Hi. My players have gained access to the teleport spell, and one of them said they would like to take a trip to Absalom for shopping eventually(when they get to level 13, since the distance from Breachill to Absalom is about 700 miles). The thing is, it has been established time and time again that Absalom is THE city where you'll probably find every item you're looking for. If you look at it levelwise, it's safe to say that if not level 20, Absalom is definitely somewhere above 15. The devs from Extinction Curse themselves said that shopping on that AP is not much of an issue because they assume players will travel to Absalom and get whatever they want.
My point is exactly what the title says. Will my game be severely broken if players are allowed to ocasionally teleport to Absalom for shopping? I mean, they still need to have the money to spend, after all, I'm just worried because city level for shopping has been a major hurdle they had to deal with so far, and I'm not sure it's intended for the adventure to lose that aspect.
Well, it depends how you allow magical items in the campaign, one thing is they will buy and have access to items according to their level, other buying whatever they want...
The thing that could happen is they would not much shopping in the Chapter five...
Also add a spoiler tag in the topic.
Well, it depends how you allow magical items in the campaign, one thing is they will buy and have access to items according to their level, other buying whatever they want...
The thing that could happen is they would not much shopping in the Chapter five...
Also add a spoiler tag in the topic.
I don't think I've spoiled anything in the campaign. There is absolutely no mention of campaign content, except for maybe mentioning that
And about availability, well, I've been playing without issue with "you can buy any common items of the settlement level or lower without even asking me", except for consumables, which get some rolls for quantity if players are looking to buy in bulk(particularly scrolls). It has worked well so far, but it warrants mentioning that the level on the settlements up until book 3 at least are always below the PCs, in very significant leaps on book 3, in particular. So, even though they will always have the limitation of the money, I'm scared of any shenanigans that getting access to buying any common item they can afford on the game may trivialize aspects of future books. I don't THINK it will, but I'd like opinions of more experient DMs, both in general and with the AP specifically.
My opinion is that you could allow them to buy items maximum at their own of level.
If you allow them to buy any common item without regard to pc level that could disrupt the campaign.
I am now in Book five,Pcs achieved 16th level in our last session ( today).
And yes, the teleport wording would make it near impossible for your Pcs to get to Absalom.
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city level for shopping has been a major hurdle they had to deal with so far
There's definitely a problem with this in the campaign, particularly in the middle section.
Book 1, levels 1-4, level 4 settlement. Solid.
Book 2, levels 5-8, a settlement that explicitly does not trade, sell or have a gold-based economy. However, there's 5 +1 armors in book 1, so PCs aren't hindered on their plustas by this.
Book 3, levels 9-11, level 7 settlement. Here we run into problems, because that takes purchasing Resilient runes off the table, and there aren't enough given in treasure. Personally, I bumped Kintargo to an 8 to correct for this.
Book 4, levels 12-14, a mere level 5 settlement EXCEPT for what I missed the first 3 times I read the adventure, that it's a level 5 city that sells up to level 8, and weapons/armor up to 12. Which is just a weird arrangement. But, that covers the +2 weapons and armor and greater striking needs. Greater resilient lags slightly behind, but at the adventure's conclusion, you can buy weapons/armor up to 15 here.
Between the level 15 smith at level 15, and the "nearly anything can be found in the grand markets of Kintargo" setup, things go more smoothly in the last 2 books. This would also be when you could plausibly travel/teleport back from Absalom.
Obviously, a lot of this can be credited to the ruleset and adventure being written at the same time, and there may have been issues with the expectations. I think the intent is largely to have PCs generally find their needed things adventuring, while shopping is mostly in cities that lag a couple levels behind the PCs and exist to back-fill holes in their gear. Unfortunately, AOA does that and then doesn't provide enough of some staple items that the math of the game is based around. It's nothing a GM can't fix, you just need to be aware it's an issue.
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city level for shopping has been a major hurdle they had to deal with so farThere's definitely a problem with this in the campaign, particularly in the middle section.
** spoiler omitted **
Obviously, a lot of this can be credited to the ruleset and adventure being written at the same time, and there may have been issues with the expectations. I think the intent is largely to have PCs generally find their needed things adventuring, while shopping is mostly in cities that lag a couple levels behind the PCs and exist to back-fill holes in their gear. Unfortunately, AOA does that and then doesn't provide enough of some staple items that the math of the game is based around. It's nothing a GM can't fix, you just need to be aware it's an issue.
Crafters can help, otherwise I rule hunting down an item as a a downtime activity if you have either the Experienced Smuggler skill feat or Bargain hunter skill feat.
I then make Hunting down an item a 4 day downtime activity (could be more for higher rarity item like uncommon or rare) with a DC equal to the item's level and rarity. Failure means you don't find anything but can try again, crit failure shuts down the market on this item, success allows you to purchase and you can bargain as per crafting rules (cost diminished as per your level and proficiency) crit success same as crafting rule.
So far it works!