ZEITGEIST Stipends and Pathfinder Wealth by Level

[Meigeall]

Did a quick run through of the books to see about the stipends versus Pathfinder wealth by level (WBL). Thinking about modifying the rewards as follows:

Spoiler

#1 Island at the Axis of the World
1st level, beginning of the book
(1000 modified / 1000 original)
2nd level, end of the book

#2 Dying Skyseer
(2000 m. / 1500 o.)
3rd level, after Smugglers Night, Factory Aflame, A Weight of Crumbling Stone
(3000 m. / 2500 o.)
4th level, end of the book

#3 Digging for Lies
(2000 m. / 2500 o.)
(2500 m. / 2500 o.)
5th level, after 2nd act
(5500 m. / 3000 o.)
6th level, end of the book

#4 Always on Time
(7500 m. / 6000 o.)
7th level, end of the book

#5 Cauldron-Born
(9500 m. / 9500 o.)
8th level, after 2/3 of 1st act
(13000 m. / 13000 o.)
9th level, end of the book

#6 Revelations from the Mouth of a Madman
(16000 m. / 16000 o.)
10th level, after Bruse's game
(20000 m. / 20000 o.)
11th level, end of the book

#7 Schism
(26000 m. / 26000 o.)
12th level, after Knutpara
(32000 m. / 32000 o.)
13th level, end of the book

#8 Diaspora
(45000 m. / 60000 o.)
14th level, before Methia
15th level, end of the book

#9 The Last Starry Sky
(55000 m. / 55000 o.)
16th level, before Flint
(75000 m. / 75000 o.)
17th level, end of the book

#10 Godmind
(95000 m. / 95000 o.)
18th level, after 1st act
19th level, end of the book

#11 Gorged on Ruins
(120000 m. / 110000 o.)
20th level, end of the book

#12 The Grinding Gears
(155000 m. / 155000 o.)
#13 Avatar of Revolution
(195000 m. / 195000 o.)

The modifications are essentially shifting some wealth from book 8 to books 2, 3, 4, with a small addition to book 11.

I noticed as well that the pacing of rewards changes around level 16 (along with a major plot change, of course), but rather than having the WBL when the players level up, they access more funds sometime after leveling up, and the 20th level wealth is spread out over books 12 and 13 (which is probably for the best)

For those that have already run this:
1. Is this even worth worrying about, or is it a non-issue?
2. Did the change in pace at later levels cause any problems?
3. Does the loot the players can get after level 16 dramatically change the necessary rewards?

 

[Andrew Moreton]

I ran with WBL , I did not really look at the stipends just let each PC have WBL , however if I knew the level up would occure when it was difficult to justify them getting new gear I gave the extra gear a bit early or late depending on circumstances.
Later loot made no difference for me except for cool items they just did not track it and aquired the QBL on schedule. I made an exception and allowed as editions some of the cool items/artefacts so the Queen kept the swords of Ssramma all the way through as she was an Eladrin Vekeshi
But son't worry about it too much at high level the characters are crazy anyway so the gear is not a big problem. As usual for published AP's I upgraded pretty neraly every npc to make the fights more fun. Of note the campaign set up gives lots of fights when the players know they will not have another major combat soon and they can Nova so you need to push those fights a bit

I have either Herolab files or PDF's of most upgrades available if it is of interest

 

[Deathwyrm]

Requisition/stipends has not been an issue so far (nearly done book 7), but I've also just let them have wealth by level subtract the previous level of GP and call that their salary and incentive not to be murderhobos.

1st level, everyone started with 240gp. That represented cash on hand, float for bribes, and they could spend it on equipment through an RHC quartermaster NPC. At 2nd level between assignments, they receive 760gp (1,000gp as recommended for level 2 characters, minus level 1 starting gp) as their payment. If they need magical items, they can make a request through the quartermaster and have it approved depending on cost and intention for mission ("Kindly explain why this requisition form you submitted requests an Assassin's Dagger?"). If they want to keep any loot found during the mission, they have to declare it by the end of mission and pay for it, or turn it over as evidence. Keeping it without it declaring is considered stealing evidence and there are consequences if they are caught doing so.

I haven't reached the point where the PCs are level 16 and represent a royal court backed with the treasury of a nation to fund their heroics, but the scale of the story has made sense for their ever increasing amount of funding. They used to be street cops, until they became national investigators, then international spies. As they got promoted and the scope of the investigation got more serious, credit limits got increased provided they could provide actionable intelligence from their mission.

Either way, it's not too much to really worry about and even if you're fortunate enough to have PCs that reach level 16, by then things are crazy enough that you may as well let them have some fun with the loot and rewards.

 

[Andrew Moreton]

We just abstracted WBL as requisistion, new equipment, mad science projects etc and it works fine . No one asked me for anything not suitable. Silly like Mithril waffle irons, Multi-barrelled rocket launchers and Cannon sized rifles but not unreasonable.
I also started the pc's at level 2 as level 1 was too squishy for me so I gave them all 1000gp of gear. I also after about level 7 stop tracking anything except magical and steampunk gear as being too cheap to track.
The absurdist web (MVP of the campaign), Swords of Ssramma, the Fish hook and other artefacts I did not count against the stipend, the absurdist web should have been a huge chunk of their WBL as it solved more problems than anything else

Looking at your notes as no gear carries over from EP12 to EP 13 , give them all their WBL at the end of book 11 and if they pick anything else up after that let them use it for that split of the character . (I kept copies of the character sheets before the Gyre for when we snapped back)