Treasure for New Characters

When your new campaign starts at a higher level, a new player joins an existing group, or a current player’s character dies and they need a new one, your campaign will have one or more PCs who don’t start at 1st level. In these cases, refer to Table 10–10: Character Wealth on the next page, which shows how many common permanent items of various levels the PC should have, in addition to currency. A single item on this table is always a baseline item. If the player wants armor or a weapon with property runes, they must buy the property runes separately, and for armor or a weapon made of a precious material, they must pay for the precious material separately as well.

Table 10–10: Character Wealth

Level	Permanent Items	Currency	Lump Sum
1	—	15 gp	15 gp
2	1st: 1	20 gp	30 gp
3	2nd: 1, 1st: 2	25 gp	75 gp
4	3rd: 1, 2nd: 2, 1st: 1	30 gp	140 gp
5	4th: 1, 3rd: 2, 2nd: 1, 1st: 2	50 gp	270 gp
6	5th: 1, 4th: 2, 3rd: 1, 2nd: 2	80 gp	450 gp
7	6th: 1, 5th: 2, 4th: 1, 3rd: 2	125 gp	720 gp
8	7th: 1, 6th: 2, 5th: 1, 4th: 2	180 gp	1,100 gp
9	8th: 1, 7th: 2, 6th: 1, 5th: 2	250 gp	1,600 gp
10	9th: 1, 8th: 2, 7th: 1, 6th: 2	350 gp	2,300 gp
11	10th: 1, 9th: 2, 8th: 1, 7th: 2	500 gp	3,200 gp
12	11th: 1, 10th: 2, 9th: 1, 8th: 2	700 gp	4,500 gp
13	12th: 1, 11th: 2, 10th: 1, 9th: 2	1,000 gp	6,400 gp
14	13th: 1, 12th: 2, 11th: 1, 10th: 2	1,500 gp	9,300 gp
15	14th: 1, 13th: 2, 12th: 1, 11th: 2	2,250 gp	13,500 gp
16	15th: 1, 14th: 2, 13th: 1, 12th: 2	3,250 gp	20,000 gp
17	16th: 1, 15th: 2, 14th: 1, 13th: 2	5,000 gp	30,000 gp
18	17th: 1, 16th: 2, 15th: 1, 14th: 2	7,500 gp	45,000 gp
19	18th: 1, 17th: 2, 16th: 1, 15th: 2	12,000 gp	69,000 gp
20	19th: 1, 18th: 2, 17th: 1, 16th: 2	20,000 gp	112,000 gp

These values are for a PC just starting out at the given level. If the PC is joining a party that has already made progress toward the next level, consider giving the new character an additional item of their current level. If your party has kept the treasure of dead or retired PCs and passed it on to new characters, you might need to give the new character less than the values on the table or reduce some of the treasure rewards of the next few adventures.

Item Selection

You should work with the new character’s player to decide which items their character has. Allow the player to make suggestions, and if they know what items they want their character to have, respect their choices unless you believe those choices will have a negative impact on your game. At your discretion, you can grant the player character uncommon or rare items that fit their backstory and concept, keeping in mind how many items of those rarities you have introduced into your game. The player can also spend currency on consumables or lower-level permanent items, keeping the rest as coinage. As usual, you determine which items the character can find for purchase.

A PC can voluntarily choose an item that has a lower level than any or all of the listed items, but they don’t gain any more currency by doing so.

If you choose, you can allow the player to instead start with a lump sum of currency and buy whatever common items they want, with a maximum item level of 1 lower than the character’s level. This has a lower total value than the normal allotment of permanent items and currency, since the player can select a higher ratio of high-level items.