wlmartin
Explorer
I have done some sums after needing something concrete for my adventures.
The DMG is useful but it gives you parcels based on a 5 PC party and based on an adventure being a typical 1 level long... sometimes it can be less, sometimes more.... and sometimes split between two levels!
: Source : DMG
I factored in what gold the group gets over a level using the tables in DMG.
I factored in what magic items they get and their values.
I factored in that there would be 5 PCs per group.
I factored in that there would be 10 encounters per level.
I converted the cost of a magic item in pure GP.
The results?
1-75.15
2-107.15
3-151.9
4-209.6
5-280
6-376
7-536
8-760
9-1048
10-1400
11-1880
12-2680
13-3800
14-5240
15-7000
16-9400
17-13400
18-19000
19-26200
20-35000
21-47000
22-67000
23-95000
24-131000
25-175000
26-235000
27-285000
28-325000
29-355000
30-437500
This is the amount, per encounter that each character is due in Gold Pieces at each level.
So at level 30, each PC is due 437,500gp (in gold and magical items) per encounter... this sounds a little bit crazy when you think about it raw money terms...
/funny rant on[sblock]
even worse when you consider that an annual salary for a typical NPC labourer type is about 1cp per day, thats 3gp, 6sp, 5cp per year... assuming minimum wage at £6 per hour and a 40 hour week in our current modern times, a person could earn £12,480 a year, this is a ratio of 1gp:£3419.18
Considering it would take an encounter about 30 mins or say an hour for funs sake to complete, that is an hourly rate of 437,500gp - or 1.495 billion £ per hour
This is using old 2nd edition concepts of what people earn, but to attribute it to an accurate economy...
A horse on earth costs a minimum of $150
A horse in 4e D&D costs 75gp
so $ to gp is 1gp:$2
So using this, 437,000gp per hour equates to $1,495,000 per hour
That is still freakin crazy!!! But hey - you are on your way to being a god after all!!
[/sblock]
/funny rant off
So for example
In a Level 9 adventure for 4 adventurers
The book says you should give 8400gp in non-magical items
(level of magic item equivilant to adventure level converted to GP equivilant) * 2
The book says you should give a Magic Item of level +1, +2, +3, +4 (13th, 12th, 11th, 10th levels) which value at (17,000, 13,000, 9,000, 5000) which is a total of 44000gp
So between gold and magical items that is 44,000gp per adventure for a group of 5, now we find out what each PC gets (44,000 / 5 = 10,480) and then we split that into 10 encounters (1048) and this the amount of GP each PC should get per encounter in GP or magical items.
So, for a group of 4 adventurers, every encounter on average should yield 4192gp in magical items and gold.
Now it may be easier just to use the treasure parcels in the DMG but if you wanted to set a mini-adventure with 3 characters and 4 encounters... the DMG doesnt cover this but my table above would.
And using that, a level 4 group would gain 2515gp worth of goodies during this adventure, you could easily give them a Level 3 magic item (677gp) 2 level 4 magic items (1680gp) and 158gp in gold and the group would feel like they have accomplished something.
To some people giving magical items is not the best thing... too much is a bad thing, so in that case give out MORE gold and LESS magical items... like with the above, give them 1 magical item of 3rd level (677gp) and 1838gp.
Its completely upto you with the above formula.
I use them when figuring out my adventurers because they can be for more / less than 5 people and are often not exactly 10 encounters long.
This information may be useful for lots or none but I have heard it mentioned elsewhere as to what Treasure to use per encounter and there is no exact way in the DMG to deal with this because you can't accurately split the magical items in the treasure parcels when you drop PCs or have less encounters in a dungeon... what do you say? Everything but the best magical item...?? No, just use the per PC per encounter gp equivilant and then just split it accordingly as you see fit knowing that the economical equivilant is covered.
Its not exact science of course, some may say there is the factor that unwanted magical items must be sold and you get less money back for items being sold so this is not 100% accurate however in circumstances where a DM is giving out a wish-list of treasure, players will never sell their items (or less often than not) and it would be accurate.
Either way, this is the closest analysis of worth based on the tables in the DMG and hope some find it useful.
