If your character has a +2 weapon already he's either left it with the guy to get upgraded (which will admittedly drop the time down to 5 days) in which case he has no magic weapon, or he's spending full price on an item, thus dropping his effective WBL and delaying or outright denying the purchase of other necessary or semi-necessary items.
I'm a bit confused.
If you die and your body isn't recoverable...what use is your backup stash to you?
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Good reasons, but let me ask this: If what you've said is the case and merchants buy the item to sell it later (I don't watch shows like Pawn Stars, by the by), then why can you sell treasures at full value? Are you selling to a collector? Why does a collector buy your treasure in the first place, especially given the diversity of art objects/treasures you find? Furthermore, since you can sell treasure in any settlement, even small ones, what use would the community have for such curios?Why are rare treasures like art and gems privileged to sell at-value, but rare equipment like magic items not, given the argument that merchants will only buy below the resale value of the item? Would a treasure object have to be bought for twice as much as its actual worth?
What is full value? In the 'fantasy' time period that Pathfinder is set prices weren't fixed or controlled. There was no WTO keeping tabs on export prices. The prices in the book are purely there so players have a 'starting point' of what in gp terms an item is worth to someone. All you points are completely value and could indeed be the price in certain locations. What is a +2 Sword worth to a farmer? Yet a new Scythe might be worth a months pay.
WBL and the 'set price' mentality is a convenience only and one that in many ways serves to straight-jacket a GM and how their world's work.
S.
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Good reasons, but let me ask this: If what you've said is the case and merchants buy the item to sell it later (I don't watch shows like Pawn Stars, by the by), then why can you sell treasures at full value? Are you selling to a collector? Why does a collector buy your treasure in the first place, especially given the diversity of art objects/treasures you find? Furthermore, since you can sell treasure in any settlement, even small ones, what use would the community have for such curios?Why are rare treasures like art and gems privileged to sell at-value, but rare equipment like magic items not, given the argument that merchants will only buy below the resale value of the item? Would a treasure object have to be bought for twice as much as its actual worth?
What is full value? In the 'fantasy' time period that Pathfinder is set prices weren't fixed or controlled. There was no WTO keeping tabs on export prices. The prices in the book are purely there so players have a 'starting point' of what in gp terms an item is worth to someone. All you points are completely value and could indeed be the price in certain locations. What is a +2 Sword worth to a farmer? Yet a new Scythe might be worth a months pay.
WBL and the 'set price' mentality is a convenience only and one that in many ways serves to straight-jacket a GM and how their world's work.
S.
Good points Stefan,
Certainly in PFS games they're a strict rule. For home games though, where building and running a realistic world is important to the players, then you need to invoke Rule 0. GM can change prices as they see fit, just like they can adjust starting attitudes etc. it's their world.
In our games, we stick to the core purely for convenience to be honest. It's a quick and easy system for us to help gear up when the chance arises. It then gives us much more time to follow the adventure part of the game, which is why my group play.
However, in a PbP I ran here some years back, a realistic and organic world is what players wanted. In that game, I was quite happy to adjust costs of items in a way you suggested.
Cheers
Looking at the gems necessary for certain spells tells me otherwise.I am looking at the treasure guidelines for gems and jewelry and other valuables. (CRB 400)
Um, looking at that, silver jewelry (the standard for anyone with amounts of wealth) is 100-500gp, including medium quality gemstones (which are 100gp all on their own. Anything impressive is in the 500gp+ range (gold set with precious gems) and can easily get into the 2-3000gp range. Even if he has 1-2 impressive pieces and a dozen silver/gems items in stock, he's got 4-5000gp worth of inventory (never mind the raw gold/silver and uncut gems he has stored).
Again how likely is say a retired 5th level wizard going to be able to hold onto mid to high level items from those who can simply take them from him? If I can talk to the owner and his assistants, then they are already screwed.
Magic shops will be in the good areas of town, where the guards frown on people wandering around in armor and weapons and they pay attention to screaming shopkeepers. Oh, and let's not forget good old 'hue and cry' where the entire town is basically obligated to try and stop thieves when the screaming starts.
I don't think any of that would really even stop a mid level party.
Doesn't have to stop them, it just has to slow them down long enough for the guard to arrive. Only one person has to survive to identify the culprits and suddenly there's a bounty on your head and you're a known criminal in the area.
Don't dismiss social consequences, especially in a setting where magic can identify you or track the stolen goods after the fact.
BTW, your logic can be extended to things like banks and treasury vaults too. Even medium level adventurers would laugh at most of the precautions these places would have, and they'd probably have more money. Obviously these things must also not exist in fantasy land because everyone would be knocking them over at the drop of a hat.
Either it's not that easy, or it's not that easy to get away with it after the fact.
If there is a market for magic items then there is probably some kind of syndicate which has taken over it and sort of regulates it. A combination of thieves guild and wizards guild is the most likely organization to dominate the magic item trade in a setting. With high level magic to help protect and insure magic item shops are not casually robbed by anyone with rogues and such to help track down and remove those that are foolish enough to rob a protected shop. Any shop not part of the syndicate or someone who tries to start a non-syndicate shop is either priced out of the market or killed. This syndicate would be one of the most powerful organization in the setting based on their access to powerful magic and large amounts of money.