Worrying About Magic Weapon Costs Isn’t Worthwhile

Finding actual magic weapon prices back in town can be a bit vague for DnD 5e so we thought we would share how DM Ben recently handled this “pricecheck on aisle five” for his players after a recent big payday.

Let’s start with the official guidance from the 5e Dungeon Masters Guide (pg. 135): If your DM allows it, the manual recommends about 500 gp for an uncommon item (example: +1 weapon) and 5,000 gp for a rare item (example: +2 weapon).

Seems simple enough, at least for level 1 enchanted weaponry. However, our group is constantly running Google searches on the fly, and when using the common phrase, “DnD 5e +1 Magic Weapon Cost,” we see a lot of resource websites and forum posts quoting 300 gp or a wider range of 100 to 500 gp. So the discrepancy kicked off a bit of a debate around the table.

Regardless, buying (and even selling) simple +1 magic weapons seems like it should be a lot easier. There are times when game rules are inadvertently too vague and to us, this feels like one of ’em. Just give it to us straight, WotC, and provide a table already. Then throw an asterisk under it that says, the DM can tweak these prices based on the town size/one’s discretion.

So why did this game table debate come up? Well, our office game group completed its first big mission (“The Fissure”) in the Acquisitions Incorporated DnD 5e module and swaggered back to Waterdeep, eager to spend those new-found gold pieces as fast as they could. Specifically, the party’s Barbarian wanted to acquire a +1 Glaive.

Now DM Ben doesn’t like a lot of rule chattering at the table which is something that goes up in volume when a lot of websites say different things against the WotC source materials. So he said he would simply send around the official stance via a group email after the sesh.

After some researching and pondering, the post-game email directive became simple enough, “A +1 weapon can indeed be found in the capital city of Waterdeep by a couple of weapon emporiums but the cost can go up or down depending on the weapon type…ex a more common longsword or dagger might go for 400-ish gp while something more like a glaive (which requires a big frame to wield/so it’s not widely made or sold) would be around 500 with an optional haggle roll.

Now the next thing DM Ben needed to do was give the player a place to buy it. Let’s start with the miniature and simple scatter terrain piece. This town transaction should be pretty tame as far as encounters go but this is 3D RPG after all so we need to put our best 3D-printed DnD foot forward!

Our miniature is by EC3D Designs and hails from their Everyday Folk Kickstarter series. The sword wrack is also from EC3D Designs and their Hero’s Hoard Blacksmith Workshop set. We like to increase the print size of some of the smaller STLs out there so that it’s a bit easier for everyone to see it from their seats.

Lastly, our weapon seller shop and proprietar needed some whimsical names: “The Pointy End” managed by a ratchety human called “Killian Scar” will do nicely here. DM Ben won’t add any other NPC key ingredients like a face card unless this expectedly brief encounter suddenly becomes a bit juicier.

So there you have it…that’s how much (to us) a +1 weapon costs in Dungeons and Dragons 5e. Was that so hard? Well, yeah…kinda. 😉