Expedition Rewards

Standardizing rewards is important to preserve the longevity of the game as well as allow scarcity to exist so that exploration and crafting stay attractive to players. Pathfinder 2e offers a Treasure by Level outline that we base our math off of.

Budgeting an Expedition

Wealth by Level Chart

Let's take a hypothetical situation. You want to run an Expedition for a party of 5 level 6 characters.

Refer to the table for Total Value of a level 6 party of four - 2000gp. This is the gold budget for the entire level. To get the budget for a single session we divide this number again by 4, which is the targeted number of sessions required to reach a new level. This results in a budget of 500gp per session. If we wanted to find the budget per player, we would divide this number again by 4, resulting in a gold budget of 125gp per player.

This budget is used to decide which items and wealth you reward. Try to include formulas in your rewards as well. Many items will only be widely available through player crafting.

For your reference, this is the per-player, per session gold/wealth budget guideline. If you had a party of 6 level 5s, you would multiply the value for level 5 (84.38) x 6.

Trainee
level 1: 10.94
level 2: 18.75
level 3: 31.25
level 4: 53.13

Expert
level 5: 84.38
level 6: 125
level 7: 181.25
level 8: 250
level 9: 356.25

Master
level 10: 500
level 11: 718.75
level 12: 1031.25
level 13: 1562.5
level 14: 2281.25

Legend
level 15: 3406.25
level 16: 5156.25
level 17: 8000
level 18: 13000
level 19: 22187.5
level 20: 30625

Extraordinary Rewards

Some rewards are too grand to be rewarded in organized mass play. Things such as epic boons, castles, ships, or incredibly powerful consumable items must be treated with care to not upset the balance of a character in relation to their peers. However, the roleplay opportunity for many of these rewards may greatly outweigh the risks - and thus are worth setting guidelines for instead of banning them.

Establishments, vessels, and other large monetary investments

Things such as manors, castles, towers, ships, lavish carriages, temples, or any other asset that could fall under large monetary investments that require a wealth investment beyond the capabilities of lone adventurers.

• The asset when unattended by a character is considered profit neutral. They earn just enough for regular operational upkeep. This means retainers and caretakers for a manor, crew and maintenance for a ship, or any other regular staff or expenses that come with the asset.
• The asset can be used as a tool or avenue within sessions at the storytellers discretion. A nearby character owned castle may be able to temporarily house refugees from a mission in a town nearby, or a ship may be used to transport the party to an island where an expedition takes place.
• The asset may provide some effects on the character usable through normal play. This should be treated as comparable to a Magic Item reward and may require Item Approval.
• Upgrades and improvements towards the asset may be possible as determined by the rewarding storyteller. This may include improvements to any features associated with the asset. Any modification to an existing effect falls under the Magical Item reward rules and may require Item Approval.
• An asset may be jointly owned by multiple characters. Any effects similar to a Magical Item granted to multiple characters must be categorized as separate but similar items for the sake of Item Approval.

Incredibly Powerful Consumables

Some consumables may be on the level of strength that a Magic Item may give throughout the entire lifetime in the game, such as an 8th level spell scroll. While these items are not permanent they would still require Item Approval. It would be good practice to limit the flexibility of such items in favor of fulfilling a specific niche or being most useful in situations that require creative thinking and good planning. Try to think of how the item may remove challenges other storytellers would want to use as plot points in future sessions, and notate that in your Item Approval so all other storytellers can be made aware of the possibility of said item being used.

Boons

Boons granted by powerful magical entities such as the divine, archfey, elder liches, or demon lords are are granted to a single character or group of characters and cannot be transferred. Boons may have conditionals attached to them that when not met cause the temporary or permanent loss of the boon, or the boon may be temporary.