Little Shop of Horrors: 3 Rules for Running D&D Magic Item Stores

Come one, come all, to the greatest magic item shop on Earth! 

Should your players be able to buy magical items in your campaign? It’s not a new question for DM’s, and believe me, I understand that plenty of DMs feel very strongly against this. However, I ask you to hear me out because this has worked beautifully in many of my previous campaigns, including the one I’m running now. 

I will briefly analyze how a magic item shop fits into your game and how you may want to execute it in three easy steps! (More or less …)

A “Choose Your Own Treasure” Adventure

One of the topics we hit in our podcast recently was what are some of the ways that the players should be able to use their hard-earned gold from adventuring. After all, what is the point of slaying a dragon and taking its horde if you have nothing to spend it on?

The Player’s Handbook (PHB) provides a framework for ordinary transactions, but what if one (or all) of your players isn’t interested in buying a castle or a war galley? This is why I suggest allowing players to purchase magical items, and I will explain how it can be done without turning your campaign into a train wreck. 

If you are running a campaign in a setting like Ravenloft or somewhere else that would be considered a low-magic world, then this concept is probably not a good fit. If you are running a “medium magic” world, you can have magical items available for sale, but in a limited scope. Perhaps a large temple in town would sell a few healing potions, or the wizard’s college or thieves’ guild has a few items they would sell to their more elite members, but even these would have a limited selection at best. Perhaps you could get some magical assistance from a powerful patron, but don’t ever expect to walk into town and buy a magic staff.

Now, in a higher magic world like the ones I tend to use, a magic item shop can create a unique opportunity for both yourself as the DM and the players. It allows you to choose what items go in the shop (and thus the campaign), set the prices and then let players determine who gets what.

However, I wouldn’t introduce an item shop at the launch of your game. I would wait until the party has got some XP and coins under their belts, then roll it out as a tool to add some depth to the world. 

With that said, here are three steps I recommend when setting up your magic item shop to make sure this opportunity doesn’t turn your campaign into a bad game show that won’t get renewed for a second season. 

1. Listen to Your Players 

I know this sounds like advice on the same level as, “put one pant leg on at a time.” However, your players will do most of the leg work for you by letting you know cool items they’d like to see in your game.

Also, without beating a dead horse, we can’t ignore that you need to know the room your performance is being held in. I definitely wouldn’t roll something like this out without a fairly good idea on how well it may go over with the players: Either they’ll love it or hate, and in my experience, it’s seldom anything in the middle.

However, if you do this right, it’s something that will be very well-received and even become a cornerstone of the style of a game you’re running. 

2: Find Your Balance

Consider how this will impact your game economy and how your players see gold in terms of rewards. 

I recommend setting baseline pricing for the more common magical items, such as healing potions or +1 magic weapons. This will help you price out where you want the more exotic things in your item shop to land in terms of pricing. 

Also, you should consider where these magical items are available: Are you creating one great and magical store, or are these mystical bobbles spread out all over your campaign world. Personally, I dread having to search every store in a town in even a video game, let alone trying to run a whole party that’s each trying to do a separate shopping trip. That’s why I recommend only having a few locations in your setting where such purchases are possible. 

3. Choose Your Items Wisely 

The magic item shop gives you an amazing opportunity to pick what items will be available in your campaign.

Now, as we covered in the podcast, if you’re going to make Excalibur available in your game world, I wouldn’t put it in the store. However, I would put items in the store that will help them get it. Also, I have introduced items that are way above any individual player’s ability to purchase. The party can then decide if they want to put all their coins together to get something really cool for one player, or if they will need to save their copper pieces.

This spares you, as a DM, the agony of picking treasure and constantly balancing things to your players. And, let’s be honest, it’s not always easy to pick out rewards for your party members without leaving someone underwhelmed or feeling like they got the short end of the stick compared to another player.

What I’ve Learned

If you are doing this correctly, then you have created a powerful motivation for your players. For me, it’s generated a drive in my party for them to go forth, adventure and collect raw coins and gems so each player can get that one special thing they want. This can also tie into character customization and optimizing, as long as one of your players’ goals isn’t to have an armor class of 38.

A word of caution: I would make this store harder to rob than fort Knox if Halaster Black Cloak was the head of security. 

Final Thoughts

Your magic item shop and its proprietor(s) deserve an interesting backstory.

