Pricing Magic Items - Part 5
Header Art: Dungeon Master’s Guide by Wizards of the Coast
For the final spreadsheet, check out Part 8.
I am back to continue our progress on pricing magic items! In case you missed the previous ones, you can find them here…
Part 1 / Item Rarity, Restoring HP with a Consumable, Damage with Consumable (no save), Damage with Consumable (with save), Magic Weapons
Part 2 / Spell Levels & Spell Scrolls, Conditions with a Save
Part 3 / Permanent Items, Magical Enhancements, Armor Class
Part 4 / Items with Semi-Permanent Damage, Permanent Damage, Increase Ability Scores
Part 5 / Pricing out the “A” items in the Dungeon Master’s Guide
Part 6 / Pricing of the first 100 items
Part 7 / Pricing all of Dungeon Master’s Guide and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
Part 8 / Pricing all of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, the most up-to-date sheet
With those categories completed, we have finished the bulk of ‘generic’ statistics we need to start pricing out all of the items in the Dungeon Master’s Guide… except for a handful like artifacts. There are also some that are going to be quite tricky to work out, like the wand of wonder, but that’s a future me problem. That item starts with a “W” and I’m going to begin this list of items, and their prices, at “A”… and of course, the first item is already going to give me problems…
Adamantine Armor
Rare materials don’t have a price, nor is there a spell we can lean on to help in regards to canceling critical hits - but all is not lost. There is a 6th level Knowledge domain for the Cleric that allows you to turn crits into normal hits. We can lean on that but knowing, if you are a 6th level Cleric, you have access to 3rd level spells - which means that adamantine armor has roughly the same power level, but made permanent… and it only works on the person wearing the armor.
The way the pricing for this will work will be the base cost of the armor plus 300 gp (cost of a 3rd level spell) multiplied by 10 (for permanency) and then multiply all that by the rarity (x1.5).
Adamantine Chain Shirt (50 gp (base cost) + (300 (3rd level spell) * 10 (permanency))) * 1.5 (rarity) = 4,575 gp
Adam. Scale Mail (50 gp + (300 * 10)) * 1.5 = 4,575 gp
Adam. Breastplate (400 gp + (300 * 10)) * 1.5 = 5,100 gp
Adam. Half Plate (750 gp + (300 * 10)) * 1.5 = 5,625 gp
Adam. Ring Mail (30 gp + (300 * 10)) * 1.5 = 4,545 gp
Adam. Chain Mail (75 gp + (300 * 10)) * 1.5 = 4,612.5 gp
Adam. Splint (200 gp + (300 * 10)) * 1.5 = 4,800 gp
Adam. Plate (1500 gp + (300 * 10)) * 1.5 = 6,750 gp
Alchemy Jug
This is an oddball item, and is going to be fairly cheap EXCEPT for the fact if you get enough of them in one area… it can cause some problems with economics. A common pitcher of wine is 2 sp, so we’ll say that that is roughly the same volume as a bottle of fine wine. There are five bottles of wine per gallon, so that is only 1 gp worth of wine in the alchemy jug. Even if we say the wine is good, that is only 50 gp worth of wine in the alchemy jug per day. We could multiply that amount by permanency and rarity, but that only gets us to 750 gp - which… maybe that is enough?
It’s kind of a weird item. It has next to no impact on mechanics, but feels weird to say an infinite supply of mayonnaise is south of 1,000 gp. I’ve seen some other magic item guides price it as high as 6,000 gp - so some people go really far with its price (pry to stop adventurers from leaving a life of adventuring and just mass producing vinegar).
This item is going to be based on the create food and water spell, that’s the closest I feel like that this jug kind of does. It can’t do food and water every day, but I think that’s OK.
Alchemy Jug (300 gp (3rd level spell) * 10 (permanency) * 1.1 (because anyone can use it convenience tax) * 1.5 (rarity) = 4,950 gp
Ammunition, +1, +2, or +3
The price of these are going to be based off of the 2nd-level spell, magic weapon - BUT! Because this is only a one-time use effect, I am going to halve the cost of the final product. This isn’t like a spell scroll where the effects last for more than a single attack, and so otherwise, it’d just be too expensive.
Ammunition, +1 (270 gp (lv2 spell) * 1.1 (convenience tax)) * 1.5 (rarity) = 445 gp / 2 = 222 gp
Ammunition, +2 (900 gp (lv4 spell) * 1.1) * 2 (rarity) = 1,980 gp / 2 = 990 gp
Ammunition, +3 (2,520 gp (lv6 spell) * 1.1) * 3 (rarity) = 8,316 gp / 2 = 4,158 gp
Amulet of Health
We figured this out last time, but here is the price again. As a reminder, there is no convenience tax for this because it requires attunement.
Amulet of Health 630gp (lv5 spell) * 10 [+1+2+3+4 (cumulative modifiers)] * 2 (rarity) = 12,600 gp
Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location
This item is just the 3rd level nondetection spell, but is permanent. At first, I was going to multiply it by x10 like all other permanent items… but nondetection already lasts for 8 hours. So really, it just has 3 charges a day, which is what I am going to use for its cost.
Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location 300 gp*6 (4+1*2)*1.5 = 2,700 gp
Amulet of the Planes
Man… talk about a broken item. While it does require a DC 15 Intelligence check to make it work properly, it is unlimited so it doesn’t really matter if you fail cause you can just spend an action to retry again. Not much awfulness is going to affect you in just six seconds unless you spawn your team inside of the fiery volcanoes of Gehenna. So, this will just be a permanent 7th level spell as a very rare item.
