Shawn Carman
Explorer
I think I may have made some sort of error in running this campaign so far. We've finished the first few modules, and the average level of wealth per character appears to be way below the average for a level five. My most meticulous player has a precise record of everything the party has acquired and liquidated over the game so far, and while some of the others have kept the odd Wondrous Item or so, he hasn't really had anything that works for his character (he's a Beguiler).
So the point is basically that while on average a level 5 character should have about 7,000 gold worth of equipment in order to meet CR7 encounters, he only has about 1700, and the others are somewhat comparable, although slightly higher (the Duskblade has the Living Blade, for instance). However, in the game's defense, I have not doled out treasure for random creature encounters, mostly because I forgot. So now I'm going to go back through and figure out how much I've short-changed them to compensate. Since I made a slight abbreviation to the second module, I also ran them through an encounter in Bresk with an inquisitor, and I'm thinking about giving them a reward for taking him out (since he was killing 'casters throughout the city), and that should, I think, catch them up.
Still, is this something I need to be more careful about? Do they have to strip every kill in the campaign in order to remain competitive?
So the point is basically that while on average a level 5 character should have about 7,000 gold worth of equipment in order to meet CR7 encounters, he only has about 1700, and the others are somewhat comparable, although slightly higher (the Duskblade has the Living Blade, for instance). However, in the game's defense, I have not doled out treasure for random creature encounters, mostly because I forgot. So now I'm going to go back through and figure out how much I've short-changed them to compensate. Since I made a slight abbreviation to the second module, I also ran them through an encounter in Bresk with an inquisitor, and I'm thinking about giving them a reward for taking him out (since he was killing 'casters throughout the city), and that should, I think, catch them up.
Still, is this something I need to be more careful about? Do they have to strip every kill in the campaign in order to remain competitive?