Most D&D setting don't explore the full implications of the magic items and spells available to casters, because doing so would rapidly lead to a setting that has more in common with science fiction than the traditional medieval fantasy standard.
The magic shop isn't a problem. It is just flavor. Some people like it, some don't. The underlying issue is that treasure and finding gear are legacy concepts that don't belong in Pathfinder. Wealth should be a automatic feature of leveling like feats or ability gains every 4 levels.
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It's not a magic shop either. It's items available in the community -- which could be from a shop or just some tavern owner looking to liquidate some assets.
Another thought:
In the lord of the rings some magic items are a big deal but many are simply subtle and sublimely 'mundane' in their function. They are beyond superior but not crazy so -- like the cloaks, rope and lembas.
I have to wonder when people are worrying about magic items being special if they are turning their magic items into a DMPC situation.
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Most D&D setting don't explore the full implications of the magic items and spells available to casters, because doing so would rapidly lead to a setting that has more in common with science fiction than the traditional medieval fantasy standard.
The biggest exception there being Eberron, which embraced the idea that magic is a thing and that of course people would use it, and ran with it.
Heck, its even got a major power faction dedicated to being magical crafters mass producing things.
The limiting factor is that the campaign setting specifically states that virtually everyone in the setting is 1st or 2nd level, with virtually no one being above 5th level.
Its not a high magic setting, but its by no means a low magic setting either. The term for it we coined on the WotC boards back in the day was "wide magic", as in there's not a lot of high level magic, but the low level stuff is freaking everywhere and used in ways that made sense.
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That said, perhaps you could take a page from Final Fantasy VII and use something like Materia?
If you never played FF7 (shame on you!), the idea was that all of the magic and abilities were actually coming from special magic crystals that you slotted into your weapons and gear. By the end of the game, you were often more concerned with the materia slots an item had than it's base stats.
Don't have to go full on FF7, but what if you made the actual enchantments on things into items that are bound to weapons/armor/gear/etc instead of enchanted directly into them?
Keep all of the same requirements otherwise, but when it came time to upgrade your gear you could simply swap out the magic stone and keep the base item. That way grandpa's sword from first level can still be the same weapon they use at 20th, they've just put more powerful gems into it.
Then the gems themselves could become ways to store excess value. If you're carrying around a +1 gem, thats 2k gold of wealth that isn't being tied up in large bulky items that can later be bartered for something they actually want.
Perhaps say the gem has to be in the item for 24 hours before it takes effect to stop them from hotswapping, or just let them hotswap enchantments as needed if you prefer.
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Power Stunts. This was a great idea that came with the old Marvel Super Heroes game in the 1980's. Maybe it's been around longer, but that's where I heard it.
Anyway, one way to make magic items more unique is to flip the paradigm. It's a +2 Longsword but it has a bunch of blood grooves that capture the wind and whistle when the blade attacks. First couple times the fighter swings it, have them make an Intimidate check to Demoralize. Then flat out tell them "the sound might do other things as well."
Let the player play with it. Can it make a sonic boom? I don't know, maybe. How about Ghost Sounds or something? Sure. I guess what I'm saying is if you want the players to want their magic items, work with them to make the items what they want.
It's quite easy, and requires only two steps:
Dump magic items you know they want, assume the rest will be sold.
Make a good number of the items "unique'. For example, that +2 LS is +3 vs Orcs. It's -3 if wielded by any but a ".....". Thus, the sales price is crud. I'd even make it more unique.
"Orc-slayer is a +2 LS, +3 vs Orcs, and glows when they get within 60'. It is made of a unique fey metal alloy, making it a additional +5 on hardness and +10 HP, but weighs 1# less. The wielder gets +2 on all saves vs orc spells, etc, and has +2 perception vs orcs. If wielded by any but one of elf bllod , it's merely a +1 sword, with only the add'l metal traits. There are rumors of a special ceremony that can make this weapon +3 or even a Bane weapon, which will require considerable sacrifice or quests."
Pricing that is easy too.
((Target Bonus)^2 - (Base bonus)^2) * X.+2 sword, +3 vs orcs: 3350gp (tier 2 target, so (3^2 - 2^2) * 350 =
(9-4)*350= 1750+8300= 10050 gp
but need to account for drawback: +2, +1 by non-elves: -1050
Final Price: 9000 + long sword cost (what is it 16 gp?).
I think the best way to do it would be to incorporate the boring +1's and the big six into the characters themselves rather than having them be drops or purchases that you have to get as a tax to keep up with CR.
