D&D 5E Thoughts on spending gold ...

[Eejit]

Without tangible results on the characters stat block that improve his/her effectivness, the money is just an illusion a whim of the DM.

OR for roleplaying perhaps?

Just because there's no space for "castle" on your stat block doesn't make it meaningless for a roleplaying game.

 

[Ahrimon]

My players took 2 weeks of 'game time' transporting the whole of a dragon's horde. I gave them the WHOLE hoard (something like 10k gold) at level 5. But the trick is: there's really very little to buy in my setting. Land? Sure. Buildings? Sure. Slaves? Sure. etc... And the issue always comes about of actually carrying that much gold (every 10gp I think weighs a pound). And securing what you're not spending.

Not sure if this has been mentioned since I haven't read the whole thread yet but 10k gold (at 50gp per lb by 5e standards) would weigh in at 200lbs if it was all gp. 2000lbs if all silver. So probably somewhere in between.

 

[Ahrimon]

I've had no problems with gold so far, even without magic item shops.

Firstly, there are the expenses. The party is required by imperial law to hand over 10% of their monetary earnings in tax. Any treasure recovered that has an identifiable former owner also requires that 50% of the haul is returned to the aforementioned-owner. Given it's a nautical campaign, this means that 50% of shipwrecks and even pirate loot is going back to the merchant company that owned the original goods. So, the earnings for a 3,000gp haul is going to be down to 1,350gp revenue, even before the party looks at bribes, hiring NPCs, replenishing non-magical equipment, etc.

I'd have to wonder how anyone proves who used to own a lot of what is recovered. How do you prove that was your gold the pirates had. If it's goods then labels can be removed and stuff can be re-packaged to hide where it came from. It would depend on the players and their goals but I would think that it would be pretty easy to protect a lot of your gains that way. Do the PCs have auditors that accompany them everywhere and catalogue everything that they find? Even if it was a sunken ship, they just have to say that there were no identifying marks and there would be no way to prove who it belonged to. I'd have fun dodging the tax man in that game. =)

 

[Paraxis]

The characters' stat blocks may not increase but the gold does increase the characters' effectiveness through more control of the narrative. To use secondhander's and Lancelot's players as examples the ships and pegasi they now own give them more freedom and options for traveling. The ship captain and owner of the shipbuilding business will have more influence on the community and have hirelings at their disposal. The monk will wield considerable influence as the Grand Master for an entire order of monks. The money certainly increases the effectiveness of these characters, even if their stats remain the same.

OR for roleplaying perhaps?

Just because there's no space for "castle" on your stat block doesn't make it meaningless for a roleplaying game.

"The money is just an illusion, a whim of the DM." - me.

Yes I understand having ships, pegasi, businesses, hirelings, monasteries, and castles all change the narrative but since the DM is in charge of how much gold is given out, how much is taken away, how much things cost, and what things are available for purchase the amount of wealth is just an illusion.

If you want the party to have pegasi, they do, same with a castle.

The pegasi could be free or cost 100,000 gp each, the castle and land could cost them money every month or give them money from collected taxes, all is possible in the wide spectrum of DM fiat and they change to fit the DM's narrative and story he wants to tell.

The players know this, so don't give a damn if they find 1,000 gp or 100,000 gp.

In a world that follows the rules of 3rd editon for example, there were purchase limits on towns, expected wealth by level, and magic item purchase/construction prices. The players were empowered to make significant changes to the effectiveness of their characters with said wealth. Treasure just fueled your next shopping spree but the results meant something and was in the players hands how to spend it and what to spend it on.

 

[Blue]

The game lost something when they took purchasing magical items and individual prices away.

When magic items were baked into character advancement in order to deal with threats on-level, and everyone was expected to have weapon and armor and everything else and keep upgrading their pluses every few levels, gold went from a reward to a required part of the levelling system. If you spent serious gold on anything except keeping up with the math, your character would fall behind.

Now gold isn't a hidden part of the levelling process but actually a reward that the characters can spend on what's important to them. This one wants a manor house, this one wants clothes and servants, this one donates to the poor, the one starts a business, this one wants ale and horses (or something like that).

