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Message: <blockquote data-quote="nnms" data-source="post: 5279792" data-attributes="member: 83293">More on treasure as a form of experience:When you take a look at the math underpinning the advancement of character levels and the difficulty of challenges they face throughout their adventuring career, it becomes clear that the leveling system is less about being a power boosting system and more about being a pacing mechanic.Your character goes up in level and you get a bonus to hit, a bonus to damage, bonus to defenses and a bonus to skills.  As well as some more options.But what happens to the monsters?  They go up in HP, defenses, attack bonus, damage, etc.,.And what happens to the DCs of most skill checks?  They also go up.And part of this system assumes that you are getting level appropriate magic items to add more to your side of the equation.  So much so that the DMG2 spells out the bonuses you'll need to substitute in if you don't use magic items for the math of the game to still work.Magic items are part of the whole advancement/pacing mechanic.And like the tiers of experience levels, magic items are broken up into tiers based on enchancement bonuses.  With two of these tiers for each of heroic, paragon and epic tier.While mundane equipment, alchemical formulas, rituals and other consumables are nice, the real destination for treasure is magic items.What do magic items accomplish?  Each item does one or more of the following:- Their enhancement bonus adds to attack and damage- They provide additional daily, encounter or at-will* powers- They provide properties that modify or grant other abilities- They increase skillsSo what happens when you level up?- Your 1/2 level bonus adds to attack- You gain additional daily, encounter or at-will* powers- You gain feats that modify or grant other abilities- You increase skills* at-will powers from both items and gaining levels are relatively rare.As you can see, treasure is "sheet potency."  It provides many of the same things as leveling up.  And the monster defenses, HP, and even skill check DCs often rise assuming you're getting these item and enhancement bonuses along with your leveling bonuses.More on the implications of this to follow.</blockquote>

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