Starting wealth by level?

[MrBeens]

Glad to have that confirmed, because I suspected so- for the 3(?) levels, you'd expect 1x10th, 2x9th, 3x8th, 3x7th, 2x6th, 1x5th level items. We ended up with a fair bit less.

Not to mention the bizarre selection- no magical longswords or plate armour in thunderspire, when these are probably the single most universal items. For my group this was exacerbated by (perhaps the DM's take) it being almost impossible to buy items, with no gap between the two adventures- I fought in non-magical armour until 6th level!

Yeah the published adventures are a bit light on stuff, but any DM worth his salt will alter the items given out in a published adventure to match his party.
Thunderspire has a magic shop built into the seven pillared hall, but if your DM doesn't like magic shops then he should compensate. The mechanics of the game work under the assumption that over a period of 6 levels or so each character should updgrade his armour, neck and weapon items.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

That rule doesn't seem to much the results given by following the guidelines for treasure parcels.

I don't think it is, nor is it intended as such.

As a freshly created character, you get probably a little less than what the parcels indicate, but you get exactly what you want. So you avoid replacement characters getting better chosen equipment than regularly played characters, but they still have what they need.

 

[Nikosandros]

I don't think it is, nor is it intended as such.

As a freshly created character, you get probably a little less than what the parcels indicate, but you get exactly what you want. So you avoid replacement characters getting better chosen equipment than regularly played characters, but they still have what they need.

You get a lot less... the most striking limitation is that your best item is Level +1. In any event, some kind of discussion of this issue would have been warranted in the DMG.

 

[Piratecat]

The official rule has a couple of reasons behind it.

- Traditionally it is far easier to optimize a new higher-lvl character than one that has evolved organically.

- It's designed for fast gearing up. Pick three items, add your cash, and you're ready to go (unless you want to spend that cash.)

- If new characters already start with the perfect magic items up to +5 levels of them, what treasure do they have to look forward to when adventuring? The rule assures that the new PC will be able to function in a party, but will be intensely interested in new loot.

 

[Lauberfen]

Yup. Note that characters who are adventuring should almost never have items 4 levels above them, as they are allocated items 4 levels above, but should level in the process. Not also that there are meant to be 1 less item than players for any given level worth of adventuring. This then means that in any given party, you chould have roughly 1 item at level +3, 2 items at level +2, 3 items at level +1, 4+ items at level +0.
This means only 3 of 5 characters will even have items above level +1.

In my experience the rules out of the book would make a character better equipped than those in my group, even though we allocate items failry generously, with some consideration of what's useful.

 

[Nail]

I admit I'm still a bit shaky on the Treasure Parcel system. They use the word "parcel" in a few different contexts, which makes it confusing.

Is it true that over one level of adventuring (roughly 9 encounters), a party of 5 should gain 4 magic items + X gold?

...and is that called a "parcel", or is a "parcel" anytime you give PC treasure?

 

[Piratecat]

Nail, each "parcel" is a lump of treasure, hereafter called a Lootlump*. WotC has figured out how much total treasure, both monetary and magical, their balance expects a group to get over the course of a level. They've then broke this out into ten or so lootlumps. There's nothing mandatory about the amount of cash in these lootlumps; so long as the total power of the magic items, and the total value of the treasure, equals the total of all that level's lootlumps, you're doing fine.

So, over one level of adventuring, your 5 person party is expected to get 4 magic items and some cash (or the equivalent). This can come in ten separate lootlumps, or three or four larger treasure piles that each consist of multiple lootlumps.

I'm not shy about changing the "official" parcel values up a bit, so long as the total remains the same. For instance, let's say one of the official parcels lists a magic item of lvl+2. I want to give a magic item of lvl-1 in my lootlump. As a result, I'll give the magic item I prefer along with enough cash to make up the difference in market value. Everything stay balanced, and I have far more flexibility.

* Because it's funnier than 'parcel', that's why. Say it out loud. Lootlump!

 

[Regicide]

One thing I haven't seen addressed and I've had problems with as a DM is replacement characters coming in, but the corpse of previous character, with magic items, sitting there.

Sometimes the corpse's items aren't a huge help to the party, sometimes they are. Sometimes I convince the party that they have to send the items back to the character's temple etc. but sometimes not. I don't want to flat out say "hey, keep it and the monsters you fight will be dropping that much less" but that's pretty much what it has come down to. That's not a solution I'm satisfied with.

 

[Nail]

"Lootlump"


"Lootlump", "Lootlump", "Lootlump", "Lootlump"!!!!

Most excellent. Thanks, PC!

 

[Fanaelialae]

One thing I haven't seen addressed and I've had problems with as a DM is replacement characters coming in, but the corpse of previous character, with magic items, sitting there.

Sometimes the corpse's items aren't a huge help to the party, sometimes they are. Sometimes I convince the party that they have to send the items back to the character's temple etc. but sometimes not. I don't want to flat out say "hey, keep it and the monsters you fight will be dropping that much less" but that's pretty much what it has come down to. That's not a solution I'm satisfied with.

Yeah, for a long time I've found it odd that (to the best of my knowledge) this isn't addressed in any edition.

In my group, at any rate, we were never very comfortable with the idea of looting each other's corpses so we eventually just agreed upon the idea that you don't loot your companions' corpses (it's disrespectful, especially when that someone died protecting your life). We allow (fair) "trades" between characters and the corpse (taking something to remember the character by and leaving something so the character isn't bereft of things in the afterlife) and important "quest" items are exempt, of course.

YMMV