As the campaign goes on, surges don't scale as well as the power enhancement. They actually give you less value as the campaign goes on. Weird.

Of course some will argue that it's a pot that you didn't have to go to town to buy, but I still find it weird.

Remember that the alchemist rating of a city limits how many potions you can buy there PER WEEK. Thus, pots found in the dungeon are quite valuable none-the-less.

If you take a closer look at RtL, you will find it doesn't scale too well at all.

kookoobah said:

I am all sorts of confused by this message. Surges actually become more powerful than enhancements as you get better equipment because they add more powers and damage per surge.

And what does this have to do with potions? Do you mean buying power potions? Are you suggesting buying them later in the game is less useful than the beginning? I would agree with this of course the fact that they stay 50 gold while the chests give you more gold suggests that they actually cost less as the campaign goes on in terms of opportunity cost. Of course gold piles give you the same amount but I would bet you get more gold from chests and looting the bodies than from gold piles but it does mater that dungeons you pull and how your encounter rolls go.

I believe he's referring to the contents of treasure chests (enchanment = money, surge = potion+less money, blank = item). Since the cost of potions doesn't change as the campaign level advances, surges provided less dollar value then enhancements.

EXAMPLES:

copper: Enhancement: 100 coins, surge = 50 coins + 1 potion. Difference = 0

silver: Enchancement: 200 coins, Surge = 100 coins + 1 potion Difference = 50 coins

gold: Enhancement: 300 coins, Surge = 150 coins + 1 potion Difference = 100 coins

While mathematicaly true I believe the potion is more valuable then the difference in money. Especially since the average week will see more chests then a towns alchemist rating (usually)

However, the other thing to bear in mind is that more money means you can afford more of those broken gold items in the town market.

Another thing to bear in mind is that the rolls aren't meant to be equal... Luck and probability play a factor... Blanks are a perfect example... I'd take a gold treasure over a measelly 300 coins, wouldn't you? ;-)

I agree, though, that generally speaking I find a potion more useful than the equivilent cash, since I almost always max out my alchemy rating every week, so extra potions are incredibly handy!

Osaka said:

I don't think that the OP was saying that they needed to be equal, just that they start out at equal gold value and then don't scale at the same rate.

And he does have a point. In Copper level, I would much, much, much rather get a surge than an enhancement. In Gold level, not so much. I would still rather get them in most circumstances, but there are definately more times that I would want the enhancement in Gold than in Copper.