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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cerebral Paladin" data-source="post: 5568933" data-attributes="member: 3448">So, let's think about what a newly minted five-character sixth level party has based on the treasure parcels rule.  They have from each level:1.  5, 4, 3, 22.  6, 5, 4, 33.  7, 6, 5, 44.  8, 7, 6, 55.  9, 8, 7, 6They don't have the sixth-level items yet, because they just leveled up.  They also have a pile of cash, presumably enough to buy several lower-level magic items.That's by level of magic item:9th: 18th: 27th: 36th: 45th: 44th: 33rd: 22nd: 1That corresponds to each PC having one item 7th level-9th level (one gets 2, presumably 2 7th level items); a second item at 6th (except for the character with 2 seventh level items); and a third item at mostly 5th, but in one case (perhaps the person who had the 9th level item?) at 4th.  They then have a smattering of lower level items and cash.  In other words, pretty darn close to one at level +1, one at level, and one at level -1, plus some cash to buy some lower level items.  A few characters do a little better, with one at level +2 and one at level, or two at level +1, and one lucky fellow gets one at level + 3.  But all told, it's pretty close to the guidelines for starting above first level.Moreover, the pattern generalizes very cleanly:  except for the lowest level items, by the book a party of 5 PCs will have found at the beginning of each level:1 item of level n+32 items of level n+23 items of level n+14 items of level n4 items of each level below nSome random cash with which some additional items will have been bought (or in some cases, with which lower level items will have been increased in power to higher level items).So you can pretty much assume that a character will have items right around their level, level -1, or a little higher in each of their 3 core slots.  People with a secondary weapon will often have that be a couple of levels behind (perhaps as much as lagging by a plus, although often it will lag by half a plus or so); they'll then have a smattering of other items.To get concrete about that:  bonuses start showing up roughly 3-4 levels before the new bonus hits (i.e. +2 weapons/armor/neck slot items start appearing around level 2-3; +3 start appearing around level 7-8); bonuses are common but not quite ubiquitous by the level at which the new bonus hits (by level 6, most characters are packing +2 items in 2 of the three slots); by a level or two past that, any character who doesn't have the new bonus is underpowered (by level 7 or 8 at the latest, almost all PCs should have a +2 in all three slots).  Note that spending gold and improving prior magic items is part of how characters should make sure they hit those benchmarks.That also means that inherent bonuses lag significantly behind the expected treasure bonuses.  Not enough to break the game, but at least a full level behind the point where you would expect all characters to have that bonus in all slots, and roughly 3 levels behind the point where characters will have that bonus in most slots.  That works well for a campaign that wants to give out some, but rarer, magic items.  Getting a +3 sword at level 9 or 10 in an inherent bonus campaign is really sweet, because it means that for 4 or 5 levels (until level 14) you're getting an additional +1.  At the same time, not getting a magic sword (or a magic cloak, or whatever) doesn't hurt you.  That said, if you're doing away with magic items altogether, the math will be closer to the math in a game with magic items if you assume inherent bonuses at the start of the tier (i.e. +2 at 6th level, maybe 7th; +3 at 11th level, maybe 12th).  Of course, at very low levels, the patterns are a little different.  4th level is pretty close to when +1 equipment is standard, and of course some characters probably skip directly to +2 in some slots.</blockquote>

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