Lazy 5e Magic Item Prices

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Use the following loose guidelines to price 5e magic items:

Uncommon: 500 GP (3d6 x 50 GP, 150 GP to 900 GP)Rare: 5,000 GP (3d6 x 500 GP, 1,500 GP to 9,000 GP)Very Rare: 50,000 GP (3d6 x 5,000 GP, 15,000 GP to 90,000 GP)Legendary: 500,000 GP (3d6 x 50,000 GP, 150,000 GP to 900,000 GP)

When the characters come to a town or city where magic items might be available, roll on random treasure tables and select three interesting items they could purchase. Use the guidelines above to choose your own price, either randomly or based on the power of the item. Cut the cost in half for consumable magic items.

Looking at Five 5e Magic Item Price Lists

The above magic item prices come from investigating magic item prices in the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide, the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide, the Tales of the Valiant Player's Guide, the Level Up Advanced 5e Trials and Treasure guide, and Xanathar's Guide to Everything. The prices above are higher than the averages of those sources but aren't far off and it's easy to remember 500, 5,000, 50,000, and 500,000 as prices per tier.

Gold Earned and Gold Spent

The prices above generally assume the characters earn treasure as described in Lazy 5e Treasure Parcels. If we add up these parcels for a group of adventurers, we get the following amounts:

1st to 4th level (tier 1): 3,200 gp5th to 10th level (tier 2): 48,000 gp11th to 15th level (Tier 3): 360,000 gp16th to 20th (Tier 4): 1,600,000 gp

From this gold acquisition, you can see how many magic items the characters might purchase. Again, because prices go up in multiples of 10, uncommon magic items are much more easily acquired when the characters reach tier 2 and above.

Limit Availability

Price alone isn't enough to limit the acquisition of magic items. You likely also want to limit availability.

My favorite way to limit availability is to roll randomly when the characters run into a magic item vendor and choose three compelling items from my random rolls. Use the price list above as a guideline and customize the price based on the usefulness of the item even within its rarity. A +1 dagger won't have the same value as a +1 greatsword.

You can roll as though you're rolling up a treasure parcel or roll on a particular magic item table until you get three interesting items. Three options is usually a good enough selection without going too far.

Be Careful with Uncommon Magic Items

Uncommon magic items can be deceptively powerful. The Instrument of the Bards, for example, is uncommon but very powerful for bards ��� almost doubling the spell slots they might have available in lower and mid levels. If you're using D&D 2024 magic items, items like Rings of Resistance no longer require attunement, meaning characters can wear a lot of them. Vicious weapons got a huge boost in D&D 2024, no longer requiring attunement and dealing a lot of extra damage. Don't even get me started on enspelled weapons, armor, or items. Giving players open access to items like these is a surefire way to completely unbalance your game.

I read a horror story on EN World where a GM opened up magic items for purchase in their games and every character wore ten rings of resistance ��� one for every element. If you're earning 200,000 GP per session, you can buy a lot of Rings of Resistance.

Limit magic item acquisition ��� even for uncommon items.

What About Selling Magic Items?

You can use the price list above to gauge how much the characters can earn when selling magic items but it's unlikely they can sell them to just anyone. Few NPCs have the sort of money available to buy magic items. A barter system might work with a magic item vendor. Otherwise, if an NPC does have the resources, you can use the price list as a rough gauge ��� perhaps offering half the listed amount to buy the item.

We'll cover crafting magic items in a future article but you can use the prices above as a guideline for the component costs to craft an item. Also consider requiring rare ingredients to craft magic items so you don't end up with ten rings of resistance.

Driving Gameplay in the Right Direction

We don't want the buying and selling of magic items to overtake acquiring magic items on adventures. Fantasy games are about going on adventures. The best loot should come from those adventures. We don't want the buying, selling, or crafting of magic items to become the core focus of the game. Instead, add the buying and selling of magic items as an augment to the primary drive of our games ��� gaining magic items through adventuring.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video.

Lazy World Building, Avoid NPC BetrayalSummer Sale - 20% off books and free US shipping > $60City of Arches on ShardDM's Guide to Tyranny of Dragons by Beadle and GrimmMike Joins Luke Hart on DM's LairSly Flourish Partnering with Let's Quest for After-School RPGs5e Artisanal Monster DatabaseD&D Starter Set DetailsChoose Your Next RPGLose Yourself in FictionPatreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patrons. Here are last week's questions and answers.

Overwhelming Players with Villain Quest ProgressionRunning Games with One Online PlayerD&D 2024 Slowing Down Combat?Talk Show Links

Here are links to the sites I referenced during the talk show.

Twenty Percent Off Sly Flourish Books and free US shipping!Let's Quest ��� Empowering Schools & LibrariesLazy World BuildingAvoid NPC BetrayalCity of Arches on Shard TabletopBeadle and Grimm Tyranny of Dragons Legendary EditionMike on DM's Lair with Luke HartD&D Starter Set ��� Heroes of the Borderlands Details

Last week I also posted a couple of YouTube videos on Get Players to Try Other RPGs and The Helm of Teleportation ��� Dragon Empire Prep Session 34.

RPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as RPG tips. Here are this week's tips:

Clarify how terrain and unique features like monuments work in combat encounters. Don���t make players guess mid-fight. Let players know things their characters would clearly know. Use classes and backgrounds to decide which characters recognize secrets or clues as they explore interesting locations. Stay in the fiction when running combat. What do the characters see?Mix combat, roleplaying, and exploration while dungeon delving. Try lots of different RPGs. Play with pencil and paper. Related ArticlesLazy 5e Treasure ParcelsThe Stories of Magic ItemsGems of the Tales of the Valiant Game Master's GuideGet More from Sly FlourishArticlesNewsletterBookstorePatreonPodcastYouTubeBuy Sly Flourish's Books City of Arches Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Forge of Foes Fantastic Lairs Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures Fantastic Locations

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