Gold Per Encounter

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

I started on a better pricing scheme for bracers of armor but then realized that the reason behind the wonkiness of the official tables is that there is supposed to be a huge jump in the amount of gold characters are acquiring after level 20 versus before level 20. Well, I’m here to tell (and show) you that the huge jump is a myth. Yes, the “gp per encounter” number is higher at 21 than it was at 20, but not enough to justify “epic” magic items suddenly costing 10x as much. Epic items really aren’t all that epic, either, but that’s another post.

So I realized that before talking about bracers of armor, it was important to establish the budget PCs will have access to. Thus, the first progression to improve is the Treasure Values per Encounter table found on page 51 of the DMG 3.5 and Epic Treasure Values per Encounter on page 122 of the ELH.

Why?

The reason for doing this is simple… there’s no unified formula behind the official tables. I think there’s a hodgepodge of formulas used at different levels, but I don’t like hodgepodge. I like consistency. And in this particular case at least, I can approximate the hodgepodge fairly closely with a single formula that results in a smoother graph and —importantly for me— the peace of mind that comes from knowing how the numbers came to be in the table.

What’s the benefit to PCs?

More gold per encounter, from levels 7-18 and 25-40, and even when it’s slightly less from 18-24 it’s still very close. Overall, you’ll finish every level after 10 with slightly more gold using my table than you would have with the official tables.

What’s the benefit to NPCs (the DM)?

That means more gold for NPC gear too, which could mean they last longer against PCs and can put up more of a fight.

TL;DR

For any PC level:

(level cubed) x 0.11125 x 75 = gp per encounter.

Okay… hit me.

Part of the problem with deriving a formula was that the first several levels use an artificial lower limit of 300 gp per level.

I’ve wondered for a long time how they came up with the GP per encounter and “starting gold” numbers. It starts out easy— 300 gp per encounter at level 1, 600 at level 2, 900 at level 3, 1200 at level 4… character level, multiplied by 300 gp per encounter. I’m liking this. Then it goes to heck, ending up at 4,000 gp per encounter times the character level at level 20. And the rate at which this value improves is not continued at level 21 on the ELH table. That shoots down that idea.

Another problem, as you’ll notice on this graph, is that there’s a dimple… a rise in gold per level at 20. Note that while the gold per level is lower on my table, the total amount of gold you’ve acquired thus far is still higher at each level.

Then I thought maybe it’s based on XP rather than directly on level. Well, it’s not —at least not strictly— but that does provide the starting point for my replacement table. At level 40, the ELH table says give the PCs 534,000 gp per encounter. First, I’ll state the obvious: that’s a ridiculous amount of gold. Moving on, it’s also exactly 178 times the XP value of an encounter at level 40. Right… XP per encounter x 178 = GP per encounter… at level 40. That’s definitely not true at lower levels. So where is this number coming from?

178 is close to 160. In fact, it’s 160 x 1.1125… which is a weird number but oddly specific, so I ran with it. I started with CL^2 / 10. This equals, for example, 10 at level 10, 40 at level 20, 90 at level 30, and 160 at level 40. Then I multiplied by the mystical 1.1125. This yields, as noted, 178 at level 40. That means at level 40 this calculation will give us exactly the 534,000 gp per encounter that the official rules suggest… cool!

However, it’s a fair point that most gaming groups are probably not playing at level 40, and my table is way off from levels 10-13. In those cases, though, my formula gives the PCs more gold than the official tables —11106 vs 7500 per encounter at level 11; that’s almost 150% of the official amount— and it also means that NPCs of those levels have a bigger budget for their gear which could make for tougher fights, so I doubt anyone will complain about that. Complaints are going to come at levels 1-6, where my formulas give the PCs much less gold per level than the official tables. So, to remove PC complaints, I tentatively suggest using the official tables through level 6, after which the players should be mostly happier with my numbers. The counterpoint is that my numbers are more realistic, even if they’re less fun… no DM in his right mind would give a trio of goblins (CR 1) 100 gold apiece worth of gear and coins. The 8 gold my formula comes up with for that encounter is a lot more reasonable.

Even using my calculations from the beginning, PCs will accumulate 10% more gold by the time they finish level 10, 7% more than the official tables by level 20, 4% more at level 30, and 5% more at level 40.

Level XP/E GP/E (official) GP/E (calc)
1 75 300 8
2 150 600 66
3 225 900 225
4 300 1200 534
5 375 1600 1042
6 450 2000 1802
7 525 2600 2861
8 600 3400 4272
9 675 4500 6082
10 750 5800 8343
11 825 7500 11105
12 900 9800 14418
13 975 13000 18331
14 1050 17000 22895
15 1125 22000 28160
16 1200 28000 34176
17 1275 36000 40992
18 1350 47000 48660
19 1425 61000 57229
20 1500 80000 66750
21 1575 77271
22 1650 88844
23 1725 101518
24 1800 115344
25 1875 130371
26 1950 146649
27 2025 164230
28 2100 183162
29 2175 203495
30 2250 225281
31 2325 248568
32 2400 273408
33 2475 299849
34 2550 327942
35 2625 357738
36 2700 389286
37 2775 422635
38 2850 457838
39 2925 494942
40 3000 534000

Where’s the rest of the table?

The GP per encounter numbers are available on the SRD up to level 20, but not after that point. I don’t know if it’s okay to list the values from the ELH or not, so I’m erring on the side of caution. I will say that from level 21 onward, if you compare the “total gold accrued so far” my values give between 100% and 106% of the numbers derived from the official table.

I know it weakens my case to not show the numbers from 21-40, because at level 20 I’m giving the PCs 17% less gold than the official table, but that changes at level 25… as you should see on the graph.

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