I'm playing in a 3.5e game. My DM gave out 5,000 gold to everyone for level 5, and then later in the second session gave out magical items (which I'll get back to), and some 2,000-something gold to all of the players. When we reached level 8 six or so sessions later, we were given the big pay-out for the job we had just finished-- 15,000 gold. My current character had about 17,000 gold, which put me at about.. 22,300 total character wealth. Around this time, I had the worst session of my life (made no checks, did absolutely nothing, never rolled above 6 except on a climb check and died) and re-rolled, and my DM told me to take 2/3rd of my character's current gold.. putting me at 12,500 gold for the new character.
The problem is: he's been handing out +3 and +4 magical items to practically everyone. The knight just got a +3 cold iron longsword, the hexblade has had a +4 vampiric greatsword since level 5, the mystic theurge has a +2 holy warhammer, the frickin' sorceror has a +2 quarterstaff of disruption. In addition to this, the hexblade has extra stuff from the second session he picked up, but since then we haven't run into any treasure-- just buckets of extremely powerful weapons. Do you know why I'm not enthused about this? I'm playing an unarmed character.
.. Meanwhile, I'm still at 12,500 gold net worth while the hexblade is pushing 50,000 gold net worth. I'm a 6th level character while he's pushing 10th with a 16th level (MiC rules) item..
I tried talking to my DM about it and he didn't seem to care-- he said that when our characters finish our next job, I'll get enough money to buy some things I want that I told him about. The thing is, these things aren't things I want-- they're things my character needs to keep being competent at level nine. I wish I had enough money for things I wanted-- a belt of battle, something fun to put in my torso slot, boots of striding and springing...
My question is.. how do I get around this? How do I talk to my DM again without it making me seem greedy? How do I purge myself of thinking these greedy thoughts? I'm having a big internal conflict.
I'm a 6th level character while he's pushing 10th...
I just want to confirm this... You're almost 4 levels below him? (and presumably the rest of the party, since it seems like thet never died)
I mean, you go to fairly great lenths to indicate that you've been getting plenty of powerfull gear early in your carreers. And the DM told you not to worry, that you'll be getting enough $ soon.
So what makes you think you'll stay shorted for long???
Btw, why'd you tell the DM about certain items but not about what you actually want? Seems a bit odd & counter productive.
As for "getting around this"? Why don't you RP it with the rest of the party? It might just be in their own best interests to donate a bit of cash, maybe some gear, to help get you equipped to whatever lv is "usefull" for your group.
By "cherry picking" means that when you buy your gear with a character with your entire wealth per level that you can pick the best gear and leave the subpar gear out of it. A character that levels up will ussually have a portion of their Wealth tied into magic items of lesser value, whereas buying it all at once allows you to leave out the junk and focus only on the ideal gear.
One way to deal is to limit the wealth that a starting character has, thus limiting what they can purchase, and while this works in a way, it isn't the best solution. What you need to do is offer the DM a solution to this so that he doesn't resort to the heavier handed method
Another way, a better way, is to limit the amount of GP that can be spent on any one item, as well as what caster level needed to make the item and the number of items that can be purchased at certain prices.
That is (not having the books here) a character's wealth by Level is 75,000 gp, now what you don't want is a player buying one 60,000 gp sword with that. So limiting him to only 2 items of say 20,000gp each (basically his armor and sword) and that the rest of his items have to be 10,000 or under
I just want to confirm this... You're almost 4 levels below him? (and presumably the rest of the party, since it seems like thet never died)
Sorry about that; I meant in monetary value, he's the correct level while I'm 4 levels behind him.
I mean, you go to fairly great lenths to indicate that you've been getting plenty of powerfull gear early in your carreers.
It's pretty difficult to snatch up some of this gear; the other players just take whatever they like the best, really. And I mean.. "showered with gear" isn't really the right way to say it, more like the DM inserts powerful items to balance the party's power, and since it's an 8 person group, it just means that the people who yell "I take it!" first seem to get dibs on them..
Btw, why'd you tell the DM about certain items but not about what you actually want? Seems a bit odd & counter productive.
His words, not mine; I told him about everything, which I pretty much listed out into two lists; things I want and things I need, and he told me that I'd get enough money for the things I need.
As for "getting around this"? Why don't you RP it with the rest of the party? It might just be in their own best interests to donate a bit of cash, maybe some gear, to help get you equipped to whatever lv is "usefull" for your group.
Our group is a rather large group, and not to be offensive, but a good 2/3rd of the party doesn't roleplay whatsoever. In addition to that, about half of the party is less concerned with the group in total as much as me! me! me! .. the half-orc hexblade's sword is evil, forcing him to indulge in slaughter and it's slowly corrupting him, but he still gets its bonuses so he doesn't even care and it's hardly mentioned. And he thinks that the sword is his most powerful item, when it's obviously destroying him.. that kind of stuff.
"I feel like my character is unable to be effective because he has no magic items."
I can't say that; I still think I'm effective. As I am effective as I could be? Not at all. My AC is kind of low, my to-hit is very low and my damage is okay. I'd say that I'm part effective because I built the character well, part effective because I try to make everyone work as a team, and part effective thanks to things like enlarge person, healing and flanking bonuses. Without the last part, I don't think the first part would hold up well versus an even CR encounter, even with all of my buddies backing me. I'd probably be the only casualty.