Party Magic Pool

[Kestrel]

This may be more appropriate for the House Rules, but considering the discussions regarding magic items, I thought I would post here.

I've noticed something about players and the Suggested PC Wealth Guidelines (which i personally call the MSRP). Whenever a GM offers an item through loot, the PCs all look at the item and go, how does this benefit my character? If he takes the item, then it goes against his total. Big GP items have to be of the Big Six, or he won't take it.

This is why marginal items are commonly sold. For instance, I gave my party a Figurine of Wonderous Power: Bronze Griffon last session. I thought to myself, this item could be great for the party...in a pinch, they could have a flying, combat mount. Instead, the party went, its worth 10k, none of us are mounted specialists...SELL IT.

To get to my point...a lot of the wonderous items that are never used are party items. They benefit the party as a whole, not just one player. Unfortunately, these items are very expensive and so a PC will take a significant hit on his MSRP if he buys it. So I came up with an idea. How about a Party Magic Pool? Take a percentage of the entire party's MSRP and make it for communal items. An individual PC cannot touch that percentage, its part of the pool. The GM can use it as a guideline of loot to give out, for the entire party, in addition to thier personal magic items. This could include the big GP wonderous items, but also include the single use items...which are usually shared by pcs.

Thoughts?

 

[Andre]

Whenever a GM offers an item through loot, the PCs all look at the item and go, how does this benefit my character? If he takes the item, then it goes against his total.

Boy, I hope I misunderstood this. It sounds like you're saying the GM(s) limit characters in how much wealth they can have. Why? The wealth guidelines aren't intended to be a straitjacket, limiting what an individual character can have - they're just general guidelines for a particular style of play. Add in the fact that the book cost of many magic items is considerably higher than those items' value to most characters, and it's no wonder characters aren't keeping the stuff.

To me, the obvious solution is two-fold: put in treasure that the characters will want to keep due to its utility, coolness, whatever; and don't worry about counting the gold piece value of said treasure.

 

[Jeph]

Boy, I hope I misunderstood this. It sounds like you're saying the GM(s) limit characters in how much wealth they can have.

I think it's more like the party (the players, rather than the GM) keep track of the value of all the loot they get, and try to divvy it up equally. Nobody wants to take a relatively useless item that'd eat into their share of the treasure.

 

[Kestrel]

To me, the obvious solution is two-fold: put in treasure that the characters will want to keep due to its utility, coolness, whatever; and don't worry about counting the gold piece value of said treasure.

This is what I tried to do with the griffon, to give them an item with specific uses and instead of them evaluating the item on its use, they evaluated on its GP value and proceeded to discuss selling it.

Its my observation that items that don't specifically boost a pc's power are going to be sold for items that will. What I was hoping for is some kind of way to present items that are rarely used in the DMG, but are still useful (aside from weapons, armor, resistance and stat buffers). Unfortunately, due to thier high costs, they rarely are purchased or if given to the party, they are sold immediately for thier gp value.

The guidelines discussion was not an attempt to straitjacket the party into rigid gp values, but just to give a guideline for what the GM should be giving out according to party level.

(I'm starting to realize that its a moot discussion anyway. The only way to really restrict it is to do away with Magic Item shopping altogether and make them take what I give them. But that's not satisfying either, so I'll just keep churning out the +1 weapons, armor, cloaks of resistance, and stat buffers on the npcs, since the pcs are just after the money anyway)

 

[Kestrel]

I think it's more like the party (the players, rather than the GM) keep track of the value of all the loot they get, and try to divvy it up equally. Nobody wants to take a relatively useless item that'd eat into their share of the treasure.

Exactly...the pcs keep track of the values.

 

[Ghendar]

I've noticed something about players and the Suggested PC Wealth Guidelines (which i personally call the MSRP). Whenever a GM offers an item through loot, the PCs all look at the item and go, how does this benefit my character? If he takes the item, then it goes against his total. Big GP items have to be of the Big Six, or he won't take it.

This is why marginal items are commonly sold. For instance, I gave my party a Figurine of Wonderous Power: Bronze Griffon last session. I thought to myself, this item could be great for the party...in a pinch, they could have a flying, combat mount. Instead, the party went, its worth 10k, none of us are mounted specialists...SELL IT.

Good lord, this sounds like an exact copy of my former group. We did the same things.

 

[Kestrel]

Good lord, this sounds like an exact copy of my former group. We did the same things.

I think its pretty common actually. Nothing wrong with it, just would like change it up a bit.

 

[el-remmen]

Get rid of the economy of magical items.

 

[Wolfwood2]

I think its pretty common actually. Nothing wrong with it, just would like change it up a bit.

Well, an obvious method would be to drop the gold piece value of these sorts of items. If the animated figure from your example were valued at 4000 gp (half of that if they sell it) instead of 10,000, they might have been more inclined to keep it.

 

[Umbran]

Get rid of the economy of magical items.

Or, simply always aim under the guidelines, so they'll always feel that they've got leeway. Or, straight out tell them - "I am the one who worries about what wealth you have. Don't bother keeping accounts yourselves, because I will award treasure or not when I feel it is appropriate. Selling an item does not mean it'll get replaced by more loot any time soon."