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blue_fenix
2008-01-07, 09:50 PM
When buying stuff for a D&D3.5 character with the Use Magic Device skill, how much of your Wealth By Level, percentage-wise, do you spend on scrolls and wands? I know UMD rogues often use wands of touch attack damage spells as their primary source of damage, but what should the spending habits of, say, a warlock be? How much does it depend on whether there's a full caster in the party? How much does it vary based on whether you're building a character or buying as the game goes on?

RandomFellow
2008-01-07, 11:49 PM
When buying stuff for a D&D3.5 character with the Use Magic Device skill, how much of your Wealth By Level, percentage-wise, do you spend on scrolls and wands? I know UMD rogues often use wands of touch attack damage spells as their primary source of damage, but what should the spending habits of, say, a warlock be? How much does it depend on whether there's a full caster in the party? How much does it vary based on whether you're building a character or buying as the game goes on?

If you have a melee cleric (or just one who hates healing people) get a Wand of Cure Light Wounds.

Otherwise, do batman...but with scrolls. Use only when absolutely necessary.

Using alot of consumables is expensive.

mabriss lethe
2008-01-08, 03:30 AM
not much of a help, but shop for the lowest level spells that can accomplish the job in the quantity needed. Anything that doesn't require a save, try to find a cheaper version of it. Limited utility or high level? go for scrolls. otherwise wands are far more GP friendly.

mostlyharmful
2008-01-08, 05:06 AM
I started a thread on this a while ago and I've been thinking about it and testing with NPCs and my guineapig group. somewhere around 10% for a noncaster, about 25% for a caster at lower to mid levels seems to fit for me at least, casters are a lot more forgiving of having less stuff and a lot more rewarding of one shot versatility. Once you push up past this sort of proportion of WBL the DM has trouble reimbursing you the gp you blow through per enconter and your PC starts lagging behind on the essentials the game assumes you have.

If you let PCs have a higher percentage of their WBL they'll be able to blow through one or two encounters easily and then be stumped, the tricky balencing actually comes in how fast you let them climb back to their intended level of equipment. The faster the re-equip the easier it is to get the game back on track and to let the characters have short term fun but the less they value what they have and the more likely they are to nova their money next time. A caster can nova and then rest everyday but it seems daft to have a PC blow through expendables everyday so how much treasure you want them to find and how easy it is in your world to convert what they find into what they want to use to blow the opposition away is up to you.

Oh, and completely ignore the "treasure per encounter" and "expected wealth gain" tables in the DMG for they are silly and not to be talked of.:smallfurious:

Tormsskull
2008-01-08, 07:44 AM
Oh, and completely ignore the "treasure per encounter" and "expected wealth gain" tables in the DMG for they are silly and not to be talked of.:smallfurious:

So, to expand on this. :smalltongue:

I think the more important question is to the DM of the group (or DMs in general). Do DMs try to make sure each character is around the recommended WBL guidlines at each level? Or do they give out approximately that much money and then whatever the characters do with it, that's up to them?

I mean, if you take a level 1 character focusing on UMD, no starting magic items or whatnot, and then build him up to level 5 through play, acrueing the recommended WBL, and spending some of his wealth on wands/scrolls, and compare it against someone who simply builds a character at level 5, the character built at level 5 will have more magic items or gear (because he'll have the full level 5 WBL amount of gear).

This seems to imply that a character who spends money on expendable items is really shooting himself in the foot in the long run.

So once again, the more important question is how does the DM handle wealth distribution. Personally I give money somewhat close to the WBL, in various pieces of gear, coin, art objects, jewelry, etc. Then the PCs decide how they want to divide it up. I don't adjust for used expendable items.

So, under my system, a character using expendable items as one of their main strategies of handling encounters would be wise to try to get the other party members to chip in for the cost of the items.

Duke of URL
2008-01-08, 08:29 AM
but what should the spending habits of, say, a warlock be?

I'd say go wild. With Deceive Item and enough ranks in UMD (and/or a high CHA) you can pretty much activate any device you can get your hands on.

There really isn't much else in the way of equipment a (non-melee) Warlock needs -- I find them, especially at higher levels, to be not particularly dependent on other items. You'll want AC, skill, and ability boosters, and that's about it.

Since a Warlock's invocations are very limited, select items that cover those areas your invocations don't, such as wands and scrolls of cure and utility spells and the like. Direct damage generally makes little sense (you have unlimited invocations, right?), but one or two wands of no SR non-acid damage type might be a handy backup when running into problems using Vitriolic Blast.

Other than that, choose your party role and equip accordingly. You probably won't be the primary anything, but you can be a very capable backup in a couple of different areas (healing, trap handling, etc.).