D&D 4E What do we know about treasure in 4e?

[Xethreau]

OK, so, my play group, I am fairly certain, will react with pitch forks and fire to the idea of playing 3.5 after we have playtested 4e with the pre-release characters. And because of this, I suspect myself and my play group will be be playing with the pre-release rules for some time.

Anyway, enough about me and my D&D pals, and onto the question. Does anybody have any idea bout how treasure distribution is to work in 4e? For instance, how many of what coins is appropriate treasure for encounter, and how often a magic item is distributed? Even if it is nothing solid or remotely hinted at by designers, it is still fine; I just need some sort of guideline or creative idea.

 

[Gargazon]

I reckon the good old 'wealth by encounter difficulty' system will stay in place, with magic items being handed out either as often as the DM wants or as often as the players get lucky on the magical random loot table.

 

[lvl20dm]

The way I'm understanding magic items, I'm thinking character wealth is more flexible than it was in 3rd edition (which, in order to maintain balance, was rigorously controlled). It seems like the only magic items you need to worry about to keep a character balanced are weapons/implements, armor, and talismans/cloaks. Other items are just flavor - though they have said that a character with lots of magical items will be more "powerful" in that he will have more options. Since each item has an associated level, it should be easy enough to figure out what items the party should or shouldn't be getting and when. They've also alluded to the removal of magic item shops (at least as a core assumption), so we might see a return to earlier editions in regards to money (coins and gems).

 

[Xethreau]

Interesting. I'm thinking of awarding around 10 GP per encounter (or equivelent treasure), and one (maybe two) magic items per adventure/dungeon. Magic items might be sought after or traded for, but needless to say there will be no mage-marts.

How does this sound for starters?

 

[Boarstorm]

I might go a touch higher on the GP, personally. Either that, or buffer the low amount of cash their enemies are carrying with rewards from grateful townsfolk and the like, but that's just me. I may be stuck in the 3.5 mindset of 1000g wealth by level 2.

Personally I hope the expected wealth by character level table is one of those sacred hamburgers we're getting served up. With the trend in magic items to provide utility and options instead of being requirements for survival, I don't see the need for it that there once was.

 

[MaelStorm]

....see next post....

 

[MaelStorm]

I don't know about GP, but I tend to think magic items will have strict guidelines in the DMG to not re-create christmas tree in 4E. I think there will be a table in the DMG specifically to tell how much bonus a X level character has to have for each magic item slots.

From the Design & Development *Magic Item Slots* it is stated that

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Slots still have *plusses* and are the items we expect everybody to care about, and the ones that are factored into the math behind the game.:

A=Weapon/Implement
B=Armor
C=Neck

Example

Here’s what my 11th-level gnome warlock, Dessin, is wearing right now:

Implement: +3 rod of dark reward
Armor: +3 leather armor
Neck: +2 cloak of survival
Arms: Bracers of the perfect shot
Feet: Wavestrider boots
Hands: Shadowfell gloves
Head: Diadem of acuity
Rings: None right now, sadly
Waist: Belt of battle
Wondrous Items: Bag of holding
-------------------------------------------------------------------

So, there's a probably table for primary magic items slot that looks like this:
11th level = a/+3, b/+3, c/+2

And, probably another table for secondary magic items slots like this:
11th level = c/yes, d/yes, e/yes, f/yes, g/no, h/yes, i/yes
(where g = no rings allowed at this level)


EDIT: I don't know if this can be helpful to you.

 

[Boarstorm]

So. Ioun Stones. Level 21+ only, right? What do you guys think, use the head slot? Wondrous item? Or something unique to the item like "Personal Airspace"?

 

[Rechan]

I think that magical items all have levels, meaning 'This magial item is balanced for this level, so give it at this level'. Which is a lot more convenient to me.

 

[drjones]

As for running the pregens my PCs never seemed to care about the cash since the characters were temporary and would not level up. What is there to buy? Hookers?

I did give out a few level 1 magic items so we could get a feel for them but I think you would have to give out a few of them before it would effect the 'xp budget' you can expect your players to be challenged by. The level 1 items are not super powerful in fact some only give situational bonuses rather than a flat +1. Seems it would take a few of those for everyone to make up for the added power of another 1st level character.