Problem: character deaths are leading to enormous party wealth

[Mathew_Freeman]

Firstly, here's how the long running campaign I play in deals with it:

Level / Higher Level Starting Money
2 600gp
3 900gp
4 1200gp
5 1600gp
6 2000gp
7 2600gp
8 3400gp
9 4500gp
10 5800gp
11 7500gp
12 9800gp
13 13000gp
14 17000gp
15 22000gp

Seems to work out OK, because we still get decent treasure handed out to us. And it stops your problem straight off.

The other thing I wanted to say is about thieves. People are complaining that thieves are cheesy, and having a bunch of thieves show up would be a bad move. I think that if you were a bunch of thieves, and you heard about a small group of incredibly wealthy people turning up, you'd have to have a crack at them no matter how big their reputations were! And to anyone that says "Well, how would they know about the characters?"

Dude, it's their JOB to know about wealthy people! They're THIEVES!

 

[Sixchan]

Someone up there mentioned Discount coupons. I don't know why I've never thought of that before!

"As you climb over the carcass of the Ancient Red Dragon and enter the treasure room behind it, you see...A MASSIVE PURSE. It has some coppers, a reciept from the local Wrm-Mart, and...AN ALL YOU CAN EAT COUPON FOR BURGER DRAGON WORTH 1 MILLION GP! WOW!"

Cue me getting beat up by players.

Hee hee...sounds fun.

 

[Ace]

Perhaps the PCs anger some local nobles who in turn believe themselves to be entitled to repayment, and send out a party of high-level fighters with Improved Disarm to obtian 'payment'.

No problem. The players than sell off all of the items they accumulated that don't have sentimental value and retire.

"Orc Army Invasion in the Northern Provinces? Sorry Highness I am an Inn Keeper now and I don't adventure anymore. Use the royal army for a change"

 

[Kareyev]

How about items with levels. I remember a Dragon magazine article where the suggestion was to have the magic item start out low powered, but go up in level with the PC. The items could have weak powers for the first level it is wielded and then slowly increase in power as the character goes up in levels. Your friend dies with his favorite Ring of Protection +5, well for you it is only +1 because you have not learned how to effective use it/tap its power, etc. Perhaps with a different character the magic item will gain different powers! This also is a neat trick to create "family heirlooms" at low levels. Items with levels does create other issues (tracking is a pain), but hopefully it gives you another possibility.

Good Luck.

 

[Cheiromancer]

Let me get this straight:

1. Party treasure is average for their level.
2. Adventurers die.
3. Party takes dead adventurers' gear.
4. New character (with average treasure) joins party.
5. Party treasure is now above average.

That's the problem, right? But as a logical consequence of 5 we have:

6. Fewer adventurers die (they are better equipped for challenges of their ECL).
7. Party gains experience, and go up levels instead of dying.
8. Party treasure is now closer to average.

Eventually you will reach an equilibrium; though you will probably have to cut down a bit on the amount of treasure they find. Also be less generous in the level of replacement characters; make it slightly more cost effective to raise the old ones. Even then it may turn out that the characters are "too wealthy" for their level, but at least the problem won't spiral out of control. In my sig are links to Sepulchrave's story hour. Many of the characters are rather wealthy for their level, but the campaign is far from spiralling out of control.

A small (but real) chance of death keeps the players on their toes, but as the average character lifespanincreases there is more continuity and development of character interaction, etc..

Good luck!

 

[Saeviomagy]

"Are you Mr H. Smurf, claiming to be of Adventurers Unlimited, Inc? I have the honor to be Wegwort Snive, Royal Auditor. Are you aware that your company has failed to pay incorporation fees, guild taxes, death tax on the deceased members..."

Alternately:

"Mr. H. Smurf, Adventurers Unlimited, Inc? My name is Roland Mikkelson, representing the family and heirs of one Dunbar Rodericksson, aka Dunbar the Mighty. The gentleman beside me is Legate-Champion Artisius of the Royal Judiciary. It has become known to my clients that the aforementioned deceased was an employee of your firm. Do you have a contract containing the terms of his employment? I see. These are rather unusual terms for a person who risks his life on a daily basis, aren't they? Mr. Smurf, my clients are prepared to bring this matter before the Royal Courts on the grounds that the ex-employee would not have signed such an agreement unless under physical or magical duress. Until the matter is resolved Legate-Champion Artisius will take custody of the disputed items as a representative of the courts..."

