Anyone try imaginary WBL?

[danzibr]

From another thread (DeusMortuusEst can say it better than I)

I think that Vael on these boards solved this by giving characters 'imaginary wealth' each time they leveled up. The players pick enchantment and magic items for the value corresponding to the IW and then their characters gain those powers as they level up.

It actually makes characters slightly more powerful, I think. It's in her/his campaign setting, I'll see if I can dig it up later.
I was wondering if anyone had tried such a thing and how it went. It seems really cool to me.

I don't have everything worked out, but I imagine it would behave as follows:

For things like an Amulet of Health +2 you spend the imaginary 2k and get a +2 enhancement bonus to your Con.
It's not as straightforward when it comes to weapons. I guess you would choose a type of weapon (like as with Weapon Focus or the like), then you could spend 2k and from then on any weapon of that type you pick up is +1. This seems to favor melee (ahh, givin' melee some love). I picture this like that one dude in Game of Thrones making his sword burn.
If you want say a +2 shortsword and +1 flaming shortsword you'd do the above process twice, probably designating how you treat the shortsword.
Same thing for armor.
Wizards and the like simply wouldn't be able to make wondrous items or enchant weapons and armor. Scrolls check, potions check, wands check. So yes to consumables, no to otherwise. Probably only gods would make artifacts.

Any experience with this?

[Slipperychicken]

Seems like it would make little difference, since PCs rarely part with their arms or armor anyway.

[Acanous]

Makes Disjunction a lot less useful, but I can see how it could be cool. Just gotta find some way to annotate bonus stacking since it's all imaginary.

[Felandria]

I had to level my character up to 25 and used the WBL to equip her to the gills, bought all the tomes and I still have over a million gold.

And when my players level up, I just tell them to go by the WBL and get whatever they want.

[danzibr]

Seems like it would make little difference, since PCs rarely part with their arms or armor anyway.
Now I'm thinking if they were to like get imprisoned or something getting their original gear back would basically be a non-issue. But right, it's more a cool factor thing than a real game changer.

Makes Disjunction a lot less useful, but I can see how it could be cool. Just gotta find some way to annotate bonus stacking since it's all imaginary.
True. And I'd have to think about AMF. The stuff would probably be suppressed like soulmelds (I think that's the case, at least if transparency is on). The bonuses would still have their original types, so stack/overlap as normal.

I had to level my character up to 25 and used the WBL to equip her to the gills, bought all the tomes and I still have over a million gold.

And when my players level up, I just tell them to go by the WBL and get whatever they want.
Do you ever give regular magic items (I mean not plot stuff) as loot?

But right... I wasn't thinking the tomes and manuals. Those would probably still be around.

[Slipperychicken]

Now I'm thinking if they were to like get imprisoned or something getting their original gear back would basically be a non-issue. But right, it's more a cool factor thing than a real game changer.


I figured this was the intention. It could also encourage them to vary their weapon selection and be far less attached to their equipment, since it matters little which particular weapon they use.


How would you handle armor? "Buying" a +1 Fullplate would grant the benefit whenever any Fullplate is donned?

[TuggyNE]

Makes Disjunction a lot less useful

Honestly, most people seem to find the loot-blasting side too awesome/terrible to use, so it'd probably be a more useful spell in practice, since you can actually nuke your enemies without trashing your (I)WBL.

[danzibr]

I figured this was the intention. It could also encourage them to vary their weapon selection and be far less attached to their equipment, since it matters little which particular weapon they use.


How would you handle armor? "Buying" a +1 Fullplate would grant the benefit whenever any Fullplate is donned?
Right, exactly. They probably wouldn't have to pay the fullplate price twice.

Hmm, it might be better to extend this to just light/medium/heavy armor.