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I've noticed that many players and even some DMs don't seem to fully understand how creating magic weapons and armor works, so I'm posting this little guide to help those who don't know better understand the process. I'll also be answering any related questions anyone might have on the subject.
Magic Weapon GP Cost Breakdown
There are three main factors that figure into the cost of a magic weapon:
The base cost, the masterwork cost, and then the enchantment cost.
Base Cost:
The first of these is the base cost of the weapon itself. The base cost of each weapon can be found in the equipment chapter, in the weapons section. I'll be making two magic weapons here as examples, so let's use a dagger and a quarterstaff. The base cost of a dagger is 2gp. The base cost of a quarterstaff is 0gp.
So right now, the total cost of our dagger is 2gp, and the total cost for the quarterstaff is 0gp.
Masterwork Cost:
A weapon cannot be enchanted with any magic abilities unless it's a quality piece of craftsmanship, so each magic weapon must also include the 300gp fee for creating a masterwork weapon. However, our quarterstaff is a double-ended weapon. When creating a double-ended weapon such as a quarterstaff, one must pay the masterwork fee twice, once for each end of the weapon. So a masterwork double-ended weapon costs an additional 600gp, instead of 300.
HOWEVER, while a magic weapon has to start off as a masterwork weapon, the +1 attack bonus a masterwork weapon has does NOT stack with any enhancement bonuses a magic weapon may have. It's merely an additional fee in this case.
So added with the base cost of our weapons we're creating today, that brings the cost of our dagger up to 302gp, and the quarterstaff to 600gp.
Enchantment Cost:
Now this is the tricky part. This is also where I see the most mistakes made. The enchantment cost is the total cost of all magic abilities that have been applied to a weapon. The more abilities that have been applied to a weapon, the more it will cost in the end. There are two types of abilities that can be applied to a magic weapon: Enhancement Bonuses, and Special Abilities.
Enhancement Bonuses are numerical bonuses, which can range from +1 to +5. A magic weapon gains its enhancement bonus on all attack rolls and damage rolls made with that weapon. In addition, when you score a successful critical hit, the damage bonus is multiplied as well!
Special Abilities are a much broader category. This includes elemental damage bonuses like flaming, frost, or shock, as well as other modifiers, such as keen, which increases a slashing weapon's chance of scoring a critical hit.
Special Abilities are further sorted out into bonus groups, which read +1, +2, +3, +4, or +5. This is only to rate them according to their strength. For example, flaming is a +1 ability, but flaming burst is a +2 ability. A special ability does not grant an attack or damage bonus the way an enhancement bonus does. This is merely to help figure out the final enchantment cost.
(Extra dice granted by special abilities, such as the 1d6 on a flaming weapon, are not multiplied during a critical hit.)
Enhancement Bonuses, while not as exciting as special abilities, are important. A WEAPON CAN'T HAVE A SPECIAL ABILITY, UNLESS IT HAS AT LEAST A +1 ENHANCEMENT BONUS. This is one of the two most common mistakes I see.
The other most common mistake occurs when it comes to figuring out the final enchantment cost. To find out its cost, you add the number for each special ability with its enhancement bonus, and consult the chart below:
Weapon Bonus Cost
+1..........2,000gp
+2..........8,000gp
+3..........18,000gp
+4..........32,000gp
+5..........50,000gp
+6..........72,000gp
+7..........98,000gp
+8.........128,000gp
+9.........162,000gp
+10.......200,000gp
Now, the mistake I believe comes in reading this chart. This does not mean that each +1 bonus applied to a weapon costs 2,000, while a +2 costs 8,000. As I said up above, YOU ADD THE NUMBER FOR EACH BONUS, then the total modifier is your enchantment cost.
Let's go back to our dagger. Let's say we want to create a +2 Keen Flaming Burst dagger. Keen is a +1 bonus, while flaming burst is a +2. We add that along with the +2 enhancement bonus, which gives us a total of +5. Looking at the chart, we now know that these enchantments will cost 50,000gp when taken together.
Added with the 302gp we have so far, that brings the total cost of our magic dagger to 50,302gp.
Now for a double-ended weapon, it's a bit more complicated than that. You enchant each end of the weapon separately. Furthermore, the bonuses applied to each end of the weapon do not have to be the same.
