have the exact numbers figured out and just decided when we spent enough.

[rockdeworld]

Yes sir, I'm not sure I'm done paying for that ring.
That is a very good story, and I'm happier that I got to hear it :smallsmile:

All in all the level 3 encounter gave them around 60k worth of goods.
Classy :smallcool:

[Slipperychicken]

I once got a ring of prestidigitation. Not the shiniest bauble, but all I had to do to get it was to play a game of chicken Russian roulette using a Deck of Many Things.

If you care about your character's well-being, never mess with the Deck. And if you don't... why not? :smallamused:

[Morph Bark]

I remember once when I was DMing there was a group of outlaws the party was after that was in the middle of making deals with a group of goblin traders. The party then snuck up on them and engaged them, during which the goblins stayed out of it, but afterwards looted most of the corpses and the outlaws' treasure chest before the party could (they didn't think about it). They ended up selling some of the stuff to the party, amongst which was a cloak immediately dubbed the cloak of awesome storing.

The cloak could only be worn by Medium characters, which is why the goblins sold it for only 500 gp. However, when worn, the cloak allowed the wearer to stuff anything below their size category into the cloak (with some minor additional limitations). This resulted in one of the gnomes and the kobold of the party spending a lot of time inside the cloak, only to discover that while inside the cloak time effectively did not pass for them.

After their business was done (including dealing with the rest of the outlaws), one of the party's goals became to find the tailor who made the cloak. It became the focus of many mad plans and hijinks.

[Doorhandle]

I remember once when I was DMing there was a group of outlaws the party was after that was in the middle of making deals with a group of goblin traders. The party then snuck up on them and engaged them, during which the goblins stayed out of it, but afterwards looted most of the corpses and the outlaws' treasure chest before the party could (they didn't think about it). They ended up selling some of the stuff to the party, amongst which was a cloak immediately dubbed the cloak of awesome storing.

The cloak could only be worn by Medium characters, which is why the goblins sold it for only 500 gp. However, when worn, the cloak allowed the wearer to stuff anything below their size category into the cloak (with some minor additional limitations). This resulted in one of the gnomes and the kobold of the party spending a lot of time inside the cloak, only to discover that while inside the cloak time effectively did not pass for them.

After their business was done (including dealing with the rest of the outlaws), one of the party's goals became to find the tailor who made the cloak. It became the focus of many mad plans and hijinks.

So, Bargin AND plot point all in one!


If you care about your character's well-being, never mess with the Deck. And if you don't... why not? :smallamused:

Note to self: Mess with the deck. :smallbiggrin:

[yougi]

When my PCs go shopping, I don't like giving them access to any items in the world, so I give them a list of items with their price next to them, which is not always market price, sometimes more, sometimes less. However, that one time, I sold them a wand of fireball (CL6) with 34 charges (market price = 9180) for 92gp instead of 9200. I think the guy who bought it got that list framed or something...

[Sith_Happens]

I recently had a DM forget the whole "must be at least a +1 before having any special abilities" bit when giving most of the party a magic weapon or armor each. When I mentioned it, he simply left the abilities as is, tacked on the +1, and congratulated the lucky players on the extra 7-10k worth of item they'd just gotten.:smallbiggrin:

That same plot event netted us a unique Bag of Holding with a volume and weight capacity of "arbitrarily large," which I intend to make very good use of.:smallamused:

[prufock]

My regular DM got rid of the rule that weapons and armor need a +1 magic enhancement before you can start adding special abilities. If you want, you can go straight from masterwork to bane (one of my favourite uses of this), for example. This means your magic gear is one step cheaper on the cost progression.

[killem2]

My party I DM could have easily taken over a rather large dungeon as their strong hold. (DMG 3.0 Test Dungeon to be exact)

They only cleaned it out, and left it to be.