Do your party give "running cost" to spellcasters?

[James Heard]

Ditto on party funds, basically my players (and I when I actually get to play) set up a fund that gets paid into first for supplying 'needed equipment' all the time. The spellcasters aren't 'getting' that money, but if they can make the items cheaper than the party can shop around and find a source for them then they certainly gain access to those funds. Crafting is always a bit of a group effort anyways, since a lot of times the masterwork items are supplied by one player, uses the feat from another and the spells from a third. A lot of items aren't even owned by an individual in the group, but actually held in trust by the party - like half a dozen cloaks of elvenkind and bags of holding and certain items that are 'night watch' equipment.

 

[S'mon]

Wizards get paid for the cost of casting "Identify" & such party-help spells, just as Clerics are recompensed for casting Raise Dead. Stuff that specifically helps the Wizard, like more Book spells, is his own responsibility surely.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

We used to pay some from a central fund, until our party paladin decided sharing was for communists, withdrew his share and blew it on cheap shiny trinkets.

My cleric used to charge them for really expensive stuff - like raises and restorations, but the rest ended up being paid for by me.

 

[Deadguy]

Wizards get paid for the cost of casting "Identify" & such party-help spells, just as Clerics are recompensed for casting Raise Dead. Stuff that specifically helps the Wizard, like more Book spells, is his own responsibility surely.

Compensation for casting costs of spells for the party really must be borne by the party. But so too ought spells which the party specifically wants the Wizard to buy and learn. I've always found that if the Fighters chip in for the bull's strength they are much more likely to get it cast on them!

 

[Vrecknidj]

In my current campaign, the characters are isolated on an island where there's basically no stuff to buy. Once in a blue moon they encounter an enemy with some treasure, and, even less frequently, they kill the baddie or the baddie's body stays around long enough for them to pluck the stuff. Given this situation, the characters have to be really cautious about who conceals what (the rogues can probably pocket things without being seen, but when a party member later dies and could have been saved if only he'd had the item that the rogue has been hiding, that rogue is on the hot seat). So, there's a lot of haggling over the few items they get and it's great.

Dave

 

[Shallown]

The group I currently run splits treasure evenly with a share going into the party fund. How theparty fund is spent is up to the party. One thing the wizards did is approach the party saying the cost of scribing spells in the book was sucking away all their cash. So the wizards would produce a wish list of spells and the party decided if they wanted to pay for the spells out of the PArty fund. Any spells not wanted were then up to the wizard to get if they still wanted it. The party wasn't particularly greedy so It was never a problem. The one time they vetoed a spell they actually needed the spell in the next adventure so the wizard gently reminded them they had vetoed it. So from then on the wizards scribed pretty much what they wanted into their books. Often they still purchased other spells that were just for them so it wasn't like the party footed the bill for all their spells just the ones that directly benefitted the party.

As far as making items for the party that only happened early on and usually the person recieving the item would pay half and then "Tip" the wizard extra. Not enough to be paying full price but enough to make it worth it to the caster. Doesn't hurt to have the crafting wizard in the group be your MAgic Item Buddy.

Later

 

[jinx crossbow]

So my playgroup have found that when they reach to higher level, spellcasters tend to have smaller amount of wealth comparing to other PCs.

Not in any party I play.
E.g. in the group where Iam the Wizard / Ranger the othes give me all
perls we find, maybe one das i could need them. They dont calc them
to the things we found. Last thing I got was a ring of animal friendship
noone else wanted, but the others got just things which were much cheaper.
Next time i will take the smaler treasure.

The group where I GM all the fighters waste all their money to buy
new weapons an armor, the Cleric (Dwarf) always gives fests for his
god but the Sorceress just uses what they find and is now a ritch woman.

I think it all depends on playingstyle and its not a "systematic problem".

 

[Will]

One rule we hit on in my group was that any items crafted for members of the party were 'sold' at 3/4 market price. This gave the crafter a little bit of profit (figuring Xp cost of 5 gp per point, this is a profit of about 5%), while still providing a benefit to the party for crafting vs. market purchase.

Presently, I've tossed it all out the window and simply say that character wealth level is reset to what is appropriate for a level when characters advance a level, in a handwavey way. I'm not in the mood for accounting.

 

[hong]

...mind you, the tradeoff was that I ended up over two thousand xp behind everyone else, and still flat broke because I could spend the money much faster than it came in. But even though I was always strapped for cash and lagged behind them in levels, at least I had the same overall value of possessions (or higher) as everyone else, plus a good selection of utility spells to draw on.

--
it's still sad when the monk has enough money to buy a tower and you can't even make rent
ryan

D00d, that's not sad, that's leveraging your assets. Welcome to the wonderful world of mortgage refinancing, D&D-style!


Hong "as penance, you must now complain about your tax bracket" Ooi

 

[Felix]

There are a few ways for wizards to earn some extra green; some of the things I do to keep my guy in the money:

-Charge the party 110gp to identify an item they might want.
-Charge money for other wizards to copy out of my spellbook.
-Use my rings and jewelry as a safety deposit to "rent" a needed item for when I know we're going into a dangerous encounter.
-Leadership feat: those followers might not make much with their Craft skills, but they do produce more than they cost.
-Magic Jarring sleeping people and dropping their valuables into the rogue's pockets. This works well between the rogue and me. Heh.
-Send the party a bill for my spellcasting, as per the DMG hiring an NPC spellcaster table.

All of that stuff together helps me break even.