D&D 5E Why so much gold?

[SilverfireSage]

Having looked through and played the starter set, I've decided to move my group over to 5E. However, I'm in the middle of a campaign, so a lot of my pathfinder players have magic items and such that are either worthless in this game or don't exist (mostly ability score enhancers). I'm allowing them to sell them for gold, but then I realized, there's nothing to buy in this game! Magic items are too rare to be bought (which I like) but that was really the only thing to spend such outrageous amounts of gold on. Am I missing something? Is there something that they could purchase that would make sense?

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Mostly lifestyle upkeep. You could buy a large castle, and servants. Maybe a fancy title.

What would you buy, if you were fantastically wealthy? The player characters can buy the fantasy world equivalent of a new computer and sports car.

 

[Andor]

Warship
Herd of Elephants
An Island
Patents of Nobility
A retirement brothel
Happiness

 

[KarinsDad]

Once more item creation rules come out (presumably in the DM), material components might be a big thing. Even for less major things like scrolls and potions.

 

[TwoSix]

It's probably a bad idea to give out gold in the same proportions that Pathfinder does. Gold in PF is meant to be used to acquire magic items, it's a radically different approach from 5e.

 

[Paraxis]

Mostly lifestyle upkeep. You could buy a large castle, and servants. Maybe a fancy title.

What would you buy, if you were fantastically wealthy? The player characters can buy the fantasy world equivalent of a new computer and sports car.

And the fantasy equivalent of fancy toys are magic items. No matter how much people want there to be no way to purchase a magic item, any physical object can be acquired with enough money. In the real world if you have enough money you can buy almost anything legally, a bunch of other stuff illegally through black markets and things, and if you must have something you could finance a team of thieves to steal almost anything not covered by the above two options.

So that is why having a gold piece value associated with magic items is a good thing, so you know how much you can get from the king when you sell something to him, the evil duke knows how much to pay the thieves guild to steal an item and so forth.

But if your DM doesn't let you purchase magic items, maybe there are floating castles and flying ships. If slavery is legal buy an army of of soldiers to throw at the next dragon, or a harem of girls, start a whore house or a tavern.


Don't forget to tithe your favorite church and pay your taxes!

I guess you could also give some to the poor and needy, I mean being the saviour of an entire town or nation can be a big ego boost, and some of that good karma might come back to you one day.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

And the fantasy equivalent of fancy toys are magic items. No matter how much people want there to be no way to purchase a magic item, any physical object can be acquired with enough money.

It really, really depends on the setting. Money can't buy the legendary Holy Avenger, if it's sitting in Smaug's treasure horde and nobody in the world is higher than level 7. At most, money will get you a lot of people trying and failing to acquire that item for you.

I would say that the equivalent of a fancy computer would be a rare book, and the equivalent of a sports car would be a fast horse.

 

[seebs]

3E/PF balanced gold based on the assumption that you'd be spending tens or hundreds of thousand of gold on magic items. So, yeah, wayyyy too much magic and gold.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I think of D&D cash as more of a downtime/setting immersion resources than a character power resource. It isn't used to directly enhance your character's capabilities (other than making sure you have the best non-magical equipment). It is used to buy things that connect you with the game world. I know what I plan to do when I have a rich high-level PC. A nice boat, and a custom designed castle. I might need an army to man it, preferably with griffons.