So I'm playing in a AP (serpent skull) where we as a party have around 50-70% of the recommended wealth for level 10. We are decently powerful and the GM is having a tough time with the encounters finding that the team makes short work out of most fights, so I doubt we are going to get a boost, other than what is written in the campaign and the last several sessions have been rather dry in terms of loot, with the exception of a wand of enervation with 10 charges remaining, which I am loath to sell cause it's cool and buying a fully charged one would be impractical.
Although we are doing well and we are powerful, I feel the fact that in the entire party we have been for the most part neglecting the big 6 in favor of more interesting items will start to show.
How do you guys deal with below average wealth? Any tips for how to deal with it?
yeah, I'll talk to the party about it. It will probably be me or the wizard who takes it, and probably me, as I'm pretty sure the wizard wanted craft staff next level, but we'll see.
Of course I have no ranks in spellcraft so I'll need an item to give me spellcraft. I do have a good int bonus for an oracle though (+2) with an item it will be +3
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Forget that class-centered thinking. Get a fighter type; get 'em to take 5 ranks in Craft: weapons. Now make them take Master Craftsman. Blam; non-spellcaster crafter.
Bottom line is I run homebrew games and haven't gotten a game up to level 10 in a long time. However I constantly tell my players not to forget Scribe Scroll or other crafting feats or even skills they have.
I also use the optional rules in Ultimate Campaign and other books to make it even cheaper. For example making birch bark scrolls, did you know you can use those plus the Scribe Scroll feat coupled with earning Magic capital to craft 16 level 1/CL 1 scrolls for a cost of 50 GP?
My players don't.
So my advice:
1. look into crafting your own gear
2. See if your fellow players are willing to share the load of the feats
3. Look at your cohorts as well for crafters
4. See if your GM will use optional rules to make it easier
Forget that class-centered thinking. Get a fighter type; get 'em to take 5 ranks in Craft: weapons. Now make them take Master Craftsman. Blam; non-spellcaster crafter.
Bottom line is I run homebrew games and haven't gotten a game up to level 10 in a long time. However I constantly tell my players not to forget Scribe Scroll or other crafting feats or even skills they have.
I also use the optional rules in Ultimate Campaign and other books to make it even cheaper. For example making birch bark scrolls, did you know you can use those plus the Scribe Scroll feat coupled with earning Magic capital to craft 16 level 1/CL 1 scrolls for a cost of 50 GP?
My players don't.
So my advice:
1. look into crafting your own gear
2. See if your fellow players are willing to share the load of the feats
3. Look at your cohorts as well for crafters
4. See if your GM will use optional rules to make it easier
Don't forget the actual crafting feat too.
... and the headband of intellect for the skill ranks so they can actually craft things. Never mind they need a wisdom headband for the will save.
... and now that is only covering one half of craft arms and armour.
So, you're paying two feats and a headband slot for half a feat. Just get the wizard to take it, jeez.
Ok then... the Ranger instead.
The point is crafting is the way to get up to WBL. Anyone in here play a wizard that didn't trade away Scribe Scroll? If so, when was the last time you actually made a scroll? Or made a scroll while adventuring?
Ok maybe it's not the folks in this thread but in my experience I have had multiple sets of players who never use their crafting skills and feats. Yeah; skills too.
Oh and I thought of another way out of this too: Appraise.
You go into a dungeon, say a ruined tower with tunnels below. Who lived there originally? Probably someone with money. Got access to Mending or better yet Make Whole? Start annoying your GM by using Appraise on everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. Recover light fixtures, make rubbings of the wall reliefs, mend or make whole the furniture and haul it away. Make maps and artistic renderings and then sell them on your return to town. Scribe books about the adventure site and sell them as well.
Start a business; form a band; deliver professional lectures or pull some light banditry. There are a LOT of ways to get some extra cash if you get proactive.
Making your own gear, magic items, and earning cash from ventures even when you're not in town all deliver some of the resources you're missing. Heck just taking a couple ranks in Craft: Alchemy and making sacks of Acid Flasks every week saves you something!
Average wealth is for a theoretically average campaign. By your own testimony, you're doing just fine, actually more than just fine with the gear level you have now. WBL is a theorectical tool, not an absolute rule written in stone. For that matter, so is the Big Six.So I'm playing in a AP (serpent skull) where we as a party have around 50-70% of the recommended wealth for level 10. We are decently powerful and the GM is having a tough time with the encounters finding that the team makes short work out of most fights, so I doubt we are going to get a boost, other than what is written in the campaign and the last several sessions have been rather dry in terms of loot, with the exception of a wand of enervation with 10 charges remaining, which I am loath to sell cause it's cool and buying a fully charged one would be impractical.
