Question about treasure distribution

[Val'bryn2]

Okay, I've been reading through the adventure paths, Society scenarios, etc adding NPCs to Herolab, and I was noticing a recurring theme with the treasure, that it actually doesn't add up to the suggested WBL. One named npc from Return of the Runelords has about 4300 less than the standard, while the final boss has roughly 4k gp more than standard. What do you all think, should some of the treasure from NPCs be redistricted to various troves in the dungeon, or as quest rewards? I don't want to shift the treasure around to other NPCs too much, but I can see where it can be logical, equip a fighter, then use some of the extras to buy goodies for the wizard he's working with, things like that.

[Andostre]

Do you mean that individual NPCs don't have the same WBL values as PCs? (Compare NPC's wealth by level to PC's wealth by level.) That's by design, as NPCs are potentially just another type of encounter. In an AP, I think that the intent is that all of the expected encounters (both published and an expected number of random encounters) when taken as a whole are more in line with the amount of wealth a PC should receive by the end of the AP. It's finicky, I'm sure.

[Val'bryn2]

No, I mean that the 6th level NPC is supposed to have wealth equal to 4650 gp, according to the table in the Creating NPCs chapter of the Core Rulebook, but Jana Gildersleeves of ReotRl has approximately 11600 gp of equipment. And that doesn't increase her CR, despite other NPCs, typically Big Bads, get a boost to CR for having superior equipment

[Kayerloth]

I'd guess that from a design/designer/writer point of view the wealth gained by the end of the adventure is the overall concern. Exactly how that wealth is spread through the adventure is probably less of a concern than the final amount. So to use the above it's the fact that between 6th level dude + Jana roughly 16,000 is gained rather than totals each has towards the grand total of 16,000. And in turn that amount is less critical than what can be gained from all the npcs and other encounters through out the campaign and what the expected gain will be for the adventurers by the end of the campaign. So yes they are going to likely shift wealth around so that earlier encounters probably have lower overall wealth while as the campaign climax approaches (and the final BBEG) some of the overall wealth will be shifted towards the later encounters, in particular, the final boss.

CR and the resulting xp awards likewise needs to reach a certain amount by the adventure end. Lots of 'art' in juggling those numbers so they all fall together at roughly the rate and amounts needed to hit the final targets be it wealth gained or xp by the PCs. It's not like all the 6th level npcs will have exactly 4650gp wealth. Until the npc starts to have wealth near or even above 7th level (approaching 8th perhaps) that they should be getting +1 to their CR probably.