# Starting wealth for higher levels?



## avin (Aug 7, 2008)

Hi folks, sorry if this has been asked before: is there any official rule about starting wealth for higher level players?

I'm gonna run a 4ED test campaign and players will be level five.

How much gold should they have?


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## Thasmodious (Aug 7, 2008)

Yeah, there is.  I forget what page it's on in the DMG, but it's easy to remember.  Characters above 1st get - 

1 item of -lvl- +1
1 item of -lvl-
1 item of -lvl- -1
and gold equal to the value of an item of lvl -1 to spend on other things.

So a 4th lvl character would get a 5th, 4th and 3rd lvl item of their choice and 680 gp.

Edit: I missed that you were starting at 5th, so in that case, it would obviously be a 6th,5th,4th lvl items and 4th lvl gold is 840gp.  And it's page 143 in the DMG.


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## avin (Aug 7, 2008)

Thank you Thasmodious, I will check as soon as I get home.


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## Verision (Aug 7, 2008)

Just a note on starting gold above 1st level: 
It doesn't really work well for lower level characters. If you compare what a character of 2nd level gets when you use the rules for making higher level PCs to what a PC of 2nd level should have from the 'treasure parcels' that the PCs accumulate, then you will notice that the "made" PC has more gold than the "grown" PC. (See below for proof)

Example:
A 2nd level character gets:

1, 3rd level magic item: 680 gp
1, 2nd level magic item: 520 gp
1, 1st level magic item: 360 gp
Gold = 1st level magic item: 360 gp

For a total of: 1920 gp
(Source: pg 223 PHB for magic item prices, and pg 143 of DMG for Starting at higher levels)

The treasure parcels for a group of 1st level PCs is:

1. Magic item, level 5: 1000 gp
2. Magic item, level 4: 840 gp
3. Magic item, level 3: 680 gp
4. Magic item, level 2: 520 gp
5. 200 gp
6. 180 gp
7. 120 gp
8. 120 gp
9. 60 gp
10. 40 gp

For a total of: 3760 gp (This is for a group of 5, 1st level PCs)
Total per PC: 3760/5 = 752 gp
(Source: pg 126 DMG for treasure parcels, pg 223 PHB for magic item prices)

So, compare 1920 gp to 752 gp. Pretty big discrepancy, eh?


Now, if you are starting a new game and the PCs are all starting at the same level (which, I gather, is what you are doing) then this discepancy doesn't really matter (since all the PCs have the same amount of money anyway). BUT, if you are trying to bring a new player into a campaign that is already started, you may want to tally up the money/equipment the other PCs have and use that as the starting gold for the new PC.

NOTE: I do not know if this type of discrepancy exists at all levels as I have only done the math for a 2nd level character (I'm a DM and one of my friends asked to join the 4e ed game that I was running. I thought that the starting gold was too high, so I did these calculations). It may be fine at 5th level for all I know.


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## Jhaelen (Aug 8, 2008)

Verision said:


> I thought that the starting gold was too high, so I did these calculations). It may be fine at 5th level for all I know.



The proposed system really only starts to work at level 5 and up. Before that the players get more than they should.

Since the price progression for magic items includes a 'bump' after every 5 levels, there's also a slight bump every five levels when using the system for npc wealth. It's probably not significant enough to be worth the effort of adjusting the rules.


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## Verision (Aug 8, 2008)

*5th level*

Gold Equivalent for creating a 5th level character
1, 6th level magic item: 1800 gp
1, 5th level magic item: 1000 gp
1, 4th level magic item: 840 gp
Gold = 4th level magic item: 840gp 
For a total of 4480 gp

Gold recieved by a character through treasure parcels leveling up to 5th level 

1st level
1. Magic item, level 5: 1000 gp
2. Magic item, level 4: 840 gp
3. Magic item, level 3: 680 gp
4. Magic item, level 2: 520 gp
5. 200 gp
6. 180 gp
7. 120 gp
8. 120 gp
9. 60 gp
10. 40 gp

Total: 3760 gp 
Total per PC: 3760/5 = 752 gp

2nd level
1. Magic item, level 6: 1800 gp
2. Magic item, level 5: 1000 gp 
3. Magic item, level 4: 840 gp
4. Magic item, level 3: 680 gp
5. 290 gp
6. 260 gp
7. 170 gp
8. 170 gp
9. 90 gp
10. 60 gp

Total: 5360 gp
Total per PC: 1072 gp

3rd level
1. Magic item, level 7: 2600 gp
2. Magic item, level 6: 1800 gp
3. Magic item, level 5: 1000 gp
4. Magic item, level 4: 840 gp
5. 380 gp
6. 340 gp
7. 225 gp
8. 225 gp
9. 110 gp
10. 75 gp

Total: 7595 gp
Total per PC: 1519 gp

4th level
1. Magic item, level 8: 3400 gp
2. Magic item, level 7: 2600 gp
3. Magic item, level 6: 1800 gp
4. Magic item, level 5: 1000 gp
5. 470 gp
6. 420 gp
7. 280 gp
8. 280 gp
9. 140 gp
10. 90 gp
Total: 10480 gp
Total per PC: 2096 gp

Overall Total: 27195
Overall Total per PC: 5439


So, if you create a 5th level PC, they get 4480 gp worth of gold and magic items. If you play a 1st level character up to 5th level, then they should have 5439 gp. Hmmm. That's almost a thousand in difference, and this time it's the "grown" PC that has more money than the "made" PC. I guess that's fine though, since a PC is likely to spend a portion of their money on items/services, so their wealth is probably slightly decreased by the time they actually reach 5th level.


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