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May 25, 2012 -- 7:01PM, baronspam wrote:

Its really a campaign world choice how the magic item economy works.  Personally, I have never liked the idea that characters can go "back to town" and start trading items that cost more than the life income of a commoner in the local shop.  If such an economy existis, it should be riddled with mad wizards, demon princes, Efreet merchants from the City of Brass, and long, dangerous journies.  Anything more than a +1 item or some potions or scrolls shound not just be lying around "in a shop".  After all, by the time you can buy that +3 to +4 item, the serious question of why you would, rather than using the money to retire in comfort, comes up.

I agree with the whole flavour killing aspect of not having what are essentially major artefacts lying around in Yee Olde Shoppe but there are guidelines for this. Players will not be able to find items above a certain value "For Sale" and equally will not find enough gold available to sell high value items anywhere other than major cities. Every good DM that I have ever played with does not describe the place you purchase the item as "Yee Olde Shoppe" but as one of the things you mentioned.

In Waterdeep my DM had there be a major Wizard's Guild rumoured to be run by one of the masked lords. They could construct/sell just about any item you wanted but he really sold it. The building was a vast tower dozens of stories tall made of what seemed like pure ivory, sprouting multiple turrets from every side. Eldritch fire, burned in various windows and there was a constant corona of lightning and flame about it's ramparts. You were not met at the door by a shop keep, instead there were two iron golems flanking a welcoming comitee of bound outsiders dressed in the guild's livery. Anyone there on important business (read, making a large enough purchase) was waited on hand and foot by unseen servants and captive spirits. Buying something from this place was not gamey because it is realistic (relatively speaking) that a city like Waterdeep would have something like this. Now if the same thing was found in a town of only a couple thousand people, unless there was a damn good flavour reason, then yes, that would be a fairly serious break with in-game realism.

Think of swords scaling up to magic swords and artefacts like guns scaling up to tanks and cruise missiles. An economy exists for cruise missiles. It's just not found at your local Gun Shop. If a PC rocks up at a suitable location such as aforementioned Ivory Tower and wants to buy a +3 flaming burst, sanctified Greatsword they should expect a lot of attention both welcome and unwelcome as they have basically just walked into an arms convention and announced they want to buy a battle-tank. PCs should be able to buy that stuff with their loot, they just shouldn't be unrestricted in what/how they buy.

What Renthar described is not a good way to deal with this problem though. You find a nice bit of kit that doesn't fit with what you want to do with your character and there's no way to sell it? Sorry? Do all the PCs suddenly start to smell when they go near a merchant? What kind of possible RP reason could there be for something like that? Something like that would really jar for me as a player. There's just no justifiable reason for it other than "It's a game" which strikes at the very root of tabletop roleplaying.

I'm not sure I get it.  If I understand the situation correctly, the DM is frustrated that some of the players can't/won't/don't optimize their items, which making it harder for the DM to balance encounters.  And optimizing items for those players is becoming too much of a hassle, so he just wants to nix items altogether? 

Inherent bonuses were already suggested, so how about this for a radical suggestion.  Do the exact opposite.  No, really.  Elect one of the players who doesn't mind handling items to become the party's item crafter and supplying the less savvy players with appropriate gear, and replace more of the item rewards with crafting reagents.  In general, distributing tasks is a great way of lightening a DM's load and getting players more involved.  And in this particular case, it would take much of the burden of item distribution off of the DM's shoulders.  As well, coming up with interesting description for reagents and quest hooks for recipes and whatnot can be great RP fodder. 

And as for this inevitable counter:

May 24, 2012 -- 9:19PM, Renthar wrote:

Second, our DM is very big into RP and world continuity. He feels that our characters wouldn't really know about all of the different enchantments and items shown in the guides and as such wouldn't know to look for them.

I would argue that makes more sense that the characters would know about magic items.  If not specific enchantments, at least a decent working knowledge of possible enchantments.  Unless your DM's setting goes significantly against the grain, the characters do live in a world of magic and sorcery, and the influence of magic pervades the histories of kingdoms both current and past. 

Arcana would be the go-to for item knowledge in general since not only does it govern magical knowledge in general, it is the key skill that governs the Enchant Item ritual.  Followed closely by History for items with notable histories (the Adventure Vaults give lots of examples of items with significant lore behind them), as well as Religion and Nature, obviously.

And many items would even need specialized knowledge to be aware of their existences; At least enough to seek them out.  Even a child can figure out "Wizards casts fire.  Wizards enchant stuff.  Therefore, wizards can enchant stuff to be on fire!" Many items follow (and were probably originally conceived with) a similar line of reasoning.