tactics for WBL vs consumables (includes personal experience and a wall of text)

[dps_kane]

Hi there,

I'd like to open up some discussion about the topic up there. I know it's a recurring topic, but still, I have 2 ideas I'd like to present and would like to hear your opinion about it.


My group's situation

I run a group of adventurers and they all very parsimonious. I am not sure they know about WBL, but they are careful with their spendings. Which, in some sense, I find great, because that's how I'd do it as a PC (separating player knowledge from character knowledge). On the other hand we agreed at some point that I change all found treasure as I see fit, simply because they are in a long campaign (city of the spider queen), where they are unable to carry all found armors, weapons, gems, valuables, gold coins, ... (even with bags of holdings, which they have) and bring them to the market for selling and to buy stuff they want.
Due to that I mainly orient myself by the WBL table and how much power each character seems to have in the group (handing out more useful stuff to less powerful chars).

Dealing with spell components => turn them into focuses?

Since they only bought consumables last time they thought are really necessary for life saving and now the party warmage (yes.... we have a warmage) learnt a new spell with a hefty spell component (circle of death, 500gp black pearl), I wonder how to deal with that. ATM I can just give components to him as I see fit, so he has to ration how often he uses the spell (which is not really that strong), but I was wondering whether one could come up with a house rule for replacing costly spell components with even more costly focuses.

Of course, that actually depends on the spell, I guess, and some should keep their components, but for many standard spells I think replacing the component with a focus makes it just easier to make the spell accessible to players, while at the same time not having to worry the players buy the component 50 times at the next market, knowing that it does not count against WBL, OR continuing avoiding to use up spell components in case I *would* count those things against WBL - as a player character, using character knowledge (vs player knowledge) I would only invest in consumables that I don't plan to use often, that are necessary for staying alive in certain situations etc.
stoneskin with 250gp component? no thank you, I'd not prepare the spell. I might have ONE scroll plus the component, for desperate situations. Improved Mage Armor with 100gp - that's not much gold, but the spell is a buff to have ahead of any encounter, so it would have to be cast every day during adventuring....
Identify, most famous one. No one in our group can actually cast identify. There is a skill trick, and, much cheaper, an item in the MIC for 1500gp that basically lets you identify for free using lvl 0 spells (Artificer's Monocle - also usable by non-artificers).

So I was thinking - the MIC item costs 15x as much as the component of the most used spell (with a costly spell component) of the game and then even makes identifying easier (since a lvl 0 spell is better to waste than a lvl 1 spell). Maybe one could simply change a spell component into a costly focus. If the spell component of identify can be replaced by a 1500gp item, then my thinking is that any such component-focus transformation should not cost more than a factor of 15, though that probably depends on the spell.
But I honestly think that if a wizard gets a focus worth 2500gp, he should be allowed to cast stone skin without any cost - the focus counts against his WBL. Same for circle of death - 10x the price of the spell component is a lot, for a spell that actually often is not that strong.

My suggestion: Most spells with a costly component can use a focus instead which costs 10 times the component and counts against the WBL. Such a focus is usable 1/day. For a factor of 15, the spell can be used once per encounter instead.


Fading of consumables' value in the WBL

This is another idea that might work. E.g., Bork the berserker of lvl 10 should have items in his possession of roughly 49.000gp. Let him make his choices basically freely, arrange things so he can get that stuff. Now, maybe you want to encourage the spending of money on consumables, but not have him (or her) overdo it. The idea is that you let him keep track at which level X some consumable ABC has been used and then let the value of those items degrade over time.
So assume he buys permanent items for 40.000, consumables for 7.000 and keeps 2.000gp just in case.

Let's say he uses consumables worth 2000 at lvl 10, consumables worth 2000 at lvl 11, and at lvl 12 (where he spends another 1.000) he gets the chance to go to the market again. You don't want the hero to bleed for those consumables for all his career, but since consumables are often valuable choices if they *don't* count against WBL, take a middle ground:
Every consumable consumed at the current level fully count against WBL. Every consumable consumed one level ago counts say 1/2 its value against WBL and 2 levels ago 1/4 and stuff that happened before is completely out of the equation.

In our example, any consumables used before lvl 10 don't count against his WBL, but let's assume this is the first time he bought such things. The consumables at lvl 10 were 2000, they still have an impact of 500gp on his current WBL, the consumables at lvl 11 have an impact of 1.000 and the recently consumed things have their full impact of 1.000.
So, Bork has 40.000 value in permanent items, still has 2.000gp and 2.000 remaining consumable items, and 2.500gp in intangible "ghost items), totalling to 46.500gp, so he should be able to sell all the loot he got on his last adventure for about 41.500gp.

How do you guys like that idea? Needs again some track keeping.


Other ideas?

Let me hear how you guys handle it :)

[Seward]

I've done a fair amount of Organized Play (sort of massively multiplayer tabletop gaming, Living Greyhawk and Pathfinder Society).

In Living Greyhawk, any cash you spent was gone forever, so most folks were pretty careful with consumables until they seem "cheap" compared to the amount of money you earn on a typical adventure. If you used a lot of consumables you'd have less absolute wealth than your buddy who never used them, unless of course he died because he didn't have that potion of CSW in his pocket at a critical moment.

In Pathfinder society the level cap is lower, so consumables as a whole always feel like they have a noticable price tag, but they introduced a "Prestige" mechanic. Basically when you do good things on adventures, you earn favors from the Society that can be cashed in once an adventure for items 750gp or less (which covers L1 wands, L3 potions and L4 scrolls. You can also do a 2-pack of L3 scrolls or a 5-pack of L2 scrolls, or use these favor points for the more inexpensive elixirs or items like snapleafs). This can also be used for something like a 500gp spell component, but that is rarely done - most folks just keep a cash reserve, prepurchase such items and track them if they really intend to use a high cost spell (stoneskin and restoration are the most common in my experience).

What this does is move most of the consumables more expensive than 25-50gp for a 1st level potion or scroll or cheap alchemical like acid flask or tanglefoot bag off of wealth by level and into the "prestige" economy.

You'll earn enough for 1 purchase if your adventure goes perfectly, or half a purchase if you basically succeeded but failed at secondary missions. This means you can do things like get your natural armor bonus from 5-pack scrolls of barkskin on any part of a mission where you can buff 30 minutes in advance, as long as you only do that 1-2 times an adventure. You can buy a potion of fly as a melee, because while you will only need to use it once in several levels, but when you need it you REALLY need it, and you can likely restock it after the adventure, or maybe the next one if you don't have any prestige saved.

