Ah, 4th Edition.
I love what 4th Edition has done with the place. New system, new rules, new joys, and new frustrations. However, there is such a thing as fixing what is not broken. And as many would suggest, something you shouldn’t do. Starting wealth in 3.5 was very simple. Read the chart (p. 135 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide 3.5, most players have this memorized), jot down the amount of gold you’ve got, and start shopping!
4th Edition has complicated things by giving the player a magic item of his/her level, a magic item of his/her level minus 1, a magic item of his/her level plus 1, and gold pieces equivalent to his/her level minus 1. I do not understand why this change was made.
Yes, I understand that, prices in general have changed since 3.5. Yes, I understand that magic items of a specific level all cost the same. Yes, I understand that we’re trying to simplify things. However, not only does this complicate things in my opinion, it is a barrier that keeps a player from achieving his/her ideal character. For example, if I create an 11th level character, I’m entitled to a 10th, 11th, and 12th level magic item, as well as gold equal to a 10th level magic item. But what I really like a 13th level magic item and I’m willing to lower the other magic item levels in order or afford it. Another scenario might be that I want my character decked out in a slew of 6th and 7th level magic items. Should I not be able to do so?
I propose the following: Keep the rules for 4th Edition; however, instead of giving the magic items outright add it to the gold piece value to create a pot with which to purchase your magic items. For example, my 11th level character would get gold pieces equivalent to two 10th level, one 11th level, and one 12th level magic item. This would be a perfect middle ground between the set-in-stone gold piece starting wealth of 3.5, and the magic item/gold piece rations of 4th Edition.
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February 20, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Granger44
Your more complicated is my simpler. I feel like the 3.x system of wealth was much more complicated than 4E’s system.
First, I don’t need to look up anything in a table for 4E. I can just say you get items of these 3 levels and gold equivalent to this level of magic item. Bam, I’m done. My players even have this formula down now. Compare this to how many times I had to look up the wealth table. I eventually had the DMG page # memorized and several of the mid-level entries were ingrained in my brain.
If we look deeper at this system and at the treasure parcel system that its’ based on, the character’s party (assuming a nice five member party) would have gotten 20 items in the past 5 levels. Why do I use 5 levels you ask, because that’s the breaking point for the enhancement bonus levels, so it seems like a good comparison point.
So the party would have gotten from 6th through 10th level (in getting to 11th level): 1 x 14th level item, 2 x 13th level items, 3 x 12th level items, 4 x 11th level items, 4 x 10th level items, 3 x 9th level items, 2 x 8th level items, and 1 x 7th level item. In other words, you’re very likely to have gotten items of 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th levels. And you only had a 20% chance of getting that 14th level item.
So the 4E rules simplify the process of outfitting a higher level character by saying, you get a 12th, 11th, and 10th level item, plus enough gold ot buy a 10th level item – or as I think of it, enough to buy a 9th level item and some other mundane or magical stuff. It’s giving you the stuff you’d have most likely gotten over the course of your adventuring career.
Plus with 4E, you know that your weapon/implement, armor, and neck items are going to have the biggest impact, so you’re probably going to spend 2 or maybe all 3 of your magic items slots on those and then get a few misc. magic and mundane items to round out your character. With 3.x I had way too many choices to easily outfit a higher level character (PC or NPC). Even the revised system from the Magic Item Compendium was too complicated for my blood.
I also never bought into the way the table assumed some wealth was accumulated versus some spent versus some saved. I don’t have the numbers or analysis to back that up though; it’s just a gut feeling I had.
Now if you want to argue that the treasure parcel system takes the joy of finding that big magic item away, I’m with you there…but that’s a different comment for a different blog post.
February 21, 2009 at 1:05 am
gamegorilla
Well, this might over complicate things, but you could figure things out in a rictor scale. (For a ten level character, an 11th lvl weapon is worth 1.5 the amount of a 10th level character.) This would mean a 5th lvl character, (with 4, 5, 6, and 4 gold) would have the “points” of 4+4+(4×1.5=)6+(6=6×1.5=)9=23. Thus, if you wanted him to have a slew of 2 lvl weapons, each weapon would be worth 2.25. So 23/2.25 is 10.22 weapons. I know this OVER complicated things, but might help reflect the ability of a character with the ability of the weapons. If this were the case, and you were an 11 lvl character, the largest weapon you could have would be a 14. (I took 11+11+ {11×1.5} + 11×0.75= 46.75. Then I took 11×1.5×1.5×1.5 which is like 11,12,13,14 and got 37.125. Then take the remainder of 9.6 and thats the gold you have left over.
I know it ends up being a lot of math. But would reflect well a character with an heirloom weapon. This would work al the way up. You would equally be allowed to have a 2nd lvl character with a lvl 5 weapon, and thus, just upgrade the heirloom weapon with you as you go. It would get powerful alongside you
-Cheers.