The 4e Magic Shop Realization
So I was thinking about the economy of the Magic Shop. In 4e most thankfully they dropped the XP cost to create items, and made it much less of a time cruncher as well. What fascinates me is that it costs, in materials components, the exact amount of the object.
At first I was floored. “Certainly it is cheaper to make objects then to by them” but that is simply not the case… then I thought about the logic and economy behind the magic item and was struck by the brilliance of it all.
Pure and simple, it’s not worth the time to make a magic item that you (or your group) are not going to use.
It’s a brilliant idea, and a wonderful way to make magic items readily available, but not prolific. When you want an object, say a new staff, your choices are:
Make it (if you have the required skill)
Have someone make it for you (Either an NPC you know or a party member)
Buy it.
As I said above, when you make it, or someone else makes it, the cost is representative of components involved in the item. Potentially there is the fee for the casting of the spell by the NPC or Sneak of a PC, but basically this means making or buying a normal item amounts to the same thing. (See Side Note at the end for more on this)
So what does that mean for the magic shop? Why would they exist?
At the end of the day, a shop keeper is in business to make money. Buy cheap, sell high. This is the principle that is made manifest when your loot goes for half price and the sword you turned in last week selling at full price. Huge profits potentially, and they can even sell at a “below book” price and still make windfalls.
This leads to two other important points about the stores. For one, the objects they are likely to want to keep on hand are common items that they know they can sell. This means you are less likely to find the rare items and that just makes sense to me.
Further more, this reinforces the ideas that Magic items are a big deal. Because there is no benefit other then convenience to the creation of a magic item, they have a story and they come from somewhere. That Suit of Armor in the window? Maybe it was a special order that an adventurer was supposed to pick up but disappeared mysterious. Or that sword on the wall? It found by Grim Farwall who said he picked it up in a dungeon outside of Fallcrest in the hands of a crazy Kobolt lord.
I would even take it one step further in regards to consumables. Your local neighbor hood magic shop is selling potions. There is no profit in it for them, save maybe a little mark up, but say they use them as marketing. Come for the potions, leave with a new sword? Big Profits for the Shop keeper. Better yet, extend it to Churches. Want potions of healing? Certainly, they are sold at the conclusion of services to patrons of the church. A little profit of the spiritual coin!
Anyway, that’s my thoughts. Bravo to WOTC for a nifty idea.
The Mentioned Side Note:
The idea of component materials essentially costing the price of the object begs the question what are those components, where does one get them, and could the DM provide you with valuable parts to essentially reduce the cost of your next upgrade. This is lightly touched on when they talk about increasing an enchantment costing the exact amount that the existing enchantment costs... but it screams to be expanded on.