Now because this prestige pool can be used for body recoveries, raising the dead and retraining and vanities like buying a noble estate (all of which are considerably more expensive than the 2 prestige used for purchases), not every character uses all or even most of their prestige for consumables. Some characters are less dependent on consumables, or less able to use them. But having a "second economy" based on favors rather than cash for stuff that is intended to be "used up" or outside of normal wealth-by-level guidelines (like owning your own sailing ship or caravan) is a useful mechanic.

Some examples:

Living Greyhawk consumable use (all consumables counted strictly against wealth by level)

My and my wife's primary casters tended to use low level scrolls to effectively increase spell slots. Wands were very rare except for Wands of Cure Light Wounds, which every adventurer owned and replaced as needed. The occasional big ticket scroll or potion was usually an "oh crap" option, like a scroll of dim door on a sorcerer or a potion of fly for a monk. More commonly used spells for non-casters were usually gained via items (my monk had a helmet that gave him cure critical wounds 1/day, etc).

Partial casters like rangers, paladins, arcane archers and whatnot had a few key scrolls to support whatever they did and made up for small # of spell slots, but pearls of power when allowed were generally preferred. My arcane archer with one level of wizard, for example, had scrolls of obscuring mist, benign transposition and a few utility things like comprehend languages, preserving his spells slots for swift action spells that boosted his archery, such as Guided Shot.

Noncasters would upgrade their potion of healing to something level-appropriate and would often have a few emergency potions for specific problems. (my archer had a potion of lesser restoration primarily for undoing ray of enfeeblement, and remove blindness for obvious reasons and not much else. He managed lesser strength weakening effects such as fatigue by just carrying a lower strength backup bow)

Pathfinder Society consumable use (prestige buys 750gp/less 1/adventure)
There are 3 adventures per level (you can slow down to 6/level, but earn prestige at half the rate)

Nearly every adventurer has either a wand of cure light wounds or infernal healing (a L1 arcane fast healing spell) as soon as they can scrape together 2 prestige. Most martial characters get a potion of cure serious wounds, melees a potion of fly fairly early. Primary casters will often get a 5-pack of a useful L2 spell to bridge the gap when they have very few L2 spell slots (or none for something like a 3rd level sorcerer). Most casters will have a few scrolls of stuff they care about, and in low levels a few more to supplement spell slots. It is fairly common for any caster, even a tiny splash like a 1 level dip into ranger, to accumulate wands of anything they might use frequently. It is not unusual for people to have wands or scrolls they can't use, or can barely fizzle-cast with a few points of Use Magic Device, hoping that their party will have a proper caster most of the time who can actually use it to help them.

As characters level, 5-pack scrolls of lesser restoration and some of the less expensive unslotted consumable magic items start to turn up (elixirs of +10 to various skills, snapleaf which is an emergency swift-invisible or feather fall, some feather tokens, etc)

That said, some people refuse to spend prestige at all unless they have enough for a full Raise Dead. (that takes a VERY long time, something like 1/3 their entire career).

My own characters have had some quirks as well....
Seward (Oracle, spont-casting divine caster) acquired an item that let him treat any scroll he carried as a spell known 1/day at level 7. His scroll-purchasing skyrocketed after that item was acquired.

Pena (halfling tank who thinks she's a paladin) has an oddball mix of class levels (bard, cleric and a bit of UMD) acquired several wands - a couple longterm buffs, a wand of shield to recharge a spell storing item she has to actually CAST the shield when she needs it, and some other wands with very short term buffs that she'll cast before kicking down doors. Plus one wand she uses like a crossbow (produce flame - her cleric domain is fire). She has quickdraw, so wands are much more convenient for her than scrolls.

Rufina (pure wizard who thinks she's an arcane archer) has almost no consumables, although she has spent a lot of prestige on enhancing her spellbook (buying scrolls and scribing them, using leftovers from 5-pack L2 and 2-pack L3 to enhance her low level spell slots). Her problem is any time she encounters a situation where she'd want a scroll, she'd rather put it in her spellbook and try to fit it into a spell slot. This is a consequence of a bonded object (letting her pull 1 spell she has in spellbook even unprepared) and Greater Spell Specialization (letting her spont cast her favorite spell, using up any bad prep choices).

Bangoldir (another Oracle) has the Haunted curse, so he can't draw a scroll or wand with less than a standard action. This means his small number of consumables are entirely out-of-combat things, except for one scroll of invisibility purge, which he bought because his player thought it lasted 10 minutes/level instead of minute-level and he's stuck with it. Although it came in handy in the end...

Louis (a bare-chested dragon disciple fist-fighter) uses all of his prestige on L1 wands and L2 scrolls, getting a lot of mileage out of his single sorcerer level. The scrolls are all for long term buffs, preparing for tomb-raiding or similar (eg, false life, see invisible), the wands are short-term - he marches through combat situations with a wand of magic fang in one hand, a wand of shield in the other and burns off a charge in each either every 8ish rounds or just after a room's been searched and we're about to open another door. His burn rate on consumables is carefully tracked and yes, he's less effective if caught unbuffed but his raw class abilities are actually well suited to ambush-reaction scenarios and social/city adventures than high intensity combat so it works out pretty well. He has some L3 long duration buffs on 2-pack scrolls for when he's "playing up" - intended to make him more survivable when he's under-leveled compared to the rest of the party. He is also someone who will spend real cash, not just prestige, on wands with very few charges with "oh crap" spells because he lacks UMD and his spellcasting attribute is only 12, so scrolls of L3+ spells require either somebody else to help or burning a 150gp scroll of eagle splendor.

Sulchen (a core only, pure fighter-based archer) after getting his basic wand of clw, potion of CSW and remove blindness uses his prestige to provide other spellcasters with spells that undo bad effects on him. (wand of remove fear, scroll of remove paralysis, etc) He's often a lot of the offense for the entire party, so a medic-support or generalist caster will often feel it is worthwhile to cancel a condition that is keeping him out of the fight. He has relatively little use for most other consumables, although at some point he'll likely get acquire some stuff for use when he feels he's entering sustained combat outside of his weight level (eg, scroll of heroism, circle of prot evil, flame arrow). Those are expensive enough in prestige that unlike Louis, he can't make a habit of it, but are nice if he's the low-level person in the party, rather than firmly in-tier or playing "down".

