Treasure in Expedition to Castle Ravenloft

[othaero]

So this is my first time really DMing. Im having my party start at 5th lvl with 4th lvl WBL for more of a challenge and the fact i have 2 known optimizers. I'm just curious about when i should start dropping better items for them so they dont feel stuck or held back.

[Venger]

So this is my first time really DMing. Im having my party start at 5th lvl with 4th lvl WBL for more of a challenge and the fact i have 2 known optimizers. I'm just curious about when i should start dropping better items for them so they dont feel stuck or held back.

Just go with RAW treasure encounter tables for Ravenloft in addition to specific items. if anything, I'd throw in something every now and then for an encounter level. there are a fair amount of undead with no treasure. do you have a generator you like? the srd one isn't bad. mythweavers is solid as well to save you some time.

[Waazraath]

I considered it as a part of the challenge off Expedition to Castle Ravenloft that its a campaign without an ´ye olde magick shop´. The campaign has a few quite powerful custom items, with a lot of flavour. For the rest, there is the random treasure that suffices. I wouldn´t ´start dropping better items´, least of all because of two optimizers in the party. Part of the fun of optimizing (at least imo) is optimizing against challenging circumstances (in this case: loads of undead and no magic items available at will). I'd let the players know that there are little opportunities to buy items in the campaign, and let them work around that (plenty of feats and classes that can compensate for that). Anyhow, I don't see how not handing out good items is 'holding back' the players.

[sleepyphoenixx]

I considered it as a part of the challenge off Expedition to Castle Ravenloft that its a campaign without an ´ye olde magick shop´. The campaign has a few quite powerful custom items, with a lot of flavour. For the rest, there is the random treasure that suffices. I wouldn´t ´start dropping better items´, least of all because of two optimizers in the party. Part of the fun of optimizing (at least imo) is optimizing against challenging circumstances (in this case: loads of undead and no magic items available at will). I'd let the players know that there are little opportunities to buy items in the campaign, and let them work around that (plenty of feats and classes that can compensate for that). Anyhow, I don't see how not handing out good items is 'holding back' the players.

It's pretty simple actually. A certain standard of equipment is assumed by the game. If you give significantly less than that your players will be weaker than the encounters assume, and some encounters may be impossible because your players are lacking an expected counter to a monster ability (like incorporeality, some special DR, flight).
Now, some classes can compensate for that, but those classes are all full casters. You're punishing any player who wants to play a non-caster by withholding items he needs to function.

I'm not saying that you have to give your players full access to any magic item they might want, but you should be familiar with necessary abilities and at what levels the game expects them, and then make those available in some form to your players. Unless they're all full casters, of course.

[Waazraath]

It's pretty simple actually. A certain standard of equipment is assumed by the game. If you give significantly less than that your players will be weaker than the encounters assume, and some encounters may be impossible because your players are lacking an expected counter to a monster ability (like incorporeality, some special DR, flight).
Now, some classes can compensate for that, but those classes are all full casters. You're punishing any player who wants to play a non-caster by withholding items he needs to function.

I'm not saying that you have to give your players full access to any magic item they might want, but you should be familiar with necessary abilities and at what levels the game expects them, and then make those available in some form to your players. Unless they're all full casters, of course.

EH, yeah, obviously, I think you misunderstand what I tried to say. Of course there is an expected WBL. But the random treasure tables should cover for that. And, as I said, EtCR has quite powerful equipment written into the adventure. I read the OP as though he feels the need to drop powerful extra items on top of that to accomodate optimisers in the party, which strikes me as unneeded, and a bad idea (for several reasons).

[sleepyphoenixx]

EH, yeah, obviously, I think you misunderstand what I tried to say. Of course there is an expected WBL. But the random treasure tables should cover for that. And, as I said, EtCR has quite powerful equipment written into the adventure. I read the OP as though he feels the need to drop powerful extra items on top of that to accomodate optimisers in the party, which strikes me as unneeded, and a bad idea (for several reasons).

Ah yes, i misunderstood that one. In that case i have to agree with you, too much treasure is just as bad as too little.
Maybe fudge the random treasure rolls a bit for the the non-optimizers if they fall behind too far, but that's all i'd do.