I created a Mentalist-based Alchemist (High-man race) to test a few things out with, and I'd like to know if I'm interpreting the rules correctly with regards to the cost to produce, and the cost to sell, and if I am then I would love to hear how others have dealt with this.
First, the base cost. Work out how many weeks it take to make the item, then multiply that by the total number of levels of spells involved in the creation of the item and that, in gp, is the base cost, or the cost to produce. Here's why I think that's right:
From Treasure Companion, page 45, section 9.1.3 I see the following:
The cost to produce the item is as follows:
Base Cost = (Total levels of all spells necessary for the item) x (Total time in weeks needed to create the item) in gold.
That's great. I think I interpreted that correctly. Except...the next paragraph says, in part (this is unthe the heading “The Selling Price”)...
It is assumed that half of the selling price goes to pay for the exotic materials necessary to produce the item, and the other half goes to pay the Alchemist.
That works okay once you get past Apprentice level alchemy, but at Apprentice level, the sale price is equal to the base price. This means that the sale price is NOT half materials cost and half income, at least not for the Apprentice Alchemist.
Honestly, I'm actually fine with that part. I don't think Apprentice level Alchemists should be making money, but rather trying to go out of their way (even to the point of losing money) to prove themselves as quality Alchemists. So, this means my own house rule will be that the Selling Price is NOT half materials and half income at this level, it's 100% materials. Unfortunately, that's not the only hiccough I came across.
Section 6.0 of the same tome has a guideline on buying and selling magic items. Excellent! Looking it over I see table 6.2 specifically for the selling of magic items. On this table you see that a successful static maneuver to sell said item will net you 40% of the item's selling price, and an Absolute Success will net you 50% of it.
Hmmm. If 50% of an items selling price is materials (at higher, more profitable, levels), and the most you can get from selling a magic item is 50% of the selling price, then it is not possible to make any money off of Alchemy at all, and Alchemists better not give up their day job for this (expensive!) hobby.
Now, I've come up with a house rule to handle this, but I was wondering what everyone else's take on it might be. How do you handle the buying and selling of magic items in your RM universe?