I think you'd quickly run into problems with how they spend their wealth. Crafting feats suddenly become mandatory for casters and all players are suddenly more incentivized to steal whatever they can from NPCs.
It also removes a good portion of the fun from the game, like looting a dragon's hoard, or receiving payment from the king for slaying a band of giants.
I just don't see how it can work unless you bar them from participating in any sort of economically beneficial activity.
If you've subsumed the impact of crafting into your adjusted WBL chart, and none of the players are concerned about tracking money or collecting treasure, then I don't think you'll have any issues with your system. With consumables, you might have to just give more as treasure or allow scribing scrolls and potion making to be free, but limit it to a certain number.
It does seem like it's a system that would be very specific to your table, though, and I would definitely make an effort to see if anyone is feeling hard done by it. A wizard could start to feel bad (in character or out) if they realize the reward for their equal effort is less than for others.
Also keep an eye out for any players who want to RP a thief, or simply a greedy person, and can't because your system blocks them.
No offense, but this looks the most lazy way to "balance" the classes, and way too much GM fiat.
I think that banning stuff and buff some other are the key to achiev a better balance.
Being lazy is a plus in my book. If the classes end up relatively balanced with each other (admittedly a big IF) with the change in just 1 parameter, I'll take it any day.
No easy way out man. There is no shortcut home...
...I hope you got the reference. :p
Paizo being brave errat'ing whenever the need is the only way I see it, that and in-depth playtesting of new classes (2+ rounds) and stricter controls of archetypes from splatbooks...
Not sure why you weakened barbarian and paladin, they're balanced classes (barbarian is actually abit on the weak side).
Just the Invulnerable Rager archetype gets weakened. Regular barbarians get normal WBL.
Paladins always seemed better to me than the other non-full casters other than summoner. Between Divine Grace, Smites, really good spells, and Lay on Hands, they seem to have no real weaknesses other than their code. The argument that they're only overpowered vs evil seems weak to me. After all, the vast majority of tougher foes that a "typical" adventuring party faces are evil. Realistically, the player will also ask the GM what kind of campaign they're going to be playing before it starts. If the GM says you'll be facing a demonic invasion or undead infestation as the overall theme, that's when a player typically picks Paladin. If the GM says the campaign is about stopping a soulless horde of neutral cold logic robots, the player will probably go with some other class at that point.
The general consensus is that paladin is a balanced class, and I would agree with this. It's not even overpowered vs. evil. It is powerful against undead and fiends though if your Entire campaign is based around them, but even then smite evil only has a limited amount of uses per day.
The general consensus is that paladin is a balanced class, and I would agree with this. It's not even overpowered vs. evil. It is powerful against undead and fiends though if your Entire campaign is based around them, but even then smite evil only has a limited amount of uses per day.Just the Invulnerable Rager archetype gets weakened. Regular barbarians get normal WBL.
Paladins always seemed better to me than the other non-full casters other than summoner. Between Divine Grace, Smites, really good spells, and Lay on Hands, they seem to have no real weaknesses other than their code. The argument that they're only overpowered vs evil seems weak to me. After all, the vast majority of tougher foes that a "typical" adventuring party faces are evil. Realistically, the player will also ask the GM what kind of campaign they're going to be playing before it starts. If the GM says you'll be facing a demonic invasion or undead infestation as the overall theme, that's when a player typically picks Paladin. If the GM says the campaign is about stopping a soulless horde of neutral cold logic robots, the player will probably go with some other class at that point.
At the same time, almost every paladin will blow their smite before even reading the boss to see if he is evil and at mid level range (especially if the boss is a dragon/undead/evil outsider) it will start chunking damage left and right. I would change the time when it has -1 to between levels 5 and 15 since most fighters have their feats synergizing by that point and the rogue probably realized that ranged is the best tactic (if he's still alive) by then.
I gotta say, that is a VERY interesting approach. I like it, I'm excited to see how you develop this!
Tying WBL to class does, in fact, allow Fighters to have class based nice things, especially if they get to re-buy everything ever level.
I like this idea very much. Please post more on this.
Forgive me for the newbie question, but what is WBL?
Wealth by level.
It's a chart where you look at the level of the character, then next to it there is a number. That number is the gold piece value of all the gear/property/goods the character owns.
I tend to put as much of it as possible into adventuring gear (magic armor and such), some people like to build giant castles and towns...
It varies from person to person (how they use it, I mean).
It's not a rule, it's a guideline, but it is pretty good for the game if the GM uses it.