The Gaming Den

I've heard complaints from some DMs who don't like the parcel system, so I decided to spend a tedious half hour writing this.

Happy holidays, fellow DMs!

Would you be interested in sharing the underlying math?

A Man In Black wrote:Would you be interested in sharing the underlying math?

It's just a derivation of the formula to determine items above level 1, since all items of the same level cost the same amount of money. The underlying math is addition.

People actually miss wealth by level?!?

Surgo wrote:People actually miss wealth by level?!?

I'll take WBL over the parcel system. The parcel system means I have to keep track of my level in items where with WBL if I want to go easy on myself I can just pick the essentials I can afford (which in many cases is fewer distinct items).

Basically, I'd rather do some subtraction to get what I think is important than look at a chart 30 distinct times.

But you're actually supposed to get rid of things in 4E, which is why the parcel system I proposed just gave you gold pieces equal to a level-appropriate item every level.

TS's parcel system is, frankly, obscene. At level 6, you can afford 5 level appropriate items. At level 10 you can afford 7 level appropriate ltems. Even the most generous (but fair) possible payout in 4E doesn't give you that much.

A Man In Black wrote:Would you be interested in sharing the underlying math?

1. For each level, I added together the value of an item two levels higher than the PC and the sell value of an item of the PC's level. Yes, I added the 100 gp for first level, just to be extra anal.

2. At levels 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 29 and 30 I subtracted 4/5 the value of an item one less than the PC's level, to reflect selling off enhancement bonus items as the PC finds better ones.

3. But then someone pointed out that my chart was one level fast, so I dropped each value by one level.

Surgo wrote:People actually miss wealth by level?!?

I'm not here to judge, just to spread the Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa joy.

My numbers are double checked, and all check out so this is the final draft. I added total cash by level, so I'm done with this project. I mean it! No more number crunching! Really! Gaaah!

Final 4e WBL

Lago PARANOIA wrote: TS's parcel system is, frankly, obscene. At level 6, you can afford 5 level appropriate items. At level 10 you can afford 7 level appropriate ltems. Even the most generous (but fair) possible payout in 4E doesn't give you that much.

If it bothers you, lop 10% off the top or whatever seems best. Or use your own parcel system, if you're into parcels now.

TS wrote:If it bothers you, lop 10% off the top or whatever seems best. Or use your own parcel system, if you're into parcels now.

The system I use is giving people 100% price for selling their old equipment and giving PCs gold pieces equal to an item of their level every time they gain a level. It hands out treasure very close to what a pregenerated character gets.

Of course, the problem with my balance point is that on a strict numerical basis you'll almost certainly end up with less treasure than you would get with the treasure parcel system, so you might end up with less booty than the game assumes. On the other hand, close to 95% of the magical swag in the PHB, PHBII, Adventurer's Vault, AV2, and EPG is fucking useless, so you'll probably end up more powerful selecting your treasure rather than rolling fo rit.

On the third hand, the treasure parcel system in the DMG suggests that players turn in a wishlist (with no guidance on how to implement this shit) so if you follow this vague rule players will almost be twice as rich with the treasure parcel + choose your own item system than the one I proposed. On the fourth hand, the magical items in the first three core rulebooks suck goat anus so by-and-large upgrading from a +2 bastard sword to a +2 duelists' bastard sword will probably get a yawn from your players so they probably didn't anticipate the power creep that fully implementing this rule would cause. The gap in power between a fully decked-out and a randomly decked-out character is much more stark nowadays than they are with just the basic rulebooks.

On the fifth hand, magical items in 4E are small, weak, and overly focused. You can outfit a character entirely with any level-appropriate gear they want and they won't end up much more powerful than the most generous interpretation of the treasure parcel system--or even my system for that matter. It's almost fucking guaranteed that there's no way you're going to pry a Stormwarden Ranger from their Frost Bastard Sword, their Iron Ring of the Dwarf Lord, their Iron Armbands of Power (paragon tier), their Boots of Eagerness, or their Casque of Tactics/Skull Mask so offering them to fill up their slots with level 20 gear at the stipulation of not being able to pick any of the above items a second time is going to get a laugh from the players.

The biggest problem with reforming 4E wealth is that there is no balance point because the magical item system is so unbalanced. The power curve is steeply logarithmic; after a certain point giving the players more wealth will not appreciably increase their power without breaking certain rules. Even though I think that your original proposal for wealth is obscene, it wouldn't actually make players much more powerful than my system--even though yours hands out more than twice what I recommended.