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So I have a player in a campaign I am running (RotRL AE). He has taken some item creation feats, which I was fine with. I told him before hand that he would actually have to spend the money and "buy" the magical materials needed to create whatever item he wish's to. To this point we are both at a understanding.
Between book 2 and book there there is a bit of travel time involved. I created encounters for them and even put a bit of info in the towns and settlements they would come across. In the travels the group has come across more treasure, and he now wants to make some magic items because of there is time to. However he has not "purchased" the materials. So the argument came up when they got to the first settlement and he went to purchase these materials. The settlement was a Village, and based on the settlement portion in the GM guide, the village has a base limit of 500 gp. So I told him he could purchase 500 gp worth of materials, and would have to wait and get more in the next settlement. I was told I was in the wrong, and since no single material for this would ever cost over 500 gp he should be able to spend all his money and turn it into the equivilant of materials for magic item contruction, which would be about 5000 gp worth of materials at this point.
We he argued his point for a while and finally gave up, calling my ruling stupid and demanded to be able to change all his feats since it was my goal to nerf all the item creation feats. But he wasn't willing to give up any of the items he had already made.
So my question is, Am I in the wrong here? Does it make sense what I am saying? I could not find anything definitive. I try to be fair in regards to everything but to me it made sense.
Anyway I would appreciate any and all feedback.
Also along that line I hold the same rule for spell component's like diamond dust...stuff like that.
I think both of you should have compromised on it. As a DM it's your job to be flexible and try to allow your players to attempt to use their abilities in the game going by the book ALL the time isn't the best way to promote the best game-play in my experience.
There are a few different things you could do in this situation:
1) Meet him somewhere in the middle - Allow him to buy like 1500-2000 worth of materials from this village.
2) Roll it out, give him percentages and let the dice gods sort it out, it could be from 0 gp to 5000 gp worth of materials he finds.
Example:
roll 0-10 = 0 materials
roll 11-20 = 500 materials
roll 21-30 = 1000 materials
roll 31-40 = 1500 materials
roll 41-50 = 2000 materials
roll 51-60 = 2500 materials
roll 61-70 = 3000 materials
roll 71-80 = 3500 materials
roll 81-90 = 4000 materials
roll 91-95 = 4500 materials
roll 96-100 = 5000 materials
If you do #2, it's all up to his dice and he can't complain at all if he doesn't find anything or finds very little, he'd be really happy if he can find all of them or most of them. This would take the argument out of the equation as well.
Meh, if you're making him buy materials and enforcing time properly I see no reason for you to add a new rule about capping magical supplies by town. There's no rules establishing that in the first place and I can see why he'd upset. It's hard enough to craft already.
A small village isn't going to have much to offer an adventurer of the appropriate level for that place in the campaign - that includes crafting materials and spell components. I think that was handled fine.
As for crafting and your player's expectations, it sounds like the two of you are not on the same page. Simply said, the adventuring life is not all that conducive to crafting item after item after item, so he'll have to live with the limitations of how often he can craft. This is something that the two of you should have a discussion on. Basically, be sure he understands that downtime for crafting won't always happen when he wants it to happen and if he wants to be able to create whatever he wants out of the book at half price, then he may have to wait a level or even two. Most people have to try finding the item they want (again, I roll randomly based on the size of the settlement) and then pay full price, so I see no major problem.
Now, if the player feels like his feats are not providing what he expects, then one possible solution is of course to allow him to change them, but that's not a conversation to be had mid-session and that is, of course, done at your discretion.
This honestly sounds to me like you have a player who thinks that the setting should serve the rulles (i.e. rules come before setting and since the rules say I need crafting materials, the setting should provide them) where you are a DM who thinks that the rules should serve the setting. This is something that I'm very familiar with, as I'm in the same situation with one of my players. My advice is to have an honest discussion with him and get on the same page. Make sure he understands that you will do your best to make his feat choices worthwhile by doing things such as giving appropriate downtime (days to weeks), but only when the time is right. Also be sure to reinforce that the adventure is not going to stop and wait while his character crafts a new item so sometimes, he'll have to squeeze it in here and there.
Took a quick look at the GMG
Base Value and Purchase Limit: This section lists the community's base value for available magic items in gp. 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.
So by this i would say that you were in the wrong here.
A village can offer any one item costing up to 500 gp (75% chance of them having it). As long as a single component is less than 500gp roll a d4, on a 1 it is not available, on 2-4 the shop has it.The Purchase limit for a Village is 2,500 this applies to the PCs SELLING items, but I could also see it being an acceptable baseline for total value of items available.
You can also look at it this way, Village Base 500gp, 2d4 minor items 1d4 medium items. That is 7.5 items avg. at max 500gp, so that is 3750 gp available on average. Use something like this to determine how much they can spend in any one village.
Or roll your 3d4 and if the total is less than the total number of components the player gets most of it but is missing some key components.
It dosent seem like it was your intention to nerf his item creation and it was just a misinterpretation of the rules.
You have 2 options at this point, as the GM you have final say, if they dont like it they can leave. However this does not seem to be your attitude or style, good.
Talk to the player, explain you have reviewed the rules and that you were wrong. Be willing to apologize and work with them next session.
I wouldn't go back and over turn your rulings, don't give them the items they feel they should have gotten, but maybe give them a little extra leeway in a future situation to compensate.
You should also explain to them that any rulings you make at the table are final and arguments at the table are unacceptable. But that you are willing to review any rules that they may call into question, but ONLY after or between sessions.
Have to agree with meche, a small village isn't going to be stocked with crafting materials. IMO,you handled it just fine. Try and come to a compromise with him but if he insists on having his way, remind him that the party is playing an adventure and not the accounting chronicles. If he's new to the game, its to be expected. Otherwise, its just another petulant child you have to deal with.
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A lot of good points here by everyone!
I do a variety of things in my campaigns:
1) I allow special materials to take some of the cost of materials (i.e. - dragonhide can absolve some of the cost for a belt of giant strength, some gemstones can directly be used to fulfill costs for certain types of magic items, etc)
2) Not everything is available everywhere. Even if the city is a metropolis and the item or material in question is under the always available gp limit, it may simply not be available. (Though, I usually leave it to a % roll)
3) Sometimes there are certain items I don't want created, because I want to be able to have it granted to them later (to make it more meaningful.)
Sometimes it's about balance, but sometimes it's about story. To me, story trumps rules. (Though I try to be clear on my rulings beforehand.)
Like was mentioned multiple times, you are GM and what you say goes. Just try to be fair. If you make the ruling, own it, with all it's upsides and downsides.
If your character wants to change up his feats, discuss with him what his goal is with Item Creation. It could be one of two things. One, it could be that the character thinks it is his coupon for cheap items, or two, he wants to leave a legacy for the campaign. Honestly, it seems to be that he was just looking to save some gp, otherwise it wouldn't be so important.
Anyway, good luck with your campaign!