Starting gold for level 5 players.

[Nightwang]

Hello everyone.
I am about to start a 3.5 Ravenloft campaign with 4 level 5 characters. And they want to buy their equipment rather that have the starting package. I don't know how much gold to give them, I'm afraid they will have to much gold and buy the best of everything, making them to OP for my campaign. I am not letting them start off with any magic items because I have placed a lot hidden through the scenario.
What are your thoughts?

[Zombimode]

Starting wealth for charcters starting at a higher Level than 1 is detailed in the DMG. I'm away from books right now, but it should be easy to find.

[finaldooms]

I think 5 is 9000 gold or close to it..just ran a game they started at lvl 5
If you wana start them a little "weaker" since you are putting more items in start them with 5400 which is wbl of 4...pretty much means 1 maybe 2 magic items

[Nightwang]

I did see that on page 145 of the DMG, it says that a level 5 character starts off with 9,000 gold. Hellfire that a lot. I did a trial run with a friend and has her start off with 750 and my lord she has an Uber amount of weapons and armor and tower shields. With 200+ gold left over.

[heavyfuel]

I did see that on page 145 of the DMG, it says that a level 5 character starts off with 9,000 gold. Hellfire that a lot. I did a trial run with a friend and has her start off with 750 and my lord she has an Uber amount of weapons and armor and tower shields. With 200+ gold left over.

No, 9000 gp is definitely not a lot.

A lv 5 Fighter, for example, is expected to have at least a +1 weapon, a masterwork secondary weapon, and a +1 suit of armor. Thats 4k just there (5k if his armor of choice is full plate, and an extra 1k if they want a +1 shield)

He also needs some other equipment to help him deal with CR appropriate encounters. Basically, a few of the less expensive items from this list: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?187851-3-5-Lists-of-Necessary-Magic-Items

That's the very basic.

9k is a decent amount, but is by no means a lot.

[Stealth Marmot]

Mundane non-masterwork Plate armor alone is 1000 gold, how could she have Uber armor with 550? You will be lucky to get masterwork armor and weapons with 750.

Edit: While the bonus difference between a +1 weapon and a masterwork one is just 1 extra damage, which isn't that much, the problem lies in monsters that have damage reduction from non-magical items. With DR/5 Magic, that's effectively 6 less damage per hit (including the bonus from the weapon) which is a big deal.

[Gears]

The wealth by level from the DMG is intended to by magic items. If you set up some treasure for the players then let them start with a handful of gold.

As a player i would prefer to buy my magic items with my WBL.

[Inevitability]

Mundane non-masterwork Plate armor alone is 1000 gold, how could she have Uber armor with 550? You will be lucky to get masterwork armor and weapons with 750.

Just buy a hundred suits of padded armor and wear them over each other for +100 AC!

[Stealth Marmot]

Just buy a hundred suits of padded armor and wear them over each other for +100 AC!

BRING ON THE TARRASQUE!

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/H7NsNpSkxbc/hqdefault.jpg

[Ruethgar]

There was a WotC officially licensed class, I think in a Kalimdor book, that allowed for up to +5 mundane items.

Of course since it is Ravenloft you also have access to all magic items as Ex items with a few thousand gold extra price tag. Probably could only afford one of those though.

[sleepyphoenixx]

There was a WotC officially licensed class, I think in a Kalimdor book, that allowed for up to +5 mundane items.
Dragonlance actually. War of the Lance. The Master class.

[ExLibrisMortis]

I did see that on page 145 of the DMG, it says that a level 5 character starts off with 9,000 gold. Hellfire that a lot. I did a trial run with a friend and has her start off with 750 and my lord she has an Uber amount of weapons and armor and tower shields. With 200+ gold left over.
As others have said, it is not a lot, and you shouldn't be able to get "an Uber [sic] amount of weapons and armor and tower shields" with just 750 gp*.

With 750 gp, instead of a fighter's starting package, you can upgrade your main weapon to masterwork (+300 gp), and your scale mail to a masterwork breastplate (+300 gp). That's +1 to hit, +1 AC, and a one-point reduction in ACP. That is a very, very small upgrade, and your players will be underpowered rather than overpowered if that is all they have at level 5.

9000 gp of magic items will buy you a +1 weapon (2000-something gp), a +1 suit of armour (1200-2500 gp, depending on type), a masterwork composite longbow (+3 strength rating)(700 gp), and about 3700-5000 gp of utility magic, such as a travelling cloak (1200 gp), and mounts, such as a magebred war camel (900 gp). Of those things, the camel is actually the most powerful - potentially - because it's 4th level in its own right, but since it's not intelligent, it should be okay. Overall, the party would be gaining +1 to hit, +1 to damage, +2 to +5 AC, resistance to hot and cold weather, and some food and water each day. Your players won't be overpowered if they have that.

There are ways to sort-of break the game with very cheap utility magic, such as shapesand and chaos flasks, but they aren't that common, and you can always ask your players not to use them.



*Technically, you can get 150 suits of padded armour, or 250 light wooden shields, or 75 000 sling bullets. The thing is, that is so very suboptimal that it will never happen - if a player tries it, you should explain that it's a really bad idea. You can't even carry all of that stuff: those gear piles respectively weigh 1500, 750, and 37 500 lbs.

[Venger]

Hello everyone.
I am about to start a 3.5 Ravenloft campaign with 4 level 5 characters. And they want to buy their equipment rather that have the starting package. I don't know how much gold to give them, I'm afraid they will have to much gold and buy the best of everything, making them to OP for my campaign. I am not letting them start off with any magic items because I have placed a lot hidden through the scenario.
What are your thoughts?

The game is written with CR and such taking into account that PCs have wbl appropriate to their level. If you throw a 5th level encounter at a party of essentially naked level 5s, they will have a much harder time of it than normal. As with anything, this unfairly harms mundanes much more severely than it does casters.

The rules do indeed dictate 5th lvl starting characters each get 9k for gear, so let your party have 9k to spend on gear.

Ravenloft is already a very difficult module and it is not written with the assumption your party won't have any gear.

[TheIronGolem]

I did see that on page 145 of the DMG, it says that a level 5 character starts off with 9,000 gold. Hellfire that a lot. I did a trial run with a friend and has her start off with 750 and my lord she has an Uber amount of weapons and armor and tower shields. With 200+ gold left over.

It might help if you list out everything your friend bought and spell out why you're concerned about it. Unless you're specifically looking to run a low-wealth, hardscrabble survival game where every resource is precious, 750 GP at level 5 is way below the curve. If your PC's (particularly martial PC's) are under-geared for their level, they're going to have a really tough time against level-appropriate encounters. This is due to the fact that monsters are designed under the assumption that PC's are in the ballpark of the wealth-by-level guidelines.