Duskreign’s Minion here.
As the recovery and sale of magic items (or creation thereof) is a critical part of the economy of ACKS, I would suggest that all listed magic items have their cost listed. This could be in the item description or in a table (existing or otherwise). There are two main reasons
it becomes easy for the DM to gauge how much money is flowing the the PCs and allows them to adjust, if necessary.
as the properties of many items are not directly replicated by spells, there will be much discussion over the spell level required to make many of the listed items. Example bracers of armor 7. Is this a 7th level spell? There are several examples of commony coveted items that do not easily fit the formula.
A different option would be to list the spell(s) required to make an item. This would serve to provide an easy means of calculating cost and knowing what spell the creator needs to create the item.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot because I’m working on some Alchemy stuffs.
Listing items in the pathfinder/3e format of which spells you need to make the item, assumes that those spells are in the game and available. It also requires assigning spells for a ton of items that don’t really have any applicable spell. (Elixir of Luck? Elixir of Madness? Potion of Longevity - that’s off the top of my head, I could go on a looooong time about items that don’t have applicable spells)
And now I’m just noticing that none of the magic items have prices, and yet in all the examples, items have listed prices.
It appears (from the example) of a scroll of fireball which has a base cost of 1500, that it is being crafted at half that cost. (750 gp)
The magic item table says that one use effect (which I’m assuming refers to scrolls and potions) costs 500 x spell level, meaning that the base price of the fireball scroll should be 1500 gp (and take 3 weeks). So now I’m working under the assumption that the 750gp cost in the magic items chapter assumes a formula.
Exactly. Weapons, armor, scrolls, and some wands are easy enough to find a cost for. The problem comes when you get to potions and miscellaneous items. These are the items that I find are most often created (a MU without bracers of armor, ring, and cloak of protection is looking to become a grease smear) and are the ones that are the most difficult to cost out.
You don’t necessarily need to know a spell to create an item. A formula or sample will suffice. The majority of magic items, I assume, are made from formulas or samples. The requirement to know the spells is to limit mages creating never-before-seen items with bizarre powers, or very rare items.
Many of the magic items in the game aren’t made using any of the common spells listed in the Magic chapter. The implication is that no living Mage knows the spells used to create the items, and they are instead working from samples and formula only.
For the above reasons I am loathe to provide a spell for each magic item in the game. Providing a base cost is on my to do list.
You don’t necessarily need to know a spell to create an item. A formula or sample will suffice. The majority of magic items, I assume, are made from formulas or samples. The requirement to know the spells is to limit mages creating never-before-seen items with bizarre powers, or very rare items.
Many of the magic items in the game aren’t made using any of the common spells listed in the Magic chapter. The implication is that no living Mage knows the spells used to create the items, and they are instead working from samples and formula only.
For the above reasons I am loathe to provide a spell for each magic item in the game. Providing a base cost is on my to do list.
Forgive me for dabbling in necromancy, but is there any news on this? Knowing how long it takes to create a potion of longevity could end up being crucial.
The Player’s Companion lists the spell “Longevity” as being a sixth level divine ritual. That would likely mean that a “potion of longevity” is effectively just the longevity ritual since all rituals work like a single-charge magic item. This means it should cost 3,000gp and take 6 weeks to make a potion of longevity.
The Player's Companion added the spells for virtually every magic item in the core rules. I've created a spreadsheet which has the cost and time to create pretty much everything. I do plan to get it cleaned up and on the site.
I should add that in my own campaign setting (Auran Empire) I use the rarity of the components involved as a means of controlling the rate of production. Most ritual magic requires as its special component some "Fragments of the Tablet of Destiny", which is an ancient long-sundered artifact which had set the laws of reality; its breakage allowed magic into the world.
This keeps items like Rings of Wishes and Potions of Longevity in check quite rare. (Those items are really just "ritual magic containers" that store up a ritual for later use).
In all honesty except for MAYBE a few of lower tier items (scrolls and potions in particular) the cost is “whatever the highest bidder is willing to pay”. Normal market forces don’t work particularly well for one of a kind items. The double base cost should be considered a very rough guideline.
So its perfectly okay to eyeball it if you want. That said, I think all of the items have a spell that can be used to create them now (see player’s companion), so costs can be figured out from there.