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<blockquote data-quote="Ridley's Cohort" data-source="post: 3715575" data-attributes="member: 545">From my POV, the fact that 2 PCs were often mechanically identical (except for stats, perhaps) meant that gear, gear, gear was the only means of differentiating PCs with any crunch whatsoever.Feats allow two PC with the exact same stats, even the exact same gear, to be very different functionally.While there can always be too much of a good thing (e.g. the corner MagickMart), the wealth guidelines (which are, I should emphasize, only guidelines and not rules), the sale price for magic items, and the magic item creation feats imply some degree of player control over gear.&nbsp; I find that experience superior to waiting for a magic item to fall out of the sky so that my PC is allowed to be different from every other PC of the same class.As for wealth by level in pre-3e, it was certainly there under the covers only even if it was not explicit.&nbsp; First of all, most of your XP was likely to be gained directly from acquiring wealth (1 gp = 1 XP in 1e).&nbsp; Second of all, there were a number of non-rare monsters that were nearly undefeatable if the party lacked the appropriate magic weapon.I am not really sure why a hidden wealth by level guideline is superior to one that is written down.It is also my personal experience is that 3e PCs tend to be less wealthy than their 1e/2e equivalents, but obviously these things vary by campaign.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ridley's Cohort, post: 3715575, member: 545"] From my POV, the fact that 2 PCs were often mechanically identical (except for stats, perhaps) meant that gear, gear, gear was the only means of differentiating PCs with any crunch whatsoever. Feats allow two PC with the exact same stats, even the exact same gear, to be very different functionally. While there can always be too much of a good thing (e.g. the corner MagickMart), the wealth [i]guidelines[/i] (which are, I should emphasize, only guidelines and not rules), the sale price for magic items, and the magic item creation feats imply some degree of player control over gear. I find that experience superior to waiting for a magic item to fall out of the sky so that my PC is allowed to be different from every other PC of the same class. As for wealth by level in pre-3e, it was certainly there under the covers only even if it was not explicit. First of all, most of your XP was likely to be gained directly from acquiring wealth (1 gp = 1 XP in 1e). Second of all, there were a number of non-rare monsters that were nearly undefeatable if the party lacked the appropriate magic weapon. I am not really sure why a hidden wealth by level guideline is superior to one that is written down. It is also my personal experience is that 3e PCs tend to be less wealthy than their 1e/2e equivalents, but obviously these things vary by campaign. [/QUOTE]

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