Paul Strack
First Post
Treasure is one of the few areas where 4E D&D can become unbalanced. Characters that are lucky or unlucky with their equipment can end up better or worse than other equivalent-level characters. The imbalance isn’t as bad as it was in earlier editions, but it is still there. I'd prefer a system where personal power was even among the PCs. Plus, I prefer games that focus on heroic action rather than digging through the monster’s couch looking for loose change.
In general, magic items are the most import treasure characters can have, so these rules are based on the magic item standard. Under these gold-less rules, when characters advance, they receive a new magic item midway through their level, that is when they have gained XP halfway between their old level and their new level. The new magic item’s level should be the character level + 2 or lower. The character can receive the new item when it makes sense in the context of the adventure, either immediately as loot, the next time she takes an extended rest as part of learning new powers of an existing item or the next time she gets back to civilization as a newly crafted item or a reward from a patron.
A character cannot have more than 5 magic items at a time. When a character would be awarded a sixth item, she must give up one of her weaker items. In general, the simplest thing to do is to upgrade the character’s weakest item by giving it an extra +1 bonus.
For example, a 7th level character would gain a new 9th level magic item when she reach 11500 XP (midway between 7th and 8th level). At this point, the character should have 5 items, whose levels are 8th, 7th, 6th, 5th and 4th, gained at earlier levels. She would have to give up her weakest item when gaining the new item. If that item were a +1 Thunderburst bow (4th level), she could simply upgrade it to a +2 Thunderburst bow (9th level). Midway through 12th level, the character could upgrade the bow again to a 14th level item, and might choose to make it a +3 Phasing bow instead.
As a general rule, characters will have magic items equal to their level (or their level – 1 if they are not past the level’s midpoint), up to a maximum of 5 magic items. If the character’s XP is below his current level’s midpoint, his best item will be his level + 1 and each weaker item will be 1 level lower than the next best:
Add 1 to the item levels if the character is past the level’s midpoint.
Characters may have whatever mundane equipment they need, within reason, and are assumed to be able to pay for mundane living expenses. Expenditures like bribes and offerings are considered to be part of the appropriate skill checks. This should eliminate the need to track treasure and gold.
Rationale
The goal of these rules is to eliminate the need to track treasure and to balance items between characters. These rules are roughly equivalent to the treasure parcels in the DMG. They assume that (a) treasure value is split evenly among the party, (b) is devoted to magic items and (c) the character’s sell off older and weaker items to cover their expenses. Alternately, the characters are spending gold to upgrade their existing items’ magic.
An alternate rationale for these rules is that heroes naturally generate mystic energy that improves the items they possess. As they grow in power, they “unlock” new abilities in their items. These items are attuned to the hero and cannot be used by anyone else, because their source of power is the hero. This alternate rationale lets you high-level, low-cash heroes that still have access to the magic items they need to be competitive.
Rituals
Other than magic items, the other major cost expenditure in the rules are for magic rituals. These rules make ritual acquisition feat based rather than money based.
The Ritual Caster feat includes knowledge of some rituals. The character knows one ritual at 1st level, plus an additional ritual per 5 levels: one extra at 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th and 30th. Wizards know 3 rituals at 1st and gain 2 extra every 5 levels. When you gain a new ritual, it must be your current level or lower. A character can also take an “Extra Rituals” feat to learn an additional 3 rituals. This feat can be taken any number of times.
When a character advances a level, he may retrain one ritual, replacing it with another ritual whose level does not exceed his new level. Wizards may retrain two rituals instead of one. Ritual retraining is in addition to the normal retraining for feats, skills and powers. New characters created at a higher level can be assume to have one ritual up to his current level, an second ritual up to his level – 1, a third up to his level – 2 and so forth, up to the total of rituals known by the character. Wizards instead know two rituals at their current level, 2 at level – 1 and so forth.
A ritual caster can perform one ritual per day at no cost. Additional ritual castings cost a healing surge. Rituals that already cost a healing surge do not cost an extra healing surge, however, even if they are not the first ritual of the day. They also do not use up the “free ritual” the caster can cast for that day. This “free ritual” is replenished with the caster takes an extended rest.
Raise Dead is a special case. A character raised from the dead must give up his weakest magic item. This is to either to pay the ritual cost (if your rationale for magic items is money-based) or temporarily losing the energy needed to power the item (if your rationale for magic is personal-energy-based). Since the character has fewer than 5 magic items, the next time the character gains a magic item, he does not need to lose a weaker item. This also effectively replenishes the lost item spent for being raised from the dead.
Mounts
For the purpose of these rules, mounts count as a “magic item”. At a level’s midpoint, the character can acquire a mount of an equal level instead of a magic item of the character’s level + 2. The cost of the mount is assumed to be the gold or energy devoted to acquire and bond with the mount. The character can “upgrade” mounts to more powerful creatures as they gain levels, or the DM can advance the mounts level along with the character.
