Purchasing Items Above Your Level

[Infiniti2000]

I'm not sure if the DMG is clear on this, but it at least implies that a PC is not allowed to purchase magical items above his/her level. I can understand the reasoning behind not making items above your level, but purchasing up to level+4 I thought would be acceptable.

a.) Is this true?

b.) Why?

 

[burntgerbil]

They're allowed to purchase whatever they have the gold for and the DM deems available.

That being said, you know your game better than others. In my games that I play in and the ones I run, the only way to acquire an item higher than your level is by risking your neck (in a dank sewer or some alpine pass). Treasure is only available for those who are brave enough to go and get it.

The game I run, I don't include anything anyone cant use - and I generally include what I would want myself as a player. I also rotate "suitable" items so that all players get equipment upgrades roughly as equally as often.

 

[Markn]

Not sure about that, but if you are following the treasure rules they shouldn't be able to afford anything much beyond their level unless they use EVERY GP they have.

 

[burntgerbil]

I guess as a concrete reason ? OK - if you make one of the primary adventure motivators (XP & Loot) capable of being acquired outside of traditional adventuring through normal means - socially RP'ed money schemes, Liberal use of Fool's Gold, Etc... The potential for player greed unintentional or not, will likely become an issue.

If you could dig for diamonds in Ghana or work on your computer and have them dug for you and delivered for free, which would you probably choose ? Most people would go for the lower-risk scenario when the rewards are the same.

 

[LightPhoenix]

I can only speak from my own experience, but I was barely able to afford items of an equal level, let alone items of a higher level. We played KotS/TL/PoS, if that makes any difference.

 

[Garthanos]

In my games nothing above heroic levels is probably purchasable (and those only in some parts of the world), the rest have quests and story associated with them. I dont change that dependent on what level the heros are.

If you make it so wealth doesnt allow one to by pass the story the characters can be as wealthy as they want ;-).

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Even sticking within the treasure system mechanics of 4e its going to be pretty rare for a character to be able to muster up the gold required to buy an above-level item. At 1st level the PCs will find 720gp worth of treasure by the standard parcels. That's enough for a single level 3 permanent item with 40gp left over, or two level 1 items with nothing left over. The same pattern holds for all levels. The upshot being if the whole party gets together and decides that a character deserves an item and they pool all their treasure for that level, they can buy the lucky PC a level + 2 item, which is worse than all but one of the 4 items they will normally find during that same level.

In other words, theoretically its possible by RAW to buy items of ANY level if the DM lets you, but in practice you're probably mostly limited to items of right around your level. Assuming an even treasure split by the party no one single character will actually EVER have even that much cash, even if they saved every gp they ever found.

 

[Flipguarder]

The PCs in my campaign rarely have items BELOW their level, it makes them powerful, but hey I'm having fun. I also don't allow about half of both the adv and adv 2.

 

[Garthanos]

When players build a character I allow them to equip there character with items a few levels above theres... using character builder... then basically the dont need any expectations of getting more right away this delay factor makes when they do find new items more wonderous. (and these are almost never generic items). I am planning on making use of the Alternate Rewards suggestions big time too.