 

[Paraxis]

When magic items were baked into character advancement in order to deal with threats on-level, and everyone was expected to have weapon and armor and everything else and keep upgrading their pluses every few levels, gold went from a reward to a required part of the levelling system. If you spent serious gold on anything except keeping up with the math, your character would fall behind.

You don't need to have magic gear that gives out a treadmill of pluses to attack, armor, and save bonuses just because they have a cost printed next to them. That is a separate issue.

Now gold isn't a hidden part of the levelling process but actually a reward that the characters can spend on what's important to them. This one wants a manor house, this one wants clothes and servants, this one donates to the poor, the one starts a business, this one wants ale and horses (or something like that).

What if what's important to them is magical tools that make them better at their chosen career? Who cares about a manor home and fancy clothes when the next potential world ending adventure is just around the corner? If you spend your gold on donations to the poor they get food and clothes this month, but next month when your group of adventurers fail to stop the undead horde from marching on the kingdom that doesn't matter much now does it.

 

[ProphetSword]

The game lost something when they took purchasing magical items and individual prices away.

The game lost something when they gave players the ability to purchase magical items to begin with. Used to be in the days of OD&D and AD&D, magic was something rare and valuable. You earned it.

But, I understand where you're coming from, as all my players are 20 years younger than me. There is an expectation for this kind of thing when the oldest edition of D&D you've played is 3rd. It's just the way it's always been.

So, this was the compromise I came up with that works for me and my players:

In large cities, you can buy "enchanted" items. An enchanted sword, an enchanted set of leather armor, an enchanted shield, etc. "Enchanted" items are simple +1 items. They are expensive (2000gp + the cost of the item + a markup price for profit). I find that simple +1 items in this combination don't break the bounded accuracy, so it's fine.

In addition, you can buy some common magical items, like some potions and a few other items (for example, I consider low capacity bags of holding to be an expensive item that people with money purchase in the cities with a mage's guild).

For common potions, I charge between 100-400 gold pieces. For things like a bag of holding, it's around 2,000, but most players will get their hands on one when they can, so it helps to eat money (and there are better and more expensive bags of holding, but they're harder to attain).

Everything else is something you earn.

This makes the players feel they have something to work toward in regards to items (all other money goes to other things), but doesn't make them too powerful. It's a good compromise that you can introduce into your game that won't ruin the game.

That's the best I can offer those who want to be somewhere in the middle and try to have the best of both worlds.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I was flicking through some path finder books today and was amazed at the amount of content you get in a book.

Whenever I flick through a Pathfinder book, I'm always amazed at the terrible waste of space that comprises about 95% of the content. It's a bunch of feats that aren't as good as +1 to AC, a bunch of +1 magical weapons with odd situational abilities that cost more than an equivalent +3 weapon, and a bunch of minor junk that gives a +1 bonus to one check and adds bookkeeping even though it has a 95% chance of failing to do anything whatsoever.

As long as magic items don't have prices, you can't compare them. A flametongue can be awesome, and a life drinker can be awesome, and a +1 sword can be awesome, because there's no tradeoff involved; you don't lose out on one by choosing a different one, because you don't have a choice in the matter.

 

[miniaturehoarder]

Luxuries, land, soldiers, ships, great castles, airships and rulership. All cost money. If using treasure to further invest themselves in the world doesn't appeal to players, there are other editions they can run. EDIT: That came off harsher than intended, the posts about decoupling gold from character power better illustrate the brainwave I was trying to translate into typing.

 

[Authweight]

It is nice to see people talking about how pointless wealth is in the game. It is given and taken away with a whim, plot hooks used or developed or not, who cares about land, taxes, stable fees, the cost of pint of ale?

The game lost something when they took purchasing magical items and individual prices away.

I think a better way to look at it is that they took gold away as a factor in mechanical character advancement and moved it into the area of story. If your goal is to get better at killing stuff, gold is no longer especially helpful, but if your goal is to gain the favor of a king, rebuild a town, or run an inn, gold is pretty important.

I personally appreciate this change, because I never liked the circularity of "we fight stuff so we can afford better gear so we can fight tougher stuff." Now, the motivation to collect wealth is much more a narrative motivation rather than a mechanical motivation. However, if you really enjoyed the feeling of customizing your fighting style through buying cool gear with your hard-earned cash, that style of play is gone, which is a loss. That's really the trade-off between gold as a story point versus a way of advancing your character's power.