Pathfinder RPG Random Treasure Generator

[alphacentaurus]

Hi everyone!
As recommended by Prime32 I will create a thread here for my Pathfinder RPG Random Treasure Generator.
For those who don't know it yet it is a tool to help gamemasters speedup their game creation process.
Try it and give me your feedback!!

http://pathfinder.zonegamma.com

[veekie]

Ooo, handy. Pity I houseruled away random loot, but next game...maybe there can be some again.

[alphacentaurus]

Ooo, handy. Pity I houseruled away random loot, but next game...maybe there can be some again.

Think about random treasure as a surprise...even for you...the GM. Everything in a game should not be planned
Thanks for the comment!!

[veekie]

Naw, I like random loot, but the time involved in generating them every session gives some issues. So I just got them the items they specifically asked for.

[alphacentaurus]

Naw, I like random loot, but the time involved in generating them every session gives some issues. So I just got them the items they specifically asked for.

This is the only reason I created this tool. I don't have the time to generate them and I like to use my time for the story and NCPs. Anyway now you have the option to generate your treasures in seconds!

[Garryl]

Nice. This looks like a good job. I did notice that 3rd level/CL 5 arcane scrolls (at least for Rage and Fireball) are marked as being worth 372g instead of the expected 375g.

[alphacentaurus]

Nice. This looks like a good job. I did notice that 3rd level/CL 5 arcane scrolls (at least for Rage and Fireball) are marked as being worth 372g instead of the expected 375g.

You found an error ;p
it will be corrected today.
Thanks for the comment and your sense of observation!

[bkdubs123]

I like this, but it appears to never generate magical equipment such as enchanted weapons or magical armor.

The problems I'm seeing with the generator are 1) it generates WAY too many consumables and way too few lasting magical items, and 2) even at higher levels the chance to see a magical weapon generated seems to be worse than the chance to see a non-magical, non-masterwork weapon generated.

Those may not seem like big problems, but I assure you that they are.

[alphacentaurus]

I like this, but it appears to never generate magical equipment such as enchanted weapons or magical armor.

The problems I'm seeing with the generator are 1) it generates WAY too many consumables and way too few lasting magical items, and 2) even at higher levels the chance to see a magical weapon generated seems to be worse than the chance to see a non-magical, non-masterwork weapon generated.

Those may not seem like big problems, but I assure you that they are.

The results are mainly based on the Magic Level and the gp balance value.
It's normal to have many low magic objects and few powerful one.
If you check the tables in the GM's Guide you'll see the % of chance to have an item of a specific category.
The higher the gp balance value and the higher the magic level the more you'll have a chance to obtain a powerful item.

[bkdubs123]

It's normal to have many low magic objects and few powerful one.

Yes, that would be normal. But I ran the generator at least 50 times and the pattern I was seeing was that roughly 1/10 challenging encounters at the highest magic level maybe had a powerful item and usually that powerful item was a one-off consumable, like an expensive scroll. 9/10 of those encounters dropped low level potions and scrolls and a small pile of mundane gear that doesn't even matter. This was consistent throughout levels 3-15 (I didn't test higher or lower than that).

But maybe I'm misunderstanding the purpose of this generator. If it's not supposed to generate a party's Expected Wealth by Level, then this is probably not a problem.

EDIT: I found that if I adjust the settings to Epic difficulty, Fast pace, Triple treasure, Standard magic level, and 34% residual value, I arrive near enough at expected party Wealth by Level guidelines (a little higher than normal, but I'd assign a figure close to 10% that appears to be treasure of such negligible value comparative to character level that players would probably leave it where it lies). Again, this would seem to be a problem, but only if this generator is meant to generate the party's Expected Wealth by Level. If it's not meant to do that, then it's not an issue.

The higher the gp balance value and the higher the magic level the more you'll have a chance to obtain a powerful item.

I'm not seeing any "GP balance value" anywhere. If users could tweak the GP balance value of the simulated encounter that would probably help.

EDIT: Another thing I noticed was that the value in coins is severely messed up. I don't know how the conversion could even get this screwed up but 1 Platinum = 10 Gold, 1 Gold = 10 Silver, and 1 Silver = 10 Copper. Right now, it's telling me that 881 PP = 8817.9 GP and that 3399 GP = 3391.5 GP. What??

[alphacentaurus]

It's normal to have many low magic objects and few powerful one.

Yes, that would be normal. But I ran the generator at least 50 times and the pattern I was seeing was that roughly 1/10 challenging encounters at the highest magic level maybe had a powerful item and usually that powerful item was a one-off consumable, like an expensive scroll. 9/10 of those encounters dropped low level potions and scrolls and a small pile of mundane gear that doesn't even matter. This was consistent throughout levels 3-15 (I didn't test higher or lower than that).

But maybe I'm misunderstanding the purpose of this generator. If it's not supposed to generate a party's Expected Wealth by Level, then this is probably not a problem.

EDIT: I found that if I adjust the settings to Epic difficulty, Fast pace, Triple treasure, Standard magic level, and 34% residual value, I arrive near enough at expected party Wealth by Level guidelines (a little higher than normal, but I'd assign a figure close to 10% that appears to be treasure of such negligible value comparative to character level that players would probably leave it where it lies). Again, this would seem to be a problem, but only if this generator is meant to generate the party's Expected Wealth by Level. If it's not meant to do that, then it's not an issue.

The higher the gp balance value and the higher the magic level the more you'll have a chance to obtain a powerful item.

I'm not seeing any "GP balance value" anywhere. If users could tweak the GP balance value of the simulated encounter that would probably help.

EDIT: Another thing I noticed was that the value in coins is severely messed up. I don't know how the conversion could even get this screwed up but 1 Platinum = 10 Gold, 1 Gold = 10 Silver, and 1 Silver = 10 Copper. Right now, it's telling me that 881 PP = 8817.9 GP and that 3399 GP = 3391.5 GP. What??

First of all the main goal of the generator is to automate the process given in the GM's Guide...nothing more.
It is using the rules as seen in the books for the value of the treasure....and yes it is proportional to the level of the characters and encounter difficulty.

By the way the Wealth by Level is for the total possession of a character not for an encounter.

The only thing I customized compared to the original process is to use the Minor, Medium or Major column if the user selects Low, Standard or High magic level. If the balance becomes too low then I switch to a lower magic level.

For the coins...I'll give an example and explain:

Coins Breakdown
30% (63.6gp) pp: 6
45% (95.4gp) gp: 99
20% (42.4gp) sp: 420
5% (10.6gp) cp: 1100

Treasure Value: Treasure(3825gp) + Gems and Jewels(213gp) + Coins(212gp) = 4250gp

In this result of 212gp value there is 30% of the value in pp...so approx 63.6gp = 6pp...the balance passes to gp category since you can't have fractions of pp...and so on for the other categories.

For the GP balance...it is an internal value that decreases when we add "legal" treasures to the result...the only thing you can do is to fix the initial balance with the option "Fixed Treasure Value" in step 9 but this would bypass all the parameters set from step 1 to 7.

thanks for the feedback. don't hesitate to ask some other questions.