Buying magic items in other Planes.

[Clistenes]

If your players reach a level in which they can cast Plane Shift and explore the Multiverse, would you allow them to go to some Planar Metropolis/Planar Merchant Hub like Sigil, Union, the City of Brass, Yeomen...etc., and buy magic items there? (since those are markets where powerful planar species like fiends, genies, angels, fey, mercanes, witchwyrds and illithids would trade with each other...).

If so, to what level would you allow magic items to be available? And which prices would you deem appropiate?

[Daishain]

I tend to prefer magic to be quite accessible, if not easy to gain. As such I would probably allow for common and uncommon items to be freely purchasable, with rare items available via a specific request, as one might make for a collectors item. You can pay for information that may or may not lead to specific very rare and legendary items, but actually acquiring them would be up to the group, and not at all likely to be easy. Similar conditions would apply to commissions.

Pricing for permanent items would be towards the high end of suggested, consumables however would have a much lower price than suggested.

[Kantaki]

The question is not what is available but what the heroes can afford.
I wouldn't go for high Prices but for exotic currencys. Maybe morning dew from volcano on a specific plane harvested when all moons are full, tears of true regret from an evil entity or the laughter of an innocent child. If the Players want items that are powerful for their Level they shouldn't get it for something so mundane as Gold. That goes doubly on a interdimensional bazaar.

[Clistenes]

I tend to prefer magic to be quite accessible, if not easy to gain. As such I would probably allow for common and uncommon items to be freely purchasable, with rare items available via a specific request, as one might make for a collectors item. You can pay for information that may or may not lead to specific very rare and legendary items, but actually acquiring them would be up to the group, and not at all likely to be easy. Similar conditions would apply to commissions.

Pricing for permanent items would be towards the high end of suggested, consumables however would have a much lower price than suggested.

I mentioned extraplanar markets because 5th edition's magic items require of a lot of time, huge investments and high caster level to create, so there isn't probably anybody willing to create anything above uncommon level of rarity, plus most magical crafting techniques are lost.

In the DMG you can see how characters usually have to spend more money to craft a magic item than to buy it, and that is because those items are old relics, not recently crafted items purchased from artisans.

However, Genies, Angels, Fiends and the like are a different matter. Many of them were around when more efficient crafting techniques were known, they are all intrinsically magical creatures, and they are immortal, so they can spend five or six years crafting a very rare items without problems.


The question is not what is available but what the heroes can afford.
I wouldn't go for high Prices but for exotic currencys. Maybe morning dew from volcano on a specific plane harvested when all moons are full, tears of true regret from an evil entity or the laughter of an innocent child.

That's a very good point.


If the Players want items that are powerful for their Level they shouldn't get it for something so mundane as Gold. That goes doubly on a interdimensional bazaar.

The point of getting to another plane isn't getting items above their level or getting them cheap, the point is getting exactly the magic item you want (for example, buying a +3 mithral armor or a Holy Avenger or a Belt of Giant Strength).

I don't think excesively wealthy players are a problem anymore. Even Wizards able to cast Fabricate can craft only a few kinds of wares, so it's easy for the DM to tell them that they have flooded the market and that demand has fallen (for example, a Wizard with the Cartographer background can craft only maps), and players find way less magic items and have a harder time selling them.

EDIT: I have checked. Any spellcaster can explicitly weave linen from flax, and a single casting would produce a benefit of around 13862.5 gp, taking into acount 10 cubic feet of linen contains about about 5545 square-yard pieces of cloth...So excesively wealthy wizards are still a problem, to some degree.

[Kantaki]

I mentioned extraplanar markets because 5th edition's magic items require of a lot of time, huge investments and high caster level to create, so there isn't probably anybody willing to create anything above uncommon level of rarity, plus most magical crafting techniques are lost.

In the DMG you can see how characters usually have to spend more money to craft a magic item than to buy it, and that is because those items are old relics, not recently crafted items purchased from artisans.

However, Genies, Angels, Fiends and the like are a different matter. Many of them were around when more efficient crafting techniques were known, they are all intrinsically magical creatures, and they are immortal, so they can spend five or six years crafting a very rare items without problems.



That's a very good point.



The point of getting to another plane isn't getting items above their level or getting them cheap, the point is getting exactly the magic item you want (for example, buying a +3 mithral armor or a Holy Avenger or a Belt of Giant Strength).

I don't think excesively wealthy players are a problem anymore. Even Wizards able to cast Fabricate can craft only a few kinds of wares, so it's easy for the DM to tell them that they have flooded the market and that demand has fallen (for example, a Wizard with the Cartographer background can craft only maps), and players find way less magic items and have a harder time selling them.

EDIT: I have checked. Any spellcaster can explicitly weave linen from flax, and a single casting would produce a benefit of around 13862,5 gp, taking into acount 10 cubic feet of linen contains about about 5545 square-yard pieces of cloth...So excesively wealthy wizards are still a problem, to some degree.

My point is less that the heroes could be overpowered and more that gold is boring especialy when the merchants are less than mundane. What makes the better story? The traders shouting prices in gp or something like: „An ring of flight for an undreamt dream!” „Don’t listen to him I give you that ring for an precious memory - The deal of your life.¨ „These two are con-men, their wares never keep what they promise. There I have an brandnew ring of flight and an phial of pure theriak for an sliver of your sanity.”? I think the latter has much more potential.