The reliance on wearing a bunch of fancy magical items in Pathfinder is one of my biggest grievances with the system, really. How many great heroes in fantasy/mythology do you know that did anything resembling that? Most heroes have their one Legendary Weapon that carries them through the day; Arthur has Excalibur, Bilbo has Sting. If the boring and generic items were removed from the game and just became things that you got naturally as you level up and become more legendary heroes then that Ultimate Hammer of Evil Smashing the Barbarian just found will have a lot more meaning, because he knows something this kickass is unlikely to be replaced. It becomes his signature weapon, and in years to come bards will sing of how he totally crushed a tarrasque's face with it and it was awesome.
Well, this is false on the King.
While King Arthur replied mostly on his sword: he had more magic items.
He had a dagger Carnwennan: magical power to shroud its user in shadow. He also sliced a witch in 1/2 with it; also a giant.
Rhongomyniad his spear (nothing magical mentioned it doing, but it was named in the stories).
Excalibur's scabbard was said to have powers of its own. Loss of blood from injuries, for example, would not kill the bearer. In some tellings, wounds received by one wearing the scabbard did not bleed at all
Most D&D setting don't explore the full implications of the magic items and spells available to casters, because doing so would rapidly lead to a setting that has more in common with science fiction than the traditional medieval fantasy standard.The biggest exception there being Eberron, which embraced the idea that magic is a thing and that of course people would use it, and ran with it.
Yeah. Eberron was why I said "most" D&D settings don't explore the implications of widely available magic.
I've adopted a slightly different slightly Suikoden system to the traditional magic shop system. First, I've introduced key NPC characters as various crafters, for example:
One that is a jeweler, enchanter and top tier appraiser.
One that is a weaponsmith and combat trainer.
One that is a metallurgist and armorsmith, who also owns the only forge in town that is capable of working adamantine.
The jeweler has invented a new type of enchanting that lets her trap permanent enchantments into precious(5k+) gems. When the players figured out to make the connection between her and the other two smiths, they created the ultimate crafting trifecta.
The smiths now can craft gear with open gem slots, which she can craft gems for. The players can now choose between traditional gear or on-the-fly personalized gear. For a much higher cost, an enchantment can be layed on a gem and fitted into any open slot on a weapon. The bonus takes 8hrs to attune to the weapon at which point it becomes permanent until the gem is removed.
The players share these gems. They trade them around and customize for certain situations. Upgrading gear simply involves the crafting of a higher + version, with each slot(s) equivalent: a +1 longsword with a +1 slot is the cost of a traditional +2 longsword, a +1 longsword with two +1 slots, or a single +2 slot is equivalent to a +3 longsword, etc. etc.
My players LOVE this system and it has added a lot of flexibility to our games. We can continue to play with the traditional treasure system and I use completely (90%) random gear. Were the dice lucky? Use it! Does it suck? Sell it and work towards another gem! Keep your enchantments! Flaming might have cost you 7k, but you get to keep it, for all your future weapons!
The system works pretty well for most accessories too, anything with a stat or skill bonus can be emulated with Gems. You might own a Str +2 gem, a Dex +2 gem and a Con +2 gem, and early on have a belt with 1 open slot. Later on you may find/craft one with 2 or even 3 open slots.
You could even add a level of complexity by shaping the gems(weapons round, armor square, skills diamond, stats hexagon). The system is really open ended.
In most of the games I run, magic shops simply don't exist. I have included unique bazaar at some off-world, heavily enchanted location (like the Plane of Dreams) where magic items can be easily obtained, but only one such place might exist that the PCs will encounter - this being a very rare situation.
Individual crafter/enchanters do exist, but work by commission one item at a time, everything is special order, and there are no shelves containing existing items on display. A supply of prepared scrolls might exist, as well as common wands, however, in most cases only supplies: parchment, special inks, spell components and such are what can be purchased onsite.
As standard procedure, a PC can place an order for a specific magic item, paid for up front, but won't be available until after the PC returns from their next/current adventure - so they won't gain possession until a few weeks after they placed the order.
I also ask my players to provide a wish-list of items they plan on obtaining for their PCs. To which I will often select one item from each of the lists and include them as "found treasure" in an upcoming dungeon location. I would also short them some of the expected wealth level to replace the cost of those "found items". I almost never include "found items" that the party would find useless and want to trade away for cash or other items.
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Second the 'materia' concept from FF7. I had a blast with a low level campaign built around a world over-ridden with high power monsters and few sparse settlements focused on keeping the monsters outside their walls.
The goal of the campaign was to accumulate enough magic 'essence' to turn whole towns into adventuring parties that could defend themselves from the OP wilderness. This essence was also spent to create magic items (since high GP economies and large cities were impossible).
It was fun to think of magic itself as a commodity, rather than some privilege for the rich and powerful NPCs and PCs.
The problem isn't that any of these are bad ideas, it is that they all take a lot of time. Just like the magic item system we are currently using. Any solution that is really going to help has to be easy to use and quick. There are already dozens of subsystems and what not.