Many magic items in official books are not priced. Help me price them?

[Oryan77]

I have compiled an index of every single magic item from every single 3e WotC published book (including Dragonlance). It took 2 years to finish, but it is just about done. One thing I noticed is that many items that are not listed as artifacts still do not have a Market Price listed with them. I'm not sure why that is.

Some of them are magical locations, and I assume would not normally have a price since you wouldn't actually buy it, but many magical locations do have a price listed. I would only like a price listed as more of a guideline for DMs to know if the magic location benefit would be an appropriate level "treasure" to provide.

In any case, I was hoping that people would be kind enough to give me their best calculation for what the market price would be for these items. I have provided the name and book/page that the item comes from. I'd really appreciate the help, thanks!

Statue of Mystra - Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave 31
Magic Wall Mirror - Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave 129
Lost Star - Dragonlance, Dragons of Autumn 77
Glaive of Grimwulf - Dragonlance, Dragons of Autumn 78
Mina's Kiss - Dragonlance, Dragons of Autumn 80
Skull Totem - Dragonlance, Dragons of Autumn 208
Brightblade - Dragonlance, War of the Lance 51
Dragonslair - Dragons of Faerun 125
Earthcrown - Fields of Ruin 14
Blueglow Moss - Pool of Radiance 77
Testament of Jade - Pool of Radiance 79
Box of Endless Biscuits - Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil 84
Everful Keg - Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil 84
Black Thurible - Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil 154
Incense of Dreaming - Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil 154
Purple Robe of Tharizdun - Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil 154
Torch of Revealing - Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil 155
Shroud Resonator, Lesser - Secrets of Sarlona 142

[Crake]

If I recall correctly, aren't touchstones abilities you can get if you have the Touchstone feat? Isn't that what they're balanced around, rather than having a gp value?

[ZamielVanWeber]

If I recall correctly, aren't touchstones abilities you can get if you have the Touchstone feat? Isn't that what they're balanced around, rather than having a gp value?

Yes. Every touchstone is accessed via feat plus some extra stuff (quest to find the touchstone, clear it, perform higher order activity).

[Oryan77]

If I recall correctly, aren't touchstones abilities you can get if you have the Touchstone feat? Isn't that what they're balanced around, rather than having a gp value?

There are "touchstones" in the Stronghold Builder's Guide that all have prices. I understand that book came out before the whole touchstone/feat rules may have been implied. I just thought all touchstones might have an actual value to them if the SBG book priced something similar.

I am not very familiar with touchstones and I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for the heads up. I'll remove them from the list.

[atemu1234]

Are we thinking guidelines from DMG, here?

[Oryan77]

Are we thinking guidelines from DMG, here?

Yeah, I'd like to be as official as possible according to the rules of the DMG.

[phlidwsn]

The Eldritch Machines from ECS are plot devices in a can, described as essentially a harnessed Wish spell. They are the Doom Machines at the core of a villain's master plan, and designed to be wrecked, not bought. Essentially if a PC wanted to produce one(Evil campaign, etc) it would need a CL capable of Wish, and several plotlines of effort. If you had to cost one out I wouldn't put it any lower than 662,000gp (Slotless Continuous Wish item)

[Telonius]

Agony appears to just be a named weapon; a +5 Chaotic ("Anarchic" for people using the newfangled 3.5 rules) Frightful (+3, as described in Deities and Demigods) Unholy weapon. So, a +12 weapon altogether. Using the standard pricing, it would be 2,880,308 gp.

[prufock]

The shield guardian amulet is subsumed in the cost of the shield guardian, but the amulet alone has a listed cost of 20,000 under the "Construction" section of the shield guardian entry. I'd imagine the runic guardian is similar.

[Oryan77]

Agony appears to just be a named weapon; a +5 Chaotic ("Anarchic" for people using the newfangled 3.5 rules) Frightful (+3, as described in Deities and Demigods) Unholy weapon. So, a +12 weapon altogether. Using the standard pricing, it would be 2,880,308 gp.

Thanks! So if an item is priced so high like that, is it best to just mark it as "priceless" as if it was an artifact?

[Oryan77]

The Eldritch Machines from ECS are plot devices in a can, described as essentially a harnessed Wish spell. They are the Doom Machines at the core of a villain's master plan, and designed to be wrecked, not bought. Essentially if a PC wanted to produce one(Evil campaign, etc) it would need a CL capable of Wish, and several plotlines of effort. If you had to cost one out I wouldn't put it any lower than 662,000gp (Slotless Continuous Wish item)

That works for me, thanks! I can see the benefit of pricing an item like this out for situation where a BBEG might hire someone to build such a device for him. As I said, I'm using the price as more of a guideline for DMs to use for any scenario that information like that could be helpful. The fact the item could be "bought" or not isn't really important. I'm even willing to accept the cost as "priceless" like an artifact if that made more sense for the item.

[lsfreak]

Thanks! So if an item is priced so high like that, is it best to just mark it as "priceless" as if it was an artifact?

Depends on the item and campaign. That's standard pricing rules for weapons above +6 enhancement bonus or over +10 total bonus, which is supposed to be available for epic levels. So if you're going into epic levels, it might be useful to keep it priced. Realistically, that weapon is generally going to be less useful than a +1 weapon with +9 worth of useful enchantments, despite (or especially because) the latter costs a tenth of the gold.

[the_david]

A quarter of an apple from the Gulthias tree would sell for 6x11x50 gp = 3300 gp. It actually sold for a lot less though. I'd have to look up the other stuff.

Edit: This goes for both the apples, as Heal and Harm have the same spell level. It's basically 4 potions without the spell level restriction. You could require a piece to be kept fresh by Gentle Repose to somewhat inconvenience the players thereby lowering the price. It's still just a spell in a can, or 4 actually.

[Oryan77]

A quarter of an apple from the Gulthias tree would sell for 6x11x50 gp = 3300 gp. It actually sold for a lot less though. I'd have to look up the other stuff.

Edit: This goes for both the apples, as Heal and Harm have the same spell level. It's basically 4 potions without the spell level restriction. You could require a piece to be kept fresh by Gentle Repose to somewhat inconvenience the players thereby lowering the price. It's still just a spell in a can, or 4 actually.

Wow, I never even noticed that and I just looked it up out of curiosity. So a whole ruby red apple would cost 13,200 gp and the module says that the goblins sold them for 50 gp a slice (200 gp whole).

Also, the albino white apple is actually Power Word Kill according to the module rather than Harm. Meaning, an entire apple would cost 30,600 gp (or 7650 gp a slice)?

[Jack_Simth]

Thanks! So if an item is priced so high like that, is it best to just mark it as "priceless" as if it was an artifact?
As noted, depends on the campaign world. If nobody can or will buy it at the listed price, then the listed price doesn't matter as you can't sell it for that. If you're planning on a campaign where not only can and will buy it at the listed price, then it does indeed matter.

[Oryan77]

Several of these have been priced, so I removed them from the list.