[Zaq]

I don't like the idea that consumables count variably against WBL depending on when they were purchased relative to when they were used. One, it makes bookkeeping a nightmare, and two, it encourages hoarding of consumables. In my personal experience (anecdotes ahoy), players are generally unwilling to use consumables at all, except for maybe the occasional healstick (wand of Lesser Vigor/CLW). Part of it might be fear of running out or of not having the consumable "when you need it most," part of it might be a fear of "losing" the value of the item compared to a permanent item, part of it might be that consumables tend to be less efficient than other methods of getting similar effects (scrolls/wands/potions have minimum CL and minimum save DCs, for example), and part of it might just be the fact that the people I tend to game with don't tend to keep consumables at the forefront of their consciousness (meaning they don't think about them to use them). But the point is that trying to convince the people in my experience to use consumables is difficult to begin with, but then if you include an explicit mechanic that penalizes you for using consumables quickly and rewards you for using them slowly, it's going to become basically impossible to convince people to use them.

If I may go a little deeper into that, if you want to encourage consumable use, you might think about buffing them, since as-written consumables do have some downsides. Like I said, potions/scrolls/wands use minimum CL, so they're not very good for any spell that relies heavily on CL. Sure, there are some spells for which that isn't important, but it definitely makes certain spells way less likely to be useful consumables. Whether this is good or bad is up to the discretion of the individual GM or individual group, but it is a thing.

As far as expensive components go, that really depends on what you (as the GM) want out of the mechanic. Do you want expensive components to serve as a specific limiting factor limiting how often each specific spell can be cast (e.g., not only do you have to spend 500 gp a pop on your black pearls for Circle of Death, but you also have to buy one black pearl in advance for each time you want to cast it, so you're limited not only by how many times you can spend the gold but also by how many times you prepared in advance to cast that one spell)? Do you want expensive components to represent a specific percentage of the caster's (or the party's) WBL allotment? Do you want it to serve as a soft brake on how often the PCs spam expensive spells (making them think twice about casting expensive spells compared to spells without expensive components) without actually making gameplay significantly slower?

I mean, the last time I played a caster with access to more than one or two spells that had an expensive component, the GM let me just set aside a portion of my gold as "components." I could set aside, say, 3,000 gp of components (just making up the numbers here), and then when I cast a spell that had an expensive component, I would just deduct the cost from my bank of components. I wouldn't have to specify that I had four sets of Stoneskin components worth 250 gp each and three Circle of Death components worth 500 gp each; I'd just say that I had 3,000 gp of components, and if I cast Stoneskin, I'd mark off 250 (2,750 remaining), and then if I cast Circle of Death, I'd mark off 500 more (2,250 remaining). Would this work for every game? Of course not. Some GMs want the players to have to keep track of exactly how many Circle of Death-appropriate black pearls they have, and if that makes the game more fun for them, then by all means, go for it. For the group I was playing with at the time, it wasn't fun to get really picky with the bookkeeping, and I wasn't planning on abusing the privilege, so we just abstracted it, and it worked. It made me think twice before spamming expensive spells (those components did come out of my gold stock, and I did have to set it aside when I was in town or otherwise had the chance to buy stuff), but it also meant that I had the option of doing so without needing to say "damn, I didn't buy any mushroom-saffron ointment the last time we were in town, so I can't even try to prepare True Seeing tomorrow." It made the spells costly without making them difficult.

Turning expensive components into foci would have . . . different effects. Expensive material components serve as a downside to casting certain spells and make you less likely to try to spam them, right? Each time you cast that spell, it costs you something, so you do it only when you need to. But if you make it a focus, once you buy the focus, you've paid that cost. You don't have to pay anything additional to use that spell (beyond the slot, of course). In fact, you might be more likely to try to spam the spell (in an effort to get your money's worth out of the focus). Now, the game isn't perfectly balanced, so it's not automatically bad if a player has the means to spam a spell that normally costs gold. Expensive spells are not always that much better than regular spells, and it wouldn't necessarily break the game to let a player purchase the ability to treat them as normal spells. Exactly where you place the cost of the focus (3×? 5×? 10×? More than that is probable excessive in more cases than not) is up to the GM, but of course, the more expensive the focus is, the more likely it is that the player will spam the hell out of the spell in an effort to get their money's worth out of the cost of the focus. So this method would simplify bookkeeping (you buy the focus and then you're done; you don't have to keep track of specific components or even a slush fund) and would affect WBL (you have to spend gold on the focus), but it wouldn't make players less likely to cast expensive spells once that cost has been paid. (It WOULD make some players choose not to cast those spells at all rather than shell out for a costly focus, but once a player decides they want a spell and buys the focus, the cost no longer serves as a limitation.)

The RAW method, of course, requires the most bookkeeping, since you have to keep track of exactly how many you have of the components for each spell. It does offer the GM the greatest flexibility in encouraging specific spells (by having the player find the components for that specific spell as loot, possibly "for free" if you don't count it against WBL) and in discouraging specific spells (by making it hard for a player to buy components for a spell you don't want them to use a lot), and of course it puts a very strong brake on how willing players will be to use those spells (since not only does it cost you something to cast the spells, it costs you something that you have a very finite number of, so players like me who get paranoid about "running out" of something at the wrong moment will be very unwilling to use those components when it's not absolutely necessary).

Naturally, there's overlap between these methods. You might say that some spells can have their components turned into foci and some can't. You might say that you can have a slush fund for most spells, but specific spells require you to buy the component specially (for example, in the game I played in, I seem to recall that any spells that could bring back the dead had to be prepared for specifically rather than paid for out of an unspecified component fund). You might do something else entirely (only the RAW method is, well, RAW, and if we've made up two alternatives already, there's nothing stopping us from making up others).

As far as how much of the party's WBL (or a given player's WBL) should be taken up with consumables . . . I know that someone's run the numbers comparing expected treasure gain per level vs. the WBL table, and as I recall, expected treasure gain outpaces WBL, meaning that you're expected to have a certain amount of gold that goes towards consumables (or bribes, story costs, or other sources that aren't permanent gear), but I don't remember what those numbers actually work out as being.

