Introduction

Sane Magic Item Prices

Let’s talk about flying items. There are a few items which give the ability to fly in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Among the first are Winged Boots and the Broom of Flying. The boots give a fly speed equal to your walking speed for four hours per day, while the broom gives you a 50-foot fly speed all day long. Both are clearly powerful, yet both are uncommon and cost only 500 gp under the rarity-based pricing guidelines.

Wings of Flying give you a 60-foot fly speed for one hour, followed by a 1d12-hour cooldown. They are powerful, but usually less practical than the boots or broom. Nevertheless, they are rare and cost 5,000 gp—ten times as much.

Boots of Levitation let you cast Levitate at will, but only move you vertically, consume concentration, last ten minutes, and have a similar weight limit to the broom. They are also rare and cost 5,000 gp.

A Potion of Flying gives the same fly speed as Winged Boots, lasts one hour, and can be used only once. It is very rare and costs 50,000 gp—one hundred times as much as an item that provides the same effect four times every day forever.

When the red mists had receded and I was once again able to speak in words other than the incoherent babblings of a shattered mind, I set about fixing this.

DM README

Your world need not sell magic items for the prices in this compendium—or sell them at all. The primary purpose of these tables is to establish relative values so you can build a reasonably sane economy or quickly estimate the value of treasure. Adjust prices and availability as you wish, but tell your players before the game starts.

The list separates items according to the kind of impact they have on play:

• Consumables are used a set number of times, usually once, and then are gone.

• Combat items primarily make their users better at killing things or avoiding being killed.

• Noncombat items primarily solve problems in ways unrelated to killing.

• Summoning items call creatures that can fight or solve problems for their users.

• Gamechanging items can reshape how players engage with the world or alter the campaign world itself.

The prices are a tool, not an imposition. A GM may adjust individual items or whole categories, limit availability, use the values only for barter or treasure estimates, or keep the tables from players entirely.

Written by Saidoro. Price data includes later items transcribed from Merchant’s Sourcerous Rarities Pricelist. Original discussion: https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?424243-Sane-Magic-Item-Prices