Equipment

The marketplace of a large city teems with buyers and sellers of many sorts: smiths and woodcarvers, farmers and jewelers... In the largest cities, almost anything imaginable is offered for sale, from exotic spices and luxurious clothing to wicker baskets and practical swords.

For an adventurer, the availability of armor, weapons, backpacks, rope, and similar goods is of paramount importance, since proper equipment can mean the difference between life and death in a dungeon or the untamed wilds. This page describes some of the commonly available equipment in any city.

### Starting Equipment

When you create your character, you receive equipment based on a combination of your class and background. You'll find those details in your class or background, respectively. You decide how your character came by this starting equipment. It might have been an inheritance, or goods that the character purchased during their upbringing. You might have been equipped with a weapon, armor, and a backpack as part of military service. You might even have stolen your gear. A weapon could be a family heirloom, passed down from generation to generation until your character finally took up the mantle and followed in an ancestor’s adventurous footsteps.

### Coins

Coins come in several denominations. Most prices are listed in terms of their gold piece (gp) cost, but most common folk use silver pieces (sp) in their day-to-day lives. A silver piece is a day laborer's standard wage, and will buy a good amount of supplies or a night's stay in a poor inn. Merchants and nobles often discuss prices or contracts in terms of gold pieces, but instead of trading in hundreds or thousands of coins, they might barter for services or goods that have equivalent value.

A standard coin weighs a third of an ounce, so fifty coins weighs a pound. Here you'll find a table of conversions for each type of coin.

## Selling Equipment or Treasure

Opportunities abound to find treasure, equipment, weapons, armor, and more in the dungeons you explore. Normally, you can sell your treasures and trinkets when you return to a town or other settlement, provided that you can find buyers and merchants interested in your loot.

 As a general rule, undamaged weapons, armor, and other equipment fetch half their cost when sold in a market. Weapons and armor used by monsters are rarely in good enough condition to sell.

 Selling magic items is problematic. Finding someone to buy a potion or a scroll isn’t too hard, but many other items are out of the price range of all but the wealthiest nobles or guilds. Likewise, aside from a few common magic items, you won’t normally come across magic items or spells to purchase. The value of magic is far beyond simple gold and should always be treated as such.

 These items retain their full value in the marketplace, and you can either trade them in for coin or use them as currency for other transactions. For exceptionally valuable treasures, the DM might require you to find a buyer in a large town or larger community first.

 On the borderlands, many people conduct transactions through barter. Like gems and art objects, trade goods — bars of iron, bags of salt, livestock, and so on — retain their full value in the market and can be used as currency.

## Armor and Weapons

See Armor and Weapons for rules concerning this equipment. For pricing, see the Price Reference Page.

## Equipment Packs

The starting equipment you get from your class includes a collection of useful adventuring gear, put together in a pack. The contents of these packs are listed here. If you are buying your starting equipment, you can purchase a pack for the price shown, which might be cheaper than buying the items individually.

## Other Gear

 Classes
 Equipment
 Worldbuilding