Speaking in general, though, that's obviously going to depend on the GM and on the player. (Yeah, I know, that applies to pretty much everything in this game, but hear me out.) A GM can decide what portion of expected player wealth "should" go towards consumables, but there's no guarantee that the player will agree (if the player even explicitly knows what the GM decides at all, which is by no means always the case). You'll get players who just plain don't like using consumables (this is common among the people I game with), no matter what that reason is (in my case, it's paranoia about running out, but that's not the only reason), so they'll basically never choose to spend gold on consumable stuff. In some cases, they may or may not even use consumables they find as raw loot (meaning they find them in item form rather than in gold form). Of course, you also get the other extreme—there are players who feel comfortable burning through consumables left and right. (In extreme cases, you get folks like a wand-blasting Artificer who can literally chew up half the charges in a wand every encounter or two, but there are plenty of less extreme examples, like a Rogue who likes to spend money on costly poisons, or a low-level character who likes to throw around tons of alchemical items, or someone who likes to have lots of potions for every eventuality despite potions being the single least gold-efficient way of getting magic effects in the entire game—or someone who just likes spamming spells with expensive components.) Either of those kinds of players will throw off your calculations. And honestly, on some level, that's okay. If someone chooses to buy a ton of consumable items and ends up below expected WBL, on some level, that's their choice. You just have to make sure that it's not so extreme that they end up truly unable to afford the things the game expects them to have.

Part of it boils down to communication, of course. If the GM is expecting the players to use significantly more or significantly fewer consumables than they actually are, maybe the GM should talk to the party about that. Barring really extreme cases (the level 7 fellow who can't afford a magic weapon because he bought too many Oils of Magic Weapon, or the character who routinely ends up at negative HP because he never bothers to use his Wand of Lesser Vigor), it shouldn't be treated as a Problem That Must Be Solved, but it never hurts to have the discussion.

[HalfQuart]

The campaign I play in now doesn't use material components at all. Some spells are used as is without the component (like Identify), and others are adapted in some way (Stoneskin is changed from 10 min/CL to 1 round/CL). I think this works reasonably well.

I used to play with a group that allowed you to sacrifice any amount of gold or equipment of an equal or greater value to the material component... so you didn't have to worry about having that granite and diamond dust for Stoneskin, you could just sacrifice 250 gp from your money pouch, a gem of appropriate value, or a masterwork chain shirt, or whatever as long as it was at least as valuable as the listed component... This made the paperwork much less cumbersome without really changing anything.

As a player I hate consumables... I always think, "I could use this now, but I might REALLY need it later..." and so I just don't end up using anything until it's too late. We do WBL rather loosely in the current game, but if it was stricter I would try to avoid taking them in treasure so they didn't count against my WBL, since I wouldn't end up using them anyway.

[The Vagabond]

While I am not sure about 3.5, I do know that Pathfinder expects about 15% of your WBL on consumable items. Now, while this is certainly not the best if your group doesn't use consumables, it does hint that you should add that quantity to your stuff. So spell components should cost that much. However, if you want to make something that you can use at-will, the best comparison is to a wand or eternal wand- Add 50xthe item of the wealth to the price. In most cases (Such as, for example, haste), they will not cast the spell 50 times, making this rather expensive, but spammable. It's what I recommend, at any rate. So that 500 gp consumable cost would cost 25000 gp.

Alright, that's a lot- So how do you make it easier on your players? You could offer a feat in place of Scribe Scroll, akin to "Create Focus," which allows them to craft it at half-price (Or just fold the thing into scribe scroll or craft wondrous item). Maybe simply replace Scrolls with Schemas (I know them from eberron, converted to pathfinder here (https://sites.google.com/site/eberronpathfinder/conversion-info/magical-items/schema)). If you want them to use stuff with EXP components, multiple exp component by 5 and then 50, to get the cost for a focus.

If you want your players to use potions and similar, I'd recomend multiplying the cost by 5, and adding some refill mechanic, as with the witcher- Use the price for a wand casting, or similar, to price the refill. Reduce WBL by about 5%, to account for the refills they now have.

[Mrs Kat]

Have you considered expensing material components and consumables to the party?

This is how my groups have generally handled it. Consumables are initially bought out of the individual's personal funds. If a consumable is used to the benefit of the whole party, then the owner is refunded the cost of the consumable from the next loot drop.

For example:


The party consists of Bonan the barbarian, Clarence the cleric, Ronja the rogue and Wallace the Wizard.
Wallace buys a scroll of teleport for 1,125gp.
During the course of the adventure, the party is trapped in a force-based dungeon with a high-CR monster, and Wallace uses the scroll to allow the party to escape.
Everyone agrees that the consumable was used for the good of the party, and so Wallace is allowed to expense it.
If the party then finds treasure worth 5,125gp, Wallace will receive 2,125gp, while Bonan, Clarence and Ronja will get 1,000gp each.

In the cases where my party have not done this, we have a party fund equal to the share of an extra member to cover the cost of expensive consumables. So, in the example above, Wallace would have withdrawn from the party fund to buy his emergency teleport scroll, and each character would receive 1,025gp, and a fifth share of 1,025gp would go to the party bank to cover future purchase of teleport scrolls.

I know this doesn't cover personal-use-only stuff, but I thought it might help.

[Kelb_Panthera]

For simplicity's sake, what I do is only count permanent and semi-permanent (staves and wands) magic items against WBL. Liquid asssets (commodities, coinage, precious gems) and consumables just aren't generally worth tracking beyond making sure the player's are being honest about their spending.

Consumables are grossly inefficient so a player trying to abuse them will only hurt himself in the long-run.

Liquid assets don't contribute to power outside social situations so they're irrelevant to what WBL is trying to balance anyway.

Staves and wands should be audited at a value equal to the current fraction of their charge. I.E; a wand of CLW at 25 charges should be audited at 375gp instead of its full 750gp purchase price.

The important thing to remember is that WBL is intended as a guideline to balance the aquisition of magical gear against the expected capabilities of MM foes of a CR roughly equal to the party's level (the success of implementing that intent is debatable). If the players are optimizing significantly then they'll far outstrip the expected power level that WBL was intended to prop up but if they aren't then swinging low will -really- hurt. Err on the side of giving out just a litttle more than is necessary since doing so has a lot less damage potential than being too stingy.

[Jormengand]

I don't count consumable items against WBL at all, unless they're used horribly to excess. It doesn't make sense to me that an archer who was created at level 5 (and presumably expended a bunch of arrows getting to there) should have more wealth than an archer who was created at level 1 and is now level 5. If this means that you're going to use more consumables and buy fewer Xs of Y +Z, power to you.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Items only count against WBL if you actually have them.
It doesn't matter if you spend 4000gp on scrolls 2 levels ago unless you still have them. I'm not counting permanent items you've lost or sold, why would consumables be different? Anything else is just silly.