So for our quarterstaff, we'll say we'll grant one end +1 flaming, and the other end +1 frost. Flaming and frost are each a +1 bonus, totaling to +2 for each end. The chart above tells us it'll cost 8,000gp to enchant each end, coming to 16,000gp.
Add that to our 600gp, and our magic quarterstaff comes to 16,600gp.
Magic Armor and Shield GP Cost Breakdown
The process for creating magic armor and shields is the same as creating a magic weapon. You'll take your base cost, masterwork fee, and then add the enchantment bonus cost to get your total. However, you'll find that magic armor is generally cheaper than magic weapons.
Base Cost and Masterwork Cost:
Let's use a chain shirt for example here. The base cost of a chain shirt is 100gp. To that, we'll add the masterwork fee, which is 150gp, half that of the extra cost to creating a masterwork weapon. This brings our total to 250gp so far.
(It is worthwhile to note that masterwork armor and shields reduce the armor check penalty for that item by -1. Since enchanting armor and shields increases it's AC bonus, and usually doesn't alter the armor check penalty at all, the masterwork bonus remains relevant.)
Armor and Shield Enchantment Bonuses:
Once again, figuring out the cost of the enchantment bonus total is pretty much the same as with weapons. Armor and shields also have bonuses falling in two different categories, Enhancement Bonuses, and Special Abilities.
The Enhancement Bonus can range from +1 to +5, and adds that amount to the item's AC bonus, while Special Abilities grant other miscellaneous effects. AS WITH WEAPONS, ARMOR OR SHIELDS MUST HAVE AT LEAST A +1 ENHANCEMENT BONUS BEFORE THEY CAN HAVE A SPECIAL ABILITY. Special abilities are also considered much more rare for armor and shields to have compared to weapons. Most will have only an enhancement bonus.
To determine the enchantment cost for armor or shields, you can reference the chart below:
Armor/Shield Bonus Cost
+1..........1,000gp
+2..........4,000gp
+3..........9,000gp
+4..........16,000gp
+5..........25,000gp
+6..........36,000gp
+7..........49,000gp
+8..........64,000gp
+9..........81,000gp
+10.......100,000gp
As you can see, like the masterwork cost, the enchantment cost for armor and shields is also half that of the weapons' enchantment cost.
Returning to our chain shirt, let's say we want to make it a +3 Ghost Touch chain shirt. Ghost touch is a +3 bonus, added to the +3 enhancement bonus, that gives us a total of +6, which will cost us 36,000gp.
Added with our previous 250, that brings the total for our magic chain shirt to 36,250gp.
Miscellaneous Odds and Ends
There are several tidbits of info that often get overlooked. I'll briefly cover those down below.
Light-Generating Magic Weapons:
30% of magic weapons generate light when wielded, similar to that of the 'Light' spell. Depending on your character, this can be good or bad. Good in that you don't need to waste one hand to carry a torch or some other light source, but bad in that it can't be stifled, and could give away your position if you're trying to be stealthy. Certain specific magic items will always, or never generate light, as read in their descriptions.
Ranged Weapons and Ammunition:
A magic ranged weapon such as a shortbow, confers its bonus to its ammunition. Any arrow fired from a +1 flaming shortbow will get an additional +1 to attack and damage, and deal an extra 1d6 fire damage.
Magic arrows can be created as well, in quivers of 20. When a magic arrow is fired from a magic bow, only the highest enhancement bonus is used, they aren't added. If you have a +2 frost arrow, and you fire it from the +1 flaming shortbow used in our previous example, the arrow will get a bonus +2 to attack and damage, and deal an extra 1d6 frost damage, as well as an extra 1d6 fire damage, granted from the bow.
Magic Weapons and Critical Hits:
Some weapons have special abilities that activate upon dealing a critical hit, such as a flaming burst weapon's bonus damage. When rolling a critical hit against a creature immune to critical hits, such as undead, or constructs, these abilities still activate.
Magic Shields and Shield Bashing:
A magic shield does not gain its enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls made during a shield bash, it only applies to AC. However, a shield with the 'Bashing' special ability gains certain bonuses during a shield bash.
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That's all I can think of for now. Do you have any questions or comments? Are there any other mistakes you commonly see others make? Feel free to post them here. Let's all help each other become more knowledgeable players.
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