Let's face it, the average group of wandering monsters has more wealth than some cities. Given that most of said money tends to go toward magical items (either purchasing or creating), I've come up with this suggested solution.
[hr]
Essence Crystals
Essence Crystals are distilled magical energy in a solid form. Each crystals weights one pound and contains an amount of magical energy
depending upon how it was created. Essence crystals are used primary in magic item creation and under certain cirumstances can replace
expensive and/or hard to find material spell components.
Essence Crystals can only be created by a spellcaster and require a DC20 spellcraft skill check. A spellcaster must sacrifice a memorized spell
(or a spell slot if a spontaneous caster) the level of which depends on the crystal to be created. This process requires an hour of
uninterrupted work, any interruption will cause failure and the loss of the spell being sacrificed. Alternately, essence crystals can be
distilled from a recently deceased creature, the process must be started within one minute of the deceased creature's death.
Essence Crystal Stats
Level 1, 100 gp enchantment value, 10 gp sell value
Level 2, 250 gp enchantment value, 40 gp sell value
Level 3, 500 gp enchantment value, 90 gp sell value
Level 5, 1000 gp enchantment value, 250 gp sell value
Level 10, 2500 gp enchantment value, 1000 gp sell value
Essence Crystal Creation
Level 1, 2nd level spell or 1-3 HD creature
Level 2, 3rd level spell or 4-5 HD creature
Level 3, 4th level spell or 6-7 HD creature
Level 5, 5th level spell or 8-10 HD creature
Level 10, 6th level spell 0r 11+ HD creature
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
D+D and Pathfinder are based on on a money conceit which has no relationship to reality, economic models, or common sense, an if you want to blame someone, blame it on the deliberate decision of Gygax to make it so.
instead of dolling out the 2nd XP bar just figure out how to give them their required magical nonsense and remove any of their cost.
I prefer mojo, Ctrl+f mojo it's a fair way down.
this way, adventuring is inherently worth it over say running a kingdom, and trying to gain money is no longer a viable character concept to keep people adventuring.
I didn't realize I posted three copies of the same message. I forgot to put in there that distillation from a creature takes one minute instead of an hour.
I like it.
I don't know if I would use it as a baseline for every campaign, but it is a neat game mechanic that gives a specific feel to magic item crafting. It would work best in a campaign world that compliments it.
Hopefully, what this will do is make treasure once again TREASURE. Not "400 gold...yawn".
like I said, I don't really get it.
I've removed gold -> magic items entirely so that my PCs can be rich a~+*#@%s if they wanted.
Doesnt this fulfill the same purpose as treasure?
Yes. But it removes the need to have each encounter loaded down with gold and other valuables.
I reduced the amount of wealth in my games just by using magic item replacement rules similar to those found in Pathfinder Unchained. Use that, and you can cut the amount of gold that you hand out in half.
|
I really don't see this as a great fix. By making it possible to gain wealth from every enemy, it's almost assuredly going to mean that the players are going to try and get that gold from every enemy. Having it take time, and spell slots is just going to slow down the game, and making this a general rule means that you have to account for treasure in every encounter, instead of being able to hand out one big hoard which is easier to account for.
Also, the math is a little off. Take for example a group of four level 6 adventurers. In order to reach their WBL for 7th level they would need to acquire 7500 each, or 30 000 GP. The only crystals they can make would be level 2, which sell for 40 GP each. In order to reach that they would need to defeat 750 CR 3 creatures. That would also get them 150 000 XP, and bring them to level 10.
So clearly you're going to have to supplement this with other treasure, but then you have the problem of one sort of treasure being readily available, and the other taking time and resources to acquire, which might cause the players to abandon it altogether. Now if you're already accounting for this magic crystal harvesting in WBL you're basically making players go above and beyond for what they should reasonably be earning anyways.
