Creative Director
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Suggested wealth for NPCs is way more than treasure for encounters.
Is there an explanation for these seemingly quite contradictory numbers?
Is there a way to build NPC encounters and have them be effective without massively overwhelming those guidelines?
If you have an adventure with a lot of NPCs, and you give those NPCs all their suggested wealth, you WILL end up with more treasure in the adventure than if you just calculated things using the wealth by encounter table. This isn't really a contradiction, though—the Wealth By Encounter tables list the AVERAGE wealth per encounter. Technically, if you have lots of NPCs or other high-treasure encounters, you should balance those out by having more encounters with no treasure at all; animals, vermin, oozes, and other unintelligent monsters are a great solution here.
Of course, in the end, you should build your adventures to suit your own preferred play style. Mine runs to about 200% the numbers listed in the wealth by encounter charts, for example.
Suggested wealth for NPCs is way more than treasure for encounters.
Is there an explanation for these seemingly quite contradictory numbers?
Is there a way to build NPC encounters and have them be effective without massively overwhelming those guidelines?
Things like unholy weapons etc. that the PC's can't really use and that properly vendors shouldn't just take either. Granted this doesn't work if you have a mixed party in a more mixed world. Also you can simply have the Magic Mart not readily buy up those strange specialty items (while still having them available for PCs to buy). How fast is an apparatus of the crab going to get sold anyways?
If you like running games with lots of npc enemies you could use fast experience track and then the wealth will not be so high above wealth by level.
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Suggested wealth for NPCs is way more than treasure for encounters.
Is there an explanation for these seemingly quite contradictory numbers?
Is there a way to build NPC encounters and have them be effective without massively overwhelming those guidelines?
If you have an adventure with a lot of NPCs, and you give those NPCs all their suggested wealth, you WILL end up with more treasure in the adventure than if you just calculated things using the wealth by encounter table. This isn't really a contradiction, though—the Wealth By Encounter tables list the AVERAGE wealth per encounter. Technically, if you have lots of NPCs or other high-treasure encounters, you should balance those out by having more encounters with no treasure at all; animals, vermin, oozes, and other unintelligent monsters are a great solution here.
Of course, in the end, you should build your adventures to suit your own preferred play style. Mine runs to about 200% the numbers listed in the wealth by encounter charts, for example.
Okay.. I guess it's maybe more of a problem due to playstyle. In a dungeon, I can decide what they fight and what they don't.
Generally I run urban adventures. The players go where they want in the city, and they tend to get themselves involved in politics, and they often the ones starting the fights. I can justify the occasional animal or monster, but they're mostly dealing with thieves guilds and thugs and soldiers and mages, and less so humanoid creatures with class levels are the most common things they encounter.
Well, this gives me the next thing to add to the Ultimate Combat wishlist. :)
Thanks James.
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Things like unholy weapons etc. that the PC's can't really use and that properly vendors shouldn't just take either. Granted this doesn't work if you have a mixed party in a more mixed world. Also you can simply have the Magic Mart not readily buy up those strange specialty items (while still having them available for PCs to buy). How fast is an apparatus of the crab going to get sold anyways?
I guess that's a way to handle it.
Things like unholy weapons etc. that the PC's can't really use and that properly vendors shouldn't just take either. Granted this doesn't work if you have a mixed party in a more mixed world. Also you can simply have the Magic Mart not readily buy up those strange specialty items (while still having them available for PCs to buy). How fast is an apparatus of the crab going to get sold anyways?I guess that's a way to handle it.
You'll have to be careful to avoid causing PC's to not feel jipped.
Generally I run urban adventures. The players go where they want in the city, and they tend to get themselves involved in politics, and they often the ones starting the fights. I can justify the occasional animal or monster, but they're mostly dealing with thieves guilds and thugs and soldiers and mages, and less so humanoid creatures with class levels are the most common things they encounter.
