Instead of buying them outright, why not pay half price to rent a magic item from a mage who has something of a return spell on the item. This way when the contracted time elapses the item returns to the mage...and the player's character is left with...a lighter purse and any deeds performed with said item.
It is a thought we kicked around with my group today, so I figured why not ask other peoples opinions and now here we are.
What do you all think?
Half price is more than I would be willing to pay. I would rather just save the loot and buy the item. If I sell the item for half price later on it is mathmatically the same thing, but I don't have to deal with a time limit.
From an in-game point of view I don't have to worry about explaining sundered items, or having one disappear at a very bad time. I am sure there are worse things that can happen, but I would not have to deal with those either. :)
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Sounds alright, I'd probably allow it. Of course, just to be evil, have it maybe happen at the worst times.
Fighter: AH HA! FOUL DEMON! You are close to death's door! One blow with this +2 Longsword of Foul Demon Bane and you are gone!
Demon: NOOOO!! ALAS! I still have gotten away with all my evil deads! I won't give you the satisfaction of my death or cries.
Fighter: Verily I say! Then farawell, DEMON!
*As the fighter swings the mighty +2 Longsword of Foul Demon Bane, what seems to be a felling blow becomes a gust of air as the devastating weapon disappears into thin air.*
Fighter: ...
Demon: ...
Fighter: By Iomedae, I knew I shouldn't have rented that sword.
*Demon's turn*
Demon: Well in that case! *Greater Teleport*
Fighter: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@ Marthian
That is pretty much how the conversation went with my group. lol
I guess there are some items where it makes some sense, but as weaithstrike pointed out, when you buy and then later sell it, its basicly 50% too.
With the normal way you need 100% of the money though, here just the 50%, which means you may get more stuff earlier.
However it should include something like a Sending spell a week or so before the rental is up "Hello. Your rental of *different magic voice* +1 greatsword *back to original voice* is expiring. Would you like to renew your contract?"
That is great Quatar! Also, I think lowering the price to 1/4 would be reasonable.
I also doubt that the demon teleports away in that situation. If anybody better run/escape it is probably the fighter, and since the rest of the party most likely rented their magic items at the same time........ :)
I think it would make for a great campaign. lol
The mage that is powerful enough to rent his items is powerful enough to know any ability blocking teleportation will screw him over.
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While spells can allow for some automatic recovery of an item when the rental period is up, I can see not going with that. It makes you safe, but it also says to your clients "I don't trust you to survive to return the item you've rented."
I can see a demand (at lower prices) for rental of non-charged situational items. Party going somewhere loaded with incorporeal creatures? Rent ghost touch weapons.
Treat it more like an old-time video rental; first you face late fees, and potentially blacklisting. If you get particularly bad, you face the wizard hiring a party of adventurers to track you down. And you don't just take a name; you take something, such as a lock of hair, to facilitate scrying on your clients. Now, when they haven't returned the item, you scry on them, with a significant penalty on their save. Yes, they can block this.
Why do you do this as an NPC caster? Because the benefits outweigh the risks. If you spend 10,000 gp and 10 days making a magic item, your profit is 10,000 gp. Not a bad return. But if you make it, and rent it for, say, 5,000 gp... you only need to rent it 4 times to make the same profit, and each additional rental makes you additional profit.
But you'll be doing, essentially, credit checks on people who want to rent your merchandise, because you want to try and make sure they'll survive whatever they're doing, and return your item. You obviously take payment up front and may require additional collateral. (i.e. require the full 20,000 gp sale price up front, but when the item is returned, 15,000 gp is refunded; obviously that decreases the appeal to cash-strapped adventurers... but even 50% collateral helps). Furthermore, you mark the item in some way so you can find it if necessary.
In summary:
- Mark the item you're loaning in a way that allows you to track it down.
- Check out the person asking to rent it; refuse high-risk rentals or ask higher prices.
- Charge 10-25% of the sale price; no more. But require collateral (or a security deposit); the higher the risk, the more the deposit must be. This is refunded to the client when the item is returned. It does not necessarily need to be liquid assets (land is valid collateral, but not valid rental price, for example).
- Take a lock of hair or similar (less off-putting than blood) from the client, and be prepared to invest in hunting him down if he refuses to return the item. (Also in recovering a lost item.)
Makes for interesting side quest possibilities...
* Mage angers the wrong person
* Angered person goes around attacking the mage's customers to sunder the crap out of every rental
* Mage implores adventurers for help
I have on occasion allowed PCs to "rent" magic items, but the price of renting is almost always in terms of doing the owner a favor instead of just gold. I use that sort of thing for plot hooks.
I did have one magic shoppe in one town at one time that rented out standard basic stuff for low level characters, but I decided it was too much paperwork to keep track of the charges for it and finally just stopped.
The renter uses a cut rate cloning service, the adventurers are first level, and have to track down the rented gear. Of course, they realize, that the originals are dead. You have a campaign. Repo men.
I was caught unprepared this weekend and forgot to incorperate this, but there is always next time!
That would work.