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<blockquote data-quote="ryryguy" data-source="post: 4369658" data-attributes="member: 64945">Reverse engineering things a bit farther... (and this is supported by various designer comments, but I won't be able to link to specifics, sorry):&nbsp;A problem in the 3e loot system stemmed from the &quot;build NPCs the same as PCs&quot; philosophy.&nbsp; One aspect of that system was that since PCs needed level-appropriate equipment to be effective, an NPC also needed level-appropriate equipment to be effective.&nbsp; A smaller amount, true, but still a significant amount.&nbsp;This was a definite drawback when it came to controlling loot.&nbsp; That NPC equipment could easily bust the wealth-per-level guidelines.&nbsp; I forget the exact ratio now but I have seen calculations where, if you assume that all the foes for a level's worth of XP were NPCs equipped according to the NPC-wealth-per-level guidelines, the value of all that equipment of loot was far higher than how much the PCs should get for a level according to the PC-wealth-per-level guidelines.&nbsp; Something like three or four times as much.&nbsp;In short, the need to give NPCs equipment was in conflict with the need to control treasure and PC wealth.&nbsp;4e's breaking of the &quot;NPCs are built as PCs&quot; paradigm cuts out that problem.&nbsp; Even a 23rd level fighter NPC doesn't need a +5 sword to work now.&nbsp; &quot;NPCs are built as PCs&quot; did have some nice aspects, but this was one of the bad ones.&nbsp; (And of course there were ways for the DM to work around or counteract this problem, but they required extra, not particularly fun effort... the new system just sidesteps it all.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ryryguy, post: 4369658, member: 64945"] Reverse engineering things a bit farther... (and this is supported by various designer comments, but I won't be able to link to specifics, sorry): A problem in the 3e loot system stemmed from the "build NPCs the same as PCs" philosophy. One aspect of that system was that since PCs needed level-appropriate equipment to be effective, an NPC also needed level-appropriate equipment to be effective. A smaller amount, true, but still a significant amount. This was a definite drawback when it came to controlling loot. That NPC equipment could easily bust the wealth-per-level guidelines. I forget the exact ratio now but I have seen calculations where, if you assume that all the foes for a level's worth of XP were NPCs equipped according to the NPC-wealth-per-level guidelines, the value of all that equipment of loot was far higher than how much the PCs should get for a level according to the PC-wealth-per-level guidelines. Something like three or four times as much. In short, the need to give NPCs equipment was in conflict with the need to control treasure and PC wealth. 4e's breaking of the "NPCs are built as PCs" paradigm cuts out that problem. Even a 23rd level fighter [I]NPC [/I]doesn't need a +5 sword to work now. "NPCs are built as PCs" did have some nice aspects, but this was one of the bad ones. (And of course there were ways for the DM to work around or counteract this problem, but they required extra, not particularly fun effort... the new system just sidesteps it all.) [/QUOTE]

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