From: kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov
Subject: Magic Shops
Originator: kjenks@gothamcity
Keywords: Shops
Organization: NASA/JSC/GM2, Space Shuttle Program Office
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 23:17:40 GMT

Given the rules for magic item identification, how can a magic shop operate?  

There are no spells which allow the caster to identify the exact
bonuses on a magical weapon or armor or the exact number of charges in
a rod/staff/wand, yet the proprietor always seems to know:
  1) the exact numbers on every item he has in his shop 
  2) the exact numbers on every item I bring into the shop
  3) when I'm lying

This isn't localized to one DM; most of them seem to handle it the same
way.  And it isn't limited to a shop which SELLS items; if I find an
item in the field and bring it into town to sell (for gold, experience,
etc.) I always seem to run across some bozo who knows exactly what it
is and exactly what it's worth.

What's to prevent player and non-player characters from cheating
each other blind?  "Honest, I got this +3 sword from my Uncle Kaboom,
who enchanted it himself.  He cast Enchanted Weapon three times."  

AD&D1 Bards help; their Item Knowledge could do an absolute ID.  
(Maybe, depending on how you read the rules.)  But that was pretty
darned unreliable -- at least as unreliable as the Bards themselves.
The time limit in Identify is too short to be useful, and it
occasionally gives false readings.

But in AD&D2, there seems to be no way to get a positive ID on an item.

There is a hard way to identify the magical bonuses on a weapon.  If
it can hurt a flesh golem, but not an elemental, it's +1.  If it can
hurt an elemental, but not an iron golem, it's +2.  If it can hurt
an iron golem, why are you trying to sell it in the first place?
Perhaps the well-established magic shop would have a flesh golem,
a stone golem, a clay golem and an iron golem, just for testing
weapons.  (How would you distinguish +3 from +4 or +5?  Or are all
of the +4 and +5 weapons on your world so legendary that there could
be no mistaking one?  If so, what's the legend?  And what about
forgeries?)

But how can you test magic armor?  We'd have to assume that neither
player nor non-player characters have access to armor class tables and
to-hit scores, so we can't really determine the values numerically
or statistically.

If you're a 14th level fighter who's been ID'ing items for years, you
would probably be able to distinguish a shield +3 from +1 with a little
sparring practice.  But could you tell +2 from +1?

And who's going to test those nasty miscellaneous items, especially
books?  I wouldn't want to be the first one to open that dusty old
tome you found in the lich's lair, even if the cleric's Augury spells
assure me it's OK.  The AD&D1 psionic ability, Precognition, would be
great here, but that's gotta be pretty rare.

Security is another big issue.  How could you possibly protect a magic
shop from a determined group of adventurers?  The old "barbarian guard
in the corner, with a crossbow at the ready" wouldn't intimidate a
properly prepared 5th level party, much less somebody high level.  

I can understand a thriving business in potions and scrolls (they're
easier to make, easier to ID, more portable, and have a larger demand
than armor, weapons and misc. items).  I can understand most rings
(protection being the exception).  But how can a shop keeper make
a profit?

My solution: there are never any items available in the shop, only
pictures of items.  A trade is brokered through a reputable, high level
cleric (who gets a cut, of course), usually a cleric of Hermes.  All
items are identified as best they can be, and swords are identified
by using a wizard's Detect Magic and comparing against known "controls"
(+1 longsword, +2 longsword, +1 shortsword, etc.).  Any item which
can't be identified positively garners a miserable price in the
open market.  And everyone who attempts to buy and sell magic items
gains the immediate attention of all sorts of disreputable characters.

Why would anybody run a shop with those kinds of problems?
And if nobody would run such a shop, how would a PC go about selling
an unknown magic item in town?

If anybody has a well-written, detailed description of a magic
shop and how it operates, I'd love to see it.  If it relies on
research spells for positive ID, I'd like to see a spell write-up.

-- Ken Jenks, NASA/JSC/GM2, Space Shuttle Program Office
      kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov  (713) 483-4368

     "Good ideas are common -- what's uncommon are people who'll
      work hard enough to bring them about." -- Ashleigh Brilliant