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After playing PFS for a while (several lvl 5 characters), I started thinking about the loot I find during the scenario. I LOVE that you can use them during the scenario (get a taste for free), and I like the idea that you can buy the items you find after the adventure.
Perhaps it is just the levels we are playing at. However, I am finding that in general most of the loot we find is what I would call secondary items. When it comes down to it, I'd probably never buy any of it and save my money buying the "must have" magic items.
Now this would be offset in that you can only buy stuff you find, but with all the faction points we have (at lvl 5-6) we can buy things up to 5k. So we can buy ANY of the stuff listed on the chronicle sheets anyways, without ever needing to find it on our sheet. So basically, I never buy anything from the sheets.
Here is what I am thinking. Feel free to tell me why it would be a bad idea, I haven't reached the upper tiers yet.
All the equipment you find on the chronicle loot sheet can be purchased for 75% base price. That way they seem more attractive (it's a deal) and you actually consider taking the risk on a secondary item. Realistically, if the party finds all that stuff and can't use it, they'd sell it all anyhow, but not in PFS. We already can't make our own items so I don't see why this would be a huge deal.
Here are some questions:
1. Does the end gold gained total already take into account the selling of all found items at 50% value? (potions and weapons)
2. If so, then isn't it weird that if you wanted to keep something you find, you have to pay full price for it, even tho you just sold a perfectly good one for only 50%?
So, what do you think? Awesome, broken, am I missing something important?
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My only serious concern here is that, being a 12 level campaign, the wealth curve already falls apart something fierce by the time one reaches the Retirement Arc and those few modules you can play after said arc. I don't have the data, but I know some people have calculated the 'average wealth' of a 12 level character and it is already a bit above the standards listed in core material.
While a 25% reduction on goods sounds nice, the reality is that when you spread this out over ~36 Chronicles pre-Retirement arc I imagine it has begun to have a cumulative impact on PFS's intended wealth curve.
Instituting this rule now would also mean fresh characters starting under it would be significantly wealthier in terms of gear vs. those started prior. This will eventually create a disconnect in modules written with this difference in gear in mind, those that are not, and the impacts it has on characters of both aforementioned origins playing through them.
As for your questions...
1. I know NPCs are strictly limited on the value of their gear based on the APL of the counter/their own CR. I also know that some modules contain more gold once everything is liquidated than you actually get on the Chronicle as a max (I imagine this is intended to avoid forcing players to scour the module, which is hard to do in 4 hours).
2. It is weird, but it is also a function of Society play/working for the Society. Some rules have been adjusted to accommodate the nature of Organize Play. That said, I have only bought items off chronicles a handful of times, due to the much discussed issue of most Chronicle loot already being well within the average Fame of characters playing at a given APL. This is not because I lack incentive to buy them off the sheet, but because by then I already have them if I wanted them in the first place. Having a discount doesn't really help me because I already own it.
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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I haven't come up with an opinion on the proposed solution, but the issue it addresses is an interesting one.
I can't think of anything that my highest level character bought "from a chronicle". For instance, after just two fully-successful scenarios, a character can purchase any of those potions of bull's strength or whatever that litter my chronicle sheets. Thus such potions are only worth having on your first chronicle - but that's the shopping trip where you pick up your masterwork weapon/armor! No one's buying those potions who couldn't do so via fame.
Generally, you're spending all your gold from your first two chronicles and masterwork weapons and armor (always available) and various mundane gear. If you save up, your 3rd and 4th will together get you your first +1 to armor or shield. You might then wait another 2-4 scenarios (depending on subtiers played) to get a +1 to your main weapon or get weapons of different materials. Caster types might instead be buying scrolls (once they have that first 4 fame, they can buy scrolls up to 3rd level) and such. In any case, by the time a character has bought "the basics" and might start to look at the chronicles, he'll find he's got enough fame to buy even cooler stuff than what he's found, so he'll just jump straight to the magic items chapter.
On the rare occasion that something does show up on a chronicle that's beyond the current fame limit, it's also way over budget gold-wise. And by the time you save up for it (if it's even worth getting), your fame will have also increased, very likely high enough to buy it without the chronicle.
There have been only a couple of exceptions, where I saw items I might consider buying:
• Magical ammunition available in discreet units instead of full lots (i.e., four +1 holy arrows, purchased individually)
• Wands with less than fifty charges and/or higher than minimum caster level (i.e., a CL3 wand of magic missile, or a wand of endure elements with only 7 charges on it)
What do these items have in common? You can't normally buy them at all. Perhaps that's the route chronicles should go in the future? Give you things you couldn't get any other way? Because having your seventh chronicle with a cloak of resistance +1 is a little disappointing to a fifth-level character.
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All the equipment you find on the chronicle loot sheet can be purchased for 75% base price. That way they seem more attractive (it's a deal) and you actually consider taking the risk on a secondary item.
I actually like this, because at the moment for my characters i won't buy any items because i'm saving for something else that's more important or i already said item or something better. Also it'd be really neat for all the consumables you find, whopity freaking doo if i find a potion of bulls strength on the cronicle sheet, chances are i'll be saving for something else. if i did want it having it on the chronicle sheet really gives no advantage as it's not any cheaper
1. Does the end gold gained total already take into account the selling of all found items at 50% value? (potions and weapons)
as far as i know, yes that's pretty much how it works.
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Agree 100%. I have never bought anything off my chronicle other that partially charged wands (because those are unavailable elsewhere). Otherwise I just buy the same items in the market. In order to be special, chronicle items need to be a) unique, b) ahead of me on the availability curve, or c) [best choice] cheaper than in the market. I go with "c" because it motivates me to actually buy and us stuff I find. And really, the Society is going to send me out to risk my life and then sell me the loot I found at full price? Especially after buying it for half?!? The Pathfinder Society isn't an archeological guild, it's a Ponze scheme! I definitely agree the offering loot from the chronicle at a discount would be a welcome and logical change.