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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DethStryke" data-source="post: 2914181" data-attributes="member: 1309">Yes, this is exactly the same. I was one of the "new" characters in this scenario. The Holy Avenger, in my opinion, was not as blatant as the Helm that summoned a Pegasus for 8 hours. That was in addition to his Special Mount Warhorse. And a ring of Vampiric Regeneration. (now, to be fair, it was a convert from 1st edition Pally, which if you recall is limited to only 8 magical items total, so it wasn't endless...)When he said it was understood, it was to the people bringing in converted, pre-made characters that were completely equipped. I was told that we were all coming in without any equipment and the same 2000gp each to buy ONLY mundane equipment. It struck me as extra work for the DM that the players could take care of before coming to the table, but I figured to each their own. I generally don’t presume to tell the DM how to run their show unless I see something very wrong and/or they ask.Then on the first session the Pally flew in on her Pegasus, and I spoke up.Now, to be fair, this really was a situation that he assumed understanding, but never formally *said* any of that which he assumed. That explanation continues below:That is a short version of what I communicated. I am not a need-phat-lewts kind of guy. I primarily play in low-magic and low equipment games. I was one of the player's in Old One's Faded Glory campaign (which I miss immensely, but I digress), and that's about as low magic as it gets without removing it completely. My primary concern is that anything that proves even a small challenge to the two already equipped (well equipped, as you can see) was going to mop the floor with the rest of us. I like to address and remove potentially game-breaking problems before they become that kind of a problem.That being said, I sent a long email enumerating the details above, with multiple suggestions on how to address them in a fair and equitable manner. He then explained how we were going to gain this equipment and we had a very agreeable exchange on the pros and cons of each of my points. He consented to my points where they were well made, and discussed in a very rational and well-put manner on the ones he disagreed with. However, it wasn't until the second session that this even happened, so there was no agreement or understanding on my part until then. After that point, I had no problem because his intent, that he may have had all along, was now understood. I was in-the-know… finally.This is the very reason I am responding, as I am literally the "other side" of the situation. In retrospect, I think that the only disservice Keifer113 did was to not explain these things right out from the gate, even if he thought we knew them. I learned the hard way, and I guess he has now as well, that anything you leave to interpretation or think there is unspoken understanding, it comes back to wreak havoc on the group as a whole. You save yourself many headaches and a lot of time by laying out the basic expectations and understandings before you even reach the first “real” session.He has generally made up for the party power dichotomy, and I think not ridiculously so. Being heavily geared or low power geared is irrelevant to me; it's simply not a very valid indicator of balance or not. The key is whether the challenges we face use a certain percentage of our available resources. If we are super-crazy geared, but the challenges we face require us to use all of those resources, that indicates more balance than what any one character has.The new problem is that all of the “gear up” looting includes the two already equipped players, who take items from the available treasure pile, and his NPC wizard charges three times the gold cost for identify for each item (300gp each). We’re forced to barter powerful equipment to allow identifies for the rest of the pile. This creates some friction among the players, and it could have all been avoided had he done an all or nothing approach from the start. *shrug* I’ve seen worse, but I’d be lying if I said I was thrilled about it. Ironically, the two pre-fab characters are low-money characters (Monk and Pally), so they brought over boss gear but no coinage to speak of.In my opinion this is annoying and could have been avoided from the start, but not a game breaker, per se.</blockquote>

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