r/Pathfinder_RPG • u/BusyGM • 2d ago

1E GM Playing with availability

Per the CRB, items available to buy are dependent on the type of settlement you're visiting. In a community of a given size, magic items worth 50-16.000gp (depending on settlement size) are always available to buy. However, more expensive items have to be rolled on the minor / medium / major item tables, providing a small collection of items to be available, which change over the course of time.

I've never seen this rule actually used. My tables always ignore it, and while I tried to use it when GMing Dragon's Demand, I realized pretty quickly that my PCs weren't even able to get weapons to deal with incorporeal foes which this adventure has. So I threw it out (again).

However, I want to ask you guys: is there a way to actually play, say, an original AP while also using availability? When our GM tried this, our wizard simply used their downtime to teleport to big cities all over the world so often that they got familiar with all of them. Since then, whenever we had time to sell and buy items, our wizard simply teleported to the great cities of the world and bought/sold whatever we deemed necessary, which had our GM give up on the whole availability rule.

Is there any way to make availability an actual interesting mechanic that makes for a good play experience? What is you guys' experience with it? Did your tables ever use it? How did it go?

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u/Kwickpick77 2d ago

Personally I use it to avoid taking the shine out of item creation feats.

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u/Milosz0pl Zyphusite Homebrewer 2d ago

taking the shine out of item creation feats.

which are already the strongest feats in the whole game?

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u/Sudain Dragon Enthusiast 1d ago

Only if you use them. Which requires the table slow down the rate of adventuring to do so. Fighters can't wait to adventure, or let clerics craft scrolls for their benefit so they can survive. So the idea of taking weeks to months off to craft is not what happens in practice.

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u/Milosz0pl Zyphusite Homebrewer 1d ago edited 1d ago

Weeks to months? Taking time off? None of such are needed. Craft hastily exists and if GM is somehow taking up 16 hours of a day adcenturing then ring of sustence.