flamingbunnys
First Post
Awsome advice! thats exactly what i needed. is there any other adivse you recomend?
How much treasure to give to your players?
- Thread starter flamingbunnys
- Start date
I know it sounds horrid, but I just give players gold according to the DMG rules, and then distribute magic items on an as needed basis. (What? Someone's fallen behind on his pluses? Okay, the next magic item is designed for that player?)
I don't spell that out for the players though. Sometimes players don't t pick up on the subtleties of the item (That Elven Cloak is for you who loves to sneak!) and decide that it's for them, and give it to someone else (Your stealth sucks, here you can have it even though you already have a +2 to your NADs) then that's not my problem.
Just keeping track of where the players are on to-hit and defenses is enough anyway for me to prevent using monsters that eclipse those numbers too much. (Which is why I never understood that whole jazz about, "Eventually the players start falling behind the monsters!")
I don't spell that out for the players though. Sometimes players don't t pick up on the subtleties of the item (That Elven Cloak is for you who loves to sneak!) and decide that it's for them, and give it to someone else (Your stealth sucks, here you can have it even though you already have a +2 to your NADs) then that's not my problem.
Just keeping track of where the players are on to-hit and defenses is enough anyway for me to prevent using monsters that eclipse those numbers too much. (Which is why I never understood that whole jazz about, "Eventually the players start falling behind the monsters!")
Neonchameleon
Legend
And then there are the weird items. I gave my PCs a +1 frost greatclub at 4th level (a giant icicle taken from the elemental plane of ice). Not something you'd expect to be worth more than residuum, right?
It's used at least every other fight; the PCs are in the middle of the Indomitable Fire of Inndenotaur (sp?) and in my version the burning monsters are all insubstantial (to represent the everburning deathless state) - but cool them down with a cold attack (or throw them in the water I always have relatively near) and they take full damage for the entire round.
How should I grade that?
It's used at least every other fight; the PCs are in the middle of the Indomitable Fire of Inndenotaur (sp?) and in my version the burning monsters are all insubstantial (to represent the everburning deathless state) - but cool them down with a cold attack (or throw them in the water I always have relatively near) and they take full damage for the entire round.
How should I grade that?
Smoke Jaguar
First Post
I downloaded masterplan and went to the site above but I don't get how to actually download the different maps. It may just be because it is a Monday or I may be that slow. Can you explain how to download them better?
You'll have to become a member of the yahoo group.
flamingbunnys
First Post
good advice Ourchair 
well im going to run my first full game wedsday!
well im going to run my first full game wedsday!
hopeless
Adventurer
Treasure, treasure everywhere...
Nope, I've never bothered to spell it anyway!
Sorry about that I couldn't resist!
But I'm a fan of the Eberron style of dealing with this.
Finally using slabs from the floor as cover the party eventually reaches the stone chest lying on the dias and manage to pick the lock.
Inside lies a single small sack that when one of them picks it up jangles with the sound of coins and within they find a good handful of coins 50 in all plus a small handful of what looks like gems.
Moving out of the trapped chamber they take the time to split the money and then take a closer look at the gems which the wizard identifies as "Prepared Bloodstones" which he demonstrates by attaching on to his robes which glows momentarily before fading.
By the time they figure this out the cleric has already attached one to his mace and the other to his holy symbol.
Meeting the gaze of the others he looks around momentarily.
"What?" he asks as they return his gaze before looking at the only party member to not get one of this rare form of magical treasure...
That kind of thing is what i was thinking.
In the games I played in I was asked for a list of what magical items my character would want.
Of course playing a paladin at the time I figured this out I simply answered; sword, armour, holy symbol and a cloak would be nice too!
Of course I might have that in the wrong order since its been a while since I played!
Nope, I've never bothered to spell it anyway!
Sorry about that I couldn't resist!
But I'm a fan of the Eberron style of dealing with this.
Finally using slabs from the floor as cover the party eventually reaches the stone chest lying on the dias and manage to pick the lock.
Inside lies a single small sack that when one of them picks it up jangles with the sound of coins and within they find a good handful of coins 50 in all plus a small handful of what looks like gems.
