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The Prestige Award system is an integral part of the game. Not only does it give players that spend them different benefits but it more importantly sets the max item cost. During season 0 one in 3 adventures awards you 2 PA while all the season 1 adventures award you 2 PA. I believe that this difference in PA award leads to a huge difference in player power and lowers the demand for a scenario only offering 1 PA. It begins innocent at first, but let me give you an example.
Player 0's DM is taking them straight through season 0. Lets say he completes 20 adventures and earns maximum PA. His final tally of PA will be 26. This sets his max item cost to 8,000 gp.
Player 1's DM on the other hand takes him through season 1. He also completes 20 adventures and earns maximum PA. His final tally of PA will be 40 with a max item cost of 31,000 gp.
Comparing both the players, Player 1 has a max item cost 23,000 gp higher than and almost 4x the amount of Player 0!!! Not to mention the fact that most season 1 adventures award more gold than season 0. So when Player 0 attends a convention his character will be completely inferior to others.
As a DM, I know I will only be putting my player's through scenarios that give 2 PA because it is way too detrimental for their characters. I'm not going to purchase any scenarios that award only 1 PA. Does anyone else feel the same way?
Now, there is a simple fix to this problem. In the v2.2 rules, simply state that all season 0 scenarios that only award 1 PA are now worth 2. You won't have to make any new faction missions or even touch the old ones, just state that they are now worth 2. Players who have already completed them instantly get the extra PA. This gives DMs a reason to play these adventures and not be hurting their players. I think it's still balanced too because instead of having two chances at gaining PA the players must go all or nothing.
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I think you're over-reacting a bit and worrying about things that don't actually happen. Most players wind up playing a mix of season 1 and 0 mods. With a few exceptions, most characters will also not be as severely crippled as you suggest by an 8k gp cap as you seem to think.
Lets do some math.
first seven mods are played at tier 1-2 (~425gp)
then ten mods are played at tier 3-4 or 4-5 (~1200gp)
then three mods are played at tier 6-7 (~2200gp)
That gives a total wealth of about 22000gp
So while this player might only be able to spend 8k on one item the apparent advantages of a player who can spend up to 31k on an item are clearly not worth that many exclamation points.
The only thing that I can possibly see a 6th level PC wanting and not being able to buy is a +2 weapon. Although since the Pathfinder system does screw over people by putting all the physical stat items in the same slot and then charging though the nose for the benefit of providing (for example +2 str and con) then fighter types are hosed. But the fighters should know that going in.
Also I challenge your assumption that PCs will always get full prestige in every scenario. They will not.
Now if a character (much more reasonably if they are active enough to attend cons) plays an even mix of scenarios from season 0 and 1 and gets 2 prestige 4/5 of the time then that person would have 28 prestige a max gold cap of 11750. This character is able to spend about half his character wealth on one item (a reasonable amount).
Also more reasonably your character playing only season 1 mods probably only has 36 prestige and a gold cap of 23k.
Another note: all characters can buy things off of their scenario sheets that exceed the prestige cap gp.
This is not a change I am willing to entertain for many of the reasons Matt pointed out above me.
You should also consider that Season 0 scenarios are slowly going to be either retired or converted and I think many of your issues will be solved there.
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I agree with teribithia9. I know there are players that want to maximize every possible situation. So be it is my response. I've heard players avoid scenarios because it doesn't maximize the points in the chronicles. It amazes me how not playing is a replacement to not getting that extra what ever. I play for the enjoyment of the scenario. The xp, gold, and PA is secondary. Completely secondary. I've been in tables where the GM is apologizing he couldn't award the second PA point. I always make sure he knows the scenario is more important than the numbers on the chronicles.
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Obviously, we're all in it for the game ... that's the most important part. It's fun and entertaining. That being said, I've occasionally been accused of being ... well, let's just call it thorough and precise. But, one thing that I try to avoid doing is looking as statistical possibilities when it comes to things like this.
I will give case and point: I just attended ComicPalooza here in Houston this last weekend and my PC, Qa'Pelos, just made 7th level as a Fighter/Living Monolith. I have 24 PA after having played 18 scenarios, and I have earned more than enough cash to have all of the things that I've wanted. I just dropped over 11,500 on mithral armor, have had it enchanted to a +2, I have a +1 Khopesh, and I even had to drop a 1000 in gold to get a gemstone carved just to enter my prestige class!
So, yeah, those things you were talking about *could* happen, in all likelihood and probability, it's just not something that's going to come up. Most people are gong to be happy with what they're doing and how much they accomplish. Seventh level is a great feeling, no matter what kind of number crunching you do for cash and prestige.
