D&D 4E 4E Item price parity.

[Vickrin]

I went thru my PHB and was shocked by the prices of different armours.

Cloth is basically free
leather is 25gp which seems far too much for simple oil hardened leather
hide is 30gp so almost the same story as leather
chainmail is 40gp which is getting a little more like it
scale is 45gp, such a small price difference for much more superior armour
plate is 50gp which is crazy for fully fitted plate armour, should be far more work than chainmail.

weapon prices arent too wildly out from what i thought but i cant get into my head that two suits of leather are worth the same as a suit of full plate.

Im really going to need to rework all the armour prices for my campaign.

 

[Mort_Q]

Im really going to need to rework all the armour prices for my campaign.

Have fun with that.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

I went thru my PHB and was shocked by the prices of different armours.

D&D is not an accurate simlation of a medieval economy?

I, for one, am shocked!

 

[zoroaster100]

I think the purpose was to allow each class, with 100 gp starting money, to each start with the best normal armor they can wear. If you adjust the armor prices, you should also adjust the prices for wands, spellbooks, etc. and give all characters more starting money, so that by the end of all your adjustments, al characters still end up with basically just a couple of gold left after fully equipping themselves with standard first level equipment, including plate for paladins, etc.

 

[Andur]

Not sure what the problem is with the numbers. The yearly income of the average person (and the PC's are not average) is only about 4 gold pieces.

So that suit of leather is about 6 years of savings without eating...

Remember, they are mundane, if you want to make the differences actually worth it, you'll need to remove quite a bit of the magic items and then simply replace the +1-+6 items with appropriate "improvements" of armour.

 

[Engilbrand]

There are more people with 25 to spend than there are 50 to spend. If someone could afford the Full Plate, they might get it. But there may only be 20 people in an area with enough "extra" cash to get it, while there are 500 with enough "extra" cash to get the Leather.
Besides, heroes are special. How long after first level will that all actually matter. AND, what does it add to the game that makes it more fun?

 

[Piratecat]

Im really going to need to rework all the armour prices for my campaign.

Why? they buy it once and then you never worry about it again, and it is such an insignificant cost over their adventuring career that it won't make any difference.

 

[KKDragonLord]

i too am house ruling on the plate specially since i have good memory and remember plate costing from 4000-10000gp on ad&d, the same on Steel Pieces on Dragon Lance and in 3e around 1250gp. While leather, was a lot easier to make an always cost around 1% or less of that.

What Really bothers me is that if you buy 10 lanterns it will cost 70gp and a suit of plate (field plate or full doesnt matter) is still 50gp

d&d economy just became completely unbeliavable and that tends to ruin things to my group, who is interested in at least some consistency.

My house ruling is thus: I´ll be using the prices and trade mechanics from the excellent "... and a 10 foot pole" supplement from Rolemaster for allthe mundane stuff.

And i will also use the 4e option of no magic item economy, and base all the item gains in adventurig and item creation through rituals. To allow my players more options i will give them craft skills, recipes for specific item enchantments through the enchant magic items ritual and allow them to empower their stuff with more residuum making it stronger, implementing along a success based sistem for making higher level magic items (they must use greater amounts o residuum and if they fail, they waste the extra amount and apply only the result of their check).

 

[hong]

Threads like this are why I tend to ban gold.

 

[Saben]

Well, rework the prices if you like- but I'd house rule it so that each level 1 character receives:
- 1 suit of armour of their choice (gift from the village)
- 1 weapon or implement (tool of the trade)
- 1 secondary weapon (gift from their parents)
- 1 adventurer's pack
- other items required to perform their class rolls (climber's kit, spellbook)
- 2d20 gold remaining

I think that is a more realistic abstraction of starting items anyway- everyone the PCs know get together and help him/ her out with what he needs. Cost isn't that relevant because the village blacksmith/ tanner works pro-bono for such a brave adventurer as the PC.

It also allows for you to change item costs to suit what you see as realistic. As long as you don't leave your PCs without items they need I'm sure they won't mind.