D&D 5E Would handing your party 1,000 gp at character creation break your game?

[Shiroiken]

The spyglass is probably priced high to represent the difficulty of making it in a proto-medieval world that is the default D&D. Adding it to a game or reducing its price would have very little impact on a game.

Depending on the type of campaign, adding a flat 1,000 gp to the party really wouldn't hurt it at all. A gritty, realistic game would have problems, but the heroic game wouldn't be much of an issue. The most they'll do is start with some Breastplate or Splint armor, which is basically a +1 AC to a couple of characters, or save it for one character to get Plate armor in a while. If you allow unlimited purchase of Potions of Healing (which IMO you should not), then they could start with 20 of them, which would probably unbalance a level 1-2 game.

 

[Lanefan]

Add my voice to the growing chorus saying that 1000 g.p. for a simple 2x spyglass is stupidly expensive in any edition; and even more so in 5e's wealth-stingy environment.

That said, were a DM to give me a 1000 g.p. spyglass at char-gen the first thing I'd probably do is sell it*, using the proceeds to buy myself more evergreen-useful equipment such as weapons, armour and shield (or spells and components, if a caster).

* - unless there was clear and obvious reason to keep it e.g. we're starting a maritime campaign and I've got the only telescope in the party.

 

[iserith]

Two sets of splint (maybe three), or a breastplate (maybe two). So some AC bumps

Not enough to be of concern in my view.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Based on the fact that I gave a level 4 party 5,000,000 gold pieces (in Eberron from claiming and selling a giant Siberys dragonshard that fell from the sky), no, it absolutely won't break your game unless you're not capable of handling well-equipped parties (which the DM absolutely can, as they control how powerful enemies and obstacles are).

 

[Cadence]

Based on the fact that I gave a level 4 party 5,000,000 gold pieces (in Eberron from claiming and selling a giant Siberys dragonshard that fell from the sky), no, it absolutely won't break your game unless you're not capable of handling well-equipped parties (which the DM absolutely can, as they control how powerful enemies and obstacles are).

Is there a single really great item for 5,000,000 they could buy that would make one of the players as good as a Twilight cleric in a normal party? I understand they can really unbalance things? Or are boss magic items not a thing in Eberron? (Is 5 mil not a lot? It feels like I'd hate to be level 4 with that much wealth given what it would attract).

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Is there a single really great item for 5,000,000 they could buy that would make one of the players as good as a Twilight cleric in a normal party? I understand they can really unbalance things? Or are boss magic items not a thing in Eberron?

Hah. I'm not sure. This was before TCoE came out. Also, Eberron only really has common/uncommon magic items for sale, so the more unbalancing magic items weren't available to buy for any sort of money (no-matter how much the party might have wanted to buy a Vorpal Sword or something similar at that level).

The PCs used the money for quite a few things, mainly buying a ton of land and building a fortress on the land, but the party's artificer also used a lot of it to discover how to make Magitek vehicles (like Eberron-Dragonshard fueled motorcycles and tanks).

(Is 5 mil not a lot? It feels like I'd hate to be level 4 with that much wealth given what it would attract).

It is definitely a lot. It's a ton. That's the most I've given my party ever, and I don't do it lightly. I did it very specifically because I wanted to allow the party to experience what it would be like. (They also did get approached by quite a few unsavory figures, like representatives of the Lord of Blades, some Thieves' Guilds that wanted to steal from them/blackmail them, multiple Dragonmarked Houses that wanted to keep them from stepping on their toes, and so on. In this campaign, the more money the party has, they definitely have more problems.)

 

[Stalker0]

I think you the most you will do is allow the fighters to have their max ACs (aka plate armor) much sooner than normal. So the fighters will be stronger than normal. Is it "break the bank" stronger....no, it will be noticeable but not game breaking.

 

[ccs]

Pfft. No.
I've given out far far more than that via random dice rolls....

A few years ago I gave a 1st lv party a Portable Hole containing "Roll on all categories of Treasure Type H".
For those of you wondering what that is? It's the best treasure column in 1e. It's what dragons wallow in - assuming the %dice roll well of course.
The one character found it on the body of a passed out NPC party goer at an all night bacchanal they were attending. Well, actually they found the body - and then decided to see what the guy had in his pockets.... Wich resulted in "Draw d5 item cards from the Items Deck" (a 100 card deck I made to represent random things they could find during the party). They drew 3 cards - a masterwork ball-gag, 1lb of powdered blue narcotics, and a card titled "LOOT!{draw a tile out of the scrabble bag & roll on the matching 1e treasure table}". Wich led them to drawing the H.
The %dice were quite generous & yielded both $$$ & magic items. The 3 magic items of true note generated were:
*Portable Hole - wich we decided was being used to hold the rest of the H hoard.
*Amulet of the Planes
*Cubic Gate
The later two we combined into one item of possible Gnomish origin. {Oh Gods, it's Gnome-tech! Run! Duck & cover! Do NOT push that button!!}

You stumble out of the bacchanal the next morning as 2nd lv characters still in possession of a careers worth of loot + 2 insanely powerful magic items? Rock on!
I'm all for seeing how this game develops. There's certainly going to be a story....

So no, a Spy Glass/1k GPV isn't going to break my game.

 

[DammitVictor]

The biggest thing that makes the D&D economy not work is the players who don't understand how non-D&D economies work.

A spyglass is only worth 1,000 gp to someone who has (a lot) more than 1,000 gp to spend and 1,000 gp worth of use for a spyglass. A shopkeeper will only pay 500 gp for a 1,000 gp spyglass if he knows he's got someone else to sell it to... for more than 500 gp.

Give them a warehouse full of spyglasses, literally thousands of them, and make their entire quest to be to find someone willing and able to buy more than a handful of them, at a time, for more than 10 gold each.

 

[Peter BOSCO'S]

Or you could just 1) Reduce the price of a spyglass to 100 GP in your world and only then 2) give them a spyglass. This way the most they can sell it for is 50GP, and that should not break any campaign.