One thing that has bothered me about beginning characters is that many martial characters cannot afford appropriate gear. The beginning gold for a first level character makes most heavy armor and bows with a STR modifier too expensive for a first level character to purchase. By second level this has gone away. The problem is that sometimes you don’t have an opportunity to head back to town to purchase new gear.
I played in a legacy of fire campaign and during the first book you are out of town with no way to get better equipment. I was playing a switch hitting ranger so was stuck with a simple long bow with no STR bonus until after 5th level. The same thing happens with characters that by concept should be using heavy armor, but even chain mail is a stretch for a first level character to afford. Another thing that is annoying is the first level wizard gets his spell book for free instead of having to pay for it, but still gets up to 120 GP for starting wealth. You can use the trait rich parents to get 900 GP as your starting wealth, but that seems to waste of a trait. I also think it is unfair that one character gets a permanent ability and the other basically gets nothing after they have gone on a few adventures.
The two ideas I had where to start everyone with the twice the maximum gold, but require everything to be purchased. Or to give everyone 900 GP as starting equipment but require that 90% of it be spent. I was wondering if anyone else considers this a problem.
I've never had a problem with starting wealth, mechanically it works fine for me. I'm sure everyone at first level would love to have more coin for this or that, but you have to make it work. I rarely play a martial characters, so the gold I often net for equipment is more than enough for my needs.
In the end do what's right for your group, if everyone is in agreement house rule it. I as the arcane spell jockey would never mind for my parties frontline or ranged specialists to be better outfitted, at the end of the day it's my hide that benefits.
It's not just legacy of fire, it happens in other APs as well. In WotR for example you are level 3-4 when you get the chance to shop anything more than 200gp. I am pretty sure that other APs do that as well.
I believe Skulls and Shackles is also notorious for low shopping points in the very beginning.
Some of my players a few campaigns ago complained about this so I began a houserule called "use your skills." Oh, your martial PC begins the game with craft: weaponsmithing? All of your starting weapons were hand built with your skill and the Ultimate Campaign Downtime rules, making them much cheaper.
I figure rather than give them MORE gold I'd rather incentivize them to use the skills they have. If a wizard starts the game with Scribe Scroll for example they could use the Downtime rules, spend 50 GP of their starting gold on earning one Magic Capital and then use that to pay the cost of making 100 GP worth of scrolls. The wizard starts with 8 scrolls, feels cool that they had a practical use of their bonus feat and I didn't have to screw around with starting gold.
Finally I also allow them to use their skills for one another. If they work themselves together as a team before the game starts and one guy has Craft: Leather then anyone in the party that can use leather or studded leather armor can begin the game with a cheaper set right at the beginning. So far I haven't had any complaints though not all my players take advantage either.
Some of my players a few campaigns ago complained about this so I began a houserule called "use your skills." Oh, your martial PC begins the game with craft: weaponsmithing? All of your starting weapons were hand built with your skill and the Ultimate Campaign Downtime rules, making them much cheaper.
I figure rather than give them MORE gold I'd rather incentivize them to use the skills they have. If a wizard starts the game with Scribe Scroll for example they could use the Downtime rules, spend 50 GP of their starting gold on earning one Magic Capital and then use that to pay the cost of making 100 GP worth of scrolls. The wizard starts with 8 scrolls, feels cool that they had a practical use of their bonus feat and I didn't have to screw around with starting gold.
Finally I also allow them to use their skills for one another. If they work themselves together as a team before the game starts and one guy has Craft: Leather then anyone in the party that can use leather or studded leather armor can begin the game with a cheaper set right at the beginning. So far I haven't had any complaints though not all my players take advantage either.
How much time do you give them in downtime? I like the idea, but other than requiring the character have skills in craft this is still just multiplying the starting gold.
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There are traits for getting more starting gold.
As a GM it is completely possible (and probably expected) to nudge some enemy weapons and so forth to be slightly more useful to the party. Part of prepping an adventure.
You can also try to be more clever then simply relying on combat for every solution. Not saying it always works for X situation in Y adventure of course but as a whole the advantage of being in a role-playing game on pen and paper is to go well outside the bounds of what is expected of you. Bribe them. Go all Sun Tzu Art of War on them. Whatever.
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I've always felt that more starting gold can lead to gaining equipment and gear that will make the adventure/campaign/game too easy and/or boring.
I myself am running a homebrew and I made sure my players knew the other players could build and repair equipment. Did it help them much? Kinda. Will it help them make money in the long run? Most likely not.
Another thing to consider is starting gold past 1st lvl, but that is hard to do unless you follow the Starting Wealth by Level table.
In my opinion, starting them with as much as 1000 gp doesn't hurt. It would allow the casters to buy a single wand with a first level spell and the martial characters to get much better weapons.
Then again, I've never really enjoyed stripping a dungeon bare in order to earn another 5 sp.
Starting with full plate may be a bit much, but I can see starting with some sort of heavy armor and decent weapons. It just seems wrong that the starting rogue has a higher AC then the starting paladin. With the way starting gold works now the DEX based characters usually start with maxed out AC, and the heavy armored characters have crap for AC.
The idea of starting with a free masterwork item is something I have seen but never worked well. If you give the item total free you end up with one character starting with masterwork full plate and another getting a masterwork dagger or equally weak item. Also some characters do not get a lot out of a masterwork item. What masterwork item is really going to make a difference to a wizard?
I think that a starting wealth of 775 GP seems to be about right. It allows all characters to start out with appropriate equipment without giving them too much. Most combat focused characters will probably be starting out around AC 18 and have at least one good weapon but still be able to afford a secondary weapon. The extra gold will also allow a rogue to start with some masterwork items like armor and thieves tools. Wizards and sorcerers will be able to start with a wand of some sort.
This might seem a little overpowered, but I prefer to run tough campaigns and I always end up having to baby the characters for at least first level. Since I use a 25pt build for the games I run this should work out well.