D&D 4E 4e PC Upkeep Costs

[MarauderX]

I like the rules, as they are simple to implement and could be scaled a bit from village to town to city, from region to region.

On a more personal PC expense matter, I have been thinking about item degradation and the need to upkeep items via magic and therefore gold. Often in treasure a party will start to acquire a number of items of the same value, but have no need for it. Do the saturate the market with their +4 items?

Currently I'm looking at sever critical misses to destroy or remove magical enhancement; any other thoughts or means to upkeep armor +4?

 

[S'mon]

I like the rules, as they are simple to implement and could be scaled a bit from village to town to city, from region to region.

On a more personal PC expense matter, I have been thinking about item degradation and the need to upkeep items via magic and therefore gold. Often in treasure a party will start to acquire a number of items of the same value, but have no need for it. Do the saturate the market with their +4 items?

Currently I'm looking at sever critical misses to destroy or remove magical enhancement; any other thoughts or means to upkeep armor +4?

I'm generally not keen on specific, detailed 'equipment upkeep' rules, they add a lot of logistics with little in-game benefit. But equipment upkeep needs could be factored in as part of the additional upkeep expenses required for high level PCs.

If we look at the gp/item system in 4e, there's a x5 cost per 5 levels system; you could use that for determing minimal upkeep costs to keep gear fully functional.

Eg:
1st level 10 gp/month - 'upper working class'
6th level 50 gp/month - 'middle class'
11th level 250gp/month - 'wealthy'

Extrapolating on:
16th level 1250gp/month - 'noble'
21st level 6250gp/month - 'royal'
26th level 31250gp/month - 'imperial'

Upkeep of self & gear up to 4 levels higher would be factored into the cost, eg 6250gp/month includes maintenance of items 21st-25th level.