[PF/3.5] Importing Magic Items

[Aotrs Commander]

Okay, so my PCs wanted to spend some money today. We're playing a 3.x/PF hybrid and playing Rise of the Runelords (on Golarion) (base 3.5 edition.) I have been using the PF settlement rules for base value and purchase limit, which is fine as far as it goes.

What is a good solution to look at if my PCs want to buy a specific item that's above the purchase limit? (Things, specifically, out of 3.5's magic Item Compendium.)

In instances so far, I have said they'd have to import it.

This week, one wanted an item costng 15k gold, so I looked it up and said it could be brought in from Absolom (which has enough base value), he paid his pennies and I just rolled about 8D6 (arbitarily) to see how many days it would take (about a month, as it happens).

But what about items that the PCs might want which are above even Absolom's 25k limit? How do they go about buying those (or, if you play strictly to the rules, can they even?)

The next question is whether PF's magic item costs are broadly the same as 3.5's. (I've never actually looked.) If they aren't the same, then I might need to adjust the settlement values accoridngly.

I want to strike somehing of a balance between not just letting them buy everything they want all the time and being too rigid. (The 75% availability for base price work pretty great, as far as it goes.)

How do the rest of you handle this?

[Battleship789]

Pathfinder magic item costs are usually identical with their 3.5 counterparts, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Iirc, no city in Golarion has over a 30k gp limit, but remember that the base gold value is just for commonly found items that will almost always be available for purchase immediately. For items over the base value, it is unlikely that such an item would be available immediately for purchase (how many Holy Avengers would a weapon shop keep in stock year round?), and would require a special order to a crafting guild that either starts crafting the item after purchase or outsources the crafting to a guild in another city (potentially on another plane).

Thus, it is perfectly possible to purchase more expensive items from most towns of a decent size, it just may take a while for the item to be crafted.

Edit: You could also roll a % to see if it just happens that the item is in stock so that the player could get lucky (due to someone cancelling an order or something), maybe a 35% drop for every multiple of the base gold? For Absolom, that would be a 40% chance that an item up to 50k gold would be available for purchase immediately, and a 5% chance that anything over 50k would be available?

[unseenmage]

Alternatively make them quest rewards knowledge of which can be obtained after gaining enough favor with influential political or religious organizations.

The church knowing about forbidden ruins and ancient relics would be a good start.

[Aotrs Commander]

Pathfinder magic item costs are usually identical with their 3.5 counterparts, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Iirc, no city in Golarion has over a 30k gp limit, but remember that the base gold value is just for commonly found items that will almost always be available for purchase immediately. For items over the base value, it is unlikely that such an item would be available immediately for purchase (how many Holy Avengers would a weapon shop keep in stock year round?), and would require a special order to a crafting guild that either starts crafting the item after purchase or outsources the crafting to a guild in another city (potentially on another plane).

Thus, it is perfectly possible to purchase more expensive items from most towns of a decent size, it just may take a while for the item to be crafted.

Edit: You could also roll a % to see if it just happens that the item is in stock so that the player could get lucky (due to someone cancelling an order or something), maybe a 35% drop for every multiple of the base gold? For Absolom, that would be a 40% chance that an item up to 50k gold would be available for purchase immediately, and a 5% chance that anything over 50k would be available?

*skulldesk*

You know, given that I'm even using the MiC rules for improving magic items (most of today's PC spending when on item upgrades, even), you might have thought that the idea of having the PCs get the items actually MADE on order might have occurred to me, might you not?

I guess the limit on that would be simply to base it on item crafting level verses spell availibilty (extrapolating caster level).

Alternatively make them quest rewards knowledge of which can be obtained after gaining enough favor with influential political or religious organizations.

The church knowing about forbidden ruins and ancient relics would be a good start.

As we're running adevnture paths (which I set up WAAAY in advance), that's not really a good option in this instance.

[unseenmage]

...

As we're running adevnture paths (which I set up WAAAY in advance), that's not really a good option in this instance.

In our RotR game we had a secret agent android from Numeria hanging out in town offering black market goods for an exorbitant price and with a low low % chance to be available. An even lower % chance let them be tech items instead.

Was a lot of fun. We even had the Android get mistaken for a human by an enemy NPC later. Was a witness when the PCs were stumped about whodunnit.

[Battleship789]

*skulldesk*

You know, given that I'm even using the MiC rules for improving magic items (most of today's PC spending when on item upgrades, even), you might have thought that the idea of having the PCs get the items actually MADE on order might have occurred to me, might you not?

I guess the limit on that would be simply to base it on item crafting level verses spell availibilty (extrapolating caster level).

*snip*

Seems like a reasonable method.

[RNightstalker]

I've toyed with the idea of roleplaying out the leveling up and shopping processes. The core core books (PH, DMG, MM) are essentially common knowledge and feats, spells, items, PrC's in other books will have to be introduced via NPC's, songs heard at the tavern, murals on the wall, etc.

[Aotrs Commander]

I've toyed with the idea of roleplaying out the leveling up and shopping processes. The core core books (PH, DMG, MM) are essentially common knowledge and feats, spells, items, PrC's in other books will have to be introduced via NPC's, songs heard at the tavern, murals on the wall, etc.

Highly impractical for me, since the actual fraction of core to expansion material (especially in terms of feats and spells) we use is relatively small. Counter-productive, even, after me spending likely tens of hours composing lists thereof and rebalances, tweaks and additions to said feats and spells. Plus, given how horribly unbalanced core is (even with houserules)...

[RNightstalker]

Highly impractical for me, since the actual fraction of core to expansion material (especially in terms of feats and spells) we use is relatively small. Counter-productive, even, after me spending likely tens of hours composing lists thereof and rebalances, tweaks and additions to said feats and spells. Plus, given how horribly unbalanced core is (even with houserules)...

Well you can rebalance the idea to where it is practical; maybe an artifact or magic item is necessary to solve a problem, access a treasure, find the bad guy, etc. You've tweaked stuff already, why stop with my idea?

[Aotrs Commander]

Well you can rebalance the idea to where it is practical; maybe an artifact or magic item is necessary to solve a problem, access a treasure, find the bad guy, etc. You've tweaked stuff already, why stop with my idea?

Bascially, because the players really don't want to hear "okay, after that last fight with the lamia clerics and crusaders, you levelled up, but since you are in the depths of the Stone Giant Fortress, you can't actually pick up any feats, spells or abilities (or even class levels for three members of the party) outside core (or some pre-selected arbitary limit) without every single one of the seven characters of you having to do a mini-quest for a trainer or something for each element."



Ditto for shopping. I've spent weeks of time carefully sorting and pre-planning the adventure path, so I absolutely don't want to spend several more hours of time writing more material and throw everything out of whack both in and out of game (that would be time I don't have to write for my big 40th quest in October) just because the wizard wants a Circlet of Rapid Casting. I prepare extensively before the campaign starts explictly so that I absolutely minimise anything I need to do between sessions each week. Ideally, all I want to need to do is add the XP they got this session to the spreadsheet...