Limits for magic items PCs can buy when starting at high level

[Li Shenron]

See, I'm a member of the camp that believes that players who choose 1 big item need to be taught a lesson about diversity. If a player spends a ton of money on one item it is a reflection upon the DM style than more than anything else. It is essentially a sign that the player is giving the DM. It says "The DM challenges us through combat almost all the time. Therefore, if I make myself hard to hit then I'll live." Note: this may be true or it may be false. But it is the player's perception of the DM style.

I'm quite disagreeing with this (tho maybe I don't fully understand what you mean...).

When playing a high level game, particularly if starting with already high-level PCs, I often tend to buy a few "big" magic items rather than tons of smaller just because I don't want too much headache...

I actually think that a muchkin is NOT likely to buy a weapon/armor with the biggest bonus, but instead he's going to spread e.g. the AC bonus into as many different bonus types as possible, because this achieves a much greater total AC bonus for the same price, and also it has the advantage that if the total bonus is made up of different bonus types then it is very hard for a foe to completely bypass it.

I think that max gp limit on single items may help to prevent stacking DIFFERENT special abilities, especially on weapons and armors, or otherwise maybe the only "flat bonus" that might be too high is weapon enhancement (because it might raise really too much the % chance of hitting in combat).

Beside the above, a max gp limit on single items is actually bad for my own tastes, because it is actually just turning characters into christmas-trees with an item in every "body slot".

 

[Darklone]

I played (very shortly as one could guess) where the players would randomly do stupid thigns to get thier characters killed, while the others in the party gathered up their magic items, then the player would make a new character, and insist on getting his old gear, plus the tens of thousands of gold in new stuff he just bought.....

It left a very sour taste in my mouth towards starting characters off with large amounts of coin

No way. In my games, new characters entered game with one signature item, sometimes magical, sometimes not. No starting equipment, sometimes some money. If the other players didn't share magic items with them... their problem.

Usually, everyone simply tried not to die

 

[green slime]

No, PC's that get killed tend to have their stuff sent off to surviing family members, or divided up amongst the surviving party members evenly, unless the pc wrote a specific will.

 

[Artoomis]

I really like the way our campaign does this:

1. You get 75% of the regular value for a high level starting character form the DMG.

2. You get to spend no more than 50% of that on any one item.

3. DM will provide some other campaign/story-line custom item that is appropriate for the character - but its value may be more than the remaining 25%, but usually is a sort of item where its powers get slowly revealed over time. This is where much of the fun comes from!

This allows folks to pretty much do what they want, avoids the ludicrous items, and keeps some key control with the DM while allowing lots of flexibility.

This has worked very, very well for us with our style of play.

 

[mvincent]

I think having only a few items that cost a lot could be unbalancing.

It's unbalancing in that it generally makes a character weaker than evenly distributing the money (and then the other players might get the items when he dies).

I generally don't worry about it. If an inexperienced player shortchanges himself this way I might give him advice, but ultimately the method allows them to outfit a character in less time... so if it makes them happy...

Mind you, some players might be able to find an optimized loophole (like starting a 5th level character with a tan bag of tricks)... but the issue usually becomes moot in a level or so (and one could acquire even more powerful items via normal adventuring anyways)

 

[Darklone]

I like Artoomis thing. Mostly because I love to give PCs signature items as well... sometimes rather powerful, sometimes not even magical.

 

[KarinsDad]

These are my total rules for what my players can buy, the values are only a limit for the total cost of one item:

15.000 for armor/shields. Animated Shield and +3 enhancement is not allowed (so no Fullplate +3, a Light Fortification Fullplate+2 would be OK).
20.000 for weapons. Holy, Unholy, Axiomatic, Thundering, Chaotic, Lawful, Bane, Disruption, Wounding are not allowed; no more that one energy damaging effect like flaming per weapon
15.000 for rings
14.000 for rods
2.200 for scrolls
17.000 for staffs
21.000 for wands
900 for potions
16.000 for wondrous items. Cloak of Resistance+4 is not allowed. Stat-boosting items are OK, but PCs can get only one with a +4 bonus and only one with a +2 bonus.

So, am I just being worried over nothing or did I make an error with those limits?

I would simplify this to no individual item over 25% (16,500 GP) of the 66,000 GP.

Who really cares if a PC comes in with 10,000 GP worth of potions?

If he does that, he has fewer long term magic items. And sure, he gets to use a lot of potions, but he is draining his net worth by doing so.

And even if you raised this a little (to 18,500 GP so he can get a +3 weapon), who cares if he has a +1 Sword of Wounding or Holy? Sure, the PCs might be more optimized than normal, but that's really no big deal.

I think you overthought this too much.

 

[FunkBGR]

I give the player the starting wealth, and take a flat 50% off from it.

So - 66,000 gp becomes 33,000 gp.

They get to spend that. That makes it so they can make a Paladin who starts with his ancestral holy crapsword of master awesomeness.

The other 33,000 gp I end up generating a psuedo-random list of items they get, which includes potions, stat bump items, stuff like that. If they're a spellcaster, I'll include rods and wands and things. I do tend to roll a couple random items.

It's worked great - no more people forgetting to buy 'basic essentials' like Potions of Cure Light and Cure Moderate, and no more people starting with one single magic item.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Hmmm, I could have sworn the DMG had a note in it about no single item being worth more than 25% of the cahracter's total wealth. I'll have to get my books back from my brother.

 

[mvincent]

Hmmm, I could have sworn the DMG had a note in it about no single item being worth more than 25% of the cahracter's total wealth. I'll have to get my books back from my brother.

It lists several options like that as possible suggestions for DM's to implement, but they're not actual rules.