That said i'm a big fan of consumables as a player. I also think that a lot of people seriously overvalue at-will or x/day items.
Unless you actually need something every day - or even more often - there's no point spending big money on a permanent item. You can get a much bigger bag of tricks, holdouts and one-shot day-savers for your money if you get single use items, so you're prepared for a greater variety of situations.

All my characters tend to be packrats. The first magic item i get is always a handy haversack, and it's filled with minor crap that might be useful someday at every opportunity.
Of course that only works if you actually use the gear you buy.
The kind of player who hoards even the most minor consumable because he can't bring himself to spend it shouldn't bother, but otherwise pretty much any class can get a lot of benefit from Shax's Indispensable Haversack (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?148101-3-x-Shax-s-Indispensible-Haversack-%28Equipment-Handbook%29) for a pretty minor fraction of wealth.

[Elkad]

This whole debate is why I despise WBL.
WBL=10k, party of 3 players.

Player A spends 10k on a cool sword and armor.
Player B spends 10k on a bunch of consumables.
Player C spends 10k on ale&whores (or a farm, or other non-contributory things)

Next adventure they get 15k worth of loot, but player B used half his consumables. They don't level up.
So by the rules, Player A gets nothing, B gets 5k, and C gets 10k.

Player A pouts because he got nothing.
Player B restocks his consumables.
Player C puts the whole 10k on a spin of the roulette wheel, hits at 35:1, and now has 350k.

Now the DM is supposed to steal all player C's money?

No. I give players equal amounts of loot. It's easy to use the WBL table to figure how much they get per level (and then I'll pad that somewhat). How they spend/waste it (and thus how much they individually retain) is up to them. If they want to work out reimbursement out of their own shares for an expensive consumable used on the party behalf, that's on them. If someone gambles into a windfall, sharing it with the party is also up to the individual.

[sleepyphoenixx]

This whole debate is why I despise WBL.

No. I give players equal amounts of loot. It's easy to use the WBL table to figure how much they get per level (and then I'll pad that somewhat). How they spend/waste it (and thus how much they individually retain) is up to them. If they want to work out reimbursement out of their own shares for an expensive consumable used on the party behalf, that's on them. If someone gambles into a windfall, sharing it with the party is also up to the individual.

That's not how WBL works. There's an "expected treasure gain per encounter/level" table in the DMG for that a few pages earlier.
Multiply that by the number of players, stay somewhere in the general vicinity when handing out loot and let them hash out how they're going to split it up by themselves. You're a storyteller, not a babysitter.

WBL is a benchmark for how much a character is expected to own in usable gear at a given level, nothing more. It's where the CR-system is (presumably) balanced, for whatever that's worth.
That doesn't mean you're obligated to hand your players more gold if they blow it all on gambling and hookers. It just means you have to take it into account when designing encounters.
Or you could take the realistic approach and have the player who choose not to upgrade his gear die like a bitch, because that's what happens when you go into combat with supernatural monsters unprepared.

[Psyren]

Next adventure they get 15k worth of loot, but player B used half his consumables. They don't level up.
So by the rules, Player A gets nothing, B gets 5k, and C gets 10k.

This is where you went wrong - they all get their loot. WBL is a guideline and the players are allowed to exceed it (or be below it) at various points in their career, so going over 10k without leveling up is perfectly allowed. It just means that they have some low-treasure encounters in their future to bring them back in line (eventually.)

Now, the guy blowing his cash on ale and whores and other non-contributory things is a totally different problem - he needs to understand that the whole point of treasure is to get geared and keep up with challenges. Though I confess I don't see how you can even come close to spending 10,000 gold on such things unless you're literally buying a brothel and tavern, in which case he should be getting income back to spend on his gear eventually.

For the consumables guy, the entire party should be pitching in on consumables that help all of them. Mrs. Kat's solution works well imo, or you can just average the cost of party consumables across everyone, or divert a small percentage of everyone's loot to a general consumable fund.

[Âmesang]

I've always looked at consumables as often times a necessity, but one left to the responsibility of a player to handle how he wishes—in other words, if a party of three comes across a 15,000 gp prize, each earns 5,000 gp regardless of how they spent their previous funds; so if you blow the 5,000 gp on hookers and blow, that's your own fault. :smalltongue: If the character bets it all and wins big, great! He took the risk, he got the reward, right? Individual VS shared consumables are also case-by-case, such as my last group having "quest items" usable by all (scrolls of resurrection, keys to various things, stolen libraries and notes, etc.).

Of course that made me look at the consumables for two of my favorite characters:

Quintessa of House Tzon, 3.5 D&D Sorcerer 14/Archmage 1 — 243,900 gp


10 sprinklings of ruby dust
500 gp (continual flame)


3 large diamonds
4,500 gp (limited wish; optional)


4 doses of black lotus extract
3,000 gp (crafted)


5th-level, CL 16 (adept) scroll of heal
2,000 gp (contingency)


1st-level, CL 9 wand of magic missile
7,000 gp (black opal mountedMaF)


TOTAL
~7% of wealth


(Granted, this same character has also spent a fair chunk on art objects and memberships to various guilds and organizations, which brings it closer to ~12% of her wealth; she's also spent ~33% on permanent spells/contingency if you treat 1 XP = 5 gp of diamond dust.)


Den Bloodsoul, Pathfinder Ranger 3 — 3,000 gp


20 arrows
1 gp (does ammunition count?)


2 flasks of alchemist's fire
40 gp


3 doses of antitoxin
150 gp


Healer's kit (10 uses)
50 gp


50 ft. of silk rope
10 gp


One days' trail rations
½ gp


1 lb. of tobacco
½ gp


1 sheet of parchment
⅕ gp


bottle of fine wine
10 gp


TOTAL
~9% of wealth


(Anyway to truncate these tables? Lots of wasted space between lines…)

[sleepyphoenixx]

For the consumables guy, the entire party should be pitching in on consumables that help all of them. Mrs. Kat's solution works well imo, or you can just average the cost of party consumables across everyone, or divert a small percentage of everyone's loot to a general consumable fund.

