Hi,
I'm GMing a campaign and we're halfway through the second module, Mask of the Living God. I was prepping for the second and final session of this module and adding up some treasure and I really felt it comes up pretty short on the amount of treasure they should have. Then I looked at the suggested PCs for the third module (City of Golden Death) and noticed a massive amount of treasure on those characters. While my guys are struggling to find enough +1 items to give one to each melee in the group (group of 4) the suggested module PCs have a fighter with more +2 items than he can have equipped at once.
Are the PCs normally this underequipped vs suggested PCs? How do you handle this?
Hi,
I'm GMing a campaign and we're halfway through the second module, Mask of the Living God. I was prepping for the second and final session of this module and adding up some treasure and I really felt it comes up pretty short on the amount of treasure they should have. Then I looked at the suggested PCs for the third module (City of Golden Death) and noticed a massive amount of treasure on those characters. While my guys are struggling to find enough +1 items to give one to each melee in the group (group of 4) the suggested module PCs have a fighter with more +2 items than he can have equipped at once.
Are the PCs normally this underequipped vs suggested PCs? How do you handle this?
There's no right answer for this, or rather, the right answer is "if it's working for your table, do it."
The WBL table is not a rule,, it's a suggestion for GMs. I personally throw it out the window. I've heard that many players pore over it and complain vehemently if their WBL doesn't match the table, even though I've never run across such a thing.
If your table is having fun with the wealth they've got, then you have no problem. On the other hand, if they are having trouble or just aren't having fun, then perhaps there is a problem.
And, even if there is a problem, throwing magic at them like candy at a parade is not the only answer. I's suggest rather than suddenly having hoards of magic show up, why not just decrease the challenge of the opponents a bit? Instead of 4 trolls, make it three. Drop the caster level of an opposing mage. Stuff like that can make it better fit the party without showering them with treasure.
Of course, that's just my two cents. I like low-magic (as in low magic item quantity) campaigns; I always have. And since I am usually the one running them and the onus is on me to make such a thing work, I think it's a reasonable tradeoff.