character wealth

[Coredump]

This is more an academic question.....

Are you supposed to take into account how much wealth the character has recieved, or how much they have?

IOW, lets say they should have 8K of wealth/equipment. If they have a +2 armor, a +1 sword, and a 2K ring... they are okay.

But if over their time they have bought/found/whatever/lots of charged items, and used them.... are they considered 'underequiped'?

Again, I know how I would deal with this, but it seems like a better 'plan' for the PC's to buy/use lots of expendable magic, since it is our 'job' replace it back up to their wealth level.

Just more random geeky pondering....

 

[Jdvn1]

That number, I believe, is supposed to include disposable stuff. Basically: You give them more than 8k and they use some of it.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

It's supposed to be more or less the current value of what they're carrying.

It's assumed that they'll actually get slightly more than this in terms of GP value for things, but that they'll spend a portion of this on consumables: food, rope, potions, scrolls, passage on ships, and the like.

 

[Bront]

If you add up expected rewards, to get to their level, they will have earned far more gold than the expected wealth level. The expected wealth level is what they currantly have. However, that can, and often does, include some disposable stuff.

 

[FireLance]

My approach is simple and frees me from the headache of trying to decide what treasure to give the PCs: 1st-level PCs start with 300 gp of equipment. Every time the PCs level, they lose their old equipment and can re-equip themselves with any equipment up to the standard wealth level for their new level. I usually also impose a restriction that no single item can be worth more than half their total wealth. If you are concerned about disposables, you can add another restriction that not more than 25% of total wealth (or whatever level you are comfortable with) can be expendable.

 

[Imperialus]

My approach is simple and frees me from the headache of trying to decide what treasure to give the PCs: 1st-level PCs start with 300 gp of equipment. Every time the PCs level, they lose their old equipment and can re-equip themselves with any equipment up to the standard wealth level for their new level.

Interesting approach... Of course my group would quickly abuse this by figuring out who is most likely to level up, give all their gear to whoever has the least XP and then get it back after they level

 

[FireLance]

Interesting approach... Of course my group would quickly abuse this by figuring out who is most likely to level up, give all their gear to whoever has the least XP and then get it back after they level

The trick is to make sure they all level at the same time .

 

[S'mon]

The wealth by level table is a guideline for the GM - PCs who have roughly that amount of wealth should be roughly balanced with each other and with published scenarios, supposedly. It's only a guideline though, not a rule or entitlement. The GM is not obliged to ensure PCs have that amount, but if they have vastly less or more they will be weaker or stronger than the system assumes - if weaker, best to run lower-level scenarios for awhile.