How this concept is received by your group depends largely on two factors:

1. Is there a plausible explanation for why someone has access to such rare and arcane objects? Otherwise, your players might as well be buying their gear from the infamous Acme catalog. (Insert Wile Coyote joke here.)
2. Even in a high-magic environment, limit the selection and don’t be afraid to price things out of the players’ reach. But at the same time, don’t turn the shop into the dollar store or make everything so overpriced that it’s all impossible to obtain.

With that in mind, my inventory list has a wide variety of items ranging from inexpensive ones as simple as healing potions to expensive legendary items like a Staff of Power.

An Example: Elios’s Magic Item Shop

This magical emporium is run by Elios the mysterious wizard, and it is located in the sky, in a place where the party had to find an airship to come across it. Thus, it’s been affectionately dubbed The Sky Mall in my game.

I have cloaked Elios’s backstory in mystery, but he comes off as this campaign world’s version of Merlin. However, as I have alluded to, this NPC does have a backstory that could one day be discovered by the players.

Finally, Elios is attended by more than enough iron golem servants to deter the party from even thinking about robbing his fine establishment.

Elios refuses to haggle on his prices and only buys obviously valuable items or magical items. He buys these on store credit at half the price he would sell them for. 

Below is a sample inventory list that I used in my game. I introduced this location when the party was around level 7 and each player had, individually, about 4,400 GP – enough that they could pull together to afford one item from almost the most expensive rank, but individually could only buy about halfway up the list.

Please use this shop and enjoy, and don’t be afraid to comment. Should more or fewer items be available at this magical emporium? Anything I’m crazy to have in there? Anything I should put in for future games? 

100 GP Each

• Level 1 Wizard spell scroll – any spell from the PHB
• Fine clothes in any style, size and type within reason. 

250 GP Each

• Level 2 Wizard spell scroll – any spell from the PHB 

500 GP Each

• Elixir of health – cures disease and clears status conditions (5 available)
• Potion of Diminution 
• Potion of Fire Breath 
• Potion of Speed – acts as a Haste spell 
• Potion of Climbing 
• Potion of Force resistance 
• Potion of Vitality 
• Potions of Greater Healing 4d4+4 (3 available)

750 GP Each

• Level 3 Wizard spell scroll – select spells available
  • Protection From Energy 
  • Stinking Cloud 
  • Major Image 
  • Non Detection 
  • Haste 
  • Gaseous Form 
  • Remove Curse
  • Slow 
  • Water Breathing 

1,000 GP Each

• 12 +1 bolts (2 available) 
• 12 +1 arrows (2 available)
• +1 Battle axe 
• +1 Hammer 
• +1 Longsword 
• +1 Staff 
• +1 Spear 

1,500 GP Each

• Level 4 Wizard Spell Scroll – select spells available 
  • Confusion 
  • Control Water 
  • Fire Shield 
  • Wall of Fire 
  • Stone Shape 
  • Greater Invisibility 
• +1 Javelin of Returning 
• +1 Hand Axe of Returning 
• +1 Concealable long knife with retractable blade that does the same damage as a short sword (1d6 piercing, light)
• +1 Studded leather armor 

2,000 GP Each

• Level 5 Wizard Spell Scrolls – select spells available 
  • Cone of Cold 
  • Cloud Kill 
  • Passwall 
  • Telekenies 
  • Wall of Force 
• +1 Steel metal round shield 
• +1 Throwing Hammer of Returning (same range as light hammer)
• +1 Throwing Battle Axe of Returning (same range as hand axe)
• +1 Scale mail 

2,500 GP Each

• +1 Chain mail 

3,000 GP Each

• One clue: The wizard shows you a locked small chest made of metal and wood covered with eyes that look at everyone suspiciously. Inside is a relevant piece of information that hasn’t been discovered by the party (or was missed). 

3,500 GP Each

• Potion of Longevity
• Rope of Climbing 
• Boots of False tracks 
• Bag of Holding (smallest size) 
• Level 6 Wizard Spell Scrolls – select spells available (DM’s choice)

4,000 GP Each

• Ring of the Ram 
• Cloak of Protection 

7,000 GP Each

• Gauntlets of Ogre Power 
• Ring of Evasion 
• Necklace of Adaptation 

12,000 GP Each

• Wings of Flying 
• Wand of Fireballs 
• Mace of Disruption 

20,000 GP Each

• Book of Knowledge: +2 to any attribute up to a max of 30 

30,000 GP Each

• Longsword of Sharpness 
• Staff of Power