I've gotten the okay to present it to everyone else here, so here were go... the Character Wealth by Level variant (http://www.dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Balanced_Wealth_(3.5e_Variant_Rule))!<br/><br/>Advantages of this system include...<br/><ul class="bbc_list"><li>The disparity between the wealth that casters have and that which fighters have is limited, as fighters need not focus almost solely on the Big 6 (armor, weapons, deflection to AC, natural armor to AC, resistance, ability score boosters) to raise their base numbers while wizards who aren't attacked often can for the most part concentrate only on two of those (ability score boosters and resistance).</li><li>Items become iconic as opposed to the Christmas Tree effect, due to the fact that the number of items you can have is limited, and various items take various slots, making you think more about which items to use.</li><li>No longer are the boring items required that boost just your numbers, allowing you to get utility items that do cool stuff instead (you don't need to waste all those GP raising your items from +2 to +3, just getting +1 to attack and damage, which is necessary... but incredibly boring).</li><li>Everyone stays on the RNG (random number generator) for the most part without falling off on either end. This means that while people will have a much higher or lower chance to succeed on any given save or be missed by an attack roll based on their stats and equipment worn, as long as the DC is somewhere in the middle of the group, no one is going to auto-fail or auto-succeed, since both those cases are boring and undesirable IMO.</li><li>Weapons and armor are cool again. Rather than a +3 flaming corrosive shocking unholy speed sword, now you get a flaming katana, which is much cooler in my opinion.</li><li>Characters can be "Rambo"--that is, even if you're stripped of all your gear and are limited to purely mundane items, you will still have the basic numbers to fight it out with equivalent encounters rather than being hamstrung and unable to contribute.</li><li>Characters are good because they're good, not because of their items. This ties into the last point; a higher-level character without this variant who is stripped of their magical gear and is forced to fight will do really poorly, simply because they don't have the basic numbers from the Big 6 that are needed to survive encounters anywhere near their level. This focuses the power in the characters themselves rather than their gear.</li><li>You no longer need to worry about CWBL, as the basic things that need to be bought are given as part of the base package. This allows the DM to hand out as few or as many magic items as they please while still keeping the party at the correct effectiveness that is supposed to be derived from magical items as far as their base stats are concerned, and the limit on magic items used (as well as the limit on how much those items cost) balances the magic items given without actually needing to deal with overpowering the party by giving out too many items, or underpowering them by not giving them enough gold/magic gear.</li><li>Characters can now use wealth for normal stuff that we'd use in real life. No longer do you need to save hundreds of thousands of gold to get your numbers where they need to be. Instead, you can spend them on that palace you've always wanted, that gilded gold toilet you've been dreaming about, or to bribe your way to influence people in high positions of power.</li><li>Mostly for the DM, but you don't need to calculate monster gold and buy items for them. Instead, just stick the stats on, and they function fine, and are even a little bit more challenging. It also makes low-level monsters remain a threat for a big longer simply because their base stats are boosted.</li><li>Crafting is for the most part fixed; no longer is crafting permanent items limited only to those who spend feats to gain the power (trading a single feat in exchange for effectively doubling their gold for some characters). Instead, everyone can craft, and magical items become a rare commodity rather than something that anyone who has the appropriate feat can craft at the drop of a hat. Instead, since they're tied to your progression, they become rare things that need to be bartered carefully for, eliminating the magic mart. On the other hand, if you do want to craft (and just about anyone can do so, rather than screwing over non-casters), it gives you a daily resource that you can make a part of your character, and eliminates the downtime that is required in some campaigns to make any sort of crafting feasible.</li><li>Remember that magical heirloom you had at the start of the game? It levels up with you, meaning you can still use it at high levels without gimping yourself, remaining a flavorful option that remains relevant throughout the entire campaign.</li></ul><br/>Some of the things people might not like about this system...<br/><ul class="bbc_list"><li>Magic marts are for the most part gone, since magic items become more rare and more unique.</li><li>The Christmas Tree effect is eliminated, meaning you can't have a dozen magic items that each do something else.</li><li>You have to carefully choose which items you wear, being careful of the limit.</li><li>If you somehow drop a boulder on a BBEG 10 levels higher than you, you can't use his +5 flaming sword of speed and be overpowered compared to things that would normally challenge the party until you get high-level enough to have unlocked a slot for it.</li><li>You can't cheese the system as easily by taking crafting feats and increasing the total gold worth of the party by almost twice as much. You will have the appropriate bonuses to stats regardless of how much gold you have.</li><li>Just because you disarm the enemy of their flaming sword of speed does not mean they'll suddenly become entirely useless by using a mundane sword. Sure, their damage and attacks will drop, but they suddenly be entirely unable to hit you with a mundane weapon.</li><li>You can't get fiddly items that have a dozen different bonuses by stacking cheap effects atop each other.</li></ul><br/>Those are the advantages and disadvantage that come to me when typing this up. I know it's a bit tl;dr, but I'd appreciate it if you read the list over and saw if you liked the advantages and were fine with the disadvantages :-)<br/><br/>Please share your thoughts on it with me, I'd be happy to hear comments, criticisms, and suggestions even if we don't end up using it.