I have been stingy with magic items

[Loztastic]

Now, to put this into context, in the first adventure the PC's bypassed the part of the dungeon where the "treasure room" of the big bad was, and this week, they went off on a side-adventure, and ended up leveling sooner than expected

however, I am becomming increasingly aware the PC's are low on treasure, and possibly magic items

so, what SHOULD a 4th level party each have for items - i'm planning, next session, to have a "make-up hoard"

[Ryzoken]

multiply standard WBL for a 4th level PC by the number of characters and subtract an approximation of current party wealth. Use the difference you've calculated to purchase items for them and seed them. I recommend making sure you spread the wealth among several different items. I'd also include more than X # items where X = #players.

[DM_Blake]

Take a look at table 12-4, Character Wealth By Level, on page 399.

This says that they should have at least 6,000 gp but not more than 10,000 gp. Sure, sure, it's just a guideline, but it's a good one. And much of the other guidelines (like how to make a good encounter, how to place treasure, how to make a good dungeon, how to make the game challenging, etc.) are all linked to this table and this expectation.

Following the chart, on page 400, there are a few paragraphs of text explaining how to use the chart to create a character (or to audit a character to make sure they are in the right range - which is what you're trying to do here).

So, figure no more than half their total wealth on their favorite item, and roughly split into 25% increments for weapons, armor, miscellaneous, and disposable stuff. All of which is a guideline (fighters probably spend more on weapons/armor and wizards probably spend less, etc.).

As long as you're in the general vicinity of these guidelines, you'll find the rest of the encounter/reward system is fairly well balanced.

[Loztastic]

so, by my calculation, that would be a

+1 weapon and +1 defensive item OR or wand of a 2nd level spell
about 1k of consumables
a 2k misc item

sound about right?

[DM_Blake]

Loztastic wrote:

so, by my calculation, that would be a

+1 weapon and +1 defensive item OR or wand of a 2nd level spell
about 1k of consumables
a 2k misc item

sound about right?

Yep, pretty close, assuming they just hit 4th level, since you're targeting the low end of the scale at 6,000 gp. If they're really close to 5th level, you might want to pin them much closer to the 10,000 gp threshold they should have when they reach 5th.

[Loztastic]

well, one player has made a special request for a 5k item - so that would push him (just over) the jump from 4th to 5th level. what i'll do is, during the 4 to 5 adventure, i'll give everyone something of a similar level of power