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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 5939023" data-attributes="member: 22424">Okay, I should note that I'm still using 3e, which means that I have the "Wealth by Level" tables to guide me. However, a similar mechanism sort-of exists in 4e - IIRC, when generating a character of level N, you get to choose one item of level N+1, one of level N, and then get enough gold for an item of level N-1. (I might have these numbers wrong, but I do recall that guideline.) Anyway, by totalling up the cost of the three items, you effectively get a "Wealth by Level" guideline.(I should also note that in any case I treat it very much as a guideline - as long as the treasures aren't wildly off, I don't think it's too much of an issue.)Anyway, I take the WbL value for the group's current level and subtract it from the WbL value for the next level, and multiply the result by the number of characters, and then add a bit (because they probably won't find/claim all the treasure, because they'll use up some treasure, and just because I'm a kindly soul). The resulting value is the total amount of treasure I'm looking to place.(For example, my current 3e group were at 6th level heading for 7th. Per WbL, they 'should' have 13k treasure each, rising to 19k. So, that gives 6k per character, and with 5 characters that means I'm looking to place about 30-32k of treasure. I'm going to stick with 30k, because it makes the next bit of the math easier...)Having gotten my total figure, I place about a third of that as money/gems/jewellery/other valuables. (Additionally, any magic items that the party can't use go into this category.) In all cases, I use the resale value of the item - what the PCs can get for the item when they sell it. The assumption here is that the PCs will sell all this stuff and use the proceeds to buy whatever they want, so the number that matters is the total amount of gold they end up with after having done that.(So, in my example, I would place about 10k of 'valuables' - perhaps they find a chest of 3,000gp, a tapestry at 2,000gp, plus assorted jewellery, minor magic, or whatever else for the rest. I try to lean towards 'cool' treasures that are worth a moment's description, rather than a simple "you find 10,000 gold pieces".)I take the remaining two-thirds of the money and multiply it by 5*, and place magic items to that value. However, when placing the items, I make sure to place items that are relevant to the members of the party, but specifically are not the precise items that they would choose for themselves. (In 3e, this generally means avoiding the "Big Six" powerful-but-dull items - that is, anything that simply gives a flat bonus to a attacks, defences, skills, or the like. 4e has a similar "Big Three", although these are a bit less ingrained in the system.)The idea here is that treasures should be cool, and can be quite powerful, but they're not optimised to the character perfectly. So, if the group has a battle-axe wielding Fighter, I won't give out a magic bastard sword... but neither will I give out that +1 flaming holy battle axe bane vs evil outsiders that he would probably choose for himself given a free choice.The end result is that the PCs should have an interesting choice - do they keep the treasures they have found, which are powerful but not a perfect match, or do they sell those on (at 20%) and use the money to buy items that are a perfect match but which are, on paper, less powerful?* I use the same 20% resale value as 4e RAW. If I were running 3e RAW, where resale was 50%, the multiplier would be 2.(So, going back to my example, in addition to the 10k worth of 'valuables', I would place 20 x 5 = 100k of magic items - avoiding the "Big Six", and leaning towards single, quite powerful items. So, for the aforementioned Fighter I might place a +2 keen battleaxe - quite a powerful item, but certainly not the optimal choice.)I hope that helps at least a bit.</blockquote>

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