Restore wealth balance

[Elgate]

Hi

I'm the DM of a campaign for the 1st time, and I realized that I have not given much wealth to my players as of yet. According to the average wealth per level for pathfinder, they should be around 3k each (lvl 3) and are almost at lvl 4 (6k each) while I have only given about 4k total for a team of 4. (out of wich 2.3k are for a single silver dagger with ghost touch they won on a dice game, and 1k is loot they just acquired and can't sell yet).

I realize now that if this keep up, they will fall short in equipment compared to what they should have, leading to trouble against supposedly even matched encounters. I'm planning on having them visit a city where magic is everywhere. A place where a farmer having a magic item is common (probably a simple 0lvl spell once a day but still). they'll probably have a discount there, but it's not before a long time. For now, they are going for a trip on the sea, around arctic lands. It's a boat transporting merchandise (and merchants), so they can find equipment there, but they don't have money for that and I don't know what to do to help them with that.

Any idea how to brig them up to date without being like "It's dangerous to go alone. Take this." ?

[Comet]

They could get stuck on an island and find a frozen temple or citadel full of either treasure or magical items.

They could save the merchants from a sea monster or pirates or a storm to gain their gratitude and exchange that for either treasure or magical items.

They could capture the merchant ship for themselves and sell or ransom it at the nearest raider coven for treasure or magic items.

They could go into debt with one of the merchants for access to their treasure or magic items.

[ngilop]

FIRST: Have the next treasure they find be a super rare work or art.

Have the merchant that they sell it too actually know about that form of artwork. So a thing they were thinking was worth 500 or so gold actually turns out to be worth 6,000.

SECOND: Have them hired on to take out a band of ogres/bugbears or what not that has been raiding caravans for months, and they can keep what they find as long as they take care of the situation. Now you have a reason for them to get extra treasure from a certian number of encounters.

Both of those should net you to be balanaced around actual WBL.

DO NOT do the 'go in debt' route that is the exact opposite of what you want to do. Instead of being 20,000 in the hole in terms of wealth by level they'd be 40,000 in the red.

[Friv]

I like the idea that they get attacked by pirates, defeat the pirates, and everyone who fought the pirates gets a huge share of the wealth for selling the pirate ship or its seized treasures, worth a couple of thousand GP per player.

[nedz]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I find that level 4 is about the point where PCs are most below WBL mainly because many of the low CR monsters are also low treasure. What this should do is motivate them into engaging in some wealth creation - and they'd likely catch up anyway.

[Segev]

Mainly, I'd just hand out larger loot-hoards with monster-defeats and dungeon-raids. If they're heading into a magic-rich city, a bucket of cash will let them gear up fairly well without you having to make specialized magic item drops for them.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Start using the random treasure generation tables (they still have those in the CRB, right?) when you plan encounters. Put the generated treasure somewhere nearby so that when the encounter is overcome, they find the treasure. If it makes sense, have the enemy -use- part of the generated treasures..

Have them face off with humanoid opponents for a bit and remind them that corpse-looting is an adventurer's bread-and-butter.

These things should help to keep them on-track once a correction's been made.

To make the correction: give them a windfall or a series of high-treasure encounters as has been suggested above.

[Elgate]

thank you for all the advices ;-) I'll keep those in mind for the future.

[MortalSword]

I just roll the treasures normally and pad on a bit extra to compensate if they are behind. I also do the opposite if they are ahead. Also, let them get rid of their treasures without too much trouble. Having to search for an art collector, a jeweller, an armorer, a weaponsmith, a general goods etc etc Then roleplaying the sales just means you wasted an hour for a small amount of Gold. Leave it at "I sell everything" and let them go adventuring again or continue what they were doing. Its incredibly easy to get sidetracked in all the little things.

[nedz]

Then roleplaying the sales just means you wasted an hour for a small amount of Gold. Leave it at "I sell everything" and let them go adventuring again or continue what they were doing. Its incredibly easy to get sidetracked in all the little things.

I have one player who loves doing this - much to everyone else's annoyance. We humour him to a degree.

[Flickerdart]

Have them come across the grisly remains of another adventuring party. If they can figure out how to best the trap/monster/curse/whatever that did them in, they score a boatload of new stuff.

[MortalSword]

I have one player who loves doing this - much to everyone else's annoyance. We humour him to a degree.

I had a GM that made it mandatory and haggled. In addition to this, he also used gold cap limitations based on the settlement size so we could only sell a small portion of what we had. We were literally swimming in useless gear.

[Techwarrior]

Is your game working as is? Are your players complaining about the loot that they're "owed" or is it just you looking at a table.

If the game runs as is, keep it as is. Keeping in mind what the party is capable of, with or without magic items, is much more important to accurately gauging difficulty than making sure they're at the magic WBL number for their level.

Now, you're fully capable of adding in magic items in whatever dose you please, but keep in mind that you are NOT required to. You are there to make the game fun. If your players are having fun, and you're having fun, then that's the important part.

[Vizzerdrix]

Artic area? Maybe they come across a ship long trapped in the ice. Ancient merchant or war ship filled with llot and undead. Or some undead loot. Everyone wants a zombie pony.

[daremetoidareyo]

I don't like having magic shops everywhere when I DM. I do, however, take requests for loot drops. Usually with an OOC announcement at the beginning of the game.

"Over the next three levels, what 5 pieces of gear would each of you folks like to see for your character? I am saying five, but in reality I want 2 or 3 pieces of gear that you all think is instrumental to your build, and a few alternate options to play around with. This means that you may wind up having to fight an encounter against someone armed with this gear, so just keep that in mind. If you can't pry it from their dead or unundead fingers, you didn't earn it. I will incorporate these into the campaign organically. These items may slightly differ from what you requested. A material might be different, a bonus ability might be attached, it might be intelligent, have an alignment, or be missing an enchantment that you specified. From there, you can absolutely seek out artisans to mold these magic items for your exact needs and we can cross those bridges then."

I do this to help control flight, teleport, infinite loops, etc.
I also retain the story focus of the campaign and avoid diving into a nasty match of ledgers & badgering. If they want something too strong too early I can delay it and keep momentum. Also, I have direct knowledge of what the PCs see as their character's direction. I often add abilities because the mundane dudes are so flipping humble sometimes that they don't know that they are entitled to a little more punch. Further, when PCs do split up, I can hand over a book to the ignored part of the party and let them use it to hold up their notepads while they google the gear they want while they wait.

Sometimes the item requested isnt the item itself but the raw materials to craft the item. So a sidetrack through an eldritch whorlwood forest to fight a red dragon wyrmling becomes not a petty errand that loser murderhobos sign up for out of the good of their heart, but a business opportunity for Hanz to wholesale whorlwood back home through business connects he makes nearby, while Jada can hire an artisan to make the wand(s) she wanted from the wood, and Thag can get his dragoncraft beltbuckle of adaptation (pulled from alternate list) built by a local artisan who has a special flare for such things.

[Elgate]

Another batch of great idea. I think the frozen boat on the coast is a good idea, with a lot of possible outcome, like undeads on the ship and things like that.
I also like techwarrior's approach. Why give them more, faster. Just let them deal with it and introduce items if they are struggling. That may be a better way of doing things.