Magic Items: Buying, Selling, and Crafting¶
Magic is rare and mysterious. Most magic items are not for sale, and even those that are cannot be bought as easily as a sword or a sack of grain. These rules cover the uncommon moments when magic can be bought or sold, or when a character crafts an item.
These rules are an alternative to the guidance found at Dungeon Master's Guide, pp. 128, 129, 135, 139, 141, and 284; Xanathar's Guide to Everything, pp. 128 and 133; Player's Handbook, pp. 154, 159; and the D&D Adventurers League Forgotten Realms DM's Guide, p. 3.
The table below gives, for each rarity, what a magic item is generally worth, what it costs to craft, and what a character needs to make one. The sections that follow explain how to buy, sell, and craft them.
| Rarity | Sale Value | Crafting Cost | Time | Min. Level | Material CR | Workshop | Formula |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Common | 100 gp | 50 gp | 1 workweek | 3rd | 1–3 | Basic | Uncommon |
| Uncommon | 400 gp | 200 gp | 2 workweeks | 3rd | 4–8 | Basic | Rare |
| Rare | 4,000 gp | 2,000 gp | 10 workweeks | 6th | 9–12 | Fine | Very rare |
| Very rare | 40,000 gp | 20,000 gp | 25 workweeks | 11th | 13–18 | Grand | Legendary |
| Legendary | 200,000 gp | 100,000 gp | 50 workweeks | 17th | 19+ | Legendary site | Unique* |
* Legendary items and artifacts are almost never for sale, and each requires an extremely rare, one-of-a-kind formula rather than one simply a step higher in rarity.
For a consumable magic item, halve the sale value, the crafting cost, and the time. Potions of healing and spell scrolls are consumables with their own rules, given below. All crafting also demands certain proficiencies, described in that section.
Buying, selling, or crafting magic items, or the sale of spells, is likely to create rumors, especially as rarity increases.
Buying Magic Items¶
Magic items—especially powerful ones—are not generally sold in shops. A character may be able to buy a common item, though the seller may ask for a service instead of coin.
Rarer items may be bought only where the wealthy gather, such as a large city. If such an item is for sale, it costs its full value, and as much as one and a half times that value when demand is high or the seller knows the buyer is desperate.
Selling Magic Items¶
Selling a magic item takes time. At the DM's discretion, a character can sell one item at a time to an NPC by spending one workweek and 25 gp to spread word of the sale, and then making a Charisma (Persuasion) check. This can be done only in a city.
| Persuasion Check | Offer |
|---|---|
| 1–10 | Half the item's value |
| 11–24 | The item's full value |
| 25 or higher | One and a half times the value |
Crafting a Magic Item¶
A character can make a magic item, meeting every requirement shown for its rarity in the table above:
- A formula, itself a magic item one step higher in rarity than the item it creates (a legendary item requires a unique formula all its own).
- The minimum level for the item's rarity.
- The ability to cast any spell the item can produce, proficiency in the Arcana skill, and proficiency with the appropriate crafting tools.
- An exotic material, such as a scale from a specific dragon or water from an elemental plane, taken from or guarded by a creature of the listed challenge rating.
- A workshop suited to the item's rarity (see Workshops, below).
The character pays the crafting cost over the listed time, working eight hours a day. If the item produces a spell, the character must expend one spell slot of that spell's level for each day of work and have the spell's material components on hand; components the spell consumes are used up as the item is made.
A consumable magic item other than a potion of healing or a spell scroll is crafted by these same rules at half the cost and half the time. Potions of healing and spell scrolls follow the rules below.
Helpers¶
Others can help craft an item or brew a potion. Each helper must have the required proficiencies and, for a magic item, meet the minimum level. Additional workers divide the time: two finish in half the time, three in a third, and so on, up to a limit set by the item's size—a ring might allow only one or two hands, a suit of armor several. The cost is unchanged. Scribing a scroll cannot be shared; it is always the work of a single caster.
Workshops¶
All crafting requires a suitable, permanent workshop. A basic workshop—a bench, a small forge, a writing desk—costs 200 gp and serves for common and uncommon items, potions of healing and greater healing, and scrolls up to 3rd level. A fine workshop, a well-equipped laboratory or forge, costs 1,000 gp and handles rare items, superior healing potions, and 4th- and 5th-level scrolls. A grand workshop, stocked with rare arcane apparatus, costs 5,000 gp and is needed for very rare items, supreme healing potions, and 6th- through 8th-level scrolls; such a place can usually be established only in a city with an academy of magic or a great temple. The legendary site required for a legendary item or a 9th-level scroll—a wondrous forge, a nexus of raw magic—cannot simply be bought and must be found or crafted.
Scribing a Spell Scroll¶
A spellcaster can scribe a scroll of any spell he has known or prepared. Scribing needs no formula and no exotic material, but the character must have proficiency in the Arcana skill, an appropriate workshop, and any material components the spell requires. Scribing is always the work of a single caster.
| Spell Level | Sale Value | Scribe Cost | Time | Min. Level | Workshop |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cantrip | 25 gp | 15 gp | 1 day | 1st | Basic |
| 1st | 50 gp | 25 gp | 1 workweek | 1st | Basic |
| 2nd | 200 gp | 100 gp | 2 workweeks | 3rd | Basic |
| 3rd | 400 gp | 200 gp | 3 workweeks | 5th | Basic |
| 4th | 2,000 gp | 1,000 gp | 4 workweeks | 7th | Fine |
| 5th | 4,000 gp | 2,000 gp | 6 workweeks | 9th | Fine |
| 6th | 20,000 gp | 10,000 gp | 8 workweeks | 11th | Grand |
| 7th | 40,000 gp | 20,000 gp | 16 workweeks | 13th | Grand |
| 8th | 60,000 gp | 30,000 gp | 25 workweeks | 15th | Grand |
| 9th | 100,000 gp | 50,000 gp | 50 workweeks | 17th | Legendary site |
Reading a spell scroll requires the spell to be on the reader's class spell list; a cantrip scroll works as if cast by a 1st-level caster. A wizard can copy a spell from a scroll into a spellbook; doing so destroys the scroll.
Brewing a Potion of Healing¶
A character proficient with an herbalism kit can brew a potion of healing without a formula or an exotic material, using an herbalism kit and a workshop suited to the potion's rarity (see Workshops).
| Potion | Time | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Potion of healing | 1 workweek | 50 gp |
| Potion of greater healing | 2 workweeks | 200 gp |
| Potion of superior healing | 4 workweeks | 2,000 gp |
| Potion of supreme healing | 8 workweeks | 20,000 gp |
Spellcasting Services¶
Hiring someone to cast a common spell, such as cure wounds or identify, is not uncommon. Higher-level spells are harder to find—often requiring travel to a city, an academy, or a great temple—and cost far more. The prices below are a guide.
| Spell Level | Cost |
|---|---|
| 1st | 20 gp |
| 2nd | 50 gp |
| 3rd | 100 gp |
| 4th | 200 gp |
| 5th | 450 gp |
| 6th | 1,000 gp |
| 7th | 3,000 gp |
| 8th | 6,000 gp |
| 9th | 10,000 gp |
The buyer must supply any expensive material component the spell requires, such as the 500 gp diamond consumed by raise dead. In place of coin, or in addition to it, a caster may demand a favor, a service, or a quest, and is more likely to do so as the spell's level rises. The most powerful spells are seldom cast for money alone.