Starting Wealth

[Inconsequenti-AL]

A new PC gets 50% of the guideline wealth, but tends to catch up fairly quickly...

We bury the dead with most of their gear, so party wealth doesn't go up from the above. Although if the corpse is recovered it's an unusual one - Mostly they get eaten by whatever killed them.

 

[reanjr]

I'm interested in how other DMs handle starting wealth for new characters in campaigns already underway. I personally am not inclined to give FULL starting wealth in magical items, as the items the characters have obtained through the campaign should cover their wealth. For instance, if you have 6 10th level characters that have been playing from 1st level, and one dies, elects not to get raised, and brings in a new character. If you give that character full starting magical items, you have effectively increased the wealth the group has. But if you give them no items, it's very hard for the character to be on par with other characters, since they have a full slew of items. Anyway, just seeing what other DMs do.

As DM, I roll random magical items, starting with a minor, then a medium, then a major; until the character has the appropriate amount of magic items (ignoring anything inappropriate for the character), usually approx. equivilent to the DMG totals.

This does NOT increase party wealth, since the dead character's possessions should not distribute amongst the party unless there is a special situation (sibling of a party member, etc.). The equipment would go to the family of the victim, religious organization, etc. If all else fails, and it is conceivable, the equipment will be stolen (maybe leaving the nose-ring of charisma the dead fighter never would concede to the sorcerer).

 

[Kalendraf]

This became a problem in a previous campaign. There, the dead PC equipment was getting looted by the rest of the party, but the new guy was coming in with full equipment as well. Bad idea and it led to a bunch of problems later on.

For the current campaign, it works differently. Now every PC that dies takes their loot out of the group. It's usually explained by having some family member show up right after they die and claim their gear. Might seem a bit corny at first, but it gets rid of the problem of item inflation. Then the new PC comes in with the avg treasure for the rest of the party members of that level, with me as DM assigning the magic items they start with. We haven't had any problems using this new system.

 

[jasper]

since I had problems similar to Kalendraf and worse. Basically we kill of Jasper's pc loot the body and repeat. Why fight monsters when we can kill new pcs for loot.

nowdays you get 3 clw potions or healing depending on level, no other magic. 100 gp plus outfit your pc in reasonable manner. barding for horse go ahead. Full plate mail with inlay gold leaf and emerals go ahead. Two wagon trains and an army of o level henchmen no. basically you be poor which is why go are going adventuring again.

Once I start this rule way back when I slowed in party killing. And decrease the loose magic items supply.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Hehe, the last time I ran a long, involved campaign, this DID start being a problem after a while. It was a deadly dungeon crawl and we were having close to 1 death per session. Each time, the party looted the body and I let them come back at a level lower with 1 level lower gold.

Eventually, the party was too rich. But one of the party members was possessed by an evil spirit. The party managed to get themselved locked up and all of the party's equipment confiscated. They would have gotten it back after a day in jail, but the possessed guy managed to avoid getting put in jail. He broke in, stole all their stuff and attempted to run off with it. However, the spirit didn't know everything about their equipment. He just saw they had a portable hole, so figured he could store everything in it. One of the players said "He's making off with ALL our stuff?" I said "Yep." He said "How is he carrying it all?". "The portable hole." "Oh, so he even took the two bags of holding?" "Oops..."

Thus, that was the end of all the equipment of the group, just as they were beginning to have WAY too much money due to character deaths. I can't count on that happening again. This time, I think I'm going to have it be a law or something that looting the dead of their possessions is wrong, except when using them to pay for their own raise dead.

Majoru Oakheart

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Double Post. Sorry.