Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 5437139" data-attributes="member: 29398">The *players* aren't going to be balanced against the encounters in the best of cases.&nbsp; Their *characters*, on the other hand, might be. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> What is this &quot;right way&quot; you speak of?Wander around this board long enough and you'll come to realize there's no such thing as a &quot;right way&quot;.And sometimes it comes down to every person for him-herself, even within an adventuring party.&nbsp; Not every character (or player) is altruistic.Encounters can be scaled for any party in any edition.&nbsp; That's not what I'm getting at here, though.I'm talking about in-party balance.&nbsp; I've seen it happen, where one character manages to get much wealthier than the rest simply by only-somewhat-intentionally fleecing them during treasure division.But even if the wealth is divided evenly, there can still be level-balance issues with the cash-for-ExP proposal.&nbsp; An example:A party of 4 has come back from the field with a treasury consisting of 3 magic items and a reasonable pile of stuff that can be turned into g.p.&nbsp; Each of the magic items is suitable for one of the PCs, so each does the obvious and claims the appropriate one; the share values are balanced out with a bit of cash.&nbsp; The 4th guy gets all cash.The 4th guy can now turn around and plow that cash into ExP, up to whatever arbitrary maximum you allow.&nbsp; He's now half a level or more higher than the rest of the party.&nbsp; Repeat this a few times and you've got a significant level disparity; which while not a big deal in 1e-2e, I gather is a problem in 3e-4e.And none of this even begins to consider wealth acquired outside the party (or from it, via theft) e.g. a Thief picking pockets while in town, a Bard doing some lounge gigs on the side, etc. Lan-&quot;still wondering what is the right way to play&quot;-efan</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 5437139, member: 29398"] The *players* aren't going to be balanced against the encounters in the best of cases. Their *characters*, on the other hand, might be. :) What is this "right way" you speak of? Wander around this board long enough and you'll come to realize there's no such thing as a "right way". And sometimes it comes down to every person for him-herself, even within an adventuring party. Not every character (or player) is altruistic. Encounters can be scaled for any party in any edition. That's not what I'm getting at here, though. I'm talking about in-party balance. I've seen it happen, where one character manages to get much wealthier than the rest simply by only-somewhat-intentionally fleecing them during treasure division. But even if the wealth is divided evenly, there can still be level-balance issues with the cash-for-ExP proposal. An example: A party of 4 has come back from the field with a treasury consisting of 3 magic items and a reasonable pile of stuff that can be turned into g.p. Each of the magic items is suitable for one of the PCs, so each does the obvious and claims the appropriate one; the share values are balanced out with a bit of cash. The 4th guy gets all cash. The 4th guy can now turn around and plow that cash into ExP, up to whatever arbitrary maximum you allow. He's now half a level or more higher than the rest of the party. Repeat this a few times and you've got a significant level disparity; which while not a big deal in 1e-2e, I gather is a problem in 3e-4e. And none of this even begins to consider wealth acquired outside the party (or from it, via theft) e.g. a Thief picking pockets while in town, a Bard doing some lounge gigs on the side, etc. Lan-"still wondering what is the right way to play"-efan [/QUOTE]

Verification