I was curious from people who have run this before. Do you guys supplement/alter gear that is dropped or leave it as is? So far they are in the middle of Thistle top. I have only given them what is listed in monster entries and treasure that they have found. So just want to see what other DMs typically do. I have always been kinda stingy with gear but I want to make sure they can keep up. I also want to keep from over gearing them as they have 25 point buy. It is only three characters. Well enough of my rambling. Thoughts?
My group have donated quite allot to the churches in sandpoint, and thus, I've had to bump some loot up in other areas. otherwise, pretty much as stated.
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I always like to personalise loot to a degree. I don't mind characters being a little ahead of the wealth curve either. If I know the fighter is specialised in polearms I might swap some of the weapons found in the mod to suit him if I feel he needs an upgrade.
More specifically to the mod. It is good to make sure at least one or two of the front line fighters have magic weapons they can use for the end of the first mod.
I usually keep the gear as listed.
I do however allow my players to trade magical gear for similar items without the 50% rule. For example if they find a +1 long sword I usually allow them to trade it for another +1 weapon (say a short sword for the rogue or a greatsword for the fighter) by just paying a small amount of gp, somewhere around 100 or so, depending on their standing in the town and how they roleplay the exchange with the merchant
I do like this idea. It seems fair enough. Do you guys know if there is indeed enough loot dropped? I have also liked the idea of personalizing loot to. I think allowing trades will help that.
If your party finds all the treasure troves squirreled away in the module, then they'll be well ahead of the WBL curve. If they miss things, donate gold away, or specifically choose NOT to loot specific items items for whatever reason (for instance my party handed Orik over to the authorities for sentencing, along with his gear), then you might want to throw some extra change their way.
If you are using the Aniversary Edition i think that you should be fine.
I am using the anniversary edition. Thanks guys.
One of the things suggested in the book was a discount at Savah's weapon shop in Sandpoint, and in my game she was pretty eager to help the PC's with that. My players had a bit of trouble with Burnt offerings, and we had 2 PC deaths, nearly a third when they faced Malfeshnekor. After that I increased the value of the loot for the treasury and items in Thistletop, putting them considerably ahead of normal wealth by level.
I'm hoping putting them ahead of the wealth by level chart will keep them alive more consistently in the next volume, which we're starting in two weeks. If that fails, I'll try introducing an NPC companion to take a few of the hits for them.
I don't feel there was a lack of good treasure available in the game, there was that nice magic sword Koruvus had and some good gear on Nualia and her henchmen.
As for customizing gear, I do that in moderation, usually smaller things like switching scrolls to something I know they'll need, or extra potions on enemies if they haven't had enough time to scribe scrolls themselves or such. I also customize loot to tailor items to a player who is behind the other players in character wealth, keeping them more even.
Burnt offerings makes dropped loot fairly important because of sandpoints relatively low number of available magic items. A lot of my players have been hoarding cash until they can make a trip to Magnimar, which has hurt their performance a fair amount.
Personally, I wouldn't allow PC's to do a trade in like Bert Vervaet mentioned, because functionally that's almost as good an economic benefit as taking the craft magic weapons feat, with the added bonus of not needing any crafting time. Or spending a precious feat. I wouldn't give my PC's that powerful a benefit carte blanche without them spending character resources like feats or very good RP work on it. Maybe I'd allow it with just a local small-town vendor like Savah, who's wares the PC's will quickly outgrow.
I was thinking perhaps doing it kind of like in kingmajer where it will take time before said item can come in.
I was thinking perhaps doing it kind of like in kingmajer where it will take time before said item can come in.
That works too. If I recall, our samurai ordered a masterwork katana to be shipped in from Magnimar by a traveling trader. Of course, when it arrived he never used it because he had the +1 longsword by then...