Amulet of the Planes 3,240 gp (lv7 spell) * 10 (permanency) * 3 (rarity) = 97,200 gp
Animated Shield
This shield, to me, just seems like it is the shield of faith spell, except you don’t have to worry about concentration and it only lasts for 1 minute before you have to activate it again. Since it requires attunement, no convenience tax.
Animated Shield 90 gp (lv1 spell) * 10 (permanency) * 3 (rarity) = 2,700 gp
Apparatus of Kwalish
This is a vehicle, not a magic item. According to the PHB, a galley is 30,000 gp and a warship is 25,000 gp. So, I guess something like that?
Armor, +1, +2, or +3
We’ve gone over armor enhancements, but we can go ahead and do it again now.
+1 Armor 900 gp (+1 AC) * 2 (rarity) * 1.1 (convenience fee) = 1,980 gp
+2 Armor 900 gp (+1 AC) * 3 (1[bonus]+2[bonus]) * 1.1 * 3 (rarity) = 8,910 gp
+3 Armor 900 gp (+1 AC) * 6 (1+2[bonus]+3[bonus]) * 1.1 * 5 (rarity) = 29,700 gp
Though with that said, it does mean that a +3 plate is the same price as +3 ring mail… which seems a bit ridonkulous. Instead, we will say that you need to add the cost of the armor into the price as well.
+1 Leather 900 gp (+1 AC) * 2 (rarity) * 1.1 (convenience fee) +10 gp = 1,990 gp
+1 Chain Shirt 900 gp (+1 AC) * 2 (rarity) * 1.1 (convenience fee) +50 gp = 2,030 gp
+1 Breastplate 900 gp (+1 AC) * 2 (rarity) * 1.1 (convenience fee) +400 gp = 2,380 gp
+1 Plate 900 gp (+1 AC) * 2 (rarity) * 1.1 (convenience fee) +1500 gp = 3,480 gp+2 Leather 900 gp (+1 AC) * 3 (modifier) * 1.1 * 3 (rarity) +10 gp = 8,920 gp
+2 Chain Shirt 900 gp (+1 AC) * 3 (modifier) * 1.1 * 3 (rarity) +50 gp = 8,960 gp
+2 Breastplate 900 gp (+1 AC) * 3 (modifier) * 1.1 * 3 (rarity) +400 gp = 9,310 gp
+2 Plate 900 gp (+1 AC) * 3 (modifier) * 1.1 * 3 (rarity) +1500 gp = 10,410 gp+3 Leather 900 gp (+1 AC) * 6 (modifier) * 1.1 * 5 (rarity) +10 gp = 29,710 gp
+3 Chain Shirt 900 gp (+1 AC) * 6 (modifier) * 1.1 * 5 (rarity) +50 gp = 29,750 gp
+3 Breastplate 900 gp (+1 AC) * 6 (modifier) * 1.1 * 5 (rarity) +400 gp = 30,100 gp
+3 Plate 900 gp (+1 AC) * 6 (modifier) * 1.1 * 5 (rarity) +1500 gp = 31,200 gp
Armor of Invulnerability
There isn’t really a spell that gives you resistance to all nonmagical damage except gaseous form, and that leaves you in a useless body. There is a stoneskin which is resistance to nonmagical bludgeon, pierce, and slashing damage and that is a level higher at 4th level. You also aren’t in a useless body. I think, we could safely assume that resistance to all nonmagical damage would be like a 5th-level spell effect.
But that’s only the permanent enchantment on this armor. You can also use an action and become immune to nonmagical damage for 10 minutes. The only spell that does something like that is the 9th-level invulnerability spell, but that is all types of damage. I think we can safely assume that immunity to nonmagical damage would be something like a 7th-level spell effect.
Armor of Invulnerability 1260 gp (lv5 spell) * 10 (permanency) + 3240 gp (lv7 spell) * 4 (one-use/day) * 5 (rarity) = 127,800 gp
Armor of Resistance
This item provides resistance to one type of damage, and is pretty close to absorb elements except you don’t get to deal extra damage. With that spell being 1st-level, I think that that is good enough for our baseline on the armor. Like before, we’ll add the cost of the armor in at the end of it all.
Leather, Armor of Resistance 90 gp (lv1 spell) * 10 (permanent) * 2 (rarity) + 10 gp (armor cost) = 1,810 gp
Chain Shirt, Armor of Resistance 90 gp * 10 * 2 + 50 gp = 1,850 gp
Breastplate, Armor of Resistance 90 gp * 10 * 2 + 400 gp = 2,200 gp
Plate, Armor of Resistance 90 gp * 10 * 2 + 1500 gp = 3,300 gp
Armor of Vulnerability
This is a cursed item, but if there was a version that wasn’t - it’d be the same cost as armor of resistance.
Arrow-Catching Shield
It’s a +2 shield plus you can force yourself to become the target of the attack. There isn’t really a spell for that, but I think we could list that out as a lv1 spell as it has some similarities to warding bond and similar spells.
Arrow-Catch Shield 900 gp (+1 AC) * 3 (cumulative bonus) + 90 gp (lv1 spell) * 10 (permanent) * 2 (rarity) = 7,200 gp
Arrow of Slaying
Finally, a magic item that isn’t just a spell. This deals extra damage on a hit against a specific target, as discussed in Part 1 - it’ll be 2.68 gp per point of average damage.
Arrow of Slaying 2.68 gp * 33 (average of 6d10) * 3 (rarity) = 265 gp
Conclusion
Whew, that was just all items that start with “A” in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. I’m going to end this post here as an example of everything that goes into pricing magic items. It’s going to take me more than a few weeks to go through every item in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, but I’m hoping that my next post will be to show off a useful spreadsheet that has the items listed and be done with this series.
If you are curious to see a work-in progress excel file, you can check it out here.
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