This isn't really as much of a problem as it seems like at first glance.
The consumables guy will get items and use them up.
A player who gets nothing but permanent items spends more paying for permanent items, stacking several effects on the same item slot and generally paying a lot more to have the same or similar effects permanently - but that only matters if you actually use a permanent item enough to justify the cost, which most such items don't do in the average campaign.

It's pretty basic math. As an extreme example, 5 scrolls of Wish are just as powerful as a Staff of Wish (50 charges) until you actually use more than 5 wishes, but a lot cheaper.
Buying Ghostblight (CAdv, 100gp) instead of upgrading your weapon with Ghost Touch (+1 bonus) means you're coming out ahead until you've actually fought at least 61 ghosts, and during that time you'll have quite a bit of extra money to spend on a weapon enhancement that's always useful - or more consumables for different situations.
The same applies to Ghostwall Shellac (DS, 150gp) and Ghost Touch armor (+3 bonus), Torch Bug Paste (CS, 25gp) and a wand of Faerie Fire (750gp) and so on.

The guy who buys consumables and only spends gold on permanent items that he's sure he actually needs has a lot more immediate power and versatility at hand at any given point.

Really the only thing i'd suggest a party fund for are things like Resurrection, Remove Curse or Restoration scrolls and similar recovery expenses that don't actually add anything to a characters power.
Having the cleric pay for that stuff out of his own pocket just means he won't have one when you actually need it - or maybe even worse he'll actually prepare those spells instead of contributing before they become necessary.

[Seward]

The permanent vs consumables math isn't quite that simple.

There's an opportunity cost. To pick a very obvious example, a +1 sword vs oil of magic weapon.

The +1 sword is giving +1 to damage (mw weapon already provides to-hit) 24x7, and if you run into a gargoyle or incorporeal, you get to do damage immediately.

The oil of magic weapon has such a short duration (1 minute) that you will normally have to use it in reaction to something like a ghost or gargoyle turning up. So you're out 50gp, a move action and a standard action at a critical moment if you rely on this instead of a +1 weapon.

This kind of logic is why most martial types get an oil of magic weapon or bless weapon or both early, but eventually upgrade their weapons to first +1, and later to deal somehow with alignment DR.

The need to fly for a martial character, by contrast, is much more situational.

For the first five levels your backup missile weapon is nearly as good as your main schtick a coping with flying enemies and your climb skill gets past most obstacles where fly would help, but you will at some point pick up a potion of fly for when you hit a dangerous encounter vs flying enemies.

As you go higher, whether or not you ever invest in a permanent fly item, or a one-day item such as celestial armor/winged shield or just stick with potions has a lot to do with the other party members. If you can reliably get air walk from the cleric before you enter every dungeon, and the wizard or cleric routinely take an action to get you into the fight in other situations you might never need more than a potion for the rare case where nobody is able/willing to help and you still need to fly.

If instead, you need to deal with it yourself and want to save yourself a move action, the various 1/day fly items might be worth the surcharge, and probably will seem cheap enough by the early-mid teens.

If you want to be able to fly all the time (a charge build, for example, can avoid a lot of obstacles to flight by hovering above the party, and an archer is often relatively immune to melee attacks) you get a broom or carpet of flying and call it a day, sometime in the teens.

Parties that are more likely to be the active entity (eg, a party that normally does classic dungeon crawls or assaults on enemies at time/place of their choosing) rather than a reactive entity (lots of ambushes and unplanned encounters) will have different attitudes to consumables too. You can beat the action cost for consumables which last 10 minutes or more by using them before you enter the dungeon. A party without a lot of primary caster spell slots free may routinely get some of its basic stuff off relatively cheap consumables (scroll of barkskin instead of amulet of natural armor+2 - you need to enter 54 30 minute combat situations before the amulet pays for itself, unless most of your encounters happen in such a way as to make using the scroll impractical. Stuff like See Invisible, Slow Poison, Remove Fear, Antitoxin etc also seem pretty cheap for what they give compared to permanent items if you know most of your battles will come within X minutes of using such an item).

Reactive parties, by contrast, will have most of their consumables in "oh crap" items, stuff you may not routinely have available with normal spell mixes and class abilities, but when you need, them, you absolutely need them. You might eventually get a single set of "buffing for a hard fight" consumables of mid-long duration that you only bust out when things look dire, but the fighting hasn't started yet.

Some people also do routine use of a consumable of middling duration and relatively low cost such as Barkskin when there is no actual way to buy a permanent item. My halfling tank Pena carries a few scrolls of it, because her neck slot is tied up with a different item and nothing she has access to purchase gets her natural armor except those scrolls. Since AC is important to her, she makes sure she has a way to boost it every way possible. As a result, she usually has enough, even if some buffs or abilities aren't running at any given time.

[sleepyphoenixx]

The permanent vs consumables math isn't quite that simple.

There's an opportunity cost. To pick a very obvious example, a +1 sword vs oil of magic weapon.

The +1 sword is giving +1 to damage (mw weapon already provides to-hit) 24x7, and if you run into a gargoyle or incorporeal, you get to do damage immediately.

The oil of magic weapon has such a short duration (1 minute) that you will normally have to use it in reaction to something like a ghost or gargoyle turning up. So you're out 50gp, a move action and a standard action at a critical moment if you rely on this instead of a +1 weapon.

This kind of logic is why most martial types get an oil of magic weapon or bless weapon or both early, but eventually upgrade their weapons to first +1, and later to deal somehow with alignment DR.
Well obviously the magic weapon is something that a martial character uses all the time anyway, so it's a prime candidate for a permanent item.

There's no reason to upgrade it for a whole variety of things though that you can take care of with a Weapon Capsule Retainer (CAdv) and an Oil Chamber (DS).
A swift action to apply Quicksilver, Ghostblight, Trollbane, alchemical whatever or any magical oil is a pretty good trade off for saving a few thousand gp imo, and you can load up your weapon with a selection of 4 to be prepared for a variety of situations.

Only get permanent weapon enhancements to deal with stuff that comes up all the time. It's the easiest category to use with consumables, thanks to above-mentioned modifications.

The other thing to do that saves you money by making consumables more useful? Scouting! Don't run blindly into encounters and then complain about not having time to get up short-term buffs. It's your own damn fault if you're too lazy to get the necessary prep time.

Permanent items that are worth it #1: Get a Third Eye:Sense (SRD, 24,000gp). You can now manifest Clairvoyant Sense at will. Use it before you enter a new room. Prepare accordingly before opening the door.

