How do you handle starting equipment for a non-1st level character?

[Olaf the Stout]

I simply use the Wealth by Level guidelines. The rest of my group does the same in their campaigns.

I think the hardest part might be to decide how Wizards learn their spells - do you require them to buy a scroll for each additional spell they want to know, or do just use the copying cost?
(Our group doesn't have a general rule, but I'd go by the cheaper "transcribing cost".)

I'd be using the transcribing cost option as well. I created a 9th level Wizard PC with what I thought was a reasonable size spell list. By the time I had finished paying the transcribing costs for the spells I had spent a fairly large chunk of my suggested wealth.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Only once have I had to ask a player to choose different items and that was because he picked 2 skill boosting items that allowed his class to roll skill checks in place of save checks. That gave him a huge advantage and therefore those items were way more powerful than what they were meant to be...especially for their cost.

What items where they and what book were they from Oryan?

Olaf the Stout

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I always have gamers who forget to buy essentials, and instead buy "exactly what they want".

Since at any given time in my campaigns, roughly 50% of a an adventurer's gear is "what they want", I cut the wealth by level in half, and give that to them flat out. The rest of the 50% is what I spend on stuff and give to them - healing potions, sometimes scrolls, wands, wondrous items that are useful. I sometimes use this as a handout also, if they've been having trouble with something. Werewolves coming up and no silver weapons? Oh, you have 2 vials of Silversheen. That kind of stuff

This isn't a crapshoot - I always pay attention to what they want, their class, their archetype, etc.

That sounds like an interesting way of going about it. I might see about doing something similar to that for my upcoming SCAP campaign. I think I would let the player pick a little more than 50% (maybe 60-70%) but I still like the idea. It would stop new PC's coming in with super-optimised equipment, something that isn't normally the case with PC's that have grown organically.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Oryan77]

What items where they and what book were they from Oryan?

Well he created a Swordsage and wanted a ring of jumping and asked if I'd create an item that boosted Concentration (which I found a headband or something in another book that boosted concentration).

Being unfamiliar with the Swordsage, I figured, "cool, he wants to improve some fairly mediocre skills that people don't usually care to boost with magic items". So I gladly let him have the items.

Then as we start playing, I realized the real reason he wanted the items. He didn't care about jumping or being good at concentrating....a Swordsage can use Jumping checks in place of Reflex saves, and use Concentration checks in place of Will Saves! This gave his 7th lvl PC a 17 saving throw score for both Ref & Will saves once every encounter. Which meant he was basically immune to the first Ref/Will attack in every encounter.

So on top of the better skill checks, these items suddenly became a lot more powerful than what I think a 2.5k gold item is supposed to be.

I'm a pretty modest player, and because of things like this, I've learned that a lot of players have ulterior motives when you think they are making modest choices.

It would stop new PC's coming in with super-optimised equipment, something that isn't normally the case with PC's that have grown organically.

Glad to know I'm not the only one that notices this in the game. That's why I'm always telling myself I will choose the magic items. Since I chose what magic items to put in the game as loot for the PCs that have played from the beginning of the campaign, I thought it's only fair to choose for the new PCs also so they aren't optimized 100% better than the other PCs. I just never have the heart to follow through with that decision

 

[greatamericanfolkher]

I usually start campaigns at level 2, so I give them what the wealth by level chart recommends with the caveat of “Don’t make me regret this.” If they’re bringing in a character at a higher level I’ll usually give them one level lower on the chart with the same caveat.

 

[Arkhandus]

The title pretty much says it all. How do you handle starting equipment for a non-1st level character?

Do you let them pick all of their equipment, giving them a value equal to the recommended wealth per level?
Do you tell them what gear they have?
Do you set any restrictions on what they can spend their money on? (i.e. No more than 1/2 of your wealth to be spent on any 1 item.)
What do you do about the increased level of treasure the party now has? (as the dead PC normally still has equipment left behind)
Is there anything else you do?

