While my own campaign is a little larger than standard, the off shoot games we have played when only a few of the players can make have shown me that much of what is stated as standard for the PC's at each level is a little too much treasure for any given encounter. It's close though, and if your group has four people all the time, I wouldn't stray too far from the DMG's excellent charts. (I use the encounter size one on page 49 religiously)My players used to complain about a lack of treasure in their packs, but quickly quieted down after meeting several monsters that were just above thier CR. A few stiff fights always gets them settled down :-)
just my two coppers,
-Roth
well, I suppose we all would say it depends on your game, which it does. The key here with magic items is a balance between ability of the players to meet challenges vs making challenges to easy that the players walk through. Players should meet some easy; some moderate, and some tuff challenges. As long as this happens in your game; then it doesnt matter how many items they have, but you will have to adjust your mobs and finding the right CR level for exps can be more difficult; am still having a problem with CR myself.
At 6th; i am thinking a party of 6 would probably have one or two +2 items either weapons or armor; another 4 +1 items of the same type; a couple rings; a wand, one or two miscellaneos magics; and a few potions or scrolls they didnt make. I guess in 3.5 you could relate that to GP value of items, but i cannot do that off the top of my head; one or two of the items might have a useful proc say 1d6 extra against undead on critical strike or ghostouch on an armor or such.
6-10 is where the kiddie gloves come off in my game and I expect that you have played your character enough by now to know what that character is capable of; this is the teenage years in my game and it can be hard knocks for some. Adventures get tuffer in theme, plot, impact to the world, and you start to get more specialized; ie specifically built bad guys; the management types or lower boss types; sergents and lt's so to speak. But still, as will teenagers; care and feeding from gm but you have to deal with your mistakes.
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I was just wondering how many magical weapons, armor, and ability enhancers the average 6th level party (4 PCs) should have? Do you think it should be more or less than what is stated in the DMG especially when running adventures from Dungeon Magazine?
It all depends, for the Adventure Paths the writers may have upped the amounts somewhat to accommodate an overall deadlier campaign, or given more earlier to make up for a lull in treasure later. For adventure paths I would stick to what they have and maybe just change types of treasure to fit the party (sub a greataxe+2 for the longsword+2 in the adventure because the Fighter has weapon focus:longsword).
For regular adventures in the magazine you should probably tailor it to your idea on what should be given (ala DMG).my2
FH
As above, it depends. I use 2nd ed, not 3.X so I don't know the specifics mentioned already. But I will say that the "depends" also depends on whether you're doing short term knock-offs (1-8, approx) play sessions till completion, or whether you're running something really long term. And, in the long term game, is there a single overall, major plot element that's run all the way thru for which the characters are being "groomed"?
If you're doing short term stuff, they get what they get, since there's no reason for anything more. They can gain and lose stuff rapidly, and neither of you should sweat it becasue it doesn't matter much.
If youre doing long term, especially with a big hum-dinger of a major plot to complete, then you need to pace thier acquisitions to match the pace of progress of the plot. That, unfortunately, is going to be very subjective on your part. If they have pretty much what they should at a particular level, and they get zapped by something that kills half their stuff, replacing it could be a good side-plot game element, but shouldn't take too long or the group will be underpowered for the game stage they're in; and that can be dangerous. Replacing goodies mid-game is a lot easier than replacing characters mid-game.
For specific numbers and types of goodies, whether 2e or 3x, I agree in almost every way with Valegrim.
I would have to say when it comes to how much magic items they get, it really depends on two things.
1:campaign/# of characters
2:How much the players work for it, and how they handle challenges
Obviously if you have more players in your matches more magic items should be handed out, and if your players handle challenges well and can figure out some of the more difficult puzzles why not reward them? If they always do search checks, make regular watch, always check for traps and whatnot give them a little rewarding...there are other things they can do to deserve them, but you can figure those out. That is how my group gets their items. I hope that helps with yours, oh, and at lvl 6, there shouldn't be too much magic items, maybe a wand of magic missiles or boots of levitations, but nothing in the extreme like cloak or charisma+4.
Sir Smashes Alot...Smashing your problems to bits!
If you ask me, it should stick reasonably closely to the DMG guidelines. You don't have to be too strict, but the further you deviate from the standard, the stronger or weaker you make your players, and they find your challenges either frustratingly hard or boringly easy.