I have six players. All with total values of item all over the place.
How do I fix this? One has way more than the others.
Wealth by level is a good guideline, but I would look at the party as a whole and figure out the "average" and see if they are above. Some groups do a need before greed type of split. Sure, the front line fighter may have more in magic gear for his weapon and armor, but the group overall may have decided they want the meat shield to be that much more tough because he is the meat shield.
One good way to check is kinda using the NPC guidelines and see how they split the WBL gear for them. No single item over half the players wealth, with kinda a good split between weapons, armor, etc, page 454 of the CRB. If someone falls outside, way outside of that distributions, there may be a problem. If a player has over half their wealth in a single item, that defiantly shows a bigger problem.
Would need more background on how much more than the others the one player has and what is making those large gaps.
So, the way to fix that is to figure out how it got that way in the first place.
I personally consider loot distribution among team members to be entirely the responsibility of the players themselves.
Unless the group is made up of, or contains, total kleptomaniacs, I can always deliver specific magic items that clearly should go to individual PCs.
If I had players like that I'd stop being a GM or kick out the offenders.
They have been getting treasure but few people missed the division. Either they were gone that time or they didn't write it down. I had left it up to them, but it seems that no one is really tracking it. Then there seems to be a complaint on treaure awards.
Seems the averge gold between three of the players is around 2200 while another as 5400. As to what caused the gap aside from cheating or miswritings I have no idea. Still missing what one player has, but it can't be much he was only been around for about 2 months over 1 level.
How out of line would a hard reset be? Saying that each player takes his stuff and gold then subtracts that from the average wealth of 10,500. Then getting the differance in gold.
I say no hard reset. Just for the next session or two find some way to throw useful items that are very pointedly geared towards the PCs who are underequipped. Give the Monk a Monk's Robe, give the Summoner an Eidolon Harness, throw Pearls of Power and Wands at the Wizard, etc.
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dude if they didnt write it down (or someone is cheating) then it's lost goods.
"I can't remember where I put that wand, wait did we leave it at the inn in that drawer? oh no!"
how many times has that happened when someone is traveling and forgot stuff at a hotel?
they cant' say "i didn't write that down, gimme more stuff"
If you suspect someone of cheating, a pick pocket can fix that.
It is amazing to me how many times on these boards I am reminded that I have somehow always been blessed with the most cooperative and selfless players I could possibly hope for. In all the games I have ever GMed or played in, the biggest problem we have with loot is players not wanting to take stuff that is clearly intended for their character because they feel guilty about it.
I played my druid for the first four levels or so as being completely naive and ignorant about gold and other things. When we found gold coins as loot she would refuse to take any since it was heavy and too soft to make arrowheads out of. So the rest of the party would take the gold and then when we got to town, they'd buy her stuff. Eventually she learned the value of gold and other items, but not for a good while.
We are pretty strict with the "if it's not on your sheet, your character doesn't have it" rule.
Every few levels we tend to do a reset of wealth and those PCs with less wealth will get larger shares until they catch up.
So why no to the reset?
edit - and most are very selflish respectful players I got one bad apple, and I don't think he is a bad apple more over than he is an unlearned apple. Having been playing with bad apples he has learned bad habits.
I suspect that he was writing down group awards as his rewards more than once. Though I wouldn't call this cheating. Its not red handed enough.
Also I don't think they care much about who gets what when. Though I do plan to address them personally tracking it themselves.
The idea that once its given its there concern. If its lost or forgotten oh well.
in every game i have been in i always suggest that the party healer get any and all protective items as possible. usually the rest of the group agrees (btw i am never the party healer). that way the healer usually ends up with a great deal of wealth in our group.
as far as no hard reset, that usually is a qick, easy, and bad fix for games. try to come up with something in game that would solve theproblem and not break continuity or suspension of belief.
there was a 1st edition ad&d module where the players had all of their equipment taken away....twice
Its a good idea, but its serpent skull. That's how they started.
You could give others enough to even them out, or you could take things from the one. The first one usually makes for happier players, the second leaves one person unhappy and everyone else paranoid.
Also, they apparently aren't up to the task of bookkeeping. Maybe you ought to keep track for awhile.
In our group, our GM has a PC to carry general party gold. This keeps the party from wondering where it all is and there is no worry about someone missing a day because He is going to be there every game. :D
As far as loot, we just ended a module last night divided it as needed. Some of it came from the game and some of it he created for the players. For example I really needed that Amulet of the Fists, and we are NOT in a game that runs into monks but there it was. There were things that made more sense for our magus and our wizard as well as the cleric and the inquisitor.
I would say our inquisitor has gotten a lot of treasure that the rest of us simply don't want because he wants to make things for his character.
So we split unevenly but there doesn't seem to be the greed that others seem to have
One last thing, I see the value in the Cleric and I donated 2000gp to him because I knew he could use it would be using it to heal the rest of us later on.
Anybody got any ideas for good items for a blackblade magus? The wizard and fighter I got.
A Necklace of Fireballs.
Because EVERYBODY loves the Necklace of Fireballs.
serpent's skull is a little void of wealth until you get to saventh yhi which is probably the issue you are dealing with ATM.
Depends on what the magus is set up as, if he has wand wielder give him a cool staff with some useful charges.
Gloves of storing? could be used to hold a wand or something.
Ring of spell storing. Elven chain mail?
Lots of wealth in Saventh-Yi?
Thank Irori, treasure!
well i didnt say lots, but it IS the lost city and the point of the whole AP.
You aren't going to find many goodies wandering around the jungle, which, if your going to Saventh Yhi, your already figured this out.
In my experience, if you don't want loot falling through the cracks, one person, usually 2 needs to officially put on the bookkeeper hat. I really hate doing it as the GM, but often you have to. The relatively painless method:
Every time you announce the party gets something, write it down (if someone's really keen on being the party accountant, cool, let them do it, but if they aren't gung-ho, you really have to bite the bullet yourself). Give the players access to that list, have them mark off the stuff they personally take. Selling stuff off? Scratch what they're selling, total it up for them (or, get someone you know is honest to total it up, ideally between sessions).
If you're trying to do this mid-way through a game, you have to start off by auditing everyone. Running a game with religious adherence to wealth by level? No sweat. Total the worth of everyone's stuff, divide by player count, dump/withhold treasure over the next few sessions accordingly.
With an AP, it's trickier. Go through the whole AP to date, list out everything they've received. Go over their sheets, check off what they're using, note the costs of what they've bought. From there you can work out their total cash. It is a dull tedious process, but shouldn't really take more than a couple hours.
And hey, while you're at it, it's good to go over everyone's sheet with a fine-toothed comb every few levels anyway. Make sure nobody forgot about favored class bonuses and bonus spells and doesn't have a wildly inaccurate BAB noted down and such.
One thing I have noticed in my games is, some players take what falls in the loot pool while others just sell everything because they have to have that [optimized enchanted whatever].
"Buying" your gear from the loot pool is essentially buying it for half price (sell value). You can have wildly different values of wealth with PC's who "take what comes" vs. those who want custom gear.