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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Old One" data-source="post: 1305617" data-attributes="member: 83">A couple of thoughts...die_kluge,A few ideas for your on-going discussion...IMC, the PCs are currently 5-7th level and don't have a "+" magic weapon between the five of them and very limited amounts of other magic items.  A couple of tools I have used:(1) Moved to a silver standard, yet kept the costs the same in gold for most items and services.  This essentially cuts the PCs purchasing power by a factor of 10.  I do have a fairly involved trade, barter and merchant system, but the PCs have yet to delve into that too deeply.  Also, captured gear only brings in 5 - 20% of it's retail value and guilds will rapidly become unhappy if someone starts flooding the market with cut-rate short swords "liberated" from kobolds.  Since I didn't want the PCs to be spending every last copper on food and shelter, most PCs have in-game relationships or patrons that can provide said items at little or no cost.(2) Magic items are not readily available for purchase.  Aside from one-shots like low-level scrolls and potions, most magic items are not available for purchase.  They can be commissioned, gifted (rare), loaned from a patron (rarer) or discovered in treasure (also rare).  Virtually all permanent items require "power components" that involve mini-quests to retrieve.  The PCs are just starting to take item creation feats, so we will see how they progress.  In addition to "power components", I also require a formula for most items.  This requires research, bartering, purchase, favors and/or guild membership and most formulas are jealously guarded secrets.(3) Use of bonded items.  Several of the PCs have bonded weapons which have hidden powers that grow with the PCs over time as the PCs place XP into the items through rituals and/or formulae.  I actually like the Midnight "Covenant" weapons and am thinking about incorporating some of that approach.(4) Care over CRs/ECLs.  As mentioned by an earlier poster, one critter with DR of +1/- can be trouble, so you have to think alot about what gets thrown at them.(5) Control advancement.  We are getting ready to have Session 29, so PC have advanced a level about every 4.5 sessions, and that rate has slowed down recently.  Of course, we only play 1 game a month, so that pace might be too fast for weekly/bi-weekly players.  I suggest deciding how fast you want PCs to advance and scaling the XP accordingly.The players really seem to enjoy the game and although there is grousing from time to time about being magic poor and having empty purses, I try to make up for it with abject terror and regular a$$-beatings <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />!~ Old One</blockquote>

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