I was curious how other GMs handle reselling large- and huge-sized magic items.
One thing about Runelords (and the upcoming Giantslayer) is that you'll be facing a lot of large-sized entities. But you honestly don't see much in the way of large-sized creatures in cities and towns. So do you allow large-sized items and magic items to be sold, and if so how do you justify it?
I'd already chosen not to allow magic ogre hooks to be sold, seeing that the pictures of ogre hooks show a rather rough-looking item and I cannot see interest in even a magic ogre hook. But what about other giant items? Stone, fire, and frost giants all are skilled craftsmen (especially fire giants). But their weapons are pretty much useless for anyone who's not a giant.
I can't even see allowing it to be sold to be broken down for materials, seeing that reforging metals often results in a lower-quality metal alloy (see "pot iron" for an example).
(On the plus side, this does allow a GM to take all those +1 weapons and armor with the giants and ogres, say "you can't sell those," and replace them with treasure the players are more likely to use.)
I abstract the selling of magical items . as there is no way that they fit into an actual gold economy so I presume the large items can be broken down and their essence used to help create new items which explains why people buy large items. I also assume good temples take evil magical items (and visa versa) on a similar basis so my Paladin's don't worry about smiting everyone who wants to buy the unholy sword they are selling.
However making all the Ogre hooks unsellable would have let me provide the key npc's with better equipment without breaking the game so I will have to think on doing something similar in future
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I house rule that magic items automatically resize to best fit the wearer (like the scene at the beginning of Lord of the Rings where the One Ring resizes from Sauron-sized to Isildur-sized). This eliminates all the grief associated with dealing with different sized magic weapons.
-Skeld
Somewhere I remember reading something about ogre weapons being sought after in magnimar.
I house rule that magic items automatically resize to best fit the wearer (like the scene at the beginning of Lord of the Rings where the One Ring resizes from Sauron-sized to Isildur-sized). This eliminates all the grief associated with dealing with different sized magic weapons.
-Skeld
i do the same, our parties are inevitably riddled with Gnomes and Halflings:)
Most of the time I just let them sell them, as long as the city/town is large enough. I assume that someone has a use for them, selling them to good large sized creatures, or selling them on the black market. Some could be used as wall decorations at a Varisian Applebee's.
Some would even be bought by people to decorate their houses, like the Gargantuan sized half plate you can get in book 3 of Runelords.
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Generally, in most areas, I say that items sized for creatures smaller than Small or larger than Medium are curiosities rather than useful equipment. They sell for one-quarter list price, unless the PCs take the time to find a specific buyer.
In places with a population of creatues of the appropriate size, they sell normally. (e.g. size Large equipment sells as normal in Kaer Maga or Urglin, with all the ogres and trolls; size Tiny equipment sells as normal in Gnome communities in or near the Sanos Forest, where Tiny fey show up to trade from time to time.)
For the record, most magic items resize themselves to fit the wearer. The exceptions are weapons and armor.
Weapons can be resized using these: Iron Lord's Transforming Slivers
Presumably something similar could work for armor.
In a previous campaign, a player has his wizard research the spell resize item. It was a permanent-duration spell (I.e. Could be dispelled) which caused an item to increase our decrease one size. There was a material component that cost some amount of money per pound of the item. I think it was a third-level spell.
(on my phone writing for a train, don't have my notes with me.)
I was curious how other GMs handle reselling large- and huge-sized magic items.
One thing about Runelords (and the upcoming Giantslayer) is that you'll be facing a lot of large-sized entities. But you honestly don't see much in the way of large-sized creatures in cities and towns. So do you allow large-sized items and magic items to be sold, and if so how do you justify it?
I'd already chosen not to allow magic ogre hooks to be sold, seeing that the pictures of ogre hooks show a rather rough-looking item and I cannot see interest in even a magic ogre hook. But what about other giant items? Stone, fire, and frost giants all are skilled craftsmen (especially fire giants). But their weapons are pretty much useless for anyone who's not a giant.
I can't even see allowing it to be sold to be broken down for materials, seeing that reforging metals often results in a lower-quality metal alloy (see "pot iron" for an example).
(On the plus side, this does allow a GM to take all those +1 weapons and armor with the giants and ogres, say "you can't sell those," and replace them with treasure the players are more likely to use.)
I just finished running Fort Rannick last night! I was a little curious about the same thing and found this thread!
I have a few thoughts, in no particular order.
1)Magic items *must* be masterwork. How you reconcile this with the artists rendering is up to you. Perhaps they are "ugly, but surprisingly effective"? In addition, creating these ugly hooks took raw materials equal to half the base price, so these hooks incorporate 500 Gp worth of *something*.
2)The Grauuls had large size hooks. The kreegs had HUGE size hooks. Even harder to sell.
3)Saying they can't sell them but inserting treasure of equal value is an easy fix.
4) In a fast and loose campaign I would just let them sell the items. In a tighter campaign I might have a percentage chance that the item would resize.
5)Something I like to do is add some roleplay. The PCs go to the bazaar in *insert large city here*. They find a trader who ships things all over the world. They have to negotiate a price based on how many of the item they have (more being harder to move) how esoteric it is, basically how hard it will be for the merchant to flip the items. Usually the merchant will give them more value if they trade for items from his stock instead of cash. Diplomacy checks, roleplaying, etc.
In a previous campaign, a player has his wizard research the spell resize item. It was a permanent-duration spell (I.e. Could be dispelled) which caused an item to increase our decrease one size. There was a material component that cost some amount of money per pound of the item. I think it was a third-level spell.
(on my phone writing for a train, don't have my notes with me.)
I just wrote up the spell resize item for my campaign.
I was under the impression that armor automagically resized. I've allowed my players to sell large magic weapons in Magnimar under the guise of the Golem works buying them. Although they've flooded the market so initially they got 25% of cost and now they get 10% of cost
I was under the impression that armor automagically resized. I've allowed my players to sell large magic weapons in Magnimar under the guise of the Golem works buying them. Although they've flooded the market so initially they got 25% of cost and now they get 10% of cost
Armor and weapons don't resize, but anything else does.
As I posted before:
For the record, most magic items resize themselves to fit the wearer. The exceptions are weapons and armor.
Weapons can be resized using these: Iron Lord's Transforming Slivers
Presumably something similar could work for armor.
The Iron Lord's Transforming Slivers peg the cost to resize a weapon by one category at 1000 gp (500 gp if you can craft them; they are a wondrous item). I see no reason to say that this won't also work on armor.
Edit: as written, adventures assume items will be sold for their list price. When I ran the Catacombs of Wrath, I adjusted the value of the dagger downwards to reflect difficulty selling it, but added extra treasure in the dungeon to make up for it.