Balance Tips:  Tips on keeping things fun through proper balance.

    There are many factors that play into the PC's getting to much.  Whether it be too much magic, too much gold, or stats too high.  Believe it or not you as the DM are not completely at fault here.  Sometimes things just slip past you or the PC's somehow kill the insane great wyrm gold dragon.  When things like that happen you as the DM may feel bad about telling them, "No! This is just too much at 5th level." but sometimes you must.
    Too keep proper balance there are a few factors you must include into the equation.  

1. Do you want your campaign to be Monty Haul?
2. Do you think it is ok to let the PC's have it if they earned it?

    In the first question what I basically meant was, "How much reward do you want your PC's to have."  There are a few ways to judge this.  The first step is to look at how quickly you want your PC's to advance in level and wealth.  The second step is to decide on weather you want them to have it easy or have it hard getting there.  Finally the last step is to judge how your campaign has been so far.  Once you have digested all of this you should then see if it is what you and your PC's want.
    There are a few ways to keep the game fun and balanced and the first one is to read this until the end then see what you can find in the Dungeon Master's Guide.  We have a few suggestions that should get you up and going in no time.

Proper Stat Balance

    This is one of the most important aspects of the game.  You need to make sure your PC's have a proper set of stats.  Below are some examples of bad stats and good stats.

    The above stats are some good examples of right and wrong.  There is one thing too keep in mind about stats.  Not to high, not too low and middle in between.  What I mean is you need to have stats that don't read like a heart monitor.  Two or three 18's and two or three fives, believe it or not, will not be as fun as some stats like listed in the Good Balanced Stats.  In general try and keep it were the stats add up to 75-81.  All the stats good stats listed add up to 78.  And so does some of the stats listed in the Bad Unbalanced Stats.  The first example in the bad stats adds up to 78 but it still  is not a good one.  There are several reasons behind this.  The first is the character will be way to good at some things and a dismal failure at others.  While you might say look at Einstein, he was defiantly not a normal person.  He was a genius at some things and couldn't even tie his shoes.  That is what I meant by not having stats that read like a heart monitor.  While it might sound nice to PC's to have that many 18's it will get boring being so good at his profession (considering he assigned the stats to places that relate to his profession).
    Another thing to keep in mind is the PC's bonuses to his stats.  All the examples of good stats bonuses added up to +8 and so did the first bad example.  Try and keep stat bonuses were there total add up to +6 through +10.  This will help a lot in keeping balance as well.

Keeping the Treasure Balanced

    Lets start with the most basic form of treasure, monetary.  Coinage and gems are one of the most basic forms of treasure characters will receive and so they should be the most balanced.  Monetary treasure like coins, art, mundane items, armor, weaponry, gems, etc should make up somewhere between 35-50 percent of the characters treasure.  And the balance is a delicate one as well.  Characters get no use out of monetary treasure other than buying services, magical items and other things of that sort.  So it wont mean as much to them as there magical items will.  A good way in which to lower characters monetary treasure is to offer them some service or what not that is not permanent.  For example you could offer them potions.  The ability to buy potions is a good way to remove some of that monetary treasure from the characters since potions are one time use.  
    Then you have the next problem of keeping the characters from having too many magical items.  The best way in my opinion is to keep magical items just that.  Keep them, "Magical" or in other words don't make them so common that they loose there importance.  This keeps things balanced and fun.  From my experience it is best to keep it to where the characters have no more than a certain limit of magical items per level.  Look at the chart below for a brief example of what I mean.

    Now let me tell you what all that means.  Permanent magical items are ones that don't wear out or don't have a set number of uses.  Some examples are weapons and armor.  The + bonus is what level of enchantment they should have.  Now you as the DM should keep the +'s balanced as well.  There is a difference between a +1 Shocking Burst Longsword and +3 Longsword.  The Shocking burst one can be more powerful than the +3 one.  Keep this in mind.  Finally the strength is what they should rate as in the Dungeon Master's Guide if they are not a weapon you can readily assign a bonus to such as a ring or wondrous item.  
    Temporary magical items are things that have a limited number of uses such as a scroll, wand or potion.  Some things don't qualify though.  Take for example the Ring of Three Wishes.  That item defiantly dose not belong as a temporary magical items for the purposes of this chart.  It would be considered a major magical item.  Temporary magical items are used up of course and should be restocked in some way to keep the number equal to what is on the chart.  The number of temporary items listed on the chart show how many a character should have at any given time.

    Well in conclusion I hope this document will help you out in some way.  Let us know if it did by sending us a message at the Ask the Monster page.  Let us know if you think it sucked as well.  We try to make things with a purpose other than giving you a headache.