Hi!
I'm prepping the Hargulka encounter for next session and I noticed his weapon is a level 11 weapon due to the darkwood precious material it's crafted with. Rules as written that weapon is worth like 2000 gold, and can be sold for around 1,000. Assuming the players could actually sell it. (Restov is probably a high enough level settlement and has enough high level large creatures in the area to have at least a chance of being able to sell it) that's a huge amount of wealth for a 5th level party.
I assume the intent is that the players would not be able to sell it for it's value and would use it for the runes / materials? How are other GMs handling this? Just not allowing players to find a buyer for it?
The lonely Barrow has a similar situation with The Lonely Warriors +1 Cold Iron Flaming bastard sword. 555 GP 8th level item from a dungeon designed for a 3rd level party.
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The lonely Barrow has a similar situation with The Lonely Warriors +1 Cold Iron Flaming bastard sword. 555 GP 8th level item from a dungeon designed for a 3rd level party.
That's not QUITE as outlandish, and is in fact intentional. Cold iron weapons are useful, and that location is not one you HAVE to go to... but is also one where there's supposed to be a big treasure. Sometimes we'll put in an item that hits above its weight for the level it shows up at.
And honestly, Hargulka's encounter can kinda be the same thing. He's a big boss and having a big expensive treasure to go along with him isn't a terrible thing.
Treasure that actually FEELS like treasure and not just what a player expected to find for the strength of the encounter and their level is a good thing now and then.
You as the GM should keep an eye on the PCs' wealth regardless and make sure it's at a level your table enjoys, which doesn't have to be the baseline listed in the rules, to be fair.
The lonely Barrow has a similar situation with The Lonely Warriors +1 Cold Iron Flaming bastard sword. 555 GP 8th level item from a dungeon designed for a 3rd level party.That's not QUITE as outlandish, and is in fact intentional. Cold iron weapons are useful, and that location is not one you HAVE to go to... but is also one where there's supposed to be a big treasure. Sometimes we'll put in an item that hits above its weight for the level it shows up at.
And honestly, Hargulka's encounter can kinda be the same thing. He's a big boss and having a big expensive treasure to go along with him isn't a terrible thing.
Treasure that actually FEELS like treasure and not just what a player expected to find for the strength of the encounter and their level is a good thing now and then.
You as the GM should keep an eye on the PCs' wealth regardless and make sure it's at a level your table enjoys, which doesn't have to be the baseline listed in the rules, to be fair.
We just did the lonely warriors encounter and getting that weapon was super cool. Course we misidentified it initially and thought it was cursed lol. But it definitely felt impactful and it was something folks got excited about.
Long as you're not breaking the loot curve, exploration sometimes giving you a very nice find like this feels great as a player.
Yah I agree was just pointing out a similar situation.
I did make the party have to repair it which took a few attempts with two pc's working together. But it certainly isn't unbalanced the party found it at 4th and are currently 5th so all the martials already have +1 striking and potency weapons.
This is likely a strange error that crept in after the value of darkwood jumped between editions that went unnoticed/got missed during development. My suggestion is to make his weapon a normal weapon instead of a darkwood one.
That's what I think I'm going to do. Even without the Darkwood, I think it's still an 8th level item and will be the first property rune the party encounters, so I still think it's got that cool factor. Thanks for the tip.