Greetings and salutations, esteemed forum-jockeys!
I've recently run into a bit of personal confusion regarding the pricing of enchanted full plate mail, and after re-reading over the relevant sections of the core rulebook a few more times, I've decided to throw in the towel and submit my understanding to the mercy of the forum-going public.
As I currently understand it, unless the armor is constructed of certain special materials, the market price for an enchanted armor is wholly reliant on the level and nature of the protective magic imbued into it. Thus, a suit of +1 Studded Leather costs the same as a suit of +1 Scale Mail, which is to say 1000gp.
Cue the dramatic entrance of the sparkly full plate mail! This beauty has a base cost of 1500gp for standard quality, and 1650gp for a masterwork quality set. Yet the rules for magic item generation seem to state that an enchanted, +1 version of full plate should have a market price of 1000gp.
...Wait, what?
Even with the additional costs inherent in refitting a suit of full-plate to a new body (2d4 * 100gp), the cost of purchasing +1 full plate for a character is likely to be less than purchasing a plain ol' set of masterwork full-plate. So what gives? Have I been ruling incorrectly on the price of magical items/armor? Should I actually be adding the cost of a masterwork set of the relevant armor type to the base cost of any enchanted armor? Or is there something else that I am missing, here? :(
So, yeah. Uhm... Help? o_o
Cue the dramatic entrance of the sparkly full plate mail! This beauty has a base cost of 1500gp for standard quality, and 1650gp for a masterwork quality set. Yet the rules for magic item generation seem to state that an enchanted, +1 version of full plate should have a market price of 1000gp.
The cost of the magical properties is added to the cost of the armor.
Armor to be made into magic armor must be masterwork armor, and the masterwork cost is added to the base price to determine final market value.
Mark L. Chance | Spes Magna Games
Armor to be made into magic armor must be masterwork armor, and the masterwork cost is added to the base price to determine final market value.
Ah! Right, how embarrassing! For some reason, my mind always interpreted that passage more along the lines of "masterwork cost is assumed to make up the base price". Although now that that has been highlighted for me, that interpretation does seem more than a little silly... >_>
Anyway, thanks for the swift correction! ^_^
I am pretty sure the only time masterwork cost is considered a part of the base cost is if you are using special materials. I know for sure that the cost of a mithril anything already includes the cost for masterwork because anything made from mithril is automatically masterwork. I am not sure about the other special materials without getting out the Core Book and looking them up.