Treasure in adventure paths

RangerWickett said:

Really? There was an official system for matching GP with inherent bonuses? I didn't remember it, so I just sat and thought up my own. The logic was, a PC who starts at level X gets three items, and money of value equal to an item of level (x-1). So I'll just give money of that value.

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Does this mean that under the default method a player will get enough total salary and stipend to purchase a Level +1, Level, Level -1, and Level -1 items on average?

For example, somewhere between levels 1 and 2 a player will receive 1920 gp (680 + 520 + 360 + 360)? Then, between levels 2 and 3, he or she will receive an additional 640 gold salary/stipend (total 2560 for level 3 minus the 1920 already received)?

If so, I think this is a really cool system, especially with ample time to shop each level as noted above. Also, I really like that with the ability to trade in at 100%, a player can always adjust himself to Level +1, Level, Level -1, and Level -1 whenever needed, always staying within an expected power level, but still feeling like they're at peak performance.

However, is it expected that ritual casters/people who like consumables will have to take some of their stipend to spend on ritual components and other consumables? Without the ability to trade in expended consumables at 100%, won't these players see their wealth degrade over time compared to players who only purchase regular magic items? For example, at level 11 a wizard who uses rituals profusely might be able to afford a level 12, a level 11, and level 10 and maybe only have enough left over for a level 9 item (4200 gp) rather than a level 10 (5000 gp). In other words, it would only take a few castings of a level 8 ritual (such as Remove Affliction, 250 gp component cost) to degrade this much, irrespective of any other consumables used.

Redbadge said:

Does this mean that under the default method a player will get enough total salary and stipend to purchase a Level +1, Level, Level -1, and Level -1 items on average?

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As discussed above, I don't think this is how the 4e treasure economy works.

The L+1, L+0, L-1 method is a suggestion for creating a character above level 1. It is not an indication of what a continuing character of that level should have. For example, when a new character joined our game at 9th level, most of the other PCs at least 5 items of wildly differing levels.


Per level, the standard 4e treasure distribution suggests that a PC will:

• have an 80% chance (4 items per level split between 5 PCs) of receiving 1 item of L+1 to L+4; and
• receive 40% (1/5 of 2) of the gold piece value of an item of L+0.

If you're using the randomised Essentials treasure tables, those numbers might change. I assume that WotC made the two systems line up but I've never really checked.

One way of handling a gp-only system would be to add up the average value of the bullet points above, and then give that many gp to each PC per level. It'd probably be easier to do it on a full party basis (L+4, L+3, L+2, L+1 and gp of Lx2) and then divide the total by 5 to arrive at each PC's share.

In an inherent bonuses campaign, the calculation would probably be L+3, L+2 and gp of Lx2 divided by 5.

Of course, if the party is more or less than 5 PCs, you need to account for the extra treasure in accordance with the relevant rules.

You'd then need to redo that calculation every level, because of the exponential progression of item values and in either case, you'd probably need to adjust for the value of any 'plot' items that you include in the adventure path unless they're meaningless in the overall treasure scheme.

I'm handling it by basically figuring out how much a party would get in treasure parcels and splitting that between gifts and salary. There's treasure too, which the party can use during the adventure, but they're supposed to hand it over afterward. If they want it, they have to spend their salary to get the item.

RangerWickett said:

I'm handling it by basically figuring out how much a party would get in treasure parcels and splitting that between gifts and salary.

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That'll work

Colmarr said:

If you're using the randomised Essentials treasure tables, those numbers might change. I assume that WotC made the two systems line up but I've never really checked.

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I spot-checked the level 6 random table when Essentials came out and it averaged out to the same result as the parcel system.