In my campains I have found that the precentage of normal v.s. magical changes as levels go up. A smart player tends to start with lots of common stuff then slowly replace it with master work equipment. Most don't start looking for magical stuff untill around 4th and even as late as 7th or 8 some still has more wealth in non magical equipment and animals then magcial. Of course by this level many have mitral armor or several master work weapons/tool kits, two or more animals with master work barding, ect. After this point the precentage of magical stuff climbs very quickly, Until around 15 almost every worth keeping track of is magical, or a animal with magical equipment.
How much magic should PCs have
Victim
First Post
I owuld use the DM guidelines as a for how much a character has in resources. I can imagine many things that characters could buy but wouldn't be resources. For example, a house. By the books, a Peasent with a hut has more than a 1000 GP worth of items. "i'm sorry Dave, but you can't start out with a shack at the edge of town; it's worth too much gold." WTF?! Hmm, a hovel, or a +1 shield? I think they made property cost so much to keep players from doing mass buy outs and taking control of places economicly.
IMHO:
Base Wealth = Magic Items + Mundane Equipment + Liquid Wealth + Income from property over the course of the level.
I'd et the percent of money invested in Magic be decided by the players. For example, some characters might want stacks of masterwork daggers, funky hidden weapons like blade boots and those wrist crossbows, enough alchemist's fire, holy water and acid to reqiure measurement in gallons instead of vials, along with Tanglefoot bags, Thunderstones and any other funky gadgets. For some characters, lots of mundane equipment is preferable to a +1 sword.
IMHO:
Base Wealth = Magic Items + Mundane Equipment + Liquid Wealth + Income from property over the course of the level.
I'd et the percent of money invested in Magic be decided by the players. For example, some characters might want stacks of masterwork daggers, funky hidden weapons like blade boots and those wrist crossbows, enough alchemist's fire, holy water and acid to reqiure measurement in gallons instead of vials, along with Tanglefoot bags, Thunderstones and any other funky gadgets. For some characters, lots of mundane equipment is preferable to a +1 sword.
shilsen
Adventurer
graydoom said:
I've seen a lot of campaigns where the magic wealth to total wealth ratio is exactly the way you describe it. For example, in the RttToEE campaign where I'm a player, I'd estimate my PC's magical wealth to be about 90% of his total wealth, possibly more. In my campaigns, I prefer to spread it out a bit, using mundane and masterwork items, mounts, liquid and other assets, etc. Not too difficult to do.
Altalazar
First Post
It really doesn't matter - it can be campaign specific. The book values are important for determining CRs and for going in WotC published adventures, since they assume the levels of magic and wealth found in the tables.
If your campaign has much less magic, then you'll need to raise the CR of many creatures. And perhaps some modules will be too much for you based on the level written for the module.
I tend to look more at the items on an individual basis, and even custom make items that don't exactly have an equivalent in the books. So my PCs don't necessarily have many magic items, but if you look at their values, some are quite valuable - not that they'd ever sell them. And except for simple items, magic tends not to be for sale anyway when I DM. That's not to say an item can't be found, but it probably won't be a simple exchange of gold.
If your campaign has much less magic, then you'll need to raise the CR of many creatures. And perhaps some modules will be too much for you based on the level written for the module.
I tend to look more at the items on an individual basis, and even custom make items that don't exactly have an equivalent in the books. So my PCs don't necessarily have many magic items, but if you look at their values, some are quite valuable - not that they'd ever sell them. And except for simple items, magic tends not to be for sale anyway when I DM. That's not to say an item can't be found, but it probably won't be a simple exchange of gold.
I would use the NPC list from the DMG as a general guide line. I would probably give them more items then the NPCs, but nothing which excesses the +value of the items that the NPC have.
But of course it depends on the adventures the characters are about to explorer....
Stegger
But of course it depends on the adventures the characters are about to explorer....
Stegger
