How We Price Items
Every item in the Price Guide shows the book's price and ours. Here's where ours comes from, in three steps.
Two Prices, Side by Side
- Official is what the rulebooks say: the Dungeon Master's Guide's price for the item's rarity, halved for things that get used up.
- TaliVault is our price, worked out below. It's a sensible starting point for a shop, not a rule. Your table can always change it.
- Range is our price up to 1.5× higher, for places where magic is scarce.
- est. next to a price means it comes from the steps alone, without a closer look at what the item does.
Why Not Just Use the Book?
The book prices items by rarity alone, and each rarity costs ten times the one below it. That makes most uncommon items pocket change and most legendary ones out of reach. It also prices things oddly: by the book, a Sentinel Shield costs 410 gp, but a pot of Sovereign Glue costs 100,000 gp.
Players have reworked these prices for years. We start from the book, then follow their main idea: price an item by what it does, not just its rarity.
Step 1: A Price for Each Rarity
We use our own price for each rarity. The steps between rarities get smaller as items get rarer.
| Rarity | The Book | TaliVault |
|---|---|---|
| Common | 100 gp | 100 gp |
| Uncommon | 400 gp | 1,000 gp |
| Rare | 4,000 gp | 5,000 gp |
| Very Rare | 40,000 gp | 15,000 gp |
| Legendary | 200,000 gp | 30,000 gp |
Step 2: Rules for Kinds of Item
- Things that get used up (potions, oils, dusts) cost a tenth of a lasting item of the same rarity, but never less than 50 gp, the price of a Potion of Healing in every rulebook.
- Magic ammunition is priced per arrow or bolt: a tenth of that again (a fraction of a lasting item).
- +1, +2 and +3 items cost 4 times as much for each step up.
- Magic weapons and armor add the price of the ordinary weapon or armor they're made from.
- Spell scrolls cost twice what the Player's Handbook says they cost to scribe, so a scroll never sells for less than it costs to make.
- Prices are rounded to two significant figures (4,150 gp becomes 4,200 gp).
Step 3: Priced by What It Does
Some items are worth far more or far less than their rarity suggests. Where the community's price guides agree an item's rarity gets it wrong, we've looked at what it actually does and set our own price, with a one-line reason you can see in the item's details.
So far that's 267 items. Everything else keeps the price from steps 1 and 2, marked est.
Not for Sale
Not for Salemarks the 101 items no merchant would sell.
These are artifacts, items that can grant wishes or open gates to the gods, and story items like a Rod of Resurrection. They stay in the guide, with the book's price where the book gives one, so you can still look them up.
Worked Examples
| Item | Official | TaliVault |
|---|---|---|
Potion of Healing Common, so 100 gp; a tenth is 10 gp, but no consumable goes under 50 gp. | 50 gp | 50 gp |
Potion of Superior Healing Rare, so 5,000 gp; a consumable is a tenth of that. | 2,000 gp | 500 gp |
+2 Weapon The +1 is Uncommon (1,000 gp); ×4 for the step to +2. | 4,000 gp | 4,000 gp |
+1 Ammunition Uncommon (1,000 gp), a tenth for a consumable, and a tenth again for one piece. | 200 gp | 10 gp |
Spell Scroll (Level 3) Twice what the Player's Handbook says it costs to scribe. | 300 gp | 300 gp |
Sentinel Shield Uncommon by the book, but always-on advantage on initiative and Perception is worth more. | 410 gp | 4,000 gp |
Where the Ideas Come From
Pricing by what an item does, the ×4 ladder, the tenth-price rule for things that get used up, and the availability range all come from two community guides: Sane Magical Prices and the Merchant's Sorcerous Rarities Pricelist. We agree with their methods. The numbers here are our own.
TaliVault isn't affiliated with Wizards of the Coast or with either guide's authors.