While I am the first to jump for joy at the loot I've been seeing, I am going to be the first to say stop.
The Loot I have been finding is ridiculously strong, while this ~might~ make up for lack of funds, it also reduces the specialty of bigger loot.
I don't know why I am complaining, but I feel that the loot we've been finding is to powerful.
Speak for yourself Thomas. The loot I've been finding is flavourful, but hardly overpowering.
I'm going to echo Ommadawn. What I've seen is flavorful, but generally pretty mediocre. That is, in total, precisely what we should be seeing for the setting. It adds color without adding too much power.
In terms of game balance, I'd honestly be more concerned with the consumables economy.
Actually, having seen a lot of the items that Thomas is referring to, I can say that he is somewhat correct. Adjustments are being made.
We are constantly tweaking every day (multiple times a day), and there are a few items out there that push the curve some - mostly it's just that no matter how rare you make an item, if the quest gets done ten times a day, it will start to show up.
Feel free to mention specific items as they pop up, but I will say that we're not trying to run a rusty chainshirt economy and you can expect your characters to get comparatively decent loot (depending on a variety of circumstances) as they develop and progress as characters.
It was really obvious there were some small balance issues in the items being discovered the first week or so, but I've seen a serious drop off since. One quest in particular went from loltastically amazing drops to "why the hell would I even pick up half of this crap?"
There's also more potions than I have ever seen in my life on each quest now usually, but since there is hardly any gold drops I hope that's the way it should be?
Frankly, I'd rather see more gold drops than some of the loot we're seeing. This is mostly in issue to healing. I play a cleric and I pretty much have to cast nothing but healing spells the -entire- quest. That's all I do - because people don't have enough healing. Most of them can't afford to buy the potions I craft.
I know people hate consumables, but really some of the items I am seeing (I had a pair of boots that had 6! castings of invisibility / cure moderate wounds)... really all that's done is transfer things to the item economy.
Playing any sort of merchant is out, unless you want to go 100% barter.