Well, remember that characters with enough resources to have magical gear will likely have the resources to have lesser servitors (unintelligent undead, constructs, trained animals, traps, etc). These lesser minions can help you fill out your experience point budget. Also consider awarding xp for social/nonviolent encounters/challenges. I'm running a mostly urban sandbox game right now and I'm finding this helpful.
Also, not every npc has to have exactly the same amount of wealth- giving more or less can effect the CR if you need to.
Suggested wealth for NPCs is way more than treasure for encounters.
Is there an explanation for these seemingly quite contradictory numbers?
Is there a way to build NPC encounters and have them be effective without massively overwhelming those guidelines?
1) Tactics.
2) Strategy.3) Consumables.
4-wait wha...?
Consumable items were pretty much meant to be used by NPCs. Notice they don't have enough WBL to afford enough awesome gear to make PCs take a second notice, right? Eh, actually they do!
An oil of magic weapon is 50 gp, and can turn any weapon that it's applied to into a +1 weapon for the next 10 rounds. Enlarge person at caster level 1 is a 50 gp potion, and it makes a warrior big and strong for 10 rounds. Items like wands, scrolls, and similar items can be used to great effect to buff or to attack with without breaking the bank, or flooding the market.
Stuff like alchemical items are useful as well. Flasks of acid, alchemist fire, alchemist frost, etc. These also give NPCs good, useful methods to use in combat against enemies, and they're touch attacks with splash damage (12 1st level warriors = CR 5, and at 1d6+splash damage * 12, that's spicy!).
Also, most NPC gear sells off at 1/2 price, which is worth taking into consideration. Everyone knows that the party probably isn't going to pick up and use much of the 50 longswords and 30 light crossbows they picked up as part of the gear (if they dragged it all back to town that is; stuff gets heavy); so in terms of WBL, it's worth about half of whatever it would have been if you tossed them gold or even some fairly odd magic items (since at 5th level you're more likely to use the 50 gp anchor feather token than you are a mundane chain shirt).
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I was about to write a big post on consumable magic items, but then I saw that Ashiel already did this. Thank you, Ashiel!
To elaborate, I would like to say that if you've always wanted to see how well some expensive consumables work, then generously gift them to your NPC's! 3rd-level potions are 750 gp each, and they can include flight, water walking, displacement, and other great spells.
The bead of force is a 3,000 gp one-use item, even more expensive than sovereign glue, at 2,400.
And who can't think up a few uses for sovereign glue?
Ooo Consumables good find.
And who can't think up a few uses for sovereign glue?
That is the most evil item made by far because even direct divine intervention cannot separate things stuck together with sovereign glue without universal solvent. Then again all the more reason to use it on some unsuspecting PC's.
Suggested wealth for NPCs is way more than treasure for encounters.
Is there an explanation for these seemingly quite contradictory numbers?
Is there a way to build NPC encounters and have them be effective without massively overwhelming those guidelines?
1) Tactics.
2) Strategy.
3) Consumables.
4-wait wha...?Consumable items were pretty much meant to be used by NPCs. Notice they don't have enough WBL to afford enough awesome gear to make PCs take a second notice, right? Eh, actually they do!
An oil of magic weapon is 50 gp, and can turn any weapon that it's applied to into a +1 weapon for the next 10 rounds. Enlarge person at caster level 1 is a 50 gp potion, and it makes a warrior big and strong for 10 rounds. Items like wands, scrolls, and similar items can be used to great effect to buff or to attack with without breaking the bank, or flooding the market.
Stuff like alchemical items are useful as well. Flasks of acid, alchemist fire, alchemist frost, etc. These also give NPCs good, useful methods to use in combat against enemies, and they're touch attacks with splash damage (12 1st level warriors = CR 5, and at 1d6+splash damage * 12, that's spicy!).
