Loot expected to be low?

[serakk]

I have been running this for a bit and after the players were having a lot of difficulties during the Hook Mountain Massacre module with the ogres I calculated how much gold/items they had. At that point they had 85,000 gp worth of equipment split between 5 players at 9th level. A 9th level character should have around 46,000 gp - so the group was short about 145,000 gp.

I decided to fix that discrepancy and raised their item level to inline with their character levels and have kept an eye on the gold they are attaining to make sure they don't fall so far behind again. What I'm wondering is if the module is designed with the expectation that players are going to be low on magic as I'm finding the battles appear to be almost too easy for the players now. They are still having fun so I'm not worried about that but I am curious if other GMs have increased the treasure in the game or left it as is and how it worked out.

[Qakisst Vishtani]

I think it is expected that you will fill in a few side adventures and give some loot from those, and you have a party of 5. The AP is designed for a party of 4 too, which would be throwing the expected WBL but yeah. You're way out of the expected. Did the party skip a few things along the way or discard some things that they could sell?

I know we're classic scavengers in the game I'm in. We pick up everything sell-able. The party even strapped a rope harness to me and

Thistletop:

lowered me down into the bunyip cave looking for loot. I damned near drowned for the wand of shield I found down there.

Maybe your group isn't turning over every rock they find. And maybe you could run them through a few side adventures or have somebody hire them for something easy.

[Skeld]

The earlier chapters are light on loot, while later chapters are heavier. I haven't calculated how light or heavy any particular part of the campaign is, because frankly, I don't feel beholden to WBL.

-Skeld

[Peet]

Yeah, it sounds like they have missed a bunch of things.

If a party buys and uses a lot of consumable stuff, the party wealth will go down.
If the party crafts magic items, the overall wealth goes up as they basically get stuff for half price.

My party has yet to reach the Seven's Sawmill, but they were already in the total 65k range after finishing Thistletop and doing some crafting. WBL would put them at 42k for the whole party at 5th level.

There are also times when the party gets rewarded for things. for example, the Mayor of Magnimar is supposed to give the party 6000 gp each upon completing the Skinsaw Murders.

It seems to me that the treasure is there if the party is taking time to look for it.

However, if the players aren't the type to just loot the bodies every chance they get, then I would give the party more gold in the form of rewards from good guys for completing these quests. The Black Arrows could have some stuff they can reward the party with when the party comes to their aid. That kind of thing.