Sane Magic Item Prices (PDF-Online Reading-Download-Summary-Review)
Sane Magic Item Prices Let's talk about flying objects. There are some elements that give the ability to fly in the 5e DMG. Among the first ones I found were the winged boots and the flying broom. The boots give you a flight speed equal to your walking speed for 4 hours per day, divisible into 1-minute chunks, while the broom gives you a flat flight speed of 50 feet throughout the day, decreasing to 30 feet if particularly heavy. Both are clearly very powerful, if you have two sides in combat, one of which can fly and the other cannot, the flying side has a huge advantage. If the other side doesn't have good ranged attacks either, the flying team wins more or less automatically. However, both Boots and Broom are rare, only costing 500 gold, almost any adventurer who decides he wants one should be able to have one if he really wants it.
Just below the winged boots are the wings of flying. The wings give you a flight speed of 60 feet for one hour, but then require a recovery period of 1d12 hours after each use before they can be activated again. Again, quite a powerful item, but probably less useful than the Broom or Boots for most practical purposes. The increased movement speed will occasionally pay off, but generally, the ability to fly when you want to will win out in terms of practical utility. At best, it's definitely no better than the Broom or the Boots. Flying wings are a rare item. They are worth 5,000 gold, ten times what the boots or broom are worth.
The next item I found was the levitation boots. These boots allow you to use levitate as a spell at will. Levitate moves you only up or down. You can never move it more than 20 feet off the ground or more than 20 feet up or down at a time. It has a weight limit similar to that of the broom. Consume your Concentration slot. You cannot use it for more than 10 minutes without going back to the ground. Levitation Boots are rare items. They are worth 5,000 gold, as are the flying wings. 10 times more than winged boots or broom.
The next item I found was the Potion of Flying. The flying potion gives a flight speed equal to your walking speed, just like winged boots do. It lasts for an hour as Wings of Flying and can only be used once. The flying potion is very rare. It is worth 50,000. 100 times more than an article that gives the exact same effect 4 times a day forever.
When the red mists faded and I was once again able to speak in other words than the incoherent babbling of a shattered mind, I set about fixing this.
Your world does not need to sell the magic items for the prices listed below. Your world doesn't even need to sell the following magic items. The main purpose of the tables below is to set the relative price of magic items so that you can have a reasonably healthy economy and/or so that you can quickly see how much the loot you are giving your players is worth. You are free to modify the prices however you want, just make sure to tell your players that you are doing so before the start of the game.
The items are divided into a few different lists for your convenience. The lists are as follows:
- Consumables are items that are used a certain number of times (usually once) and are gone.
- Combat items are items that primarily make the user better at killing things. Some also have other effects not related to death, but these are not the main source of their usefulness.
- Non-combat items are items that primarily enhance the user at problem-solving in a way that has nothing to do with death. Some also make the user better at killing things, but this is not the main source of their usefulness.
- Summoning Items are items that summon creatures to kill things or solve problems for you.
- Game-changing items are items that can have major effects on how players relate to the world or that can reshape the campaign world in some important way on their own. They are not necessarily mastered, but the GM should take a look at them to make sure the elements they allow are compatible with the type of game and the world they want to create.
Each is further discussed in its own section. By adjusting the prices of the various lists, the GM can make it easier or more difficult to access various types of problem-solving skills.
Again, the prices below are not absolute. The DJ can adjust the prices of the items individually or by list, he can make any item available or not, he can say that magic items cannot be sold for gold, and the prices below only roughly estimate the value when people they are trading magic items for other magic items or they may not even show these tables to their PCs and simply use them to estimate the values of the treasure. The following lists are intended as a tool, not an imposition on the world of your campaign.