Also, most NPC gear sells off at 1/2 price, which is worth taking into consideration. Everyone knows that the party probably isn't going to pick up and use much of the 50 longswords and 30 light crossbows they picked up as part of the gear (if they dragged it all back to town that is; stuff gets heavy); so in terms of WBL, it's worth about half of whatever it would have been if you tossed them gold or even some fairly odd magic items (since at 5th level you're more likely to use the 50 gp anchor feather token than you are a mundane chain shirt).
I think Ashiel pretty much hit what I was going to say, so +1.
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I was explaining to someone recently that, in a world with magic, people would be used to things. I'm pretty sure most good martial schools would actively cover things that you'd need to be wary of when fighting those of sorcerous power; for example. Jujitsu was developed on the battlefield by different samurai and then the combination of techniques shared between each other as samurai showed one another techniques that worked for them, and then it became a full-fledged style.
I explained that this would drastically change the way wars were fought. Someone said to me that war in D&D was pointless, because you could just make an iron golem to slaughter the other army; but the fact is a battalion of CR 1/3 soldiers will more than likely tear an iron golem to pieces.
But here are some examples of the way I see D&D combat.
Human Warrior CR 1/3 (135 XP)
Init +4; Senses Perception +0;
Hp 6 (1d10+1); AC 15, touch 11, flat 14; Fort +3, Ref +1, Will +0;
Melee ranseur +4 (2d4+4/x3, reach)
Ranged sling +2 (1d4+3) or acid flask +2 (1d6 acid, touch, splash 1)
Str 16, Dex 13, Con 13, Int 7, Wis 10, Cha 7 (3 pb);
Base Atk +1, CMB +4, CMD 15
Feats - Improved Initiative, Point Blank Shot
Skills - Climb +7, Ride +5, Linguistics -1; Check Penalty -2;
Gear (250 gp out of 260 gp) - ranseur, sling w/ 50 shots, chain shirt, acid flask x4, oil of magic weapon x1, potion cure light wounds or enlarge person.
Here we see a soldierly grunt. This is the guy who wasn't cut out for a life as a craftsman, merchant, or normal job, so he joins the military in his perspective country and is ran through basic training. He learned to fight, and he makes a decent wage. He's a badass in his own community and he speaks 2 different languages because he either served time in a foreign land, or because he was taught another language to do so.
As far as military concerns go, our human warrior is packin'. He's got less than the suggest WBL on him, but he can adapt to a variety of situations. He carries a melee weapon (ranseur) which can be used in tandem with allied soldiers (reach weapons being preferred in mass warfare), an easy to carry reach weapon (the sling) which takes advantage of his strength training, a few grenade-like weapons for dealing with large armored enemies or against massed units, and oil of magic weapon for fighting magical creatures or spellcasters with protection from arrows active (applied to sling), and either cure light wounds as an emergency life-saver to apply to friends and allies, or enlarge person so he can make a statement on the battlefield (his reach doubles to 20ft, 2d6+6/x3 ranseur damage, AC drops to 12); and he's even got about 100 silver pieces left over as part of his gear.
Our soldier looks perfect for D&D combat. He can adapt to a variety of situations. If the unit he was in (say 50 men strong, though 100 would also be likely for massed combat) encountered an iron golem on the battlefield, they would likely throw flasks of acid at the creature from a distance (possibly using their slings to lob them like grenade-launchers). An iron golem has 129 Hp, and a touch AC of 8. If 50 soldiers lobbed acid at the golem with +2 to hit, they would only have a 25% chance to miss and still deal splash damage 1 on that miss; dealing approximately 131.5 damage assuming 25 miss, and then another +25 splash damage from the ones that miss; completely melting the CR 13 iron golem.
They can repeat this 3 times before needing more grenades.
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Some Other Considerable Items
Here's a short list of some good items that you can include in your NPC gear to keep them competitive without breaking the bank.
