Magic Item Costs or Values

The magic item pricing system for D&D 5e, if we can call what it a pricing system, combines uselessness with insanity.  I'm going to delve into my thoughts on the subject in this article and point to what seems like a reasonable alternative.

Rules as Written (RAW)

RAW include some good basic pablum.  Statements like:

Each magic item has a rarity: common, uncommon, rare, very rare, or legendary. Common magic items, such as a potion of healing, are the most plentiful....

Rarity provides a rough measure of an item’s power relative to other magic items. Each rarity corresponds to character level, as shown in the Magic Item Rarity table. A character doesn’t typically find a rare magic item, for example, until around 5th level....

If your campaign allows for trade in magic items, rarity can also help you set prices for them. As the DM, you determine the value of an individual magic item based on its rarity. Suggested values are provided...

The Dungeon Masters Guide (DMG) goes on to talk about what market might or might not exist for magic items. The fundamental issue is an extreme lack of supply (magic items are rare or vary rare) and sparse demand from those capable of paying a reasonable price for the item.  Magic items are closer to rare works of art than loaves of bread.

Inevitability of a Magic Item Market

Games that I have played in have nearly always attempted to provide a cohesive, plausible, world, with a healthy dose of magic and fantasy thrown in.  Assuming that is the case, there is going to be some type of trade in magic items as they are a valuable commodity. A commodity that to some degree duplicates what people can "do" (cast spells) on a regular basis.  

Since some people in the world can duplicate the effect of a magic item, they define a minimum value to on some item.  A cleric who can cast continual light (2nd level spell) could go into the illumination business, his/her casts must be worth at about the same as a lantern and a good supply of oil. Creating a few permanent lights daily seems a lot easier and safer than many of the trades available in the world which implies someone is going rto fill that niche and manufacture "permanent" lights.

Rarity is a limitation.  There probably aren't many people in the world who can cast second level spells, but there are some.  The fact that they exist strongly supports thinking that such an item can be purchased.  The liquidity, legality, practicality of the market is a different thing and is really what keeps Magic★Mart™ from existing in most worlds, but at a minimum some type of black market will exist.

Since there will be a market, players are going to seek values for their items.  That's not necessarily the same as a price.  As a simple example, consider gasoline, $3.50 per gallon is a price and a value as it is a commodity that is regularly traded in our modern world. Art seems to be a better comparison to the products Magic★Mart™would like to handle and there things are all over the map low end things are available as commodities while one-of-a-kind are said to be priceless with things like the Mona Lisa valued in the billions of dollars, though they are rarely priced. 

Usefulness of RAW 

All of that gets me to my point, I had to get there eventually, and that is what is offered in the DMG is both very difficult to use and pretty much plum crazy.  

Items in RAW always have a rarity factor stated that allows them to be slotted into the table that shows level ranges and values.  The ranges are huge and give very little guidance.  Consider a small sampling of items that all provide the ability to fly:

• Scroll of Flying, Uncommon (101-500gp) - One use
• Potion of Flying, Very Rare (5,001-50,000gp) - One use lasts 1 hour
• Wings of Flying, Rare (501-5,000gp) - 1 hour every 1d12 hours
• Broom of Flying, Uncommon (101-500gp) - Perpetual
• Carpet of Flying, Very Rare (5,001-50,000gp) - Perpetual

The items have various drawbacks, but they all allow flight for the low cost of 101 up to 50,000 gold and last from an hour to forever with no relationship between duration and value.

This craziness has bothered me since I first discovered it.  I've always glossed over it as best I could by declaring Magic★Mart™to be nonexistent and handling the few transactions that couldn't be hand waved with some random rolls.

Sane Magic Item Prices

I just ran across a piece posted by Saldoro on Gianttip.com that goes on at length on this topic and offers a set of reasonably consistent values for magic items.  The OP breaks magic items up into several categories and values them with some pretty solid logic.

Values he assigns to the flying options I just delved into:

• Scroll of Flying, 200
• Potion of Flying, 500
• Wings of Flying, 5,000
• Broom of Flying, 8,000
• Carpet of Flying, 12,000

Those numbers just make sense to me.  The cheapest can only be used by those able to use scrolls who plausibly could cast them directly and thus have the lowest value; while the perpetual items, those that allow indefinite long distance travel are clearly the most expensive.

Inconnunon offers his compilation as a printer non-friendly PDF at: Link to PDF.
I have dropped the data into a Google Sheets document that can be sorted, is printer friendly (or more friendly) and that I will occasionally update as items are defined in my games.

Consult Your DM

All of proceeding notwithstanding, magic items are rare and precious things in all the worlds in which I am involved.   The values given in the various tables are all guidelines, most likely Magic★Mart™ doesn't exist, any actual purchases need to be dealt with in game in the manner of the DM's choosing.

Automation of Magic Shop

The logic built into this pricing list has been used to build a magic shop generator at another useful site: 5emagic.shop which is included in the DM links on this blog.  The prices there are based on, but not necessarily identical to the sane prices as defined by Saldoro.