Crafting Wealth by Level is it optional?

[Saffron-sama]

While I have heard of it before only recently have I gone and looked at it.
Is it a suggestion, rule or optional rule?

I was going to play a crafter in a 13th level game my friend was starting while he did not say to use that rule even after I told him my intentions of playing a crafter.

I am asking the community mainly to see what it is and to make sure my Gm did not just assume those were what I was using. I don't feel like bothering him right now since hes at work and I have been bothering him a lot recently to check off if a costom item was okay to use.

[legomaster00156]

Wealth by Level is a guideline for approximately how much wealth the game expects a PC to have at a given level. It is not a hard and fast rule.

[Saffron-sama]

Wealth by Level is a guideline for approximately how much wealth the game expects a PC to have at a given level. It is not a hard and fast rule.

I am talking about Pathfinder's modified wealth by level for characters with craftig feats.
Which makes you increase your wbl by 25-50% but you don't get to apply crafting feats reduction.
I am trying to find out if this is a rule or suggestion.

[Psyren]

I am talking about Pathfinder's modified wealth by level for characters with craftig feats.
Which makes you increase your wbl by 25-50% but you don't get to apply crafting feats reduction.
I am trying to find out if this is a rule or suggestion.

What do you mean by "you don't get to apply crafting feats reduction?" I think there's some confusion here with what that suggestion is meant to do.

[Saffron-sama]

Www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-item/

Half way down the page is a section titled Adjusting character wealth by level.
Apart of it is that players get 25 to 50 % more wbl but they don't get to apply any reduction from your crafting feats. While it reads as them giving advice it also reads as if it is a rule for levels past 1st.

[Psyren]

Www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-item/

Half way down the page is a section titled Adjusting character wealth by level.
Apart of it is that players get 25 to 50 % more wbl but they don't get to apply any reduction from your crafting feats. While it reads as them giving advice it also reads as if it is a rule for levels past 1st.

Your link leads to the possession rules from Horror Adventures but I'm going to assume you meant to link to the "Adjusting Character Wealth By Level" (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateCampaign/campaignSystems/magicItemCreation.html) guideline from Ultimate Campaign. Here's what it says:


Adjusting Character Wealth by Level
You can take advantage of the item creation rules to hand-craft most or all of your magic items. Because you've spent gp equal to only half the price of these items, you could end up with more gear than what the Character Wealth by Level table suggests for you. This is especially the case if you're a new character starting above 1st level or one with the versatile Craft Wondrous Item feat. With these advantages, you can carefully craft optimized gear rather than acquiring GM-selected gear over the course of a campaign. For example, a newly created 4th-level character should have about 6,000 gp worth of gear, but you can craft up to 12,000 gp worth of gear with that much gold, all of it taking place before the character enters the campaign, making the time-cost of crafting irrelevant.

Some GMs might be tempted to reduce the amount or value of the treasure you acquire to offset this and keep your overall wealth in line with the Character Wealth by Level table. Unfortunately, that has the net result of negating the main benefit of crafting magic items—in effect negating your choice of a feat. However, game balance for the default campaign experience expects you and all other PCs to be close to the listed wealth values, so the GM shouldn't just let you craft double the normal amount of gear. As a guideline, allowing a crafting PC to exceed the Character Wealth by Level guidelines by about 25% is fair, or even up to 50% if the PC has multiple crafting feats.

If you are creating items for other characters in the party, the increased wealth for the other characters should come out of your increased allotment. Not only does this prevent you from skewing the wealth by level for everyone in the party, but it encourages other characters to learn item creation feats.

Example: The Character Wealth By Level table states that an 8th-level character should have about 33,000 gp worth of items. Using the above 25% rule, Patrick's 8th-level wizard with Craft Wondrous Item is allowed an additional 8,250 gp worth of crafted wondrous items. If he uses his feat to craft items for the rest of the party, any excess value the other PCs have because of those items should count toward Patrick's additional 8,250 gp worth of crafted items.

Bold part is mine - the idea behind this guideline is that, if you simply craft all your gear, you'll have double WBL - which most GMs will respond to by putting less loot in your treasure to try and keep you in check. In short, it's not a rule that you don't get the cost reduction, rather it's an attempt to compromise with the very probably GM reaction to you having all your gear (or at least the most expensive pieces) be half-price.

[Saffron-sama]

Your link leads to the possession rules from Horror Adventures but I'm going to assume you meant to link to the "Adjusting Character Wealth By Level" (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateCampaign/campaignSystems/magicItemCreation.html) guideline from Ultimate Campaign. Here's what it says:



Bold part is mine - the idea behind this guideline is that, if you simply craft all your gear, you'll have double WBL - which most GMs will respond to by putting less loot in your treasure to try and keep you in check. In short, it's not a rule that you don't get the cost reduction, rather it's an attempt to compromise with the very probably GM reaction to you having all your gear (or at least the most expensive pieces) be half-price.

Okay, if its a guideline and not a hard rule then my gm would have let me k ow if this was in effect. Cool I won't have to rebuild mine and a friends characters then.

Thank you for some reason my brain was picking it up as being more then just a guideline and being more like a rule.

[Psyren]

Without this guideline the problem becomes exponential too. If you have a lot of crafting feats, chances are you won't be crafting just your loot - you'll be crafting for the other party members too, putting EVERYONE at double WBL. And the GM will most likely respond by giving your group very low-treasure encounters, in which case you might as well not have taken the feats at all and spent them on something more useful. This is especially true if you're starting the game above 1st-level - you could simply take the feats and then write "I crafted all this stuff" into your backstory, then have half your wealth left over.

This guideline is basically Paizo telling the GM "it's okay to still give crafting PCs loot" and "based on how dedicated they are to crafting, here is how much more wealth/gear they should have than a PC/party that doesn't craft at all."

[Saffron-sama]

Without this guideline the problem becomes exponential too. If you have a lot of crafting feats, chances are you won't be crafting just your loot - you'll be crafting for the other party members too, putting EVERYONE at double WBL. And the GM will most likely respond by giving your group very low-treasure encounters, in which case you might as well not have taken the feats at all and spent them on something more useful. This is especially true if you're starting the game above 1st-level - you could simply take the feats and then write "I crafted all this stuff" into your backstory, then have half your wealth left over.

This guideline is basically Paizo telling the GM "it's okay to still give crafting PCs loot" and "based on how dedicated they are to crafting, here is how much more wealth/gear they should have than a PC/party that doesn't craft at all."

Definitely won't be crafting for other players until the game begins. I would be more concerned if I did not know the gm well. He usually gives a lot a loot. Since before joining this he used to confide with me about loot and if it would be helpful for the party and his worries it would'nt be.

I get the reason for the guidelines but it really kills my feat selection which reduces material cost. This is mainly so I could keep up with the spheres of power crafting rules.