So, as Morgoth, my little wizard, looked over our parties recent treasure haul from our last adventure, we had a Longsword +2, (common item) that nobody wanted. So I went to sell it. Well, common items sell for 20%, ergo it’s price of 1800gp was going to be cut down to 360gp which is sort of sad considering it’s a magic item. Then, a thought occured to me what if I disenchant the item for residuum? Well again it yeilds 20% since the item is common.
Then an epiphany!
The Enchant Magic Item Ritual allows you to upgrade an existing item for the difference in cost. So the Longsword +2 it worth 1800gp. To create a Pact Sword +2 takes an 800GP investment. (Total cost of the new sword = 2600gp) The kicker is that a Pact Sword +2 is an Uncommon Item! So now you have an Uncommon item worth 2600gp. With the Disenchant Magic Item Ritual, you can turn a magic item to Residuum as I noted previously. Uncommon items are converted into 50% of their cost. So by disenchanting the Pact Sword +2, you yeild 1300GP worth of Residuum!!! Which can be used or sold for an equal amount of gold. You just made a 500GP profit for several hours work plus the cost of the disenchantment!
So, those uncommon plus weapons are now a good way to make some GP/Residuum in order to be used to craft items of greater power!!!
So crafters of the World rejoice!
It’s an imaginative idea, I’ll give you that, but I don’t think this is what the good folks at Wizards had in mind when they reclassified the items to common, uncommon and rare. In fact I’d go so far as to argue that DMs can and do have veto power when it comes to upgrading common items to uncommon or rare items. I think you might talk a DM into allowing this once, but after that don’t be surprised if your DM disallows it. Full points for creativity though.
True, I’m sorry, but part of my satire is tounge in cheek. I find it ironic this “loophole” was left open to be honest. If there is one thing I’m not a huge fan of in 4E, it’s how magic items work. I understand it, but it’s not my favorite part. They’ve already retracted the original method of X daily uses per milestone. Which is a good thing, and the common, uncommon, rare classification helps a little bit, but there’s still work to be done in my opinion….. Thanks for posting Ameron!
Eh, the PHB Rituals & Enchant Item rules are incompatible with the Essentials Common/Uncommon/Rare item system. Do not use together.
Depends on yer DM… =P
They also need to revise the magic items imho. I miss the old treasure tables. Rolling for treasure was always fun.
Seriously, they’re incompatible! Essentials stuff about selling Uncommons for 50% cannot be used alongside Disenchant Item ritual to give you 50% of an item’s value in Residuum! You need to stick with one ruleset or the other there.
My personal preference is to use Rituals, Disenchant gives 20%, but have some items sellable for more than 20%, and some items not easily purchasable.
Do you have a D&D insider account? I can’t check mine atm. Damn network block.
But check under Enchant Magic Item Ritual, unless it got a later errata, I could have sworn it was good with it.
Since I just posted that players are financially disadvantaged in some ways, I don’t think a little extra gp will break the game. I could be wrong as I haven’t spent the time to do various calculations on the matter.
If anything, I’d probably rather have a player be THIS invested in their character and the game than someone that doesn’t remember which items or powers they have. And I want a Morgoth in MY adventuring party!
Truth be told… this trick only works up to a certain point. It’s not viable going from uncommon to rare either as the investment gets way too steep. As a DM the easy fix is don’t hand out common magic items. But throwing a bone or two once in a while is cool. After all, someone somewhere down the line is making a profit on magic items, why not a PC?
A nice idea, but you can’t actually do that. The update for Adventurer’s Vault changed it so that you cannot turn a +x magic item into a +x something item. So you can’t, in fact, upgrade a +2 magic weapon into a +2 pact blade.
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