Treasure & Post 1st Level Creation

[Khaalis]

Ok, I know this is going to be a redundant and silly question, but after a full night of work my brain is fried apparently. I cannot for the life of me find the recommendations for how to assign magic items to PC that are being created post 1st level. Was this just a "suggestion" post on the boards or did this make it into the books?

Using the core book info, the only thing I can find is that, for example, a 4 PC party of 2nd level PCs, would attain 3 magic items (of 2nd, 4th and 5th level) over the course of 1st level (plus 720g to divide). This doesn't seem to play well for balancing out to a new party of PCs. If I take the full monetary value of the 3 items plus the 720g, it averages to 770g per PC (or basically a 3rd level item each). Does this sound right?

Did I miss something with the fried brain cells?

Thanks.

 

[cpendlet]

The character gets 3 magic items (level+1, level and level-1) and an amount of gold equal to the vale of a magic item of level-1.

I don't recall if this was in the PHB or the DMG.

 

[essenbee]

DMG pp 143 or thereabouts, from memory...

 

[Deverash]

The rules for starting a character at higher level is on pg 143 of the DMG.

However, they really don't work well for starting a character at 2nd level, since the rules would start them with 3 magic items(nearly all the items your supposed to get over level 1). What I did was give them one level item at level +1 (so, 3rd level for a 2nd level PC) and double the starting money(so, 200 gold). To start at 3rd, I'd probably do a 3rd and 4th level item and 400 gold. From 4th on, it doesn't seem as bad to start with 3 items. If played from 1st, the group would have enough items to give everyone 3 items by 4th level.

 

[Khaalis]

Thanks for the help. I knew I was missing it somewhere, I just couldn't seem to find it flipping around in a haste.

Ok, so by their system we would have the following for a 2nd level PC (using the generic prices on PHB p223).

* 100g in Starting Gear
* MI Lev+1 = 3 (680g)
* MI Lev+0 = 2 (520g)
* MI Lev-1 = 1 (360g)
* Starting Gold = Lev-1 = 0 (360g)

Total GP value per PC = 2,020gp
For a 5 PC party thats = 10,100gp at 2nd level

The Treasure Parcel table (DMG p126) lists the following for 1st level:
* 1 5th-level item = 1,000g
* 1 4th-level item = 840g
* 1 3rd-level item = 680g
* 1 2nd-level item = 520g
* Parcel 5 = 200g
* Parcel 6 = 180g
* Parcel 7 = 120g
* Parcel 8 = 120g
* Parcel 9 = 60g
* Parcel 10 = 40g
Total = 3,760g (+500 starting gold) = 4,260

Thats a 5,840g difference. This is definitely a BIG problem with the math.

 

[eamon]

Thats a 5,840g difference. This is definitely a BIG problem with the math.

For an even more obvious problem, try using those guidelines at first leve ;-) - then it's even more obviously too much money!

The problem really is that all levels beyond first assume you've got magic items, but first level has abnormally low cash.

The solution? Don't worry too much, it balances by level 5. If you don't want to unbalance newcomers, just take a quick peak at your party's character sheets when creating 2,3 or 4th level characters.

In a similar vein, low-level NPC's are far too difficult for their XP value. Especially first level NPC's. The whole system is a little wonky for the first levels.

 

[mattdm]

I also find the rules a bit problematic currently because it's often hard to find character-appropriate items at the given levels. For some characters, they'll get exactly what they want, but for others, there won't be good matches. Seems much better to just give the appropriate amount of starting gold and let the player shop.

This will hopefully be less of a problem when Adventurer's Vault comes out.

 

[Jhaelen]

Thats a 5,840g difference. This is definitely a BIG problem with the math.

Well, the math works well for levels 5 to 30. I wouldn't exactly call it a _big_ problem.

Since you already spent the effort to calculate the difference what's to keep you from using your own rules for levels 2-4? I know that I did