Tailoring treasure to the party

[Roland Delacroix]

You do realise that if you allow free access to item creation feats or buying and selling items, then the whole point of finding rare vs common magic items becomes moot?

Not true at all. You sell at about 1/2 market price and buy at full market price. Players lose alot of money. Or you sell at 1/2 market price and make your item at about 1/2 market price and some XP. You lose alot of XP.

XP loss is rather significant. Gold loss less so but still a pretty big deal. Both are much worse than just using the magic longsword you found, but thats the price you pay to be different.

 

[EOL]

I use a tiered system of treasure distribution. A randomly generated +2 item appears before a player specific +2 weapon. So that the people who are generalists benefit because they get a higher plus weapons sooner, then later I'll put something in specifically tailored for a player, that's +2. This seems to keep the random distribution believability, but doesn't leave the player feeling screwed. Plus as other people have mentioned generally they can sell it for half and try and buy what they want, but once again the generalist benefits earlier.

 

[Hummingbird]

I allow item creation, but I require special material components that must be quested for. You want a lifestealing sword, you probably need a vampire heart or something. I generally dont allow the purchase of magic items, because it just makes magic too common. If I were a shopkeeper who owned a holy vorpal sunblade +5, I dont think I would sell it. (Let alone how I got it in the first place).

--Hummingbird

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Joining the chorus, if you tailor items for the party preferences more than just a little, you are skewing the game balance. If you look at the arms & armor listings, they are definitely weighted towards classic fighter choices. That is on purpose.

If you want to specialize in something a little exotic, your magic weapon may come just a little later because. You can always sell items and take that 50% liquidity hit to get what you want custom made.

 

[xjp]

Sure, occasional tailoring is fine, especially in worlds where you cannot buy magic weapons etc at the closest town.

 

[Methinkus]

I try as hard as I can to NEVER use the random magic item generation tables. It doesn’t take a whole lot more time to assign magic items and normal equipment to people based on what they logically would have. To start with, no magic items are simply lying around in boxes; someone is using them. Weather or not magic is overly rare in your campaign it’s still freaking magic, and its normally helpful for someone. Magic item shops don’t exist, but that’s just I don’t like the idea and its my campaign so YMMV on that one.

The PC’s should know what kind of magic items to expect based on where they are going and who they are facing. When raiding an ancient – now deserted – dwarven kingdom, no one should expect to find any whips or scythes or elven chain mail. Likewise, the odds of the paladin getting that Holy Avenger out of a box he found in a drow temple aren’t great.

Item creation I allow freely – its probably even more rampant with my players since once in a while I allow them to substitute part of the XP cost with funky and rare ingredients, which helps encourage the players to make there own and in convincing NPC mages to help out when necessary.

 

[Quickbeam]

When I'm DMing I will occasionally tweak the treasure to accomodate a PC whose clearly behind the other party members in terms of magical items. Someone almost always takes Item Creation feats, but whose to say they're crafting items which benefit the lagging PC?

I won't argue that anything more than a minor adjustment to treasure can bring unbalance into the campaign universe. But, that's a risk I'm willing to take in an effort to encourage my players to stretch their imaginations when designing their characters. IMC, I'd rather see the occasional flail-wielding fighter with feats like Sunder and Improved Trip, or a ranger that carries a two-bladed sword. I realize they add nothing more than "flavor" but I've also found the players tend to make a greater effort to effectively roleplay PCs that aren't run of the mill.

BTW, I like hong's suggestion related to the weapon's magical powers increasing as the characters progress. A very cool bonding concept that totally eliminates the need to tailor treasure.

 

[mkletch]

It all ties together...

I do not tailor treasure or encounters. I won't repeat what others have said justifying the use of the random tables, but I agree with them.

If you design an adventure or encounter that makes sense, has a purpose and is internally consistent (why does this tribe of kobolds live here, who are their rivals, and how would they react to various situations), then it is 'believable'. If you consistently use the EL guidelines and tailor everything to the party, the campaign will be like a poorly written, predictable novel.

If the party makes poor decisions, they should have a situation that goes poorly for them. If the party makes a frontal assault on a cave complex that they have no explored well, they should not be shocked when, over ten rounds, over 70 kobolds swarm the area, many with various character levels (favored class: sorcerer).

This being said, I tend to structure the treasure to match the adventure. I break an adventure into logical chunks (for example, three factions of a kobold clan), figure the EL for the whole thing, and use the random tables in the DMG. The only adjustment I might make is deciding whether or not to adjust the EL by a slot or two in either direction, based on whether the chunk of the adventure was a wealthy or poor faction. If they are completely indigent, then I'll reflect that in their equipment, the general condition of the lair, etc.

The only time a place a specific item, it is because of the adventure plot. If it has anything to do with a character's choice of weird weapon, it will be purely coincidental.

As a player, I tend to play characters that are generalists. I include fighters in that. As a previous poster noted, a fighter class ability is proficiency with all martial weapons. I will not take any feat that requires a weapon choice until 9th or 10th level. There are enough good feats that it is still hard to choose, even if I don;t waste feats.

There is a fighter character in the campaign that I DM that has weapon focus with short spear. She has not seen one since she created her charaacter, and the chances of me rolling one on the treasure tables is infinitesimal. Certainly a wasted feat. Even if she took longsword, but later found a "+1 short sword of laying waste to entire regions", it would have been a wasted feat. Not even the fighter gets so many feat that he/she can afford to waste even one. It is just like a sorcerer picking a really stupid spell (permanency, for example).

I drifted a little OT, but it all really ties together. Do you want a programmed, predictable video game, or something that has the random chance of real life. Yes, majoring in forestry in college is cool, but you are more likely to find a job with an electrical engineering degree (no, I'm not an engineer; I made a similar mistake...).

-Fletch!

 

[Fenes]

I tailor my treasure after the PCs - and the players wishes. I want the players to have fun, and if a player is having more fun with a dancing scimitar than with a randomly generated keen flaming burst longsword, then I'll bring in a dancing scimitar. Since magic items are rare in my campaign I can let the item be found in a logical, consistent way - often building a whole adventure around it.
Leveled weapons are another fave of mine - I love the idea of a weapon that grows with you.

 

[S'mon]

I tailor my treasure after the PCs - and the players wishes. I want the players to have fun, and if a player is having more fun with a dancing scimitar than with a randomly generated keen flaming burst longsword, then I'll bring in a dancing scimitar. Since magic items are rare in my campaign I can let the item be found in a logical, consistent way - often building a whole adventure around it.
Leveled weapons are another fave of mine - I love the idea of a weapon that grows with you.

I think it's fine to build an adventure/quest around a particular magic item - gaining that sought-after MI becomes the point of the adventure. But randomly generated treasure is best kept random. Better yet, as others have said, tailor the treasure to the environment - a high level NPC fighter is likely to have an effective magical melee weapon, for instance. A high level monk may have a monkish weapon.