The character advancement section of the Pathfinder reference document mentions that a player character should have amassed certain amounts of money by certain levels: for example, a PC should have 6000 gold by fourth level.
However, I've not yet found a guide on what a character should be able to buy at certain levels. Is it safe to assume that if an item's listed cost exceeds a player's held gold (assuming they have a level appropriate amount of gold), that they are not yet ready to own the item?
For example, say a level two player wanted to own a combat trained hippogriff. The listed price for one of those is 5000 gold, but the level two player is listed as ideally having only 1000 gold in his/her pocket. With this in mind, is it logical to assume that such players should not own items, mounts, etc. until they meet the needed wealth requirements?
Best Answer
"Wealth" does not mean just "cash on hand".
A character's wealth is the cost to purchase all of their equipment (minus non-magical gear they started with or could have started with) plus their cash on hand.
A level 2 character is expected to have about 1000gp worth of stuff; they would only have 1000gp in cash if they're saving it all up for something rather than spending it. A combat-trained hippogriff is, by itself, 5000gp. A level 4 character (expected wealth of 6000gp) might own such a mount, but we would expect it to represent more than 80% of their total possessions.
If you have a combat-trained hippogriff (5000gp), a +1 longsword (2315gp), and 450gp in cash, then your wealth is 7765gp.