Moving out of the trapped chamber they take the time to split the money and then take a closer look at the gems which the wizard identifies as "Prepared Bloodstones" which he demonstrates by attaching on to his robes which glows momentarily before fading.
By the time they figure this out the cleric has already attached one to his mace and the other to his holy symbol.
Meeting the gaze of the others he looks around momentarily.
"What?" he asks as they return his gaze before looking at the only party member to not get one of this rare form of magical treasure...
That kind of thing is what i was thinking.
In the games I played in I was asked for a list of what magical items my character would want.
Of course playing a paladin at the time I figured this out I simply answered; sword, armour, holy symbol and a cloak would be nice too!
Of course I might have that in the wrong order since its been a while since I played!
AbdulAlhazred
Legend
Luckily the treasure parcels system in 4e is very forgiving. Because each level's treasures are worth a LOT more than the level before it if you say give out 2x the normal treasure in one level say it hardly makes any difference 3 levels later because its like 1/10th of what they are supposed to get at that level (a drop in the bucket) so they are ahead for a little while but not much for long.
Like a few other people said you can just eyeball the chart in the DMG and give out gold roughly equal to those numbers. Give out 4 magic items each level (for 5 players) roughly. With 5 players and 5 levels per plus that means you are giving out 25 items in those 5 levels and each player needs 3 updated items (weapon/implement, neck slot, armor) which is 15 items, so you have 10 more items you can give out that can be anything (boots, rings, belts, etc). The items should be roughly 1-4 levels above the character's current level, so at level 1 they'll all be +1 type items or level 2-5 for items without a plus. When they hit level 2 you can give out say 1 +2 item (a 6th level item) and 3 more +1 sort of items, etc. The exact progression isn't too important. A few characters will be a little ahead of the curve for a while and a few will be slightly behind the curve on one of their main items for a while.
Remember too there are Artifacts. Not many are designed for levels 1-5 but you can drop in one artifact say every 5 levels or so at whatever point it fits in the story. Artifacts are designed to disappear after a couple levels, so they don't count as normal treasure. Just have the story involve disposing of the artifact and if the player has high concordance they get a 'prize' of a regular item when their artifact vanishes.
You can have magic items appear in fun ways that fit into the story. When the dwarf smacks a fire monster with a critical hit then his axe turns into a +1 Flaming Axe. The warlock breaks a piece off of a meteorite that the bad guys used to power a ritual and then he's able to make a +2 Rod of Reaving out of it, etc. A character could carry around the family heirloom sword for his whole career and you can just keep powering it up more and more (or just say that the character unlocks more power from it). Players like that kind of stuff.
Like a few other people said you can just eyeball the chart in the DMG and give out gold roughly equal to those numbers. Give out 4 magic items each level (for 5 players) roughly. With 5 players and 5 levels per plus that means you are giving out 25 items in those 5 levels and each player needs 3 updated items (weapon/implement, neck slot, armor) which is 15 items, so you have 10 more items you can give out that can be anything (boots, rings, belts, etc). The items should be roughly 1-4 levels above the character's current level, so at level 1 they'll all be +1 type items or level 2-5 for items without a plus. When they hit level 2 you can give out say 1 +2 item (a 6th level item) and 3 more +1 sort of items, etc. The exact progression isn't too important. A few characters will be a little ahead of the curve for a while and a few will be slightly behind the curve on one of their main items for a while.
Remember too there are Artifacts. Not many are designed for levels 1-5 but you can drop in one artifact say every 5 levels or so at whatever point it fits in the story. Artifacts are designed to disappear after a couple levels, so they don't count as normal treasure. Just have the story involve disposing of the artifact and if the player has high concordance they get a 'prize' of a regular item when their artifact vanishes.
You can have magic items appear in fun ways that fit into the story. When the dwarf smacks a fire monster with a critical hit then his axe turns into a +1 Flaming Axe. The warlock breaks a piece off of a meteorite that the bad guys used to power a ritual and then he's able to make a +2 Rod of Reaving out of it, etc. A character could carry around the family heirloom sword for his whole career and you can just keep powering it up more and more (or just say that the character unlocks more power from it). Players like that kind of stuff.
