[3.5] Wealth-By-Level Question

[Crow]

If a character comes across a Tome of Understanding or something of that nature at around level 14 and uses it to gain a +1 inherant bonus to his stat, does that tome still count against his wealth by level at later stages of his career? Like when he gets to level 17, should I make sure that his wealth is close to where it should be minus the cost of that tome?

What about consumables like scrolls, potions, and wands which have been expended? Should those count against WBL at later stages of the character's career as well?

[Reinboom]

The calculations are based on what the characters make up in wealth would be at that point.
Which... is very interpretative.
Personally, I take this as showing permanent current statistics (discounting past things that are no longer static/applying).
For example, the stat bonus by Tome, if replaced, I wouldn't count it.


Potions and charge Wands I tend to try to enforce a separate 'party fund' for.

[Douglas]

A Tome of Understanding is not really an expendable item, it is a permanent item that cannot be transferred once someone goes through the process required to actually benefit from it. As long as he still has the inherent bonus from it and it hasn't been superseded, it still counts.

WBL assumes a certain amount of expendables gets used and does not count them. Expendable items that he still has and has not yet used do count, but expended items do not. For an idea of what the expected rate of use is, look at the chart on page 54 (I think) of the DMG and note the difference between the treasure from encounters column and the expected wealth gain column.

[Reinboom]

A Tome of Understanding is not really an expendable item, it is a permanent item that cannot be transferred once someone goes through the process required to actually benefit from it. As long as he still has the inherent bonus from it and it hasn't been superseded, it still counts.

I believe the question isn't on whether a Tome of Understanding that is currently in effect counts or not, but:
Player uses Tome +1. Has a +1 bonus.
Player uses Tome +2, which costs significantly more. Has a +2 bonus since they do not stack.

The Tome +1 is doing nothing now. No bonuses are coming from it. Thus, it changes to 'expended'.

[Starbuck_II]

A Tome of Understanding is not really an expendable item, it is a permanent item that cannot be transferred once someone goes through the process required to actually benefit from it. As long as he still has the inherent bonus from it and it hasn't been superseded, it still counts

Although, what happens if you have a Tomb +1 and then another Tomb +2 later:
By using the +1 and not selling it and waiting for a +2 you'll forever be behind if if tombs count against it.

After all, The tomb will overlap not Stack. Personally, Tombs should stack (since based on Wish). After all 5 +1's cost the same as 1 +5.

[Zeful]

If a character comes across a Tome of Understanding or something of that nature at around level 14 and uses it to gain a +1 inherant bonus to his stat, does that tome still count against his wealth by level at later stages of his career? Like when he gets to level 17, should I make sure that his wealth is close to where it should be minus the cost of that tome?

Yes, if he still has the +1 to wisdom by level 17, you should count the tome's cost against his WBL. If he lost it by level 17 you shouldn't count the tome's cost.

What about consumables like scrolls, potions, and wands which have been expended? Should those count against WBL at later stages of the character's career as well?

Well you could find that table in the DMG (I'm away from my books so I can't tell you the page number.) that shows the "extra" gold a group would get if you followed the recommendations exactly, and if the cost of the consumable in question is less than that number then don't count it.

[Zherog]

After all, The tomb will overlap not Stack. Personally, Tombs should stack (since based on Wish). After all 5 +1's cost the same as 1 +5.

I agree, and houserule it as such in my games.

[Curmudgeon]

Wealth by Level should be used for only one thing: creating a character above 1st level. You should never refer to that table again.

Your job as a DM, wealth-wise, is to see that you make available the "Treasure per Character" amount from the "WEALTH COMPARISONS" table on page 54 of the DMG. That's it. All decisions on what they do with that wealth should be handled by the PCs.

Micro-managing what each character has in wealth is just a really bad idea. Are you going to force wealth on a character who has taken Vow of Poverty? Send a thief to steal stuff from the character who's always the point man for the party, when party members give them a bigger share for better gear to survive? Reward someone who sunders all the magical weapons they see by magically generating each weapon's value in gems when it's destroyed?

Don't do it.

[Keld Denar]

I agree, and houserule it as such in my games.

I agree as well. I mean, its technically a waste of money to buy anything less than a +5, since its eventually gonna get overwritten. So you wait to buy it until you can really afford it and then suddenly get a huge boost in potency. Alternatively, if the players aquires tomes at a rate of say...1 per 2 levels past 10, then it would be a more gradual boost in power which would be more fluid, rather than the dramatic power spike.

Then again, I typically don't play much above 15 where anything other than a +1 is rather unwieldly expensive. But if I did...

[Eldariel]

Well, you aren't gonna get +5 to anything but your main stat so +1, +2 and so on have their uses for auxillary stats you only need small buffs for.

[ericgrau]

If a character comes across a Tome of Understanding or something of that nature at around level 14 and uses it to gain a +1 inherant bonus to his stat, does that tome still count against his wealth by level at later stages of his career? Like when he gets to level 17, should I make sure that his wealth is close to where it should be minus the cost of that tome?

Yes.

What about consumables like scrolls, potions, and wands which have been expended? Should those count against WBL at later stages of the character's career as well?

No.

However, I like Curmudgeon's method better. Just use the above for character creation.

[MickJay]

Some DMs simply make players have the "appropriate" WBL regardless of how much of it they used and of what actions they took. Doesn't matter how many potions, scrolls, wands have been used, no matter how many magical objects have been sundered, the players will always have their WBL. Which introduces huge dose of metagaming and practically makes players stop caring about the expenses and loot and lacks any sort of realism when economy is concerned.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Some DMs simply make players have the "appropriate" WBL regardless of how much of it they used and of what actions they took. Doesn't matter how many potions, scrolls, wands have been used, no matter how many magical objects have been sundered, the players will always have their WBL. Which introduces huge dose of metagaming and practically makes players stop caring about the expenses and loot and lacks any sort of realism when economy is concerned.

Also, nerfs Artificers.

[monty]

Also, nerfs Artificers.

I <3 my triple wealth. Don't take that away from me!