How do the Wealth Guidelines affect your style of play?

[Evilhalfling]

Well my default style is fairly low in treasure, normally staying somewhere betweeen NPC wealth levels and PC wealth levels. but after a player feedback form, several complained of the low wealth, so currently I am staying pretty close to book, keeping track of how much wealth is earned each session. At 7th lvl I did a audit and they were about 4k under, so they found an undead crafter of wonders who modified all their wonderous items.

THe big problem I have found is that staying strictly to the guidelines, it excerbates the inequality of PCs of differernt levels. So I ignore this, and the lower lvl pcs are overequiped for their level.

 

[caudor]

I follow the guidelines (with a reasonable amount of flexibility). That includes wealth guidelines. Why? I just believe in using all applicable rules during play --time, light, encumbrance, donning armor time, etc., as best I can manage. The rules not only help balance the game, but enhance it in my view. If I stray too far from the rules I have a story-hour rather than the tactical game my players enjoy. That's not to say rules-light campaign are not fun...our group just likes to play by the books.

 

[MerricB]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

 

[Mokona]

In my games the characters are way below the official wealth guidelines. We like it that way and I adjust the choice or stats of monsters to reflect the weaker equipment of the party.

 

[Kelleris]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Oh, now that's just the bitterness talking! Take a few deep breaths. In and out. There ya go, feel better already, don't you?

 

[boredgremlin]

i Never use the wealth guidelines. I use reasonable reward for adventure. If the players decide to work as mercenaries then they get paid a decent amount of cash and are often sent places that have loot. If they choose the heroic path and just go looking for evil goons to kill then they dont get much money. I do try to compensate this by having plot things often have more to do with the good guy path.
So i find my players do a few heroic things and then a few "time to go back to work" things. But then i mainly DM on the fly so i can adapt to whatever they feel like doing that night.

 

[MerricB]

Oh, now that's just the bitterness talking! Take a few deep breaths. In and out. There ya go, feel better already, don't you?

Heh.

I've found the Wealth Guidelines are great for creating new characters with a reasonable amount of treasure.

The effect they have on moderating rewards created by the treasure tables are also admirable.

I don't pay too much attention to how much stuff the PCs have during play, however. As PCs can vary so much in effectiveness against various monsters just by virtue of their character class, it is only when one PC really starts standing out that I pay attention. Or if the PCs are finding everything really easy or really hard.

Cheers!

 

[BSF]

Like most people it is not easy to succinctly describe my play style.

First of all, my playstyle differs based on the game I am running at the time. As an example, I am getting ready to start a mini-campaign once a month that has all the PCs as non-native, good-aligned outsiders serving the good gods in my homebrew. Mundane treasure is a little less relevant for these PCs. However my normal campaign has PCs that are a little more concerned with money. Still they are not very mercenary and have turned down several opportunities to get cash, instead focusing on things the characters would be interested in.

Perhaps my playstyle could be better described as character driven? The last campaign I ran, the PCs were behind on the wealth guidelines. Yet they all had stuff to get the job done. And they did a damn fine job getting the job done. At the end of the campaign, I eyeballed their wealth values and the group was ~ 20% behind wealth for their level. We broke that game around 15th level. But the characters were able to overcome every challenge. It wasn't always through direct combat. Now this isn't to say that I was an easy DM on them. One of the PCs died 5 times. Others died fewer than that, but death and hardship was definitely a real threat. The PCs also lost equipment a few times. The fighter/cleric was particularly bad. He lost his greatsword so many times that it became a running gag. I think the most depressing was when his newly created holy greatsword was sundered by a deathknight. He did take the deathknight's greatsword after they defeated it though. Of course, he later fell unconscious at the edge of a chasm and lost it there.

I worried a lot about the wealth guidelines in that game. But at the same time the PCs were handling the challenges pretty well. So I just worried about it and tried not to give them anything clearly outside the bounds of their level.

For this latest campaign, I decided that I wanted to try to break the money/magic relationship. Now obviously you can't do that completely. If you give the PCs resources of any sort, they will try to leverage those resources into a form they believe is useful. But I didn't want to worry so much about what magic they would have if I gave them money.

Fortunately, the Artificer's Handbook is helpful there. I know that not everybody likes it, but I really appreciate that the limiting factor for creating items is the number of spellslots available to a caster. Without high enough level spellslots, in enough quantity, higher end items cannot be created. I also shifted around the breakdown of NPCs in the community. I have created setting specific reasons why higher level characters are rare. The players understand the reasons and seem to appreciate the limitations. But this gives me yet another reason to limit magic items.