[ryu]

Well obviously the magic weapon is something that a martial character uses all the time anyway, so it's a prime candidate for a permanent item.

There's no reason to upgrade it for a whole variety of things though that you can take care of with a Weapon Capsule Retainer (CAdv) and an Oil Chamber (DS).
A swift action to apply Quicksilver, Ghostblight, Trollbane, alchemical whatever or any magical oil is a pretty good trade off for saving a few thousand gp imo, and you can load up your weapon with a selection of 4 to be prepared for a variety of situations.

Only get permanent weapon enhancements to deal with stuff that comes up all the time. It's the easiest category to use with consumables, thanks to above-mentioned modifications.

The other thing to do that saves you money by making consumables more useful? Scouting! Don't run blindly into encounters and then complain about not having time to get up short-term buffs. It's your own damn fault if you're too lazy to get the necessary prep time.

Permanent items that are worth it #1: Get a Third Eye:Sense (SRD, 24,000gp). You can now manifest Clairvoyant Sense at will. Use it before you enter a new room. Prepare accordingly before opening the door.

Now see that's just respectable. Proper amounts of preparation are key to successful adventuring. Other important keys include effective teamwork, planning, party build synergy, and efficient use of resources. Oh and magic. Together these six talents form the elements of adventure/murderhoboing.

[Seward]

Well obviously the magic weapon is something that a martial character uses all the time anyway, so it's a prime candidate for a permanent item.

There's no reason to upgrade it for a whole variety of things though that you can take care of with a Weapon Capsule Retainer (CAdv) and an Oil Chamber (DS).

These sorts of things vary by campaign and version. Pathfinder has neither item, but for archers, the weapon blanches and durable arrows replace most of the expensive arrows and the Ghost Touch upgrade (for melees, not so simple). Also Pathfinder encourages simply adding more enhancement +x to the weapon as it penetrates cold iron/silver at +3, adamantine at +4 and all alignment DR at +5 in a way that 3.x does not (the greater magic weapon enhancements do NOT add this bonus). Pathfinder also lacks some of the cheaper enhancements that beat alignment DR that 3.x provided, but Bane tends to make up for this if you have a +3 weapon and some classes or archetypes add options that boost your weapon's enhancement bonus as a swift action, which helps push a lesser weapon up into those DR-defeating thresholds.

Pathfinder OTOH trumps that third eye item. Gloves of Reconnaissance cost only 2k and let you look through walls 10 times per day. This is a much more useful item if you have darkvision, so if you aren't a dwarf or halforc or something a 150gp scroll of darkvision lasts 3 hours and is a useful companion item.

There is a "Core only" Pathfinder Society campaign that has nothing but core potion/scrolls as ways to avoid buying a permanent item, and so an archer like my character will be looking at scrolls or potions of Flame Arrow as a way to boost weapon damage and will have to accept that my adamantine arrows break on use, even though it makes no sense logically (why can't I just fish out the arrowheads and attach to a new shaft. Stupid arrowmaker guild rules!)

Still, whatever your restrictions, consumables nearly always allow early entry to power you can't have otherwise without being a primary spellcaster (and sometimes early for them too). The cost is that the action economy often sucks compared to a permanent item and it can be a hit on your "wealth by level" once used, although in most campaigns that tends to even out over time.

[Psyren]

Indeed, scouting is key and players who do so properly should be rewarded with buff time. Of course, this has its own challenges if the buffs in question can't be done quietly as the party may need to fall back out of Listen/Perception range to avoid alerting their prey.

But action cost and limited duration are not the only problems with consumables; another major weakness is that they can be dispelled more easily, exacerbating the first two. Permanent items have the advantage that they can only be target dispelled - and even if that happens, they just end up suppressed for 1d4 rounds so you potentially only get a minor tempo setback (with no action on your part required to reinstate.) Potions, oils and the like meanwhile count as buff spells, letting them be area dispelled and netting the enemy a huge tempo advantage - a single unlucky standard action from an enemy caster can negate the buffing round(s) of your entire team. Worse, consumables tend to be easy to dispel due to their lower CL. Many permanent magic items, particularly magic arms and armor, tend to have very high caster levels that scale as the party levels and upgrades them.

Also, IME no party is perfect at scouting or keeping watch - getting caught by surprise happens at least once to just about every group. No one can mislead the party or catch them with their pants down like the GM, and moments like those serve to establish a villain as a true threat. This can be to the good; if the party is able to perfectly prepare for everything, there is much less tension or apprehension towards the campaign's villains. But it also does highlight the deficiencies in not having constant buffs active, which only items can do efficiently.

Finally - at least in PF - staves are effectively a permanent magic item rather than a consumable since they can be recharged. The spells they contain also use your full caster level and metamagic feats, helping you eliminate the duration and dispellability problems. This gives even full casters who want a situational/consumable option a way to do so that evades some of the problems consumables tend to have.

[Seward]

^^^ second all of that.

A note on staves - they are SO expensive that they're not used in the 1-10 game unless you happen to find or wrest one from the cold dead hands of an enemy.

But yeah, they're essentially a free and unlimited set of spell slots/spells known for the cost of a hand in use and a mildly awkward 6' long length of wood if you do pay the cost.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Pathfinder OTOH trumps that third eye item. Gloves of Reconnaissance cost only 2k and let you look through walls 10 times per day. This is a much more useful item if you have darkvision, so if you aren't a dwarf or halforc or something a 150gp scroll of darkvision lasts 3 hours and is a useful companion item.
Those gloves are certainly useful, but the only thing that trumps a Third Eye:Sense about them is the price.
Keep in mind that the range on Clairvoyant Sense is unlimited, so "looking into the next room" is really the least of its uses.

You can use it to spy on your enemies if you can track them to their hideout, listen in on important officials, read secret documents over someones shoulder, check up on a place that you've set an Alarm spell up at, use it to communicate (one-way, unless you buy two) when your party splits up or whatever else you can think of.
Since you can use it at-will there's no reason you couldn't chain it to explore an entire dungeon without ever stepping a foot in it or "follow" someone without ever leaving the local inn.


Indeed, scouting is key and players who do so properly should be rewarded with buff time. Of course, this has its own challenges if the buffs in question can't be doe quietly as the party may need to fall back out of Listen/Perception range to avoid alerting their prey.
The existence of Oil Chambers and Weapon Capsule Retainers is a pretty big help for quick and silent buffing.
And there's no reason not to let a rogue or similar class scout as usual, keeping the rest of the party 100-200ft back and ideally communicating with telepathy.
The ability to use Clairvoyant Sense at will just makes them better at it, in addition to all the other uses i've outlined above.