Potions and Oils
0 Level = 25 gp (such as resistance or stabilize)
1 Level = 50 gp (such as remove fear, undetectable alignment, bless, protection from chaos/law/good/evil, cure light wounds, magic weapon, shield of faith, mage armor, enlarge person, hide from animals, jump, longstrider, expeditious retreat, pass without trace, speak with animals, or shillelagh)
2 Level = 300 gp (such as blur, mirror image, or heroism)
3 Level = 750 gp (such as flame arrow, or fly)
Wands or Spell-Triggers
0 Level = 7.5 gp per charge
1 Level = 12.5 gp per charge (anything that looks good, though magic missile is a favorite since it cannot be blocked, but bless is great with lots of mooks, and obscuring mist or silent image can provide concealment)
2 Level = 90 gp per charge (scorching ray, barkskin, spiderclimb, summon swarm, or any of the animal buffs such as owl's wisdom)
3 Level = 225 gp per charge ("What do you mean lightning bolt!?", and haste is great on massed low CR mooks)
4 Level = 420 gp per charge (For when you really just want that one casting of black tentacles, enervation, solid fog, greater invisibility, or lesser globe of invulnerability during that encounter)
Wondrous Items
There's a lot of wondrous items that can be used to great effect by NPCs if used in clever ways, and here are some that I or my players have found that are really good.
Feather Token: Bird - 200 gp for a messenger bird. This is a good way for mooks to alert their leaders of a party's presence or activities, even if the mook is going down.
Feather Token: Tree - 400 gp for a tree. A big tree. Right where you drop it. This token can provide cover wherever and whenever you need it, or to completely block up a narrow passage so that pursuers must stop and hack a tree to pieces (and at hardness 5 and 10hp/inch of thickness, they can be hacking for a while).
Feather Token: Swan - At 450 gp for a boat that lasts one day and automatically moves at a speed of 60 ft. This boat can apparently carry a lot of stuff (including eight horses!). This makes a genius escape method, or way to quickly and easily gain a terrain advantage in certain conditions.
Feather Token: Anchor - At 50 gp, this item is a spiteful thing for a pirate campaign. It magically moors a boat so that it cannot move for 1 day, so pirates can use one of these suckers on a ship before returning to theirs, essentially preventing the possibility of that ship chasing them as they escape with the booty.
Elixer of Love - 150 gp for a mostly-plot-supportive item, this magic potion can complicate issues for PCs when some well meaning NPCs with poor will saves find themselves enamored.
Elixer of Hiding - This 250 gp elixer is the bane of Perception checks everywhere. It grants a +10 bonus on Stealth checks for 1 hour; more than enough to create a very successful ambush.
Elixer of Swimming - This 250 gp elixer can be a life-saver for both PCs and NPCs alike. It's also very funny to drop one of these on an NPC in heavy armor, and watch as they glide through the water despite their check penalties. Lasts 1 hour.
Elixer of Tumbling - Much like the elixer of hiding, this 250 gp elixer can really surprise people. It grants a +10 competence bonus on all Acrobatics checks for 1 hour, allowing the user to jump great distances and tumble past enemies with ease!
Elixer of Vision - The counter to the elixer of hiding, this elixer grants a +10 to all Perception checks for 1 hour, which is ideal for dealing with sneakies; but since it only lasts 1 hour, most NPCs won't know to use it without some prior warning.
Dust of Tracelessness - This 250 gp item pretty much ensures that the quarry is nigh untrackable. It increases the DC to track group of creatures through an area by 20!
Miscellaneous Items, Ammo, Etc
+1 Ammo - 40 gp per shot. +1 ammunition can be a fairly effective way to fill out an NPC's wealth while also making them more dangerous.
+2 Ammo - 160 gp per shot. +2 ammunition allows you to begin doing some fun things. Bane arrows are effective weapons if used sparingly, while special abilities like flaming or seeking can be handy as well. +1 merciful arrows are effectively +1d6 damage versus most creatures, and you don't even have to worry about killing people.