The result is that the PCs are more inclined to custom build the items the want the most. Of course, a few items also come from specific adventures. The 5th level Favored Soul ended up with a +3 returning trident. But that is a gift from his god and he won't be trading it out anytime soon. I figure it has to last him for several levels. In the interim, I have at least one PC with a magic weapon. The other magic weapons have been lost to the group, so it is good to have one! It also gives the player a nice little hook to RP off of.

This campaign is very far off from the wealth guidelines in terms of magic items. But the PCs have wealth in other ways that would probably bring them pretty close in line with the book. If they would also stop and train, then make items, they might be closer. The odd thing is that they don't want to take that time off in character. So they are partially responsible for driving what they have.

I have been lucky with my efforts to leave the wealth guidelines behind. My players are involved in the process and they have seemed to been having a good time overall.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

New characters enter play as per wealth by level.

Existing characters are monitored at a distance to ensure that they have the important goodies they need. I can feast & famine them a bit & I rely on my skill to ensure it evens out at the appropriate level. I don't sweat the small stuff, the law of averages or whatever can look after the minutiae.

Planned encounters begin with average wealth, then I adjust it up or down. Just recently I over-equiped a heretic with 2 pieces of equipment that I want to fall into the pcs hands; then I converted a dragons hoard to pure gold & decreased it to a believeable sum.

In fact I am rather vigilent in ensuring the pcs get the right wealth, and interestingly 2 of my older players (2nd ed. days) gaming style has changed. They no longer feel a need to squeeze the campaign for all its worth & are a lot more relaxed about dividing treasure because I tailor items; I really do highly recommend doing this.

 

[Connorsrpg]

Have never taken any cue from wealth guidelines. In fact players know that items gained in our campaign are to be savoured. I do NOT ever check their wealth with the guidelines. Generally they are below the required, but after a big find may jump above...I am not sure I have never checked.

I agree with MerricB. Class, spells etc ALL impact on what monsters can be defeated. And let's remember not ALL monsters need be defeated. I rarely take any notice of CR either. PCs often fight creatures well below and sometimes those well above. Fleeing is always an option... And one several players need to learn. I find it odd a group of players could go into so many life-threatening situations (and to me ANY fight where there are sword, axes, claws and magic is life-threatenting) and win every one...

Our current 6-7th level group has NO magic weapons. They just haven't come up much as treasure. Well they did have a cursespewing mace, but felt it was too evil, so they destroyed it. I loved that.

I don't use the guidelines for new characters either. On rare occasions I have given a PC the wealth a starting NPC would have - and they still come in better equipped than most active PCs. See, choosing the items makes for a far superior PC too. You can gear every item towards you primary focus. I am not in favour of that. But I treat NPCs the same way...

Here is a cut piece from the NPC creation doc I have done for Cellworld (our CS). I use these guidelines for PCs too. Yes, even at first level. So at 1st level a character may be ABOVE the recommended. But the item (if one is rolled at first) is random (although I generally make if of some use), and sometimes the player is even unaware of its powers. (I have started campaigns where a PC didn't even know they carried a magic item.

Here is the excert...oh and I forgot to mention...I love randomness

Gear
Magic Items
Roll a d10 a number of times equal to NPC’s level. The NPC gets a MI each time the dice is equal to or less than the number started at but the number drops by one for each roll (descending dice). Eg: for a 5th level NPC you need to roll a 5 or less, then a 4 or less, and so on down to 1. Hence 10th level and higher characters gain automatic MI’s and a chance for more. (NB: Halve all levels of Commoner, Expert and Warrior NPC class levels when using this mechanic).
Of course high-level characters may begin with many MI’s. Not all of them need be carried on them. You may even simply disregard some items. Don’t re-roll items that may not suit NPC – these items could be treasure gained from other defeated foes, but a NPC should have some items of use.

To determine the power of a MI roll on Table 10-1 below:
Modifiers:NPC under 5th level -1
NPC above 10th level +1
Table10-1 NPC magical item power (Roll 1d10)
0-6 Minor
7-9 Medium
10+ Major

Special Items
Determine the number of special items exactly as MI’s above. (Remember if the NPC has a HL feat it automatically starts with bonus gear).
This includes masterwork weapons, armor and kits, poison, alchemical items, special substances, spell catalysts, etc

Mundane Equipment
To finish, give the NPC a set of clothes and any normal items that an NPC of this sort would have. Starting kits detailed under classes and as a web enhancement are good ideas for low-level NPCs.