I´m probably blind but after skimming through the book I couldn´t find answers to these questions. I´d be thankful for help!
in the Pathfinder rules, is there an easy way to tell if a magic item is available in a community or not? So when my players ask (as they do all the time) "Can I get a dancing longsword +x in this city?" I roll some percentile dice (or whatever) and am able to answer afterwards?
If not, how do DMs handle this?
Also I´m wondering how much of their starting gold player characters should be allowed to invest in magic items. Are there rules for this? Or if not, how do people do it?
Blood
in the Pathfinder rules, is there an easy way to tell if a magic item is available in a community or not? So when my players ask (as they do all the time) "Can I get a dancing longsword +x in this city?" I roll some percentile dice (or whatever) and am able to answer afterwards?
Essentially, yes. Page 460-461 in the Core Rulebook contains the rules and the tables for this.
Also I´m wondering how much of their starting gold player characters should be allowed to invest in magic items. Are there rules for this? Or if not, how do people do it?
Page 400 says a character shouldn't spend more than half his wealth on a single item. Beyond that, I see no reason to restrict starting gear further.
in the Pathfinder rules, is there an easy way to tell if a magic item is available in a community or not? So when my players ask (as they do all the time) "Can I get a dancing longsword +x in this city?" I roll some percentile dice (or whatever) and am able to answer afterwards?
Essentially, yes. Page 460-461 in the Core Rulebook contains the rules and the tables for this.
Thanks!
I was thinking more of a backwards approach though. With the presented method I´d have to create magic item lists for all towns and cities. Since our characters travel a lot, this would take too much prep time for me. I was hoping more of an easy way to tell if a certain item is available or not.
On a related note, what do you answer when your players ask if it´s possible to have an item created in a city and how long this would take?
I´m probably blind but after skimming through the book I couldn´t find answers to these questions. I´d be thankful for help!
in the Pathfinder rules, is there an easy way to tell if a magic item is available in a community or not? So when my players ask (as they do all the time) "Can I get a dancing longsword +x in this city?" I roll some percentile dice (or whatever) and am able to answer afterwards?
If not, how do DMs handle this?
Also I´m wondering how much of their starting gold player characters should be allowed to invest in magic items. Are there rules for this? Or if not, how do people do it?
Blood
As Are said there are tables for this if you want to do it 'by the book'.
Personally I do not make magic items available for purchase. Some low level potions and wands sure. But beyond that it either has to be commissioned at the local wizard guild, or made by the players themselves. Which ofcourse takes time. To counter this i always make sure there is some downtime in my adventures, and I get a 'wishlist' from my players and intersperse treasure and rewards with items they want.
I feel that it is important to provide some way for the players to get the items they want. Whether that is to allow time for crafting/commissioning, tailoring loot to their liking or putting in a magic-mart in the city. Usually I go with the first 2 but do what works best for you.
In terms of starting gold I always follow the 50% rule. In addition to that, no more then 60% of wealth can be spent on either offensive or defensive items in total.
in the Pathfinder rules, is there an easy way to tell if a magic item is available in a community or not? So when my players ask (as they do all the time) "Can I get a dancing longsword +x in this city?" I roll some percentile dice (or whatever) and am able to answer afterwards?
Essentially, yes. Page 460-461 in the Core Rulebook contains the rules and the tables for this.
Thanks!
I was thinking more of a backwards approach though. With the presented method I´d have to create magic item lists for all towns and cities. Since our characters travel a lot, this would take too much prep time for me. I was hoping more of an easy way to tell if a certain item is available or not.
On a related note, what do you answer when your players ask if it´s possible to have an item created in a city and how long this would take?
I would advise heavily against a magic item list. It is REALLY time consuming, and 80% of it your party wont care about. If anything come up with a percentage and roll it to see if an item is present or not when asked.
As for having an item made, if there is a wizard guild or a major temple (depending on what kind of magic is required for the item) I usually say it can be crafted, but the wizard or cleric making it may not always want money (read: side quest). In terms of how long it takes, that is listed in the magic item crafting rules in the book. But usually its 1day per 1k cost of the item i believe, minimum 1 day.
I remember seeing this on another post and James answered saying that for as long as the cost of the item wasn't higher than the city's wealth, that there was a 75% chance any certain item is available. So there's you're easy way to figure it out. Are they in a city large enough to support that weapon's cost? If so then roll the dice and its a yes or no.
The number and types of magic items available in a community depend upon its size. Each community has a base value associated with it (see Table 15–1). There is a 75% chance that any item of that value or lower can be found for sale with little effort in that community. In addition, the community has a number of other items for sale. These items are randomly determined and are broken down by category (minor, medium, or major). After determining the number of items available in each category, refer to Table 15–2 to determine the type of each item (potion, scroll, ring, weapon, etc.) before moving on to the individual charts to determine the exact item. Reroll any items that fall below the community’s base value.
It goes on for low magic and high magic settings after that.
Basically, three quarters of the time you want something that is under the GP cap of a particular community you will find it by RAW. A player wants to buy something? Have them roll % dice and you get your answer.
I had a thread in Homebrew/Suggestions about this very thing. I posted the tables and people thought they were my homebrew, and started objecting to it.
I used those rules for a while, but they are incredibly silly. Metropolises have more magic items because they're richer? I would want to keep adventurers out if I was a Metropolis. First of all they have powerful enemies. Secondly, they're a bunch of mass murdering thieves. Thirdly, I obviously got to the highest level of civilization without them, why would I want them in here now? Make the sale of magic items restricted and full of red tape to discourage them from staying too long.
More seriously though, I have one true magic item salesman in my game who has an extraplanar shop full of illusions of the magic items he has for sale. He's the only one, and he has a 25% chance to have a major magic item when asked for it, a 50% chance for a medium, and a 75% chance for a minor. He has a decent stock of scrolls and potions, around 2+1d6 each for low level high demand items.