Although we are doing well and we are powerful, I feel the fact that in the entire party we have been for the most part neglecting the big 6 in favor of more interesting items will start to show.
How do you guys deal with below average wealth? Any tips for how to deal with it?
Agreed with X. By your own admission you're already strong enough that you're rolling over encounters. If I were your GM, I would have no incentive to give you more wealth or allow it. If you were to take crafting feats I would enforce the recommended bonus of 25% bonus wealth (by level) per crafting feat up to 50%. And, anything made for your companions would come out of that extra share.
This is about balance, you're already too strong by your own admission. And wealth by level is an idea of average balance, but not all AP's are equally challenging. And that can change based on party composition as well.
How do you deal with this situation? You don't. Do nothing. You're GM is already having trouble, no need to exacerbate the situation.
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... Start annoying your GM by using Appraise on everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. ....
I'd be careful with this one. One Appraise check too many and the GM tells you that you found some solid jade sex toys scaled for giants.... Yes this happened.
Were .... were they, ya know, animated ?
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In every AP I've run in as a player the GM applies a minimum of the advanced template to all creatures and buffs up the big guys even more, he then removes loot from the APs to the point where we never make WBL and the adventures still become obscenely easy after a certain point. The system really loses its luster in later levels, but you can stall that breaking point a bit by not having as much loot to buy the OP items as quickly.
How do you deal with this situation? You don't. Do nothing. Your GM is already having trouble, no need to exacerbate the situation.
The WBL chart is not a tool for players. It is for theory juggling or - if the DM allows it - for creating new characters who are above 1st level. Wealth, and the abundance or lack of magic items that typically goes with it, is entirely the realm of the DM.
In your place, I would simply go with the flow, and try to use what you've got creatively.
And forget all this "big six" nonsense. Do what you can with what you've got. (IIRC Nick Fury said it better near the end of Ultron. Can anybody help with the quote?)
Average wealth is for a theoretically average campaign. By your own testimony, you're doing just fine, actually more than just fine with the gear level you have now. WBL is a theorectical tool, not an absolute rule written in stone. For that matter, so is the Big Six.So I'm playing in a AP (serpent skull) where we as a party have around 50-70% of the recommended wealth for level 10. We are decently powerful and the GM is having a tough time with the encounters finding that the team makes short work out of most fights, so I doubt we are going to get a boost, other than what is written in the campaign and the last several sessions have been rather dry in terms of loot, with the exception of a wand of enervation with 10 charges remaining, which I am loath to sell cause it's cool and buying a fully charged one would be impractical.
Although we are doing well and we are powerful, I feel the fact that in the entire party we have been for the most part neglecting the big 6 in favor of more interesting items will start to show.
How do you guys deal with below average wealth? Any tips for how to deal with it?
Agreed with X. By your own admission you're already strong enough that you're rolling over encounters. If I were your GM, I would have no incentive to give you more wealth or allow it. If you were to take crafting feats I would enforce the recommended bonus of 25% bonus wealth (by level) per crafting feat up to 50%. And, anything made for your companions would come out of that extra share.
This is about balance, you're already too strong by your own admission. And wealth by level is an idea of average balance, but not all AP's are equally challenging. And that can change based on party composition as well.
How do you deal with this situation? You don't. Do nothing. You're GM is already having trouble, no need to exacerbate the situation.
Sorry, I somehow skimmed over that part. If the op's party is capable of dealing with all current threats, there's no real reason to match WBL. I agree: do nothing.
If however the monsters/villains start scaling up in power level while your party resources remain somewhat stagnant, revisit this thread.
In every AP I've run in as a player the GM applies a minimum of the advanced template to all creatures and buffs up the big guys even more, he then removes loot from the APs to the point where we never make WBL and the adventures still become obscenely easy after a certain point. The system really loses its luster in later levels, but you can stall that breaking point a bit by not having as much loot to buy the OP items as quickly.
In my campaign that's what I've been doing. Everything, and I mean everything get's the advanced simple template against the party, basically +2 to everything and 2hp per HD. For "boss" creatures they basically get +4 to everything and 4 hp/HD and max hp of HD (mostly because the APs insists on doing most boss fights solo). In my experience, running with WBL with the above the break point for most APs before the become too easy is around level 9/10.
Unfortunately I just don't have the time to overhaul encounters so thoroughly to really make them challenging beyond simple template. And currently I'm running Iron Gods, and pulling out WBL would mean removing a lot of technological items, which I fear would ruin the feeling of the AP.