+3 Ammo - 360 gp per shot. +3 ammunition is expensive, but it can support effects such as holy or unholy, making it ideal for fighting some enemies, or support up to 2 different types of banes (elf and human bane for example), as well as combining things like merciful and seeking.
Sleep Arrow - 132 gp. This magic arrow is kind of iffy for its price, but it's a +1 arrow that deals nonlethal damage and carries a DC 11 save or put the foe to sleep. Unlike the sleep spell, there is no maximum HD, so there's always a 5% chance they biff it.
Javalin of Lightning - A bit pricey at 1,500 gp, but it basically allows any NPC to toss a 5d6 lightning bolt once before they die, but at its price you likely won't find the spare cash to use it without at least mid-level NPCs.
Slaying Arrows - At 2,282 gp and 4,057 gp for the lesser or greater versions, these puppies are nasty. Not something most NPCs will be carrying around, and even into mid and higher levels most normal NPCs have no reason to carry these; but when these do have reasons to be used (such as crafted by the arch-nemesis to deal with his enemies), these suckers pack a punch. The DC 20 lesser version is a +1 arrow that deals 50 damage on a failed fortitude save vs the correct creature type, and the greater version is DC 23 for 100 damage.
since human is the pc race that is most frequently chosen
here is the best bane ammunition ever for those vile enough to screw thier players over.
human bane bullets
only 1 playtest class gets this and no others do as a class feature, and nobody else will want to ever spend the feat to use these overpriced useless pieces of equipment. nor will they take that class. because they are heavily afraid of delaying thier progression.
Dealing with high level npc wealth, you can have wealth translated into spells made permanent on their person, one shot items
You can combine encounters with traps to up the CR without giving out more treasure, also environment can play a role.
Either way it is just a guideline, you can give them less gear to use and adjust the CR down instead
Some Other Considerable Items
Here's a short list of some good items that you can include in your NPC gear to keep them competitive without breaking the bank.<list omitted>
Thank you; that's a very nice and thorough list!
I just want to add my own +1 to everything Ashiel said.
Nothing makes magic items seem more unimpressive then having 20 +1 short swords, 20 suits of +1 leather, etc. to sell. As an general rule, if everyone in the party already has something better, I try not to give out a lesser version of the item.
When I equipped a group of drow fighter2/wizard2's, I gave them each a few scrolls of shield, mage armor, and a scroll of dispel magic (CL 5). Each also had a partially used up wand of magic missile (CL 3). They were experts at interrupting casters, and caused far more trouble then their level would indicate.
since human is the pc race that is most frequently chosen
here is the best bane ammunition ever for those vile enough to screw thier players over.
human bane bullets
only 1 playtest class gets this and no others do as a class feature, and nobody else will want to ever spend the feat to use these overpriced useless pieces of equipment. nor will they take that class. because they are heavily afraid of delaying thier progression.
True, but you'd be actively making your NPCs worse. I'm thinking this is a jab at the Paizo Gunslinger playtest; which admittedly is fair since it has had little besides bad reviews. However, I think you'd be decreasing the challenge of the encounter (even with the bane bullets) while awarding more XP. Since Gungslinger is a PC class, it adds to CR pretty quick, and their guns are 1,000 gp minimum in the current ruleset, and they can only attack once per round.
Meanwhile, a CR 2 human warrior can easily have about 6 HD using the monster advancement rules (specific trumps general, so when determining CR I use the Bestiary rules for advancing creatures), which means they can be durable (good HP, fair saves for their CR) while dangerous (they can get up to 3 attacks if archery based, and can apply Deadly Aim for +4). A gunslinger would be much, much worse.
Then again, I'm not really much for trying to spite my PCs. I actually love including consumables because if they overcome the encounter in some unusually clever fashion. Say the wizard casts invisibility on the rogue, the rogue sneaks up on the bad guys, slight of hands their consumables before fighting them, and then the party dispatches or captures their enemies. Not only did they overcome the challenge, but the get a tasty bonus by collecting the items the bad guys would have used. ^-^