Buying a Magic Item
Purchasing a magic item requires time and money to contact people willing to sell items. Even then, there is no guarantee they will have the desired items.
Finding magic items to purchase requires one tenday of effort and 100 gp minimum in expenses. Spending more time and money increases your chance of finding a high-quality item.
Carousing
Carousing is a good default downtime activity for most characters. Between adventures, who doesn’t want to relax with a few drinks and a group of friends at the local pub?
Carousing covers a tenday of fine food, strong drink, and socializing. A character can attempt to carouse among lower-, middle-, or upper-class folk. A character can carouse with the lower class for 25 gp to cover expenses, or 100 gp for the middle class. Carousing with the upper class requires 500 gp for the tenday and access to the local nobility.
A character with the noble background can mingle with the upper class, but other characters can do so only if the DM judges that the character has made sufficient contacts.
Crafting an Item
If you can’t buy or find the item you need, you can attempt to craft it.
A character needs the appropriate tools for the item to be crafted, and raw materials worth half of the item’s selling cost. To determine how many tendays it takes to create an item, divide its cost by 50. A character can complete multiple items in a tenday if their combined cost is 50 gp or less.
For items that cost more than 50 gp, a character can complete them over long periods of time, as long as the work in progress is stored in a safe location.
Multiple characters can combine their efforts. Divide the time needed to create an item by the number of characters working on it. As DM, use your judgement when determining how many characters can collaborate on an item. A particularly tiny item, like a ring, might allow only one or two workers, whereas a large, complex item might allow four or more workers.
A character needs to be proficient with the tools needed to craft an item and have access to the appropriate equipment. The following table provides some examples.
Crafting Magic Items
Magic items require more than just time, effort, and materials to create. Creating a magic item is a long-term process that involves one or more adventures to track down rare materials and the lore needed to create the item.
Potions of healing and spell scrolls are exceptions to the following rules. For more information, see “Brewing Potions of Healing” in this section on crafting and “Scribing a Spell Scroll” below.
To start with, a character needs a formula for a magic item in order to create it. The formula is like a recipe. It lists the materials needed and steps required to make the item.
Brewing Potions of Healing
Potions of healing fall into a special category for item crafting, separate from other magic items. A character proficient with the herbalism kit can create them. The time and money needed to create such a potion is summarized on the Potion of Healing Creation table.
Crime
Sometimes it pays to be bad. This activity gives a character the chance to make some extra cash, at the risk of arrest.
A crime spree requires a character to spend one tenday and at least 25 gp gathering information on potential targets, and then committing the crime.
Gambling
Games of chance are a way to make a fortune, but perhaps a better way to lose one.
This activity requires one tenday of effort from a character, plus the character must risk at least 100 gp, to a maximum of 1,000 gp, unless you decide that gambling is a big enough business to support larger wagers.
Pit Fighting
This downtime activity covers boxing, wrestling, and other nonlethal forms of combat. If you want to introduce an arena with battles to the death, use standard combat rules.
This activity requires one tenday of effort from a character.
Relaxation
Sometimes, the best thing a character can do between adventures is relax. Whether a character wants a hard-earned vacation or needs to recover from injuries, this is the ideal option for adventurers who need a break.
Relaxation requires one tenday. You need to maintain at least a modest lifestyle while relaxing to gain the benefits. You also need to stay at home, at an inn, or in some other location that affords rest.
Religious Service
Characters with a religious bent might wish to spend their downtime in service to a temple. This activity has the chance of winning the favor of the temple’s leaders.
Religious service requires one tenday of time and no gold piece cost.
Research
Forewarned is forearmed. The research activity allows a character to delve into lore concerning a monster, location, magic item, or some other topic.
Research requires one tenday of work and at least 100 gp spent on materials, bribes, gifts, and other expenses. Typically, a character needs access to a library or sage to conduct research. [More…]
Scribing a Spell Scroll
With time and patience, a spellcaster can transfer a spell to a scroll, creating a spell scroll. This activity represents the time and effort it takes to produce such an item.
Scribing a spell scroll takes time and money based on the level of the spell you wish to scribe, as shown in the Spell Scroll Costs table. You must also provide any material components required by the spell. Moreover, you must have the spell prepared or among your known spells in order to scribe a scroll of it, and you must have proficiency in the Arcana skill.
If you scribe a cantrip, the version on the scroll works as if the caster is 1st level.
Selling a Magic Item
Selling a magic item is by no means an easy task. Con artists and thieves are always looking out for an easy score, and there’s no guarantee that a character will receive a good offer even if a legitimate buyer is found.
Finding a buyer for one of your magic items requires one tenday of work and 100 gp in expenses, spent to spread word of the sale. You must pick one item at a time to sell.
Training
Given enough free time and the services of an instructor, a character can learn a language or pick up proficiency with a tool.
Training in a language or tool takes at least 6 tendays, but reduce this time by a number of tendays equal to the character’s Intelligence modifier (an Intelligence penalty doesn’t increase the time needed). Training costs 100 gp per tenday.
Work
When all else fails, an adventurer can turn to an honest trade to earn a living.
Taking on a job requires one tenday of work.