Don D.
said: # 1. I cant seem to find any rulings on players wanting to play monster races. That's entirely up to you, as the GM. A lot of it depends upon your campaign setting (playing a Bugbear in any setting but Eberron would be questionable and likely barred, for any game I ran) and how much you care about maintaining a given level of balance. The second factor is heavily influenced by the source of the given monster race (the stuff that's in the baseline Monster Manual varies pretty heavily; bugbears as listed there are broken as *hell*, as are the kobolds there). As a GM, you just have to adjudicate what sources you trust/want to allow. Generally, it means either the RPGA limitations (i.e. what D&D Insider allows), only published content (i.e. if it's in a book), or limitations to just the core books (i.e. PH, PH2, PH3). # 2 Somebody explain the treasure reward thing because it reads like stereo instructions. Treasure rewards in 4e are set up so as the be divvied out in given parcels, which is what is listed in the DMG. Essentially, you just have to give out all of the listed parcels, or equivalent value, to the party before the players hit the next level. # 3 When should I shovel out treasure & how much? Generally, you want to divvy out the parcels whenever it's appropriate. Killing a group of goblin scouts shouldn't provide a treasure parcel unless they're coming back from a very successful raid of some kind. Going through a goblin village and defeating its chieftain, on the other hand, would likely be worth reward *multiple* treasure parcels. As a decent rule of thumb, since it should take about 10 encounters (or encounter equivalents, like quest rewards and/or skill challenges) to get to the next level, you want to provide one treasure parcel for each encounter. If it's not appropriate to provide a parcel for a given encounter, just keep said parcel in reserve and reward it along with the rest of the reserve parcels whenever they finally complete an objective that would make sense to provide one or more treasure parcels. # 4. I really don't like the idea of dishing out magic items that are 3 or more lvs than the PCs is this the norm for 4th to hand out( Example 4th lv items at 1st lv PCs ) This is the norm for 4e. The "level" of the item is completely separate from the level of the play using said item. Players are expected to be able to receive gear of up to 4 levels above their current level since they're able to craft magic items (using the Enchant Magic Item ritual) of their level or lower. The higher level magic items are the "reward" for adventuring, and they're actually *expected* to be present as part of the balance progression inherent in the game. It should also be mentioned that a lot of the "levels" of magic items are applied in a largely arbitrary manner. A level 4 magic sword provides the same enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls as a level 1 magic sword except that it has some kind of passive or use functionality that makes it slightly better. For armors and weapons, the modulus 5 of the level is the more important attribute than the level itself since it represents the enhancement bonus. For everything else, it's pretty much an entirely arbitrary value assignment that only has a vague heuristic guideline to govern it. The best shield in the game, in my opinion, is a level 8 shield (Hammer Shield). I've had players in the epic tier continue to use one even though it's 15 levels below them. # 5. How do you go about adjusting and altering treasure but at the same t5ime being fair to your players & thier PCs? As long as you stick to the basic treasure parcel progression so that the players gain the items that they're *supposed* to have at the given level, you should be fine. Denying players magic weapons, armor, or amulets or only providing them with those that are below their level is specifically weakening the players relative to the content they're supposed to be facing. The bonuses they provide are explicitly factored into the progression of NPC defenses/damage/attacks. Personally, I'm not really a GM that enjoys doling out massive amounts of money to players, mainly because, once you start getting out of the middling heroic tier, you start having to give players the entire GNP of the kingdom they're currently saving in order to provide them with the proper gear progression. As such, I don't give out a lot of cash money. Instead, I provide either additional magical items equal to the gold that would otherwise be provided (which equates to a magic item of the players' level + 2, which means that the 5 treasure parcels I traditionally provide are a magic item of level +1, 2 of level + 2, 1 of level + 3, and 1 of level + 4) or non-monetary equivalents (residuum, ritual components, and consumables of equal value). As long as you provide the proper magic item progression and provide at least the monetary *equivalent* of what you're supposed to provide at that level, you'll be fine.
