Enforced WBL multipliers to re-balance tiers?

[Dire_E_Coyote]

With enough magic items, a lower-tiered character class could come up to tier 3 in power and versatility. With fewer magic items, tier 1 or 2 classes won't come down to tier 3, but they will be squishier and less omni-competent, and therefore they'll be happier to keep their tier-3 companions nearby.

So imagine giving each class a wealth-by-level multiplier which limits how many GP worth of magic items the character can use. This WBL multiplier becomes another class feature of each class.

To enforce the adjusted WBL limit, say for example that no character can use a magic item without first performing a ritual to attune to the item. The ritual is so simple even a level-1 commoner can do it, but it takes some time. If characters want to attune to a new item that would put them over the adjusted WBL limit, they must first de-attune to one or more of their other items to stay below the limit.

Justification fluff, if interested:
Say that every creature, including PCs, has a certain amount of "intrinsic" magic depending on their character level (or ECL). Spell-casters use their intrinsic magic to cast spells. Non-casters use their intrinsic magic to perform super-human physical feats. Tier-1 classes use up most of their intrinsic magic to power their class features, and have little left over to attune to magic items. Lower tier classes have more intrinsic magic left over to attune to magic items.

First question: what would be suitable WBL multipliers to bring the tiers into better balance without over-doing it? How about:
Tier 1: standard WBL * 0.3
Tier 2: standard WBL * 0.5
Tier 3: standard WBL * 1
Tier 4: standard WBL * 2.5
Tier 5: standard WBL * 4
Tier 6: standard WBL * 6

Second question: what are some consequences of this rule? For example: Up side: DMs wouldn't need to be so concerned about PCs becoming over-powered if they acquire too many magic items; after all, there is now a limit on how many they can use. Down side: a character couldn't just pick up an opponent's magic item to use against them at a dramatically appropriate moment (although the DM could allow the creation of special single-use magic items that speed up the magic item attunement ritual to a single round). Others?

[Pally din]

How about this problem? The Wizard can MAKE his own magic items, and the Fighter can't. So why would tier 1's make so much stuff that they would not be using? Don't PC crafters first want to make their own stuff, then help the party, then get rich, in that order?

If tier 1's could not use what they could make, then shortly in a real economy they'ed stop making as much, fewer would take the crafting feats, etc. Your multiplier is a metagame wealth redistribution scheme that runs into the problem that the wealth creators can just stop. Who is going to force the wizard to keep churing out items for fighters?

[Morphie]

I think it is not about the money. If you play a Tier 1 character without any optimization you won't really benefit from all the power within. So it all comes down to how you play it. WBL is just a guideline, the actual wealth available depends on the encounters of the adventure, and the party is supposed to work as a group, so why enforce such a change? The KISS principle is supreme.

Just my two cents...

[Pally din]

Also, I can't imagine any party of 6 characters deciding to split the loot 14 ways so that the tier 6 can get 6/14 of it. (I simplified and rounded the math slightly.) While the tier 1 gets less than half a share. What people may be able to USE is one thing, but even if a player can't use his loot for magic, you can bet he'll be buying something and not just handing it over to the other players.

[Nightgaun7]

I think this is much more easily handled by GMs simply giving the party loot oriented towards the classes that need help. Holy Avenger? Not much good to a Wizard. You get the idea.

[Keneth]

You're trying to cure the symptoms and even then you're going about it the wrong way. You can't force WBL on specific players.

[Carth]

How often do you hear people complaining about the power of T1s/T2s, and part of their argument revolves around magic items? Not often, in my experience, so I'm not sure limiting the magic items of T1s/T2s will lead to the results you want.

[Barsoom]

Make magical weapons - but only weapons, not wondrous items, scrolls, wands, etc. - easier to make and obtain. It won't help much, but it's a baby step in the right direction.

[sonofzeal]

I think WBL multipliers would help, in theory. WBLmancy allows a shocking degree of power, so low-tier classes can supplement their weaknesses with items granting mobility, utility, and special defences.

The problem is what to do in the middle of the game. Here's a treasure chest with 10,000gp in it. How do you preserve the WBL multipliers in such a situation?

[Keneth]

WBLmancy allows a shocking degree of power

What kind of power can you divine from WBL exactly? :smallbiggrin:

I wish people would stop abusing the postfix -mancy under the false impression it means control.

