Starting Gold and Leveled Wealth/Gear Value

[Arnwyn]

Can a druid starting with 50 gp wealth really hope to wind up equally wealthy at second level as a fighter who began with 150 gp?

Sure, in any noticeable way.

Do you audit your PCs at various levels and see if they fit the expectations in the DMG?

Very rarely.

What of the disparity between first level NPCs and PCs and how this effects the lowest levels of play?

What about when that disparity flips only a couple of levels later, what effect does that have on the pace and tenor of the game?

Completely unnoticeable in my games.

 

[Emirikol]

IMC, I have a rule "No single item can be more than 1/4 of the wealth by level chart." This applies only to new characters of course. That leaves a lot of temporary items..that all balances out in the end

jh

 

[Michael Silverbane]

I find that PCs rarely gain wealth at the same rate. Sure, they usually each gain an equal share of the gold and mundane goods that they manage to acquire in their travels, but rarely are the magical spoils the same from one adventure to the next.

I usually eschew the PC wealth by level guidelines, allowing the PCs to generate as much gold / magic / property as they feel the urge to.

In the campaign that I am going to be starting soon, however, I'm thinking of having the wealth by level guidelines at less as a metagame concept and more of an in-game limit. The characters can accumulate as much equipment as they like, but they can only make use of X amount of magic at any given time, based on the wealth by level guidelines... I am unsure, at this point how I am going to maintain that rule with respect to temporary, disposable, and one-shot magic items...

Later
silver