Am I doing it right?

[Ayrphish]

Am currently GMing a Carrion Crown campaign, and to avoid any spoilers, the PCs are level 12, and in a large city.

This means the city has a base value of 8,000, and this particular city has a CL7 on duty.

I have used a random generator to produce the correct number of minor/medium/major magic items and given this list of items to the PCs.

This leaves me with a couple of questions. First, am I correct that the city will not have an item costing more than 8,000 gold pieces if it isn't on the list of randomly generated items? Similarly does this mean there are no magic enhancements or items available that are created above a CL 7?

If I am correct in both of those assumptions, how is the party supposed to spend there level 12 money? When helping put a character together, the best belt available would be a single stat +2? This seems to leave the party under geared for where a level 12 *should* be?

[Ayrphish]

This really isn't a carrion crown specific question.

It is a question dealing with correct reading/interpretation of a settlements stat block. Carrion Crown is only used as background information.

[Nathonicus]

Eh. I'm against "Magic Emporiums" in all but the largest and most metropolitan of cities.

If they "need" mightier treasure for a module, let them discover or earn it. Keep a tab on what they are after or would prove useful, and you can seed the adventure with stuff that would make sense to be there.

for instance:

In Trial of the Beast, there is NO treasure in the main dungeon crawl portion unless they loot the Count of all his possessions and then presumably sell it back in Lepidstadt? Seems really odd that no one would inquire about the royal seal on the silver! Since my players so far have been disinclined to loot the place, I have created a secret room in which the count stored heirloom items he hoped to one day give to his son. When rescued, he is overwhelmed with the disasters that his experiments in creating "children" have become and will offer the players the heirloom items. These will include items passed down through generations of the Corormarc line, and will include some very nice magic armor, a magic arming sword, some utility items (stone of alarm) and a few other items I know my particular players will be interested in.

This way you can provide appropriate tools for the party level without taking the "magic" out of magic by having every town have a MagicMart(tm) where they can instantly unload items for exactly what they want.

[MurphysParadox]

Caster level is not a requirement for the vast majority of magic items, it is simply a general idea of difficulty and overall power (as detect magic would report). Unless CL is listed in the REQUIREMENTS section of the magical items, it is just +5 spell craft check to craft it at less than the CL.

That means a level 7 wizard in town can still craft much nicer items (generally around a DC 20-25 spell craft check if taking 10). It is reasonable that such a wizard would offer crafting services and thus allow custom orders. The down side is time.

Ways around this would be things such as Nathonicus' suggestion. Also get a list of desired equipment from your players. This way you can customize not only rewards but also the random treasure as suggested by the Adventure Path.

For example...

Spoiler:

My druid's player really wants a suit of Wild armor so he can use it when wild shaping. He will find such a suit of treasure either off the corpse of a werewolf in book 3 or as a reward from the werewolves depending on party actions.

This works out well because sometimes the party wants decidedly uncommon items. It may be reasonable to find a +3 sword in town, but not necessarily a special Weapon or Armor.

[Ayrphish]

Ok, I get that I can do that with treasure they might want, that aside, am I right in my understanding of the base price?

[MurphysParadox]

Yes, my understanding is that the gold cap restricts the unspecified magical items being sold to those that would cost less than the cap (with a 75% chance than any specific item desired will be actually available).

SRD wrote:

Base Value and Purchase Limit: This section lists the community's base value for available magic items in gp (see Table: Available Magic Items). There is a 75% chance that any item of this value or lower can be found for sale in the community with little effort. If an item is not available, a new check to determine if the item has become available can be made in 1 week. A settlement's purchase limit is the most money a shop in the settlement can spend to purchase any single item from the PCs. If the PCs wish to sell an item worth more than a settlement's purchase limit, they'll either need to settle for a lower price, travel to A larger city, or (with the GM's permission) search for a specific buyer in the city with deeper pockets. A settlement's type sets its purchase limit.

Minor Items/Medium Items/Major Items: This line lists the number of magic items above a settlement's base value that are available for purchase. In some city stat blocks, the actual items are listed in parentheses after the die range of items available—in this case, you can use these pre-rolled resources when the PCs first visit the city as the magic items available for sale on that visit. If the PCs return to that city at a later date, you can roll up new items as you see fit.

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