Wealth by level and making new characters.

[Ignominia]

I tried my best to find an answer in the dmg and online but couldn't come up with anything...

So, when determining wealth by level for characters above 1st. Do magic items count as FULL market price? (for example a +1 longsword would cost about 2315) or do they count as what you could SELL them for? (generally 50% of full market value, as per pg 112 of the phb) in the case of our longsword 1157.5

The reason I ask is because of the "Making a new character" rules in the DMG on pg 42. It states that the SALE cost of the magic items be deducted from the WBL for the new character... If the original PC was counting the full market price against his WBL and the NEW character counted the SALE price against his WBL, character 2 would end up with MORE gear than character 1.

HELP!

[Prof.Smythe]

You're buying items at full market price, you're not selling those items. Example:

Blinky the Barbarian sells a magic longsword and gets 1k gold for it. He then decides he wants to buy a magic axe (assume same enhancements/whatever as the sword), but he has to pay 2k gold since he's buying it for the market price.

Or to put it another way its like 2nd hand video games - you can sell that MGS 17 for £10, but you cannot buy it new/used for £10 at that point in time (probably £15-20 or more).

The trick to abuse WBL is crafting - that can reduce the cost of magic items you have because you're only paying the crafting amount of gold. You still however need to supply any special materials, have the relevant feats/skills/spells and have to pay the exp. cost for the items but otherwise its cheaper than buying the items from the store.

[Ignominia]

Thanks for the quick reply!I understand that how buying selling works in general...but my question is a bit more convoluted.

The question is, when the DMG lists 2700 as the WBL for a 3rd level character, does it count his gear as full market price? (what he would have paid for it in a shop, regardless of weather he found it in a dungeon) or would it count his gear at the sale price (or what he could reasonably hope to get for selling it in town)

The reason I ask, is because we had a character die (rogue) and the player wanted to create a new character (cleric) so we were wondering how much $ the rogue had on him when he died and how to translate that to the new character.

[Diarmuid]

The part about sale prices impacting WBL is not really applicable for new characters made above 1st level.

What it's referring to is if your character loots a +1 Heavy Crossbow, but no one wants to use it, and you sell it for half it's value, that half value that you got for the item would contribute to your WBL, not the full value of the item you were going to get zero use from.

[Khedrac]

To answer the original poster's question, Wealth by Level is what it would cost to replace them, not what you can get for selling them off.

[Ignominia]

Ok so heres what I've got.

Cost to Buy / Cost to sell (50%)
boots of striding and springing 5500/2750
glove of storing 10000/5000
Elemental kukri +1 2600/1300
chain shirt +1 1250/625
buckler +1 1165/582.5
cloak of resist +1 1000/500
mw thieves tools 100/50

This is the magical gear a 6th level rogue had in my game. Totall WBL for 6th level is 13,000. If we count the gear as its SALE value its worth 11225, if we count it as its market price its 21615.

So say the next pc that this player makes is a rogue, and is happy just picking up where the last rogue left off, he takes all the gear. Does that mean hes got 21615 gp in wealth? or 11,225?

Conversely, if that player decides to make a cleric, and none of this gear is of use to him, he can sell it for 11,225, then I top him up to 13,000 (as is the goal for wbl at 6th) is he then considered to have less gear?

Have I given this player too much gear for his level in the first place? or not enough?

What value does WBL assume you are using when it says you get 13,000 in gear?

(EDIT) Khedrac: Thank you! That was the answer I was looking for.

[Diarmuid]

Other than your MW Thieves' Tools costing way too much, that gear is equivalent to the purchase price in WBL so a lvl 6 char with all that is over WBL by ~70%.