What do you guys use to decide what items you should have per level?

[INoKnowNames]

The closest thing I've found for general guides to equipping characters based on their level, and really only average equipment, were a pair of charts in the DMG and MIC. Do you guys use anything else special, or just pick out items you want, or what?

What do you do to decide how to stat equipment for your npcs and pcs?

Edit: For Clarification Purposes.

I know -how much money- should be used, depending on the character's level or how much loot is to be gainable. What I have trouble deciding is exactly how much money per level should be spent on what. The planning of the budget, not the budget itself. Figuring out what equipment should be gained.

Like, for example, what would you outfit a standard Weapon Focus Longsword Fighter with at levels 1, 6, 11, 16, and 20. I understand you'd have 150 Gp (average), 13000 gp, 66000 gp, 260000 gp, and 760000 gp at each of those levels respectively to outfit such a fighter. It's figuring out -What- to buy with that money that's the challenge. Harder to make NPCS, and would help me with making my own characters, if I had a slight guide to expected equipment per level, but my google-fu fails on this subject.

And the above was just an example to help illustrate the point.

[Jeff the Green]

For PCs, I buy what I want with a budget of wealth by level (DMG p. 135). For NPCs that are supposed to be an encounter, whatever makes sense worth up to the treasure value for the encounter. For NPCs that aren't supposed to be an encounter, whatever makes sense.

[INoKnowNames]

For PCs, I buy what I want with a budget of wealth by level (DMG p. 135). For NPCs that are supposed to be an encounter, whatever makes sense worth up to the treasure value for the encounter. For NPCs that aren't supposed to be an encounter, whatever makes sense.

I'm aware of -that- chart, but that's not what I was talking about. I'll make sure to edit this clarification into the op post.

I know -how much money- should be used, depending on the character's level or how much loot is to be gainable. What I have trouble deciding is exactly how much money per level should be spent on what. The planning of the budget, not the budget itself. Figuring out what equipment should be gained.

Like, for example, what would you outfit a standard Weapon Focus Longsword Fighter with at levels 1, 6, 11, 16, and 20. I understand you'd have 150 Gp (average), 13000 gp, 66000 gp, 260000 gp, and 760000 gp at each of those levels respectively to outfit such a fighter. It's figuring out -What- to buy with that money that's the challenge. Harder to make NPCS, and would help me with making my own characters, if I had a slight guide to expected equipment per level, but my google-fu fails on this subject.

[ericgrau]

I figured this out before for a simple core fighter build with no special tricks, via excessive time spent programming a computer model. http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8888911&postcount=20

Technically it used a dwarven waraxe and shield, but results for a longsword and shield would be identical. For THF not much changes either, except at high levels a little more can be spent on the weapon. Though with an animated shield you can THF+shield and do better than both at high level.

For NPC fighters you could move up the chart until you reach the reduced wealth. The only problem with that is that NPC AC & saves are largely gear dependent, more so than offense. Plus high level monsters get SR as a balancing factor, but NPCs lack this. You may want to compensate for their vulnerability to all attacks somehow in the build. Make NPCs back liners behind monsters, give the NPC a fix-it cleric at his side, use special abilities that replace defensive stats or provide alternate defenses, etc.

[prufock]

1) Start Here
Necessary Magic Items (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=187851)
Bunko's Bargain Basement (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=350.0)

2) Never spend more than half your wealth on a single item. I'm not sure if that's an official rule, but it's one I implement as DM and one I follow as a player.

3) Buy primary stat boosters as high as I can under the limitations of 2.

4) Get the basics for my class and boost them as much as I can afford (weapons, armor, etc).

5) Get Sovereign Glue and Salve of Slipperiness if I can afford it.

6) Get a Portable Hole and Bag of Holding if I can afford it.

7) Get some low-level wands/scrolls/potions depending on what I can use.

8) Get some silly, fun, or ridiculous items that might come in handy at some point.

[Chronos]

A lot of this comes down to personal style. Some people prefer to pump most of their wealth into making two or three items (weapon, armor, stat booster, maybe) awesome, while others prefer to have a utility belt of a whole bunch of cheap items, one for every situation. It'll also vary considerably from character to character: If you've got Use Magic Device or the Magic domain, for instance, it makes sense to have a bunch of wands, and which specific wands depend on what you plan to do with the character (and again, you have to choose between a few high-level wands and a bunch of utility low-level ones)