How big of a deal is treasure to you?

[Nellisir]

I'd probably be OK with it in Iron Heros. Alot of DMs use "no magic items" or "low-magic" as an excuse to nerf the PCs, and that's not cool. Iron Heros is built for low-magic; you get other stuff instead.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I'm considering Iron Heroes, I've never tried out a low magic setting and would be interested in seeing what it is like. The one thing that holds me back is that there isn't really treasure that is handed out. I mean IMHO a big part of the fun is getting kewl stuff off the monsters you kill. I know that this sounds strange but I see the game being less fun with that out of the equation.
I know that IH has magic items but they are pretty crazy to use.

So if there was no regular magic items handed out would it be less fun?

As long as it has no effect on game balance, I would enjoy it. It does vary a bit from DnD expectations, but I never ever see characters in movies and novels get so obssessed with treasure. Even if the whole point of the story is to get each person one magic item. Even "real-life" magic treasure-hunters, like Ponce de Leon, were looking for something valuable or plot-devicy, like immortality.

I'm a big fan of some kind of plot.

 

[shilsen]

Wouldn't mind at all. Treasure is simply a means to a particular end in D&D. There's no objective requirement for it to be a factor in a given game.

 

[Raven Crowking]

as long as there are still ale and whores available after the adventures it wouldn't bother me.

I believe that Gundark was talking about in-game rewards, diaglo....not what you do when you leave.

 

[drothgery]

I'm fine with low amounts of magic items (and Iron Heroes, like d20 Wheel of Time, is a low magic item game; it's not by any means a low magic game) in games that are designed to be low magic. Standard D&D 3.5 is not one of them; going more than a level or two above or below standard wealth levels tends to cause funky side effects.

 

[buzz]

So if there was no regular magic items handed out would it be less fun?

I voted "true neutral."

In IH, the question is somewhat meaningless. The PC's abilities don't depend on treasure, so not acquiring a lot of it shouldn't really matter. Treasure and magic in IH are more akin to plot devices. IH isn't really "low-magic," it's "lot's of magic that Man Was Not meant To Know." So, you can throw in all the magic items you want, but players have to expect that using them is going to have serious consequences. As for treasure, that's how you buy fancy armor, quality ale, and copious concubines. Dealing with money over the course of the campiagn is dealt with in Mastering Iron Heroes.

In D&D, reducing the amount of treasure basically makes the game suck utterly. Treasure in D&D is a point-buy system for acquiring abilites that keep PCs in line with the CR system. Mess with it, and the whole game goes out of whack.

 

[Raven Crowking]

In D&D, reducing the amount of treasure basically makes the game suck utterly. Treasure in D&D is a point-buy system for acquiring abilites that keep PCs in line with the CR system. Mess with it, and the whole game goes out of whack.

I disagree.

(The foregoing has been an automated disagreement on general principle. I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.)

RC

 

[EvilGM]

I've never liked the reliance on magic items to make a character more powerful. The character and his abilities should be the most important thing.

In a grim 'n' gritty campaign, my 7th level Ice Tracker (ranger variant) has the following "magic" items:

Silver star pendant medallion: improves nightvision (like low-light vision)
Plain gold ring: unknown, but others' rings disintegrated after protecting vs. a death attack
Gold ring: project voice to others wearing identical attuned ring

and a waterskin (mostly full now) of some fountain water that removes fatigue.

 

[amethal]

In D&D, reducing the amount of treasure basically makes the game suck utterly. Treasure in D&D is a point-buy system for acquiring abilites that keep PCs in line with the CR system. Mess with it, and the whole game goes out of whack.

My current 4th level character has a cloak of resistance +1 and a magic gem thingy which is either a homebrew magic item or taken from a very obscure supplement I am not familiar with.

I guess I ought to ask the DM what the magic gem's gold piece value is, so I can find out whether his campaign sucks or not.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

My current 4th level character has a cloak of resistance +1 and a magic gem thingy which is either a homebrew magic item or taken from a very obscure supplement I am not familiar with.

I guess I ought to ask the DM what the magic gem's gold piece value is, so I can find out whether his campaign sucks or not.

Were you a fighter type?

I made the mistake of making a light fighter in a low magic campaign. Actually I wasn't told it was low magic at first, but that's another story. So by 4th-level my character still hadn't learned to defend himself and has the same AC he had at 1st-level.

If the DM makes an effort at changing the game to suit low magic, it might work. But just cutting treasure and not making any changes will cause problems after several levels.

Now I'm in an Iron Kingdoms campaign. Again low magic. I must be a sucker for that stuff. Fortunately this DM is much more reasonable and is making rules changes to fix the problems. (Iron Kingdoms itself made an attempt to fix these problems, too.)