West Marshes - Magic Items

Magic items are made using "shares" of arcane components. These are things such as rare, magical metals and acids, or extracts from magical creatures. Powdered unicorn horns, dragon's blood, basilisk venom, things like that.

These materials have magical energy which is transferred to, and shaped by, the ritual caster in the creation of a magic item.

Each level of magic item needs a certain amount shares. There's no easily explained progression for the amount it needs, other than it sort of increases not quite by half from the amount needed for the previous level.

One share costs 50 nobles. This is both the price the players pay when buying it from others, and the price they can sell it for.

Residuum weighs more than as given in the PHB. One share of residuum weighs 1/50th of a pound, or about the same as two cents (which are, in turn, the size and weight of modern US pennies). This means a pound of residuum, 50 shares, is worth the same as pound of gold, which is worth 2500 nobles. Gold and residuum are both rare and valuable, and both are used as trade currency when dealing with especially large amounts.

When you disenchant a magic item, or use a ritual to convert magical components into residuum, you get it as small, 1/50th pound lumps, rather than powder. These lumps are often minted into coins, slightly larger than a rupee and worth half a crown. When buying ritual components (something only possible in the largest of cities), you're much more likely to find people (a person, usually) selling residuum coins rather than raw materials.

When reading these prices, keep a few things in mind: two gold coins (200 nobles) is more money than many master craftsmen make in a year. Collecting enough magical components to create a level 15 magic item would be hundreds of thousands of man-hours (assuming non-adventurers) of dangerous work, hunting magical creatures or harvesting rare substances from dangerous areas. Wealthy nobility and kingdoms might be able to afford magic items for themselves, but certainly no army would be equipped with issued magic items.

Adventurers are very lucky indeed, to find such fantastic treasures.

Level |	Shares |	Value |	Shares From Disenchant
1	5	250	1
2	7	350	1
3	9	450	2
4	12	600	2
5	14	700	3
6	25	1,250	5
7	36	1,800	7
8	47	2,350	9
9	58	2,900	12
10	69	3,450	14
11	125	6,250	25
12	181	9,050	36
13	236	11,800	47
14	292	14,600	58
15	347	17,350	69