I'm not really sure that is the right title for this, but hopefully I don't veer too far off course.
I'm putting on the DM shirt for one of the groups I play with. They are enthusiastic, or at least seem so, as I'm being bombarded with questions. The game is supposed to be a 16th level 3.5 campaign.
In our current game, a few things popped up recently that trouble me. I do not want the same issues to bog my game down, so I'm trying to tighten the screws and keep everyone on an even keel as far as treasure/level/ability.
In our game last night, we were awarded with an ability point we could place anywhere, (perhaps it had to be assigned to our prime stat, but that means the same for this post).
That's great! Except, 2 sessions ago, our treasure consisted of TWO (of the same type) Books of Stat boosting. A +1 and +2 model.
Within the group, at least 2 characters could benefit from these books in a greater way than the rest of the party. I intend to avoid mentioning PC class and the stat to avoid the "Oh, that's the problem!" type posts. That treasure as far as I know was split, I missed out due to being on my way back from Gencon. I'm sure the player who showed up got at least one of the books, but most likely he got 2.
At this point I expect half of you are expect this to be about treasure distribution within the group. You'd only be partially correct. This is about what I perceive, as the DM distributing treasure in a manner that boosts a single PC to a point that it becomes difficult for the rest of the party to catch up to, or even more dangerous for the rest of the group due to challenges that that one PC can easily bypass, being deadly to the rest of the group.
I forget if the inherent bonus stacks with itself. So, at this point, 1 PC could have a +4 stat bonus to his prime stat, but at least +2, maybe +3.
Now to get back on course, some of the group for my campaign wanted to "spend XP" at character creation to craft more magic items or construct custom items that do more, like a combination Robe of the Archmage and Robe of Stars. My reaction is NO, you can't.
But I got to thinking, is my reaction based on what I've talked about above, or something else?
I'm putting on the DM shirt for one of the groups I play with. They are enthusiastic, or at least seem so, as I'm being bombarded with questions. The game is supposed to be a 16th level 3.5 campaign.
In our current game, a few things popped up recently that trouble me. I do not want the same issues to bog my game down, so I'm trying to tighten the screws and keep everyone on an even keel as far as treasure/level/ability.
In our game last night, we were awarded with an ability point we could place anywhere, (perhaps it had to be assigned to our prime stat, but that means the same for this post).
That's great! Except, 2 sessions ago, our treasure consisted of TWO (of the same type) Books of Stat boosting. A +1 and +2 model.
Within the group, at least 2 characters could benefit from these books in a greater way than the rest of the party. I intend to avoid mentioning PC class and the stat to avoid the "Oh, that's the problem!" type posts. That treasure as far as I know was split, I missed out due to being on my way back from Gencon. I'm sure the player who showed up got at least one of the books, but most likely he got 2.
At this point I expect half of you are expect this to be about treasure distribution within the group. You'd only be partially correct. This is about what I perceive, as the DM distributing treasure in a manner that boosts a single PC to a point that it becomes difficult for the rest of the party to catch up to, or even more dangerous for the rest of the group due to challenges that that one PC can easily bypass, being deadly to the rest of the group.
I forget if the inherent bonus stacks with itself. So, at this point, 1 PC could have a +4 stat bonus to his prime stat, but at least +2, maybe +3.
Now to get back on course, some of the group for my campaign wanted to "spend XP" at character creation to craft more magic items or construct custom items that do more, like a combination Robe of the Archmage and Robe of Stars. My reaction is NO, you can't.
But I got to thinking, is my reaction based on what I've talked about above, or something else?
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