SpiralWorlds Player’s Manual · Character Creation
Equipment & Starting Gear
Weapons · armour · tools · adventuring gear · money
Equipment turns the choices already made on your character sheet into practical capabilities. Record only gear your edition and character creation choices actually grant or let you purchase. A price in a rules table is not permission to import another edition’s starting wealth or assume an item is available everywhere.
Rules procedure
Take starting equipment using your edition
D&D 5.5e / 2024
Your class and background both provide starting equipment. Make the equipment choice listed in your class, then make the separate equipment choice listed in your background. Record any remaining coins.
Class choice. Each 2024 class entry provides one or more packages, often including a money-only alternative. Use the exact options in your chosen class rather than a Pathfinder starting-wealth roll. For example, the 2024 Fighter offers two equipment packages or 155 GP, while the Barbarian offers a package or 75 GP.
Background choice. Each 2024 background offers its listed equipment package or 50 GP. This is separate from the class choice.
Free trinket. The 2024 character-creation rules also allow one trinket at no cost.
Spend starting coins. Coins received from these choices can be spent immediately on items from the 2024 Equipment rules, subject to campaign availability.
Higher-level characters. Do not use the old Pathfinder Wealth by Level table. In 2024 the Games Master decides whether a higher-level character gets more than ordinary level-1 equipment; the Basic Rules provide a separate higher-level starting-equipment guide.
Pathfinder 1e
PF1e starts a level-1 character with class-based money. Roll the amount shown for the class or use the listed average if the Games Master permits it. A character also begins with one outfit worth 10 GP or less.
| Class | Starting wealth | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Barbarian, Bard | 3d6 × 10 GP | 105 GP |
| Cleric | 4d6 × 10 GP | 140 GP |
| Druid | 2d6 × 10 GP | 70 GP |
| Fighter, Paladin, Ranger | 5d6 × 10 GP | 175 GP |
| Monk | 1d6 × 10 GP | 35 GP |
| Rogue | 4d6 × 10 GP | 140 GP |
| Sorcerer, Wizard | 2d6 × 10 GP | 70 GP |
Additional PF1e classes use their own class sources. Examples include Alchemist 3d6 × 10 GP, Cavalier 5d6 × 10 GP, Inquisitor 4d6 × 10 GP, Oracle 3d6 × 10 GP, Summoner 2d6 × 10 GP, Witch 3d6 × 10 GP and Gunslinger 5d6 × 10 GP.
Spend the result on PF1e equipment. Starting money does not automatically authorize magic items; obtain Games Master approval where the rules or campaign require it. Characters starting above level 1 use PF1e’s separate Character Wealth by Level rules rather than the 2024 higher-level table.
D&D 3.5e
D&D 3.5e uses its own Random Starting Gold table. Do not substitute Pathfinder’s larger d6-based amounts.
| Class | 3.5e starting gold | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Barbarian | 4d4 × 10 GP | 100 GP |
| Bard | 4d4 × 10 GP | 100 GP |
| Cleric | 5d4 × 10 GP | 125 GP |
| Druid | 2d4 × 10 GP | 50 GP |
| Fighter | 6d4 × 10 GP | 150 GP |
| Monk | 5d4 GP | 12 GP, 5 SP |
| Paladin, Ranger | 6d4 × 10 GP | 150 GP |
| Rogue | 5d4 × 10 GP | 125 GP |
| Sorcerer, Wizard | 3d4 × 10 GP | 75 GP |
A 3.5e character can use the class’s standard starting package or buy equipment à la carte with the appropriate starting gold, as the campaign permits. The character also has an ordinary outfit under the 3.5e starting-equipment rules.
SpiralWorlds use
Rules price and local availability are different questions
Mechanical price, weight and statistics come from the chosen edition. Availability comes from the campaign location. A market town, royal arsenal, gnome workshop, monastery, frontier settlement and courtly city do not stock the same goods.
You can explain starting possessions as purchases, family property, guild issue, military kit, gifts, inheritance, recovered goods or patron-supplied equipment. The story of ownership does not change the mechanical value unless a campaign rule says it does.
For a first character
Check what the gear actually changes
- Armour and shield are recorded and Armor Class can now be calculated.
- Weapons and ammunition are recorded.
- Weapon proficiency is checked before calculating attack bonuses.
- Spellcasting focuses, component pouches or other required casting gear are recorded where relevant.
- Tools needed for important proficiencies are carried.
- Money left after purchases is recorded.
- Carrying capacity or encumbrance is checked if the campaign uses it.
- No starting item has been imported from another edition’s table by mistake.
- Expensive, unusual, restricted or magical equipment has campaign approval where required.
Optional historical reference
Travelling with weapons and armour
This legacy video remains useful for thinking about the practical burden of travelling with weapons and armour. Treat it as historical/roleplaying context, not as a replacement for the carrying, encumbrance or equipment rules of your chosen edition.
Sources and licensing
Rules sources
- D&D 2024 Basic Rules — Creating a Character
- D&D 2024 Basic Rules — Character Origins
- D&D 2024 Basic Rules — Equipment
- Pathfinder 1e Core Rulebook — Equipment
- D&D 3.5e Player’s Handbook, Chapter 7 — Equipment.
SRD 5.2.1 attribution: This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 by Wizards of the Coast LLC, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.
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