[JackRose]

What kind of power can you divine from WBL exactly? :smallbiggrin:

I wish people would stop abusing the postfix -mancy under the false impression it means control.

Quite a bit if you spend all that money on Crystal Balls. :smalltongue:

Or, I guess, Plutomancy, predicting the future by examining patterns in the flow of wealth?

Edit: But I'm afraid that that ship pretty much sailed when Necromancy stopped meaning "getting the dead to tell you things," and started meaning, "Getting the dead to do things for you."

[ZamielVanWeber]

To answer your second question: the biggest consequence of this would be the fact you have to sit there and be an utter tool and WBL whenever your characters are awarded money.

[Jeff the Green]

I wish people would stop abusing the postfix -mancy under the false impression it means control.

Hey, Tolkein did it first.

Words change. Deal with it.

[Keneth]

Words do indeed change, but their true meaning remains constant, or sometimes inverted when their ironic use becomes standard. And summoning the dead, albeit more commonly in order to commune with them, is not beyond the scope of necromancy. Tolkien merely stretched its meaning a bit, which has since been expanded upon, much to the dismay of people who understand the definition. The meaning has not been lost, however, nor has it been replaced in general use, therefore applying it to something unrelated to its actual meaning is still erroneous, and quite silly in no small amount. :smallsmile:

[Gnaeus]

To enforce the adjusted WBL limit, say for example that no character can use a magic item without first performing a ritual to attune to the item. The ritual is so simple even a level-1 commoner can do it, but it takes some time. If characters want to attune to a new item that would put them over the adjusted WBL limit, they must first de-attune to one or more of their other items to stay below the limit.

Justification fluff, if interested:
Say that every creature, including PCs, has a certain amount of "intrinsic" magic depending on their character level (or ECL). Spell-casters use their intrinsic magic to cast spells. Non-casters use their intrinsic magic to perform super-human physical feats. Tier-1 classes use up most of their intrinsic magic to power their class features, and have little left over to attune to magic items. Lower tier classes have more intrinsic magic left over to attune to magic items.

First question: what would be suitable WBL multipliers to bring the tiers into better balance without over-doing it? How about:
Tier 1: standard WBL * 0.3
Tier 2: standard WBL * 0.5
Tier 3: standard WBL * 1
Tier 4: standard WBL * 2.5
Tier 5: standard WBL * 4
Tier 6: standard WBL * 6

Proposed rule will not function as intended. A wizard who can only use 30% of WBL in bound magic items can still use his money.

He can purchase scrolls and scribe them into his spellbook.
He can buy mounts or other pets. Lots of books have rules for this. A Pet Griffon is not a magic item, but it works a lot like one.
He can have spells cast on his behalf.
He can hire minions. He can then give his minions his excess magic items to use on his behalf.
He can burn through WBL with costly spells. Animate dead sounds like one good route.
He can use it to manipulate the world around him. As in,"I think the local duke will look favorably on our request. Seeing as how I just gave him 20,000 gp to fund his last war". Or, "I think that since I just built the new wing to the local cathedral, we can expect some favors from the clergy when the time comes."

[Person_Man]

So I do this via DM fiat in my games all of the time - give weaker/less experienced players more treasure to play with so that they don't feel left out of the game if stronger/more experienced players dominate.

But I personally would not give a standard WBL bonus/penalty based on Tiers though. Plenty of Tier 1-2 builds can suck if the player chooses weak spells or powers. And occasionally low Tier builds can end up dominating combats because they work out a strong melee combo while their allies focus on other non-offensive roles (defense, utility, buffs, etc).

And if you're at all familiar with Blood Bowl, you'll know that there's an entire school of optimization built around trying to get your team value to be as low as possible, so that you get more Inducements (Star Players, buffs, etc). There's a formula for it that I won't get into, but to give an over simplified example, if I have a 1,000,000 team and I'm playing again a 1,500,000 team, I get 500,000 to spend on Inducements. So players will purposefully try and pick teams which offer the best value per team, and not necessarily the best team. This extra level of metagaming is probably not something you'd want to encourage in D&D.

For example, I could play as a Tier 5 (6?) Healer 5/Landforged Walker 5. The Healer would give me a ton of extra gold, the Landforged Walker would give me open ended Plant Shape (Wild Shape, but just Plants) based on my character level, bumping me up to Tier 3. With the right Feats or another prestige class I could probably expand my spell list as well, maybe getting me up to Tier 2. You probably don't want players making character choices based on how much gold they'd get.