D&D 5E What's the point of gold?

Charlaquin · Nov 2, 2018

Guess I’ll throw my 2cp into this three year old discussion.

Gold is as useful as the DM makes it. Past about 4th level, it no longer really matters for mundane equipment, and magic equipment isn’t available for purchase unless the DM allows it, and then they kind of have to set their own prices. Gold can pay for lifestyle expenses, but unless the DM includes consequences (whether positiv or negative) for lifestyles there’s no reason to keep track of it - horde every copper and maintain a Squalid lifestyle, or blow it all on an aristocratic one, it doesn’t really matter because its the only thing you spend your gold on and it has no mechanical impact. Same thing for base building, you can spend useless money on a useless base, or not, it doesn’t matter. If you want to run a business, you can spend useless money to make useless money. The XGtE downtime rules give you lots more ways to spend your gold, but are also much more involved on both the player and DM parts, so if your group really likes spending a lot of table time resolving stuff that happens outside of adventuring, that’s a way you can spend your gold.

So, yeah, gold can matter if the DM wants to make it matter. But it’s generally not super important.

the Jester · Nov 2, 2018

miatoromatic said:
my DMG is on the way, is there some kind of chart to tells me how to price or keep track of those things?

Lifestyle expenses are in the PH. Generic costs for castles et al are in the DMG. Expensive material components are in the PH, under the spells that require them (see any spell that brings the dead back to life for some examples). A fair amount of the things people have mentioned are described under downtime activities in both the PH and the DMG (as well as- maybe it's Xanathar's Guide to Everything?).

I don't believe there are listed prices for hookers and blow, but you can price them according to their quality. A low-class hooker might be the equivalent of a basic hireling, while a high class one might cost far more than an expert hireling. Fantasy drugs can cost literally anything you like- the equivalent of a crack rock might be coppers while some crazy herb imported from the Feywild might cost thousands of gps per dose.

Tormyr · Nov 3, 2018

CapnZapp said:
Ah, I love the smell of spammer thread resurrection in the morning...!

PS. This thread is as old as it is eerily relevant to recent discussions. Good job, Spammer James, even if I will respectfully decline your link to (probably not) value solar panels.

PPS. Reported

Obviously the gold is used for the gems (onyx or diamond, whichever floats your boat) to bring things back to life.

Jester David · Nov 3, 2018

I'm always amused by these threads.
I've never once heard anyone complain about there's no reason for money because there's now way to buy something that makes you empirically better at your job. "What's the point of winning the lottery if it can't increase my chances of winning a fight against muggers?"

CapnZapp · Nov 3, 2018

Jester David said:
I'm always amused by these threads.
I've never once heard anyone complain about there's no reason for money because there's now way to buy something that makes you empirically better at your job. "What's the point of winning the lottery if it can't increase my chances of winning a fight against muggers?"

Nice job ignoring all facts.

This isn't about your workplace.

This is about a game that historically and presently awards loads of gold in almost every official scenario, but somehow decided in the last edition that unless you like downtime you gain no mechanism nor any explanation for what to do with it.

Thus the years-old question.

5ekyu · Nov 3, 2018

CapnZapp said:
Nice job ignoring all facts.

This isn't about your workplace.

This is about a game that historically and presently awards loads of gold in almost every official scenario, but somehow decided in the last edition that unless you like downtime you gain no mechanism nor any explanation for what to do with it.

Thus the years-old question.

It seems to match their goals for the edition in an obvious way.

They removed xp for gold and embraced it for monsters and challenges plus the options for story driven advancement eith milestones or even session xp.

They removed mostly the purchase of significant magic items.

They removed mostly the purchase of scads of minor bonus superior items.

That was not an oversight.

It's not "unless you like downtime" but instead "unless you like interacting with the setting people and social play."

Scenario - go kill monster and rescue damsel.
Gains
Xp for advancement and Items for use
Gold and renown/favors for the setting/rp/involvement.

Obviously if a table chooses to focus more on one of those or almost exclusively so, the other types of reward might not seem that important.

But just like at one table an heirloom sword of historical significance may be more desirable than the +1 greataxe, at another table the +1 greataxe may be much more desirable than the pile of gold that others might use to setup an orphanage school or training ground for urchin spynet.

You may want every form of reward "weaponized" for monster mash play, but really, that was not a goal they seemed to choose to put at the heart of 5e design.

Maxperson · Nov 3, 2018

Gadget said:
The point of gold is, obviously, to take the 'Hobo' out of 'Murder Hobo.' No one accuses my finely attired and meticulously manicured party of being mere 'murder hobos.' We always travel with porters, horse handlers, camp followers, shield bearers and the like, with style.

As I once said, my players tend to go from town to town looking for short term jobs. They play murder transients.

Maxperson · Nov 3, 2018

Charlaquin said:
Guess I’ll throw my 2cp into this three year old discussion.

Gold is as useful as the DM makes it. Past about 4th level, it no longer really matters for mundane equipment, and magic equipment isn’t available for purchase unless the DM allows it, and then they kind of have to set their own prices. Gold can pay for lifestyle expenses, but unless the DM includes consequences (whether positiv or negative) for lifestyles there’s no reason to keep track of it - horde every copper and maintain a Squalid lifestyle, or blow it all on an aristocratic one, it doesn’t really matter because its the only thing you spend your gold on and it has no mechanical impact. Same thing for base building, you can spend useless money on a useless base, or not, it doesn’t matter. If you want to run a business, you can spend useless money to make useless money. The XGtE downtime rules give you lots more ways to spend your gold, but are also much more involved on both the player and DM parts, so if your group really likes spending a lot of table time resolving stuff that happens outside of adventuring, that’s a way you can spend your gold.

So, yeah, gold can matter if the DM wants to make it matter. But it’s generally not super important.

In my opinion, it's not really up to the DM to make it matter. It's up to the players. Proactive players will come up with ideas for their gold, whether it's building a castle, bribing officials to get something done, donating to a cause, building shrines and temples to further the influence of their god, buying patents of nobility, or any of a huge number of other things to spend the gold on. The DM can naysay that all, but assuming you have a halfway reasonable DM, the players are really the ones to drive gold spending.

Charlaquin · Nov 3, 2018

Maxperson said:
In my opinion, it's not really up to the DM to make it matter. It's up to the players. Proactive players will come up with ideas for their gold, whether it's building a castle, bribing officials to get something done, donating to a cause, building shrines and temples to further the influence of their god, buying patents of nobility, or any of a huge number of other things to spend the gold on. The DM can naysay that all, but assuming you have a halfway reasonable DM, the players are really the ones to drive gold spending.

Sure, if you as a player are actively looking for ways to spend gold, you can find them. One might argue that it’s still ultimately the DM providing those ways to spend them, as nothing exists in the game world that the DM doesn’t put there, but it’s ultimately a distinction without difference. Semantics aside, gold can matter if the people participating in the game make it matter, but otherwise does not.

Charlaquin · Nov 3, 2018

Jester David said:
I'm always amused by these threads.
I've never once heard anyone complain about there's no reason for money because there's now way to buy something that makes you empirically better at your job. "What's the point of winning the lottery if it can't increase my chances of winning a fight against muggers?"

But we need things like food, water, and shelter, we have financial demands like insurance and taxes, and we derive entertainment value from things that have no practical use. D&D lumps all of these expenses into Lifestyle, charges an insignificant fraction of the currency PCs earn by adventuring for even the most lavish lifestyle, and assigns no consequences or benefits to any of the lifestyles.