The Power of 5

[am181d]

Less than a week's worth of work could result in them being able to retire for a year or so.

But surely that's the point of adventuring...

 

[Zalgarde]

I get almost exactly what the original poster's saying actually, if the economy falls apart because you balanced your wealth around your magic weapon scale, that kind of sucks for those who take it seriously (players or dm's).

I definitely saw it myself one time, when an evil druid realized that since gear merged into him when he wild shaped, he concocted a daring plan to sell some of it off and buy/"rescue" ALL the chickens in some 100 mile radius by hopping through trees and paying exhorbitant sums at each town in the area before anyone realized there were none the next town over.... all so he could release them into the depths of the nastiest forest around and cull the taint of weakness inflicted on the pitiful species of chickens by civilization (oh and starve a bunch of the people). and he was what level 8? level 9? in 3e. The situation looked like it was gonna eat a lot of otherwise fulfilling game time that everyone could be involved in, so the dm just said "No. You don't. Your character doesn't. The End" Which everyone was fine with, cause just explaining the plan had taken waaay to long.

It'd be awesome if players didn't have treasuries rivaling large city states though. I mean honestly, I live in one of the poorest US cities with 1/3 of its population living below the poverty line, but even then I'm thinking even the richest people in the world would be hard pressed to buy every chair within 50mi of buffalo or some other equally common item. AND unlike dnd most of them have their wealth tied up somehow, while PC's just lug it around in the form of WMDs and cold hard cash.


EDIT: Also seeing the tidbits of info from the pdf's made me cave and go buy KOtS, which we're gonna play tonight probably. I know its just pregens, but a few of my friends have actually stuck with pregens later into a campaign proper so, if you could maybe.. uhh... fix the dnd economy by say 6pm EST when I run that would be REALLY swell then if they keep playing they won't be richer than everyone else if/when we do start playing an actual campaign.

 

[Aria Silverhands]

Simple fix. Reduce all monster attacks, skills, ability checks, and defenses by their Magic Threshold. Then make magic items very rare which in turn makes them very valuable. The need for treasure is lessened since PC's will likely only need rituals and minor upgrades to equipment. This will allow the game to focus more on the roleplaying and less on the loot.

 

[ValhallaGH]

Simple fix. Reduce all monster attacks, skills, ability checks, and defenses by their Magic Threshold. Then make magic items very rare which in turn makes them very valuable. The need for treasure is lessened since PC's will likely only need rituals and minor upgrades to equipment. This will allow the game to focus more on the roleplaying and less on the loot.

Bah!
All you have to do, when a player either questions or attempts to break the economy of your setting is punch them in the face. Right in their stupid face. Problem solved.

[seriously] As an aside, magic gear is expensive to buy but incredibly cheap on resale. 1/5 the price, to be accurate. They're already incredibly expensive, but common enough that it's a middle-man's market, able to buy low and sell high. [/seriously]

 

[Fifth Element]

This thread is in need of a visit from hong.

 

[KarinsDad]

Actually, it's pretty simple: As you've noted, weapons get a new +1 at every level - 1 that's divisible by 5 (so 1st, 6th, 11th, etc.). However, the magic items at these levels are pretty generic, without special abilities. At the next four levels after that, weapons get special abilities (flaming, phasing, etc.). However, the power provided by these abilities isn't anywhere near as good as another +1. The magic item prices are simply a reflection of this, getting another +1 is far better than getting a special ability.

Ok. That makes sense. I think some special abilities are still pretty cool (although not necessarily useful as often), but that explains the rationale behind it nicely.


It still does not explain x5 for each +1 though.

For example, 3E was a bit overboard as well, but for generic plus items, it was:

+1 x
+2 4x
+3 9x
+4 16x
+5 25x

But, more items and slots were available. Even with special abilities included, it never got above 100x.

+6 36x
+7 49x
+8 64x
+9 81x
+10 100x


In 4E, it's:

+1 x
+2 5x
+3 25x
+4 125x
+5 625x
+5 and best special 1736x

So, the cost of 3E generic magic items and weapons (and even special ability ones) were WAY too cheap. And here I always thought they were high. Silly me. The 3E magic item cost system was not as unbalanced as I always thought.

 

[malraux]

"I spent my reward on ale and whores!"

The DnD economy isn't supposed to be an economy, its really an XP system for loot. As long as it works for that purpose, its doing its job.

 

[KarinsDad]

[seriously] As an aside, magic gear is expensive to buy but incredibly cheap on resale. 1/5 the price, to be accurate. They're already incredibly expensive, but common enough that it's a middle-man's market, able to buy low and sell high. [/seriously]

Actually, this is one thing I like about the 4E system. Our current 3.5 campaign has the PCs getting 20% to 30% on resale (through a Thieves Guild) and although the players did not like it at first, it has worked out real well. The extra unwanted stuff leaves the group and the PCs still profit from it without making too huge of a profit per encounter.

 

[Blackeagle]

Simple fix. Reduce all monster attacks, skills, ability checks, and defenses by their Magic Threshold. Then make magic items very rare which in turn makes them very valuable. The need for treasure is lessened since PC's will likely only need rituals and minor upgrades to equipment.

I think it's easier to just give the PCs bonuses to hit, defenses, and crit damage that makes up for the magic item bonuses rather than reducing monster stats. This is pretty much what I'm going to be doing in my campaign (actually, I'm going to probably keep part of the bonus as mundane item quality, but the price won't be anywhere near what it is in the RAW).

 

[Alratan]

"I spent my reward on ale and whores!"

The DnD economy isn't supposed to be an economy, its really an XP system for loot. As long as it works for that purpose, its doing its job.

The problem comes when the players realise that they could just spend a couple of week's income on a brewery and a brothel, and they're sorted with the basic requirements for life...