So, this question has been ruminating in the back of my mind ever since I first played Rise of the Runelords and got a treasure reward which didn't sum to a multiple of 10. How exactly is treasure determined in an Adventure Path? Is it by author's choice, or is there some sort of guideline that authors follow? For example, do the treasure values follow the wealth-by-level table?
Also, if anybody has any good suggestions on how to do treasure anyway, I'd like to hear them.
Wealth by Level is not any sort of of hard requirement - a party only needs what they need in order to succeed at the tasks presented to them by the campaign, which could be wildly different that what the WBL table has listed.
Adventure Paths hand out treasure following a pretty simple tenant - give the party treasure when it seems like the right thing to do, or when they might actually need those items. That's why you will always run into potions or wands of effects like restoration when in an AP with numerous monsters that damage ability scores, and why a particularly powerful scroll shows up in the Serpent's Skull AP.
My suggestion on how to hand out treasure? If it makes sense for the monster to have carried or guarded treasure, hand out a bit - just watch the players and see if they are exhibiting hoarding behaviors. If the party starts being tight on coin spending, figure out why - are they holding back because they feel they have to save it for when they "really need it", or are they hoarding coin in order to afford a specific purchase?
In the case of feeling they shouldn't spend coin now because they might need it later, give a bit more treasure - in the case of hoarding for specific purchases... figure out what, and decide whether you want that introduced into the game, and then add treasure or ignore it as needed to get your desired result.
Don't let yourself be a slave to a chart - or the belief that a character has any "needed magic items." for any reason other than the campaign/story specifically being designed to require those items.
Sounds pretty good, thanks for the advice!
APs also tend to hand out more than WBL suggests, because they assume the party won't find all of the treasure, or because some of the treasure is consumables or likely candidates for selling.
|
I gotta agree with thenobledrake on this'n; I tend to follow the same model when running games. If an adventure path seems to be a little tight or generous on the treasure, I tend to tweak it a bit to suit the party at hand. Cutting treasure values down, however, has never been a problem for me.
When I'm playing, however, I tend to design my characters with the expectation that the best gear they'll ever get will be masterwork, unless I make a crafty-type character. The other primary GM out of our group is rather stingy with his treasure-availability and adheres pretty strictly to wealth presented in APs.