In the old AD&D, making a simple +1 dagger required a fairly high level magic user or illusionist, with access to permanency (8) or alter reality spells (7). And then more powerful items often required special quests to get unusual ingredients. It seemed to me that such items should be rare and highly cherished, and certainly not something to find in the possession of common patrols in Amkethran.
Thanks goodness for the Bag of Holding in BGII TOB, because otherwise the weight of my seventeen +2 Full Plate mails, eight extra +5 weapons, four +4 shields, and 40 potions of extra healing would have encumbered me severely, despite my multiple girdles of giant strength and gauntlets of ogre power. You see, you never know when you might need something.