But action cost and limited duration are not the only problems with consumables; another major weakness is that they can be dispelled more easily, exacerbating the first two. Permanent items have the advantage that they can only be target dispelled - and even if that happens, they just end up suppressed for 1d4 rounds so you potentially only a minor tempo setback (with no action on your part required to reinstate.) Potions, oils and the like meanwhile count as buff spells, letting them be area dispelled and netting the enemy a huge tempo advantage - a single unlucky standard action from an enemy caster can negate the buffing round(s) of your entire team. Worse, consumables tend to be easy to dispel due to their lower CL. Many permanent magic items, particularly magic arms and armor, tend to have very high caster levels that scale as the party levels and upgrades them.
"Dispel Protection" is on the list of necessary magic items for a reason. Due to the nature of combat in D&D it's pretty irrelevant if a buff is dispelled or a magical item suppressed for 3-4 rounds, because chances are that combat is over by then.
Sure, if you're "lucky" it's only suppressed 1 round, but that's hardly something to rely on in combat. A halfway optimized dispeller will beat an items static CL every time, so there's not really any advantage there either.


Also, IME no party is perfect at scouting or keeping watch - getting caught by surprise happens at least once to just about every group. No one can mislead the party or catch them with their pants down like the GM, and moments like those serve to establish a villain as a true threat. This can be to the good; if the party is able to perfectly prepare for everything, there is much less tension or apprehension towards the campaign's villains. But it also does highlight the deficiencies in not having constant buffs active.
This is certainly true. I'm not saying never to get any permanent items. There are things you want to always have up or cast every day for various reasons, and that's when such an item makes sense. I classify items pretty much in 3 categories - things you always want to have up, things you need often but not always and things you only need rarely.

Mind Blank, for example, both for the divination protection and because getting surprised by a mind-affecting effect is pretty much a death sentence or worse, falls squarely into the first category.
There's no point constantly buying scrolls of it because you know ahead of time you want it up every day, just on the off chance that someone tries one of the effects it prevents on you.

True Seeing on the other hand is rather expensive in a permanent form even at high levels, and most of the time it does nothing at all. You also generally have the time to spend an action to get it up when you need it, especially since there are swift-action versions available. On the other hand you need it often enough at high levels that getting an X/day item or otherwise limited-but-regenerating use item is viable.
Not that there aren't benefits to constant True Seeing, but i'd say it's arguable if they justify the price or if an item like the Scout's Headband suffices for your needs and you can get more benefit out of another item.

The third category is things like condition-removing spells, items like Ghostblight that you need against some enemies but that don't do anything most of the time, wands of spells you need rarely but when you do you need several uses (Ebon Eyes, lesser Restoration, Neutralize Poison) and stuff like that.
That's what you buy consumables for. What category an items falls into obviously depends on your build and the campaign you're in, but these are my general guidelines on what to buy.

Also, if you're that worried about ambushes a contingent Time Stop or Temporal Acceleration (or one-shot items of them) will give you all the time you need to buff with a far smaller price tag. Spending tons of extra money on permanent items "just in case of ambush" is a waste of money anytime you're not currently being ambushed.

[Psyren]

The existence of Oil Chambers and Weapon Capsule Retainers is a pretty big help for quick and silent buffing.
And there's no reason not to let a rogue or similar class scout as usual, keeping the rest of the party 100-200ft back and ideally communicating with telepathy.
The ability to use Clairvoyant Sense at will just makes them better at it, in addition to all the other uses i've outlined above.

I agree with all this, but not all desirable buffs can be stored in such items (or in potions.) This is a key advantage to casters like psychics and alchemists.



"Dispel Protection" is on the list of necessary magic items for a reason. Due to the nature of combat in D&D it's pretty irrelevant if a buff is dispelled or a magical item suppressed for 3-4 rounds, because chances are that combat is over by then.
Sure, if you're "lucky" it's only suppressed 1 round, but that's hardly something to rely on in combat. A halfway optimized dispeller will beat an items static CL every time, so there's not really any advantage there either.

Not all your opponents will be "optimized dispellers" though. Take Babau demons for instance - they are ready sources of cannon fodder for cultists or more powerful demons, and ultimately are easily dispatched, but just one of them landing an at-will dispel or two can ratchet up an otherwise easy encounter's difficulty quite rapidly.

In short, protecting against dispels is like increasing your AC - you're not trying to become completely untouchable, you're trying to make them work for it. You want to get to a point where only the optimized ones can affect you, and things like mooks or secondary iteratives are more or less guaranteed to be wasted actions from the enemy.



This is certainly true. I'm not saying never to get any permanent items. There are things you want to always have up or cast every day for various reasons, and that's when such an item makes sense. I classify items pretty much in 3 categories - things you always want to have up, things you need often but not always and things you only need rarely.

Mind Blank, for example, both for the divination protection and because getting surprised by a mind-affecting effect is pretty much a death sentence or worse, falls squarely into the first category.
There's no point constantly buying scrolls of it because you know ahead of time you want it up every day, just on the off chance that someone tries one of the effects it prevents on you.

True Seeing on the other hand is rather expensive in a permanent form even at high levels, and most of the time it does nothing at all. You also generally have the time to spend an action to get it up when you need it, especially since there are swift-action versions available. On the other hand you need it often enough at high levels that getting an X/day item or otherwise limited-but-regenerating use item is viable.
Not that there aren't benefits to constant True Seeing, but i'd say it's arguable if they justify the price or if an item like the Scout's Headband suffices for your needs and you can get more benefit out of another item.

The third category is things like condition-removing spells, items like Ghostblight that you need against some enemies but that don't do anything most of the time, wands of spells you need rarely but when you do you need several uses (Ebon Eyes, lesser Restoration, Neutralize Poison) and stuff like that.
That's what you buy consumables for. What category an items falls into obviously depends on your build and the campaign you're in, but these are my general guidelines on what to buy.

Also, if you're that worried about ambushes a contingent Time Stop or Temporal Acceleration (or one-shot items of them) will give you all the time you need to buff with a far smaller price tag. Spending tons of extra money on permanent items "just in case of ambush" is a waste of money anytime you're not currently being ambushed.

I definitely agree there should be categories too, so nothing much to add here.