You might do something similar for henchmen, but that is beyond what I am trying to do with these rules.
In general, magic items are the most import treasure characters can have, so these rules are based on the magic item standard. Under these gold-less rules, when characters advance, they receive a new magic item midway through their level, that is when they have gained XP halfway between their old level and their new level. The new magic item’s level should be the character level + 2 or lower. The character can receive the new item when it makes sense in the context of the adventure, either immediately as loot, the next time she takes an extended rest as part of learning new powers of an existing item or the next time she gets back to civilization as a newly crafted item or a reward from a patron.
A character cannot have more than 5 magic items at a time. When a character would be awarded a sixth item, she must give up one of her weaker items. In general, the simplest thing to do is to upgrade the character’s weakest item by giving it an extra +1 bonus.
For example, a 7th level character would gain a new 9th level magic item when she reach 11500 XP (midway between 7th and 8th level). At this point, the character should have 5 items, whose levels are 8th, 7th, 6th, 5th and 4th, gained at earlier levels. She would have to give up her weakest item when gaining the new item. If that item were a +1 Thunderburst bow (4th level), she could simply upgrade it to a +2 Thunderburst bow (9th level). Midway through 12th level, the character could upgrade the bow again to a 14th level item, and might choose to make it a +3 Phasing bow instead.
As a general rule, characters will have magic items equal to their level (or their level – 1 if they are not past the level’s midpoint), up to a maximum of 5 magic items. If the character’s XP is below his current level’s midpoint, his best item will be his level + 1 and each weaker item will be 1 level lower than the next best:
- Magic item level + 1
- Magic item level + 0
- Magic item level – 1
- Magic item level – 2
- Magic item level – 3
Add 1 to the item levels if the character is past the level’s midpoint.
Characters may have whatever mundane equipment they need, within reason, and are assumed to be able to pay for mundane living expenses. Expenditures like bribes and offerings are considered to be part of the appropriate skill checks. This should eliminate the need to track treasure and gold.
Rationale
The goal of these rules is to eliminate the need to track treasure and to balance items between characters. These rules are roughly equivalent to the treasure parcels in the DMG. They assume that (a) treasure value is split evenly among the party, (b) is devoted to magic items and (c) the character’s sell off older and weaker items to cover their expenses. Alternately, the characters are spending gold to upgrade their existing items’ magic.
An alternate rationale for these rules is that heroes naturally generate mystic energy that improves the items they possess. As they grow in power, they “unlock” new abilities in their items. These items are attuned to the hero and cannot be used by anyone else, because their source of power is the hero. This alternate rationale lets you high-level, low-cash heroes that still have access to the magic items they need to be competitive.
Rituals
Other than magic items, the other major cost expenditure in the rules are for magic rituals. These rules make ritual acquisition feat based rather than money based.
The Ritual Caster feat includes knowledge of some rituals. The character knows one ritual at 1st level, plus an additional ritual per 5 levels: one extra at 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th and 30th. Wizards know 3 rituals at 1st and gain 2 extra every 5 levels. When you gain a new ritual, it must be your current level or lower. A character can also take an “Extra Rituals” feat to learn an additional 3 rituals. This feat can be taken any number of times.
When a character advances a level, he may retrain one ritual, replacing it with another ritual whose level does not exceed his new level. Wizards may retrain two rituals instead of one. Ritual retraining is in addition to the normal retraining for feats, skills and powers. New characters created at a higher level can be assume to have one ritual up to his current level, an second ritual up to his level – 1, a third up to his level – 2 and so forth, up to the total of rituals known by the character. Wizards instead know two rituals at their current level, 2 at level – 1 and so forth.
A ritual caster can perform one ritual per day at no cost. Additional ritual castings cost a healing surge. Rituals that already cost a healing surge do not cost an extra healing surge, however, even if they are not the first ritual of the day. They also do not use up the “free ritual” the caster can cast for that day. This “free ritual” is replenished with the caster takes an extended rest.
Raise Dead is a special case. A character raised from the dead must give up his weakest magic item. This is to either to pay the ritual cost (if your rationale for magic items is money-based) or temporarily losing the energy needed to power the item (if your rationale for magic is personal-energy-based). Since the character has fewer than 5 magic items, the next time the character gains a magic item, he does not need to lose a weaker item. This also effectively replenishes the lost item spent for being raised from the dead.
Mounts
For the purpose of these rules, mounts count as a “magic item”. At a level’s midpoint, the character can acquire a mount of an equal level instead of a magic item of the character’s level + 2. The cost of the mount is assumed to be the gold or energy devoted to acquire and bond with the mount. The character can “upgrade” mounts to more powerful creatures as they gain levels, or the DM can advance the mounts level along with the character.
You might do something similar for henchmen, but that is beyond what I am trying to do with these rules.
