High-Fantasy WBL

[Milo v3]

In the WBL sections for both PC's and NPC's it says that in a high-fantasy setting, the expected wealth of a character might be raised to be up to double what is listed on the chart. Wouldn't this cause the numbers to increase ridiculously and make things near effortless, or would the increase to enemies effective WBL counter that?

[Psyren]

WBL has nothing to do with difficulty or challenge. You can make both low- and high-magic games a breeze, crushingly difficult, or anything in between. In very general terms, more wealth just means a party can handle a bigger challenge than a party with less wealth - it doesn't mean they can't be challenged at all.

Note also that the monetary value of treasure does not have to be related to its actual value. Some very expensive items have very situational uses. For example, you could give a party in an all-undead campaign a Mirror of Life Trapping for instance, with no way to sell or trade it, and it would still count against their WBL.

[Abd al-Azrad]

Wealth can indeed radically change the challenge posed by a given threat. More than just having some extra pluses on your sword, a high WBL will mean your party has the option to pick up broad defensive items much earlier than others.

For instance, at around 42,000 gp, a Ring of Inner Fortitude is a fairly costly investment with situational applications. If you're in an undead-heavy campaign, you may be able to pick one up fairly early by making it a priority. But for most games, players will prioritize the basics: weapon, armor, stat boosts, saving throws. A couple Greater Shadows or Wraiths, against an unprepared party, can do considerable damage and cause significant casualties.

Your high WBL players will have more opportunities to invest in situational useful items, like the Inner Fortitude ring, or a Ring of Freedom of Movement, much earlier than average. I imagine the overall impact on your game would be similar to allowing Mythic options - your party won't necessarily be overpowered to the point of boredom, but they will be able to respond to a wider range of threats. They won't likely be blindsided by tricky encounters. As such, you as the DM will be freer to engage your players with more and broader encounters, so they'll be able to defeat more opponents at a time, gain XP and levels faster, and reach the end of your campaign with less grinding time.

[OldTrees1]

WBL is maintained by the treasure gained from encounters. If you are using 2x WBL then the encounters end up with 2x treasure which translates into 2x gear. This should at least partially mitigate the increased power. The law of decreasing returns should mitigate most of the rest of the increase.

[Abd al-Azrad]

I do wish to point out that wealth, like all forms of resources in the game system, gives your players opportunities for power. What they do with that power matters, and the more power you offer them, the greater chance for them to either mess it up or do something absurd.

The game system is not designed with the highest levels of optimization in mind. Less experienced players may well need the boost before they can feel appropriately high-fantasy. The general thought behind "high fantasy," in my mind, is that nothing can touch your heroes without being a devastatingly dangerous threat. You're not really supposed to be worried about roadside bandits or wandering Displacer Beasts. Your foes are the Bandit King, or wandering dragons (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vh93Ch1-dQ).

[Ssalarn]

In the WBL sections for both PC's and NPC's it says that in a high-fantasy setting, the expected wealth of a character might be raised to be up to double what is listed on the chart. Wouldn't this cause the numbers to increase ridiculously and make things near effortless, or would the increase to enemies effective WBL counter that?

Assuming you also raised NPC WBL by the same factor, it would all basically balance out. NPCs would now have character WBL, which would actually probably mean encounters are somewhat more difficult. There's a point where additional wealth is just adding "fun" options without notably increasing actual power, so depending on your level that boosted wealth could mean the enemy is now rocking the same basic gear as the party, but just lacks the portable adamantine tower and bag of near infinite consumables.