Bargain Crafting Raw Materials?


Rules Questions


It just poped through my head. Are you allowed to bargain crafting materials? At first I didn't think about it since crafting is already a big price cut, but you still need to go buy to a merchant steel, wood, leather for raw materials which you can normaly bargain for. Same goes for magical supplies required for magic item creation.
What do you think? Is it possible to craft mundane items down to 1/6 of the base price and magic items down to 1/4 of the base price?
Is it written somewhere that the craft cost for the materials required for items creation are fixed and cannot be bargained?


It's literally up to your DM. If your DM is okay with you going out of your way to haggle for materials (remember you're already paying 1/3rd of the price of the finished product for mundane items and 1/2 for magic items) then more power to you.

It is literally more power to you as you spend less resources to increase your power.

If your DM is strict about wealth per level for PCs, it will result with players earning less loot found by adventuring to balance things out. The upside is you're not at DMs mercy to get the specific items you want.

Liberty's Edge

"Bargain"? If you really want to spend the time role-playing haggle for the price of the component and the whole table like it, why not? It is not a matter of rules allowing it, it is a matter of enjoying the game.

On the other hand, if you usually bargain for stuff, the starting price wouldn't be what is in the books, but higher, as that would be the average price for the items.

Note that magic items require undefined special reagents, not only common materials. The 500 gp of materials used to enchant an armor aren't some tons of iron. You are enchanting an already existing masterwork armor, so probably they are what you need to enamel magic runes on it or somesuch.


Yes you are, but it could be very tiresome. Also, if you try this, expect to pay through the nose for the rare and exotic components.

It would be better to assume the listed price is the total cost of all the deals you struck and within that you got some good deals and paid a premium for others. That would save a lot of time and angst and save the rest of the group from watching you play papers and paychecks.

Liberty's Edge

If you have taken skills/traits and feats to get bargain prices and your GM is ok with giving you a discount when purchasing the components to make magic items the best system is to do it off the screen, rolling some dice to determine how much time you will spend searching for bargains and what kind of discount you will get.
Especially in a fantasy world with a pseudo renaissance level of technology, the diffusion of information is slow. If you teleport to Absalom, Kintargo, Korvosa, Nantambu, and Oenopion (to cite a few locations with famous schools of magic or magical guilds) to find the best price for dragons scales you end spending a lot of time and spells for your discount.

Dark Archive

You're in houserule territory here as the rules don't cover the haggling of prices. If it did, whatever means by which prices got haggled would be a considered mandatory to powergamers.
Entirely up to your GM. If it were me I wouldn't allow it, but I don't allow crafting anyway due to the abusive nature of the crafting rules. So I probably shouldn't have much of an opinion here lol

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