They are serious about ending expected wealth by level!

[the Jester]

The section on treasure explicitly mentions that there is no expected wealth by level. Hurray!

Also, the section on encounter design seems to make clear that they are supporting parties with a broad level spread. Hurray again!

These two things really excite me.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The section on treasure explicitly mentions that there is no expected wealth by level.

Hummm...this will make it tougher for inexperienced DMs to set equipment guidelines for PCs not starting at 1st level.

 

[Tovec]

Hummm...this will make it tougher for inexperienced DMs to set equipment guidelines for PCs not starting at 1st level.

Which is a potentially serious problem. However usually inexperienced DMs run games for inexperienced players so this is usually less of a problem. Experienced players may use less treasure more effectively than the inexperienced players.

Plus with the flatter math as long as the DM does understand certain rules about the treasure there is no reason why it should become a problem. As long as they realize not everyone should be walking around with a +3 sword for example.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

Hummm...this will make it tougher for inexperienced DMs to set equipment guidelines for PCs not starting at 1st level.

They are trying to thread a pretty fine needle here. Given that they already provided a couple of ways to go about default gold in an adventure, for those that want it, it won't be hard to derive a table for "wealth the party would have gotten had you followed this guideline, adjusted for what they would typically spend". That becomes half of an "expected wealth" table. Magic items are separate.

The trick is that it is supposed to be called out for a particular mode of play--one that uses those defaults. Whether people will accept this distinction, I don't know. The 3E hullabaloo over the magic item construction "guidelines" leads me to believe this is a doomed effort. There is no advice in a chart that WotC can give that someone (actually, a bunch of someones) won't read as a rule.

 

[Sunseeker]

Hummm...this will make it tougher for inexperienced DMs to set equipment guidelines for PCs not starting at 1st level.

Not necessarily, but it may require Wizards to provide some guidelines on the power of gear that could be purcahsed with various wealth levels at given level intervals.

A guide could look like this:
At 5th level a character with the following wealth can afford the following types of equipment, provided they are available in your game:
5g: Rusty sword.
50g: Normal, non-magical equipment
500g: Normal equipment and a masterwork item.
5000g: Mostly +1 magical gear.
50,000g: Mostly +3 magical gear.
500,000g: Mostly +5 Vorpal Swords of Epic Pwnage.


That way DM's could go and say "oh, well I expect my players to have on average some basic magic gear." And then give their players wealth for the expected gear value.

 

[Alzrius]

Hummm...this will make it tougher for inexperienced DMs to set equipment guidelines for PCs not starting at 1st level.

Things like wealth by level, Challenge Ratings, and similar metrics always struck me as guidelines that ended up being taken far more seriously than they were intended.

Unfortunately, other than printing a disclaimer in big letters that those numbers aren't meant to be staunchly adhered to, eliminating them seems to be the only effective route for not getting people to hew so closely to them.

EDIT: Ninja'd by Crazy Jerome.

 

[the Jester]

Hummm...this will make it tougher for inexperienced DMs to set equipment guidelines for PCs not starting at 1st level.

Yeah, but it doesn't matter, since you don't need to improve your gear to keep up with constantly improving monster defenses and attacks and such.

 

[triqui]

I'm officially hard boned

 

[TwoSix]

I'm officially hard boned

I think you meant to post this in the "Rogues succeed at Hard Tasks" thread.

 

[TwinBahamut]

I'll believe that they removed expected wealth by level when a playtest shows off the magic item rules and proves that +x items have been removed from the game... Of course, they also need to get rid of things like 5000gp Dragon Scale and Plate armors that are vastly better than previous armors with the only drawback being cost. Basically, unless expected wealth by level is accompanied by the removal of the link between wealth and raw numerical power, then the game is going to be terribly messed up.

Expected wealth by level is terrible, but it's just a symptom of the real problem, not the problem itself. As long as the real problem remains, other symptoms will just appear in its place.