J

Adventurers: "Bugger off, or we'll not stop that rampaging dragon/we'll let out that insane lesser god we imprisoned/we'll tell the lich precisely who it is that's holding onto his treasure".

Adventurers at the sort of levels we're talking about are going to have powerful friends (not to mention the ability to make many problems simply 'go away' themselves).

Furthermore implementing some bizarre (and all-knowing and all-seeing) form of legal system in a world where the items themselves are likely to have been gained by the age-old tradition of "kill em and take their stuff" is really stretching the boundaries of belief a bit, don't you think?

In the end, you'll just end up turning your campaign into "against the lawyers" - the players are not just going to hand over all that stuff unless they're stupid/you abuse the paladin's code.

The simple solution is: Carry on normally (and make their opponents CR's match the level that they should be, rather than the level they are...). The characters will be able to defeat equal-level challenges more easily, and thus will level up slightly faster, and at the same time they shouldn't die as often. The end result should be that their levels will catch up to their wealth.

 

[Angcuru]

Monster Manual page 87.

 

[drnuncheon]

"Hey, it's the same contract I signed myself... and it's witnessed here by a High Priest of Tyr, with an annotation stating that the negotation took place within a Zone of Truth... take your best shot..."

Of course, then you have to wonder why the character wants to screw over his legal heirs. Is he doing it because he's got a real roleplaying reason, because he's metagaming that this will let the party keep his stuff, or because he really didn't think about it? Of the three, only the first is a good reason...and even with that one, well, any will can be contested.

BTW - have you read the Fencer Trilogy?

I bought the first book on the strength of one phrase in the back cover blurb - "Fencer-at-Law".

Sounds interesting - what's it about? A legal duelist?

Furthermore implementing some bizarre (and all-knowing and all-seeing) form of legal system in a world where the items themselves are likely to have been gained by the age-old tradition of "kill em and take their stuff" is really stretching the boundaries of belief a bit, don't you think?

Bizarre all-knowing legal system? Where was that from again? We're talking about the guy's brother suing to get his stuff, rather than let those no-good adventurers (the ones that got him killed) loot his body and get away with giving his rightful heirs a paltry few gold.

I guess if you think that the guy's brother knowing he was a successful adventurer is "bizarre" and "all-knowing", you might have a point...but I don't really regard it as all that unusual. (Although I don't have a brother, so maybe I'm way off base.)

And as for "they won't hand it over unless they're stupid" - well, if they don't, then their alignments just took a big step towards both chaos and evil, for not respecting the customs and laws of the land, and for acting in a selfish manner to the detriment of others. For some people that won't matter much, but for others, it could cause problems. ("I wonder why I can't regain spells...")

J

 

[sabby]

Someone up there mentioned Discount coupons. I don't know why I've never thought of that before!

"As you climb over the carcass of the Ancient Red Dragon and enter the treasure room behind it, you see...A MASSIVE PURSE. It has some coppers, a reciept from the local Wrm-Mart, and...AN ALL YOU CAN EAT COUPON FOR BURGER DRAGON WORTH 1 MILLION GP! WOW!"

Cue me getting beat up by players.

Hee hee...sounds fun.

Heh. I don't give out coupons or "literal discounts." What I've done is have a travelling "shop" filled with various magical items, with unidentified properties, available for sale. The merchant has no clue what the items are worth or what they are. If the party casts detect magic, they know what items are magical. So, they go buy a sword and find out later, "Hey, it's a +2 Lawful Longsword." Woo hoo. The merchant knew it was magical, and priced it high ... but had no identify abilities to see what it should really be worth.

I've had other nifty things. Like once I had the party have an ability to purchase an inn, which later provided income for the party. So, it was delayed treasure.

It gets weird if you keep handing them 10,000 gp in cash. So, you have them come by things worth money. I just make sure the party gets cash, not by the encounter but by the level. (That way, if the party gets an unintended amount of cash, I can just withhold treasure for a while, or give nonconventional methods.)

 

[Angcuru]

...coupons...

Y'know, I just remembered that when I got my copy pf D&D the Movie DVD, there was a Coupon of Saving +3 inside. Creepy.