Understanding buying a piece of Magic Armor or Magic Weapon. Cost.

[killem2]

No matter how many times I start a session, am in one, not part of one and someone asks I never full understand what the costs of this stuff is.

In today's example we're trying to determine the cost of a + 1 Chain Shirt of Spell Storing.

In the other example we're trying to determine the cost of a +1 Corrosive Burst Great Axe

What is the cost of such an item and how do you get to that price?

[Long_shanks]

Simple addition. Base cost of the item + masterwork cost (magic weapons and armors are always masterwork) + the cost of the magic.

So, for the chainshirt. Spellstoring is a +1 ability, so the armor is the equivalent of a +2 armor. So, 400 gp for a masterwork chainshirt, +4k for +2 = 4400gp.

Same reasoning goes for the weapon. It's the equivalent of a +3 greataxe. So it's price is 18320gp. Enchantments are twice as expensive on weapons than armors.

[Ifusaso]

So, for the chainshirt. Spellstoring is a +1 ability, so the armor is the equivalent of a +2 armor. So, 400 gp for a masterwork chainshirt, +4k for +2 = 4400gp.
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Masterwork Chain Shirt cost is 250g (100g + 150g Masterwork). I think you accidentally used Weapon Masterwork pricing.

[Long_shanks]

Masterwork Chain Shirt cost is 250g (100g + 150g Masterwork). I think you accidentally used Weapon Masterwork pricing.

Huh... never noticed that the 2 had different masterwork value. That means my group and I have been playing it "wrong" for ten years and have been overpaying all our armors.

[Ifusaso]

It's a mistake I've certainly made.

[Mordaedil]

No matter how many times I start a session, am in one, not part of one and someone asks I never full understand what the costs of this stuff is.

In today's example we're trying to determine the cost of a + 1 Chain Shirt of Spell Storing.

In the other example we're trying to determine the cost of a +1 Corrosive Burst Great Axe

What is the cost of such an item and how do you get to that price?

There's a table in the Dungeon Master's Guide for what the cost of magic items are.

It has a list for cost for enhancements between +1 to +10 for weapons and armor, which grows at an exponential rate (from 2000 to 4000 to 8000 etc.)

It then follows with another table that lists enhancements that magic items can have, followed by either a cost (such as energy resistance) or a bonus +X. The bonus thing is why values above +5 are interesting, because you can't get a higher enhancement than +5 on a weapon or armor (at least until epic), but you can get an item worth a value above that and we correlate the cost of the item by referencing the bonus on the table to the base enhancement. So for instance, Corrosive Burst (from MIC) is a +2 bonus I believe? In the DMG that means a +1 corrosive burst weapon is equivalent to a +3 item. That has a base cost of 8000 gold pieces. It's a greataxe, and needs to be masterwork, so you add 300 gold to the cost and the price for a greataxe.

That is how we calculate costs normally. If you have an armor with energy resistances on it however, it doesn't affect the enhancement of the armor at all, just the cost, so you can have some hefty enhancements extra on an armor that you wouldn't normally think would be applicable.

[Long_shanks]

There's a table in the Dungeon Master's Guide for what the cost of magic items are.

It has a list for cost for enhancements between +1 to +10 for weapons and armor, which grows at an exponential rate (from 2000 to 4000 to 8000 etc.)

It then follows with another table that lists enhancements that magic items can have, followed by either a cost (such as energy resistance) or a bonus +X. The bonus thing is why values above +5 are interesting, because you can't get a higher enhancement than +5 on a weapon or armor (at least until epic), but you can get an item worth a value above that and we correlate the cost of the item by referencing the bonus on the table to the base enhancement. So for instance, Corrosive Burst (from MIC) is a +2 bonus I believe? In the DMG that means a +1 corrosive burst weapon is equivalent to a +3 item. That has a base cost of 8000 gold pieces. It's a greataxe, and needs to be masterwork, so you add 300 gold to the cost and the price for a greataxe.


You have a small mistake; a +3 weapon is 18k, not 8. 8k is for a +2 weapon. Also, I think it's the same but this is for PF, not 3.5, so all this info would be in the core rulebook instead.