Players can spend downtime searching for specific magic items. This is done using two rolls, one to locate the item and one to negotiate the price.
Ability rolls to find and buy a magic item can't add temporary bonuses to your roll (such as Bardic Inspiration or Guidance) because the rolls represent the entire time spent.
This activity involves locating a vendor selling the item with rarity affecting difficulty and investment options providing bonuses.
Locating a vendor requires a successful Investigation or Arcana check along with 100gp (for expenses) and a minimum of one week of downtime. The DC is determined by the rarity of the item.
Rarity | DC | Availability |
|---|---|---|
Common | 10 | Village (Phandalin) |
Uncommon | 15 | Town (Leilon) |
Rare | 20 | City (Waterdeep) |
Very Rare | 25 | Metropolis (Neverwinter) |
Legendary | 30 | Special quest/vendor |
Players can invest additional time or money to gain bonuses on the "Locate a Vendor" roll.
Gain +2 for every additional 250gp
Gain +2 for every additional week of downtime
For example, let's say the player is looking for a Rare item. They spend an additional week of time and an extra 500 gp. This results in a total of 600 gp and 2 weeks of downtime providing a +4 bonus on the roll.
Players may not use guidance or accept Help actions from other players.
The dungeon master determines the base price for the magic item using the table below. While it is based on a standard pricing per rarity roll, the DM may add additional variance as desired.
See Magic Item Pricing to get base price for located items.
Secondly the player has the opportunity to persuade the vendors to reduce their price. The roll a Persuasion check.
DC | Discount |
|---|---|
12 | 5% |
14 | 10% |
16 | 15% |
18 | 20% |
20 | 25% |
There is, of course, a chance that the item the player is looking for will not be found, even with a large investment. If this were to happen it would be nice to offer the player alternative items that were found during the search.
To provide alternatives, offer the player 1d4 items from the Magic Items Table one lesser than the item they were searching for. The base price and negotiated discounts work as before.
Homebrew