Book of Gears -- Wealth by Level

[CatharzGodfoot]

Got a ballpark estimate of how many magic items a character running in Book of Gears should have?

Starting with D&D norms, a 1st level character should have normal gear, a second level character should have masterwork, and a third level character should have a single magic item. Somewhere between levels 9 and 11 (inclusive), a party joins the Wish Economy and gets arbitrarily many basic items, so it makes sense that characters would accumulate about one item per level until they hit the cap.

However, that leaves out "lesser" through "greater" magic items, and ignores spell items (which don't scale like bonus items). I'd like to place spell items at least one level after they're gained to a full caster.

For one, can lesser items be created through wish? My gut instinct is to say no, but but it would easy to persuade me otherwise.

In terms of creation, I imagine that spell items would require creator level = (2 * spell level) + 1, lesser items require creator level 5, moderate 10, and greater 15.

So to sum up in a WBL table (yeah, it looks really proscribed a la 4e, but it's not really rules; more like 'guidelines'):
1: Normal items
2: Masterwork items
3: 1 basic item
4: 2 basic items
5: 3 basic items
6: 3 basic items, 1 minor item
7: 4 basic items, 1 minor item
8: 5 basic items, 1 minor item
9: 5 basic items, 2 minor items
10: 6 basic items, 2 minor items
11: arbitrarily many basic items, 2 minor items
12: AMBI, 2 minor items, 1 moderate item
...
15: AMBI, 2 minor items, 2 moderate items
...
17: AMBI, 2 minor items, 2 moderate items, 1 major item
+: Whatever

The problem is, there's a fairly large incentive to murderize 6th level characters until you have a bunch of minor items, ditto for 12th and moderate, 15th and major. 15th and major muderization I can live with, but I'd like to see the little guys hold on to their goodies. Maybe that's a good enough reason to let wish make minor items.

[Cynic]

Isn't the point of BoG to have a character who can have a magic item at first level? I could have sworn that was one of the reasons for the lv/3 roundup system. So that even at level 1, we have a character who has a +1 magical bonus.

EDIT: I didn't edit this post to remove the unnecessary quoting of the prior post. nothing to see here, move along.

[Bigode]

I'm pretty sure not. Minor magic items still cost money, and getting all the common equipment tended to be problem enough. Also, am I crazy, or you quoted the entire OP?

[Cynic]

Also, am I crazy, or you quoted the entire OP?

Yes, you are/will be crazy (after I edit the post.) It was an honest mistake. I didn't realize that i had clicked the quote button. I must have been on auto pilot when typing.

[Bigode]

Yes, you are/will be crazy (after I edit the post.) It was an honest mistake. I didn't realize that i had clicked the quote button. I must have been on auto pilot when typing.

LOL, in the past 3 days I made more mistakes than in the rest of my entire time here: I both broke a thread and mistakenly left a piracy link here for a short while, so we're in the same boat (if I'm not worse). Thanks for the insanity delivery, I'll be able to join the collective now.

[Crissa]

We had a list of how much magic items you should be able to activate, or a maximum wealth by level, basically.

Is this list then a minimum wealth by level, what you're expected to have at least?

-Crissa

[CatharzGodfoot]

Is this list then a minimum wealth by level, what you're expected to have at least?

-Crissa

Yes, after a fashion. It's supposed to act as a guide for creating characters at certain levels, and also a warning to the DM if a player has too few (or way too many) items.

We had a list of how much magic items you should be able to activate, or a maximum wealth by level, basically.

What did it look like?

[Crissa]

Very similar, level/2 magic items, only eight slots available at any one time.

The discussion broke down on how powerful once-per adventure stuff should be.

-Crissa

[bosssmiley]

@CatharzGodfoot: your 4-fold division of items (basic, minor, moderate, major) is more than a little reminiscent of the four encountered NPC equipment tables in one of the 1E DMG appendices.

That system of expected items/level was based on multiple rolls on four discrete (no "roll on the next table up" cheese") level- appropriate tables. The tables started out with minor charms and one-shot items like two potions or scroll of 2 spells in Table I and ended up with big ticket toys like frost brands, daern's instant fortress or cubic gate in Table IV.

It was excellent in that you could see at a glance the type of toy that was fitting for characters of level X with no worrying about WBL bull'.

Was your suggested progression a conscious homage to that, or just functional coincidence?

[JonSetanta]

AMBI?

[SunTzuWarmaster]

CatharzGodfoot's table seems to be about what I would expect, honestly. I usually end up moving "arbitrary basic items" into the level 9 range (player or DM), and past level 12 or so it doesn't matter (I've never played a game that high).

So yea, that is about right.