Rules for Creating Character higher than 1st Level

[Legildur]

Easiest, or so I hear, is to grant XP up to level 10 rather than simply 10 levels. XP deductions and level adjustments are then able to be taken into account.

That's a good idea. Or maybe providing a small allowance for the construction of magical items without harming levels.

I'm not sure if it was DMG or PHBII where I pulled this from but the wealth per level is actually calculable as a wealth per XP. The charts give you 0.9 GP per XP.

I have not seen this anywhere! And I've also seen many threads asking for 'starting gold for xth level character' where no one has ever been able to identify a set pattern.... IDHMBIFOM, but this is a great rule of thumb if it works out. Thanks!

PS Or possibly I'm confusing it with the xp charts.... :\

 

[DarkJester]

It works fairly well till about level 8.

 

[Gooba42]

That's a good idea. Or maybe providing a small allowance for the construction of magical items without harming levels.

I have not seen this anywhere! And I've also seen many threads asking for 'starting gold for xth level character' where no one has ever been able to identify a set pattern.... IDHMBIFOM, but this is a great rule of thumb if it works out. Thanks!

PS Or possibly I'm confusing it with the xp charts.... :\

The 0.9 per XP is something I had to pick out of the combined charts myself. I may have screwed up the numbers at some point but I did a couple spot checks and they matched up so it's the system I'm using in any case.

Edit: Yeah, it breaks at 6th level but isn't a big problem until 8th. I'm not certain if there's a pattern here and my algebra skills are rusty so I'm not about to reverse engineer the formula for the exponential progression.

I've got a spreadsheet I update session to session that calculates totals and averages for party wealth, xp, level and splits out wealth as cash and wealth as item value so I can keep an eye on how much and what type of wealth everyone has or needs. If I ever have a player complaint, I've actually got an audit trail showing how far ahead or behind their character is from the actual and ideal wealth factors.

Edit: Changed my spreadsheet now to reflect the PHBII chart using a vlookup to another sheet. Aside from "Go read PHB II" I don't know how to give any advice on this topic until some enterprising soul works out a general formula.

I'm relatively new to DMing but fairly good at spreadsheets so any calculable guideline I can find is a good thing.

 

[irdeggman]

That is why I always choose to start PCs out with a set xp total instead of a specific level. Then those with creat item feats can spend from that total.

Here is what I did with a recent Age of Worms start.

Characters start with 1,200 xp (second level plus some). If a character has an item creation feat they can create some items using this xp pool. Subtract any material costs from the starting wealth below. Also, if you want to “convert” some of this xp to starting funds in order to purchase more/better equipment you may do so at a rate of 2gp/xp. You can spend xp such that your character is actually below 1,000 if desired. The character will then be a 1st level character though. During the course of this Adventure path PCs will advance to 20th level (perhaps to epic level depending on how things go and their mortality rate {insert DM evil laugh}).


PCs start with 950 gp with which to purchase gear. Standard gear is considered “free”. See later for “standard gear”. The restriction on having no single item worth more than 25% of this amount does not apply. That is, you may spend all of this on a single item, if desired. Spend your money – PCs will be starting with essentially no cash on hand (limited to 10 sp in cash). This is one of the “incentives” for PC involvement in the adventure. Spellcasters that have a spell component pouch (5 gp in the PHB) don’t need to keep track of spell components, except for costly or rare (as in very unique) ones, divine focuses or focuses that wouldn’t fit in the pouch. For initial equipment, everything is available and “book” value. This won’t always be the case, however. Diamond Lake is a “poor” community and stock is limited so don’t always count on being able to buy what you want.


“Standard” Equipment:
Backpack; Bedroll; belt pouch; Blanket; flint and steel; rope (50 ft) – hempen; 5 torches; 2 sacks; 2 water/wine skins; 1 week’s worth of trail rations; whetstone; 2 sets of clothing (no more than an explorer’s outfit in cost each); 1 dagger (doubles as a knife). If you can think of something along these lines that you want to include – let me know and I’ll probably say its fine.

 

[just__al]

All the spells for levelling up are "free" of cost.

Any extra spell that he wants to have scribed will cost at least the scribing cost.

Then it could be slightly debated about the scroll cost: 25 x spell level x CL (IIRC). Because in theory a wizard can also copy spells from other friendly wizards (50 x spell level), or buy/find/steal someone else's spellbooks, which I think are not easy to price...

I let characters add spells to their spell books that are the sum of their wizard levels (so 10 spell levels for a 4th level character) for the cost of scribing only. Anything after that is scroll + scribing.

I also limit characters to one item no more costly than 40% of starting wealth and no other item more costly than 20%

I will stretch those limits ever so slightly if the charcter wants something that costs slightly over 40% but it costs them a decent backstory.

 

[lottrbacchus]

starting magic items: as li (i think) pointed out, 3.0 had the example of limiting a character with 27,000 to 5,000 per item. from this, we decided that an item can cost up to 1/5th of the character's starting wealth. we carried this forward into 3.5. so the new 11th level characters in my game can have items up to 13,200 in value.

what about characters that can make their own? well, *ducks*, that doesn't change starting inventory. that you could have made a nice ring for half price is balance by the fact that you could have also made and used a boat load of consumable items that you no longer have. the starting total is made for game balance, and so it stands.

that said, one could keep some starting wealth aside, "ah yes, i was just about to start making whineypeecee's staff of ultimate power".

 

[nittanytbone]

For item creation, just charge "living expenses." The cost of a room's board and food are listed in the SRD. Also remember to charge for any hirelings that might be part of the retinue. The costs add up fairly quickly, at least for non-magical craft-skill usage.