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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 1745476" data-attributes="member: 1165">Show them what a real "equivalent" treasure looks like. I tell you, it's a PitA to work with. I used to use a treasure generating program, which just randomly determined treasure, and found a problem; the hoards were unrealistically large. Furthermore, most of the gear handed out was useless; lots of +2 swords when the players had +4 swords, and the like. The players have to go back to town, sell it, buy better stuff... this is called "grinding" and it's the reason I won't play Angband or Diablo.And then NPCs... because they have to have less gear, they're weaker but some classes are more gear-dependent (and have better gear) such as fighters - they get hurt more. (This is true of players as well... at mid-to-high levels, cutting back on gear hurts fighters more than mages.) The CR assumptions of these NPCs go out the window (okay, that's minor hyperbole). I found I could try reducing treasure everywhere else and give NPCs more gear (helping to fix the CR problem, giving out smaller hoards) but that took too much magic-item-accounting to be fun anymore. Furthermore, no matter how powerful I made those NPCs... I could boost gear, AC, and so forth... I couldn't boost their damage.It's hard to hand out "fun" treasure because it's weak... any player using a covenent sword and a few minor trinkets is going to be underpowered, even if the gear adds up to the correct amount (as pointed out elsewhere).To top it off, the treasure system is mildly broken - the players need to convert treasure to about 85% of it's value to keep up, but they sell it for 50% of it's value, plus a little bump for Diplomacy.I also hate how so much DnD power is tied up in equipment. You would think that characters would learn how to dodge or parry on their own, but most classes can't. I recall trying on a few boards (including here) a "light fighter" class. I gave it some AC bonuses, because at low levels it's AC was worse than a monk's. It was deemed broken, however, because with all the AC-boosting gear you can get at high-levels it was impossible to hit, and, oh yeah, you can't really take away learned AC bonuses either.It sounds like you haven't seen any balance problems yet, but they will crop up eventually. I have no advice, since everything I've tried hasn't worked. I've jumped to Modern, and I have no intention of running DnD for a long time because of the "grinding".No wonder I've never seen a balanced 2e campaign.</blockquote>

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