High-level starting PC treasure: Tailored or not?

[Mercule]

I had an interesting discussion with another DM tonight about high-level characters (specifically, when creating high-level PCs from scratch) and their treasure.

To pick a level at psuedo-random, a 13th level character should, according to the DMG, have 110,000 gp worth of gear and valuables. The real question is this: would that 110k gpv be pretty much "tailored" and optimized for the character or would a certain portion of it be "stuff I picked up"? That isn't to say that a Fighter is going to be wearing a Ring of Wizardry, but that a Cleric may not have +3 plate, +2 shield, periapt of Wisdom +6, a +3 weapon of choice, a wand of Cure Moderate, and a handful of misc. potions.

What if the party contains spellcasters capable of making any/all of the items the party is interested in?

The two of us are at a complete impass on this matter, but I wanted to see what anyone here thought. If you want to back it up with some rationale, that'd be great because I'd love to understand both sides.

 

[Anabstercorian]

Either roll randomly at full value or pick and choose at 3/4th value. If you have the feat to create it, you can pick and choose at 1.01 value.

 

[Khorod]

Anabstercorian, that's some good numbers. Never put crunch to that idea before...

 

[Caliber]

Hmm. I'd torn on this issue. I've always allowed new characters to have whatever they pleased (and conversely always been allowed to have whatever I wanted)

But I have noticed that it DOES lead to considerably more powerful characters. I've recently tried implementing a rule that limits the max amount a character can spend on any single item (this helps cut down on those 13th level chars with one 110k gold item.)

Maybe it would be better to do it one of your ways? I voted the mostly, but only because thats the closest there is.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

My DM let us have about a smidge over half of our gold to spend as we pleased for a 14th level game (subject to certain restrictions as to not have any one or certain number of items cost too much), and then pooled the remaining gold and rolled for random treasure, which we split up at normal.

It seemed to work well.

 

[Creamsteak]

I allow them to pick and choose because, I, as a player, would be buying tons of seemingly 'useless' junk for background and entertainment reasons. I could understand how it would get out of hands, but I trust my players.

Edit: The above post has one of the coolest ideas ever, IMHO.

 

[Mercule]

My DM let us have about a smidge over half of our gold to spend as we pleased for a 14th level game (subject to certain restrictions as to not have any one or certain number of items cost too much), and then pooled the remaining gold and rolled for random treasure, which we split up at normal.

Okay, this sounds cool. Question, though: Were the rolls on the Minor, Medium, or Major tables?

 

[Hypersmurf]

One of the most interesting ones I've come across recently was a DM who told us to submit a "wish list" that approximated 80% or so of our expected wealth, with a "Really really want", "Would be nice", or "It's a thought" ranking.

Then a day or two later he returned us a list of what we actually had.

Some of the things I asked for (Bracers of Archery, say) didn't appear. Some of the things I gave a fairly low ranking to were there, with an extra ability (Battleaxe +1 came back as a Spell-Storing Battleaxe +1). A couple of items showed up out of the blue (Boots of the Winterlands).

So I didn't get exactly a cherry-picked shopping list, but I got essentially the bulk of what I wanted, with some nice surprises, and the DM fitted the theme of the character nicely.

Based on how cool it was getting the list back (like a kid on Christmas morning really describes it), it's definitely how I'll handle items for the next high-level game I DM.

-Hyp.

 

[S'mon]

If I was making up pregen characters for a convention game or other one-shot I'd generally give them full gear value and choose reasonably useful items for them. If I were letting people generate PCs for a one-shot I guess I'd let them have a free choice, with no more than 1/2 starting wealth on one item. This would result I'd guess in a munckiny beer & pretzels type game at higher levels with lots of silly +1 frost-flaming-shocking longbows of haste type stuff.

For my campaign game I definitely don't use the DMG PC wealth-by-level table for PC starting funds, it would bring far too much and far too optimised magic into my game. I let them start with wealth as an encounter of their level - eg 10th level PC gets 5800gp - and they have a free choice within that limit.

 

[Cedric]

I have almost never seen a character that started at a higher level have near as much stuff nor near as many perks as a character that was played up to that level from 1st.

I know of 12th level characters played up from first who legitimately have probably 250,000-300,000gp worth of items. Because they have made the items, made some good deals, played their cards wisely, etc. While all of those won't be optimized, that character is still better off then one with the "out of the book" 110,000gp worth of optimized gear.

Cedric