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#1 daosus Aug 03, 2007 10:56:14

From recent forum browsing, it seems that some people misunderstand the wealth-by-level guidelines in the DMG. So, I will talk briefly about the foundation of the method that I use, and then proceed to explain how to hand out treasure in broad strokes. First, I need some definitions. I define "power" as the ability to influence an encounter. That seems fairly trivial, but it does come in useful later. The power a character has at any level comes from two sources. First are class abilities, which scale with class. Things like BAB, spells, feats and skills comprise the majority of the power included in this category, but the key thing is that these things are dependent on class or character level only. Second are what I call "loot power," namely the power that a character gains through the use of equipment. This does not have to be magical equipment. A character's expected challenges also scale with level. In order to defeat a foe of the appropriate difficulty with the appropriate expenditure of resources (20% of daily resources or so), the character and party should have a certain amount of TOTAL power. Note that this is the power from class abilities and from equipment added together for the whole party. Some classes, like the fighter, rely on equipment much more than others, like wizards. Now then, since we now have some definitions in place, we can proceed to some analysis. The "loot power" a character has should be determined directly by the cost of his equipment. Now, we know this isn't true, there are lots of very expensive, crappy magical items, but assuming that the player made optimal choices, the above is true. Furthermore, only the equipment that provide power should be included in this calculation. If the equipment cannot influence an encounter, it should not count. If your thief stole a crown jewel worth one million gold pieces, it does not count towards his "loot power" until he sells or trades it for something that will affect an encounter. On that note, things like Bags of Holding and Goggles of Making You See Everything as Purple do not have an effect on an encounter, and therefore should not count against wealth-by-level. Loose gold, until it is used to purchase something useful, does not count against wealth-by-level. Wealth-by-level is strictly a measure of a character's expected "loot power," and a character's "loot power" is measured by the total gold piece cost of the part of his equipment that can affect an encounter. This, then, brings up some stuff. First, players love loot. It's new, it's exciting, and it's beneficial to their character. But, GMs should love loot as well, because it allows classes with less "class" power, like the fighter, to keep up with other classes. Note that this does mean that ideally the fighter should receive more loot than, say, the wizard. Second, if your players have something that is worth lots of gold, but it remains in a useless form, that does not matter for power calculations. Third, if your players have something that they didn't pay for, but that something can affect encounters, price it and include it in the power calculation. This will bring us to Magic Item Creation Feats in a moment. But, first, it's important to note that "power calculation" is an instantaneous type of thing. You do not count how powerful a character WAS or WILL BE, just how powerful a character is right now. This kind of progressive or regressive thinking was a problem with fighter/mage balance in ADnD2E. Now for the fun thing of Item Creation Feats. When you take an Item Creation Feat, you use up some character power in exchange for the ability to get more "loot power," as expressed in having to pay less in gold pieces for items that are worth more. I really do not wish to discuss this any further, since doing so will involve deciding on the opportunity cost of feats every level for every class and how much to compensate for it. Just suffice it to say that the current mechanic of allowing the crafted items to count half (or 70% or whatever) of their actual value towards their "loot power" in the calculation is close enough unless the PCs use a significant chunk of their wealth to craft items. Also, some notes: 1. The above stuff assumes that you're allowing equipment to be exchanged on a 1gp to 1gp basis, to allow the players to maximize their effectiveness. This is not RAW behavior. If you're going by RAW, just give more loot to start with so that once the PCs have sold and bought, they come to about the wealth by level guideline. 2. This is article is intended to suggest some things and enlighten the reader. It is not Dogma, Canon, The Right Way or anything of the sort. I understand that a thorough application of these rules will result in a "perfectly balanced game" where the fighter has exactly the same amount of power as the wizard. This does mean that some classes provide less class benefits than others, and should be given more loot to compensate. This does mean that every game will be different. You do not have to do anything I say in here and have lots of fun. I am not trying to "make the DM give out more loot," nor am I trying to "get the players to stop pestering the DM for more loot." These are just observations of the game. Enjoy. 3. In the above text, I have mentioned the Fighter several times. I feel that the Fighter is less powerful than, say, the Warblade or the Wizard. I understand this is a contentious issue, so by all means, replace the word "Fighter" with "any player in a game I DM for, regardless of classes or build, that I feel is currently underpowered and not enjoying the game." 4. A "power calculation" is just a way of comparing the relative power of each character, and where that power comes from, to the power level of their expected foes (their character level for most parties). This should be done every few playing sessions, or every level, whichever is more often.