Somewhat similar to Alchemist in Warlords, heroes may have the ability to create generic version of a random L-1 L-2 L-3 item.
All heroes start with item ability between 0-2 (Paladin-DK may start with 2, Valkyrie 1 and the rest zero)
Ability points can be used to increase this
3 AP L-1 item
4 AP L-2 item
5 AP L-3 item
Create item ability resets after the creation of the items. The logic is that if a sage can give you ability points instead of items, a hero may trade them for items if no AP is needed.
I know we talked about selling the item options which may or may not work well with this proposal. If both options are valid then a hero may trade ability points to cash.