Olaf the Stout

Normally, I use a set amount based on the suggested wealth in the DMG. For some of my campaigns, where wealth or magic items are much more rare, like Rhunaria, I set the value to a certain fraction of that and round up; like 1/3rd the DMG suggested wealth, rounded up to the nearest 100 GP (but then, in Rhunaria, most characters get Gifts of the Warrior's Spirit that duplicate some basic magic item benefits, so they don't need to waste money on mere stat-boosters).

Once in a while I use a slightly higher value, like with my Land of the Nine Swords campaign, where I gave the PCs some 3-10 thousand extra GP for their 12th level characters (I forget the exact amount, but I just took the suggested value and rounded up to the nearest 10K).

I almost always use the (very reasonable) suggestion in the DMG of limiting PCs to buying no magic item worth more than half of their starting GP, at character creation. I'm as likely as not to start PCs at 1st-level or a higher level, and when I start them at 1st-level, I use the normal 1st-level wealth/item guidelines (free starting outfit, no special/masterwork/alchemical/magic items to start with, and rolled starting wealth; but once in a while I just go with the maximum rolled wealth or half of that for 1st-level PCs).


Dead PCs..... Depends on the group and campaign, generally. Once in a while there's no surviving/recoverable loot from the corpse (when the cleric died in my Land of the Nine Swords campaign, it was from his as-yet-unused Necklace of Fireballs being detonated; only a few of his magic items made their saves against the massive series of explosions). Other times, the group is obligated to either bury the corpse with its possessions, or to send them back to any surviving relatives.

Most of the time, though, there's no such means of avoiding it; the PCs get their dead buddy's treasure. Then I just don't put as much treasure on foes for a while (or they fight more enemies who have no treasure with them, like dire wolves and dinosaurs and stuff). The new replacement PC, if any, starts with as much wealth as I'd normally give at their starting level, plus a small extra chunk of GP if the party's accumulated about as much treasure as they could be expected to have at the next level higher.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Well he created a Swordsage and wanted a ring of jumping and asked if I'd create an item that boosted Concentration (which I found a headband or something in another book that boosted concentration).

Being unfamiliar with the Swordsage, I figured, "cool, he wants to improve some fairly mediocre skills that people don't usually care to boost with magic items". So I gladly let him have the items.

Then as we start playing, I realized the real reason he wanted the items. He didn't care about jumping or being good at concentrating....a Swordsage can use Jumping checks in place of Reflex saves, and use Concentration checks in place of Will Saves! This gave his 7th lvl PC a 17 saving throw score for both Ref & Will saves once every encounter. Which meant he was basically immune to the first Ref/Will attack in every encounter.

So on top of the better skill checks, these items suddenly became a lot more powerful than what I think a 2.5k gold item is supposed to be.

I'm a pretty modest player, and because of things like this, I've learned that a lot of players have ulterior motives when you think they are making modest choices.


Glad to know I'm not the only one that notices this in the game. That's why I'm always telling myself I will choose the magic items. Since I chose what magic items to put in the game as loot for the PCs that have played from the beginning of the campaign, I thought it's only fair to choose for the new PCs also so they aren't optimized 100% better than the other PCs. I just never have the heart to follow through with that decision

I'll have to keep that in mind if anyone decides to play a Swordsage (or other ToB class). The simplest solution I can see to that problem is that specific items, such as a Ring of Jumping don't add to the check for the purposes of making a save. If you had an item such as a Belt of Giant Strength +4 then that would add to your save indirectly (by boosting your Strength score) but you couldn't use specific items. It's not really an ideal way of solving the problem but I guess it stops broken combos such as what you described.

Olaf the Stout

 

[haakon1]

For PC's coming from other campaigns: Whatever they have is fine. We'll convert gear if it's from other editions and doesn't work in 3.5 anymore.

For new PC's starting out: Not a problem, since every level needs to be earned in my campaign. That is, every PC needs to start as first level and work up. I do allow characters with higher ECL's due to monster race, but they get 1st level gold (spent on whatever they want) only.

As for dead PC's: The other PC's decide what to do. Generally, they split it up.

How do I deal with players who get bored or have a PC die? Generally, they pick up an NPC whose already an associate of the party, and make him a PC. NPC's have specific equipment, and it tends to be close to the official norm for the level, +/- 50% or so.