The DMG is useful but it gives you parcels based on a 5 PC party and based on an adventure being a typical 1 level long... sometimes it can be less, sometimes more.... and sometimes split between two levels!
: Source : DMG
I factored in what gold the group gets over a level using the tables in DMG.
I factored in what magic items they get and their values.
I factored in that there would be 5 PCs per group.
I factored in that there would be 10 encounters per level.
I converted the cost of a magic item in pure GP.
The results?
1-75.15
2-107.15
3-151.9
4-209.6
5-280
6-376
7-536
8-760
9-1048
10-1400
11-1880
12-2680
13-3800
14-5240
15-7000
16-9400
17-13400
18-19000
19-26200
20-35000
21-47000
22-67000
23-95000
24-131000
25-175000
26-235000
27-285000
28-325000
29-355000
30-437500
This is the amount, per encounter that each character is due in Gold Pieces at each level.
So at level 30, each PC is due 437,500gp (in gold and magical items) per encounter... this sounds a little bit crazy when you think about it raw money terms...
/funny rant on[sblock]
even worse when you consider that an annual salary for a typical NPC labourer type is about 1cp per day, thats 3gp, 6sp, 5cp per year... assuming minimum wage at £6 per hour and a 40 hour week in our current modern times, a person could earn £12,480 a year, this is a ratio of 1gp:£3419.18
Considering it would take an encounter about 30 mins or say an hour for funs sake to complete, that is an hourly rate of 437,500gp - or 1.495 billion £ per hour
This is using old 2nd edition concepts of what people earn, but to attribute it to an accurate economy...
A horse on earth costs a minimum of $150
A horse in 4e D&D costs 75gp
so $ to gp is 1gp:$2
So using this, 437,000gp per hour equates to $1,495,000 per hour
That is still freakin crazy!!! But hey - you are on your way to being a god after all!!
[/sblock]
/funny rant off
So for example
In a Level 9 adventure for 4 adventurers
The book says you should give 8400gp in non-magical items
(level of magic item equivilant to adventure level converted to GP equivilant) * 2
The book says you should give a Magic Item of level +1, +2, +3, +4 (13th, 12th, 11th, 10th levels) which value at (17,000, 13,000, 9,000, 5000) which is a total of 44000gp
So between gold and magical items that is 44,000gp per adventure for a group of 5, now we find out what each PC gets (44,000 / 5 = 10,480) and then we split that into 10 encounters (1048) and this the amount of GP each PC should get per encounter in GP or magical items.
So, for a group of 4 adventurers, every encounter on average should yield 4192gp in magical items and gold.
Now it may be easier just to use the treasure parcels in the DMG but if you wanted to set a mini-adventure with 3 characters and 4 encounters... the DMG doesnt cover this but my table above would.
And using that, a level 4 group would gain 2515gp worth of goodies during this adventure, you could easily give them a Level 3 magic item (677gp) 2 level 4 magic items (1680gp) and 158gp in gold and the group would feel like they have accomplished something.
To some people giving magical items is not the best thing... too much is a bad thing, so in that case give out MORE gold and LESS magical items... like with the above, give them 1 magical item of 3rd level (677gp) and 1838gp.
Its completely upto you with the above formula.
I use them when figuring out my adventurers because they can be for more / less than 5 people and are often not exactly 10 encounters long.
This information may be useful for lots or none but I have heard it mentioned elsewhere as to what Treasure to use per encounter and there is no exact way in the DMG to deal with this because you can't accurately split the magical items in the treasure parcels when you drop PCs or have less encounters in a dungeon... what do you say? Everything but the best magical item...?? No, just use the per PC per encounter gp equivilant and then just split it accordingly as you see fit knowing that the economical equivilant is covered.
Its not exact science of course, some may say there is the factor that unwanted magical items must be sold and you get less money back for items being sold so this is not 100% accurate however in circumstances where a DM is giving out a wish-list of treasure, players will never sell their items (or less often than not) and it would be accurate.
Either way, this is the closest analysis of worth based on the tables in the DMG and hope some find it useful.
Last edited:
