Do you think my player has enough treasure?

[dreaded_beast]

This is a solo-campaign, where my player is playing a 3rd level Monk. We are playing in the Forgotten Realms.

I spoke to her and we agreed that we would like to gain levels fairly quickly. Within the course of 8 gaming sessions and roughly 4-5 days in game time, she has risen from 1 to 3 and is very close to 4. Yes, a VERY meteoric rise in levels. However, this what we prefer, not saying that this is better or worse than other ways.

Experience was awarded per the 3.5 DMG and even split equally with the NPCs she may have been adventuring with the time. If the PC and her NPC friend defeated a CR 1 creature, they would each get 150 experience. I guesstimate that around 400-500 experience points were earned as "story experience" (ad hoc) experience, completing goals, talking to certain people, etc.

Now that you have some background, you can guess the amount and types of encounters she has gone through to get her experience. So far, i think she has defeated lots of skeletons, zombies, wolves, a flunky (Sorcerer 3), leveled orcs, dire rats, and giant fire beetles. In addition, she has gone through a bunch of sample traps from the DMG, ranging from CR 3 to CR 1, and has gotten experience accordingly.

That being said, this is a solo-campaign, and this is the treasure she has accumulated so far.

Ring of Protection +1
Adamantite Dwarven Braces of Armor +1
Adamantite Master Work Quarterstaff
Less than 100 gp.
A few gems that are probably less than 100 gp each.
2 Healing potions.

She has already used around 6-7 Cure Light and 1 Cure Moderate.

Money is not that useful yet, since she lives in a wilderness "hamlet". There is her monestary, a wizard's tower, and a Selune Shrine. However, she is able to get healing potions virtually for free from the Selune Shrine, 1 per day usually, but with a successful Diplomacy check, she can sometimes get 2 potions.

I want to give her more treasure, in terms of magic items, but don't want her to think that in a "regular" (group) DND game, magic items are just easy to find. Plus, this being the Forgotten Realms, in my opinion, I think that finding magic items would be a little bit "easier" to find, hehe. I want her to feel the "magic permeates the land" fell of the Forgotten Realms.

However, for the amount of encounters she has gone through, she should have more treasure than this, according to the treasure guide in the DMG.

I feel she has earned the appropriate amount of treasure since she did defeat all those encounters either by herself or with NPC assistance. So I would like to reward her accordingly. However, I don't want this to become a "monty haul" campaign, but I do want to give her a bit more magical items.

Any suggestions, comments?

 

[S'mon]

As far as I can see she has well over the standard DMG wealth-by-level for a PC - 3rd level is 2700gp. I suppose she has less than the average wealth for 4th level, which is 5400gp, but she appears exactly where she should be wealth-wise. Why do you think there's a problem?

 

[dreaded_beast]

As far as I can see she has well over the standard DMG wealth-by-level for a PC - 3rd level is 2700gp. I suppose she has less than the average wealth for 4th level, which is 5400gp, but she appears exactly where she should be wealth-wise. Why do you think there's a problem?

I want give her treasure that I feel she has earned, but at the same time, I don't want to go over board and give her "too much" or "too little" treasure.

I guess since this is a solo-campaign, I was wondering if it would be better to err on the side of "too much" than "too little" since the past 2 encounters I had to fudge the dice a bit.

 

[Shallown]

Its not always easy to balance it all out but don't neccessarily be concerned with her having the exact amount for each level. My players are use to being item/cash poor for up to 3 levels and as long as I take that into account the game can be challenging. I try have treasure and such in only places/encounters that make sense. So it sometimes works out they are poor (By DMG standards) for a few levels then I even it up and sometimes go over some to compensate for where I think they will be heading and wether I can seed the game with some money or items. The DMG is great as a guideline for wealth for level for encounter ratings etc. they did, whta I think, is provide a good guide line but don't think its the end all be all.

Since she is in a single character campaign you could probably go over up to 10-20% and not hurt the challenges or the system. The system is very dependent on the 4 character model and as such when moving to the extremes , in your case 1 character and NPC's "assitants" and my case of 9 person party with cohorts and such, the Gm takes a little bt more on to balance the game.

And as an aside I find it is easier to subtract items/money than to worry about not giving out enough. Not take items aaway but simple let the character advance before giving out much money. Its a balance over 2-3 levels that I worry about and not each level.

Hope that helps

Later

 

[S'mon]

Advice:

Firstly, the Monk is the least equipment dependent of all classes, so a solo Monk doesn't need extra treasure the way eg a solo Rogue or Fighter might.
That said, it'd be nice to give her neat tricks to play with. So how about more one-shot items? A stash of potions like Invisibility & Fire Breath would be nice, lots of fun but once used they're gone, so no balance problems. Later on maybe her Order has someone who can augment her bracers to +2. Items that give +5 skill boosts are nice and not overpowered even at low level; certainly not on a monk. If you think her combat ability is too weak, some monk wraps that give her +1 on unarmed attacks would give a nice boost but not overpowering - again I think that kind of Monk-specific item should usually be a reward from her masters rather than just an unlikely 'random' find.

 

[S'mon]

BTW a solo PC campaign might benefit from a Fate Point system to cut down on unfortunate PC demises & eliminate the need for fudging. The Conan RPG FP system is great.

 

[LGodamus]

Actually she has more than Double what she should have level wise.....adamantite is expensive as HE double hockey sticks.....