"Instead of just giving you treasure, here's 20,000 gold pieces"
I think this has been an overall problem in 3e to some extent. By finally providing actual item creation rules the players are implicitly encouraged to produce the equipment they need, especially when you consider the interplay of feats.
How many times have we heard variants of "that's a wicked cool magical spear but all of my feats are in bastard sword. How much can I get for it" quickly followed by "who can I get to further enchant my bastard sword". :)
I think it falls to the DM to counteract that a little bit. If you've got a high level rogue in the party, put in some treasure specifically for him. If your big fighter uses a bastard sword, but the enemy is using a wicked cool spear, change it to a bastard sword. :)
I'm not faulting the DM (certainly not OUR dm, because I like treasure and don't like dying. :) ). I've been known to use random treasure generators, too. But throwing in a personalized item here and there really helps to keep it feeling like .... well, treasure!
But you also have to have the right group. For years we had a player who just won every treasure roll he made. It was infuriating, and 'specialty' items for players almost never went to the correct player. And there was another who argued for every concession and extra share of treasure he could. Well, several like that, actually. :)
So an easily divisible sum of gold works much better in THOSE circumstances. But if everyone is pretty agreeable, I think it works best to put in specially tailored items.
Thu, 08/14/2008 - 10:46pm
"Instead of just giving you treasure, here's 20,000 gold pieces"
I think this has been an overall problem in 3e to some extent. By finally providing actual item creation rules the players are implicitly encouraged to produce the equipment they need, especially when you consider the interplay of feats.
How many times have we heard variants of "that's a wicked cool magical spear but all of my feats are in bastard sword. How much can I get for it" quickly followed by "who can I get to further enchant my bastard sword". :)
I think it falls to the DM to counteract that a little bit. If you've got a high level rogue in the party, put in some treasure specifically for him. If your big fighter uses a bastard sword, but the enemy is using a wicked cool spear, change it to a bastard sword. :)
I'm not faulting the DM (certainly not OUR dm, because I like treasure and don't like dying. :) ). I've been known to use random treasure generators, too. But throwing in a personalized item here and there really helps to keep it feeling like .... well, treasure!
But you also have to have the right group. For years we had a player who just won every treasure roll he made. It was infuriating, and 'specialty' items for players almost never went to the correct player. And there was another who argued for every concession and extra share of treasure he could. Well, several like that, actually. :)
So an easily divisible sum of gold works much better in THOSE circumstances. But if everyone is pretty agreeable, I think it works best to put in specially tailored items.
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