So, you've got a system where if you make it necessary it's going to just slow down the game, and if you make it optional, it might very well be ignored, or worse, still used and slowing down the game while giving the PCs more resources than they needed. And this is all to fix a non problem. You don't need to have treasure in every encounter. You can figure out how much treasure the entire adventure should have, then hand it out whenever you want. So unless you want to build on the essence crystal idea, and make it a central rule of your campaign, like being necessary to upgrade magical items, and requiring certain kinds of essence crystals to get certain kinds of upgrades, like getting a crystal from a fire subtype creature to gain the flaming, or fire resistance abilities, I would likely just forget about it.
so since I guess no one is willing to take the dive to look at personal mojo i'll put it in a spoiler so that it's at least somewhat available.
An unfortunate by-product of this system is the need to track the total value of your items. If that’s too much of a pain for a given group, they can simply accept the two-tiered currency system and hand-wave the rest in terms of bartering and so on, and the game can still work―but it’s more effort for the referee, who in essence is stuck tracking your items for you in order to balance encounters appropriately.
A scroll or potion that is created, found, or purchased, and that is consumed almost immediately (not copied into a spellbook), does not count against your total gear. However, a character who keeps one or more potions or scrolls “on hand” must tally those items against his or her limits.
cliff notes: people based on their level can only power so many magic items, as they advance in level their power may become great enough where mundane items simply become magical, or magical items become more powerful. Also it removes the slot system, so that if for instance you wanted your sword to give you +2 strength and not a belt that's perfectly fine.
You can still find magical items however they can only be used so long as your personal mojo is not exceeded. so leveling up you might gain access to a cool new sword.
Also, the math is a little off. Take for example a group of four level 6 adventurers. In order to reach their WBL for 7th level they would need to acquire 7500 each, or 30 000 GP. The only crystals they can make would be level 2, which sell for 40 GP each. In order to reach that they would need to defeat 750 CR 3 creatures. That would also get them 150 000 XP, and bring them to level 10.
They sell for 40 gps, yes. But they enchant at a value of 250 gps. And there's also the fact that they can create the crystals without having to defeat anything.
At least one DM we play with seems to "make treasure special again" by making big treasures less common. We still get some coins and basic magic gear off enemies, but once in a while we'll find out about a quest which leads to some really big treasure or reward, and most of our WBL tends to come from those. This makes my PC and at least one of the others willing to do risky stuff and work with questionable NPCs in the hope of scoring another big treasure.
@Bandw2 - I've seen suggestions like mojo before. I think a system like that would be most interesting if the DM made an effort to keep actual gold based WBL low. That way it would be tough to buy enough magic items to use up all your mojo, and the PCs might end up relatively broke sometimes so that getting more gold or magic items would be a good inspiration to go adventure even if the amounts of wealth involved aren't constantly skyrocketing.
On the other hand, I also kind of like the idea of PCs being able to invest some resource (maybe mojo instead of gold) to gain permanent bonuses not dependent on equipment. This would be kind of like buying slotless items which can't be lost, and while expensive it might be fun for a PC who doesn't want to be laden down with lots of magic trinkets - say an esoteric warrior-monk or a sorcerer whose power "comes from within".
in my campaign you simply can't buy magic items with gold. they're too rare to be a reasonable price. to craft magic items you need special resources (which i make available after someone tries to get into crafting).
my basic reason for doing it is you can't make Excalibur in pathfinder. A sword that heals and strengthens it's wielder, so i like removing the slot restrictions and allowing you to "buy" stuff with mojo...
this way adventuring is it's own reward, gaining levels literally gives you magic items because your character is just that strong.
Giving up spell slots is a problem. It lets mages turn time and leftovers into astonishing amounts of gold without a check.
I wonder if a fix would be to just give PCs 90% of their WBL for free, and let them trade out their WBL gear each level.
The remaining 10% of WBL would be earned through adventuring or downtime activities, etc., and would primarily be used for consumable items and "prestige" purchases, like ponies and castles and fancy hats and shiny baubles and bard tales.
It's interesting to see the different ideas that others have for wealth distribution. While Essence Crystals are an attempt to make magic item enchantment a little less ... vague, I guess you could say.
Lower level crystals might serve as their own form of pseudo-currency as well as the basis for making cheaper magic items. A level 2 crystal might make 10 Cure Light Wound Potions or a level 1 crystal might buy the party a night's stay at a good inn.