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

Mirtek · Mar 12, 2015

Hussar said:
Did Bilbo know how much Sting was worth? Or his Mithril Shirt?

Actually I think I he did. At least roughly. I recall it being mentioned in the books how the mithral shirt was worth more than the entire shire. That's an idea about a price

Wicht · Mar 12, 2015

Hussar said:
By making magic items fungible, you force groups to adhere to a single play style - yours. Because if I start futzing about with the price list, players are going to bitch. If I decide that no, magic items aren't available, players very rightly are going to point to the DMG and ask why.

Of course, as I noted above, the DMGs in question never said any such thing about players being able to buy whatever magic item they wanted whenever they wanted, wherever they wanted - so you could always very rightly point them to the DMG where it says "subject to DM approval."

Hussar · Mar 12, 2015

Wicht said:
Out of curiosity, what are the ranges: how broad are they?

Actually, I have been trying to argue that you want the price list for selling also, so as to make reasonable choices as to relative value.

From the 5e DMG page 135

Common - 50-100 gp
uncommon - 101-500 gp
Rare - 501-5000 gp
Very Rare 5001-50000 gp
Legendary 50k+

Pretty broad.

You are really stuck on this Lamorghini thing aren't you. But you are wrong. If I was looking without mass communication, my first stop would not be random people on the street- I would go to someone who sells cars. I would commission them to contact other car dealers on my behalf. A lack of mass communication does not preclude writing letters nor contacting specialists who would know people who would know other people. In fact, people did it for a few thousand years just fine. And I can pretty much guarantee that after some period of time, the people I know would know the people who know. There's a reason for the six degrees of separation cliche.

So, as a player, you would be perfectly happy if I told you that purchasing a magic item, using the system you outline, will take anywhere from 6 months to 1 year? That's a pretty rare player IMO.

After all, it takes weeks for mail to pass from one town to the next, if it passes at all. Again, setting presumptions. Let's see you send out mail during the War of the Lance. Or during Age of Worms.

Salthorae · Mar 12, 2015

Mirtek said:
Because it's for a different game with different assumptions. That's like just grapping a random 3.x adventure and using the same number of monsters from the 3.X encounter just with their 5e stats. Could work if you're particulary lucky, but more likely you'll learn the hard way that monsters have moved up and down the CR ladder and what's a good encounter for 4 level X 3.5 PCs is not so much for 4 5e PCs of the same level.

Let me clarify, as maybe I wasn't as clear as could be there.

I mean, for those items in the 5e DMG (with the 5e stats associated with it and all), just use the price listed in the SRD for that item? I.e. 5e Vorpal Sword: +3 Magic weapon ignores Slashing Immunity and beheads on a 20? 128,3XX gp (per SRD rules for +3 Vorpal Sword) That is right in line with a Legendary (50,001+gp) Vorpal Sword Price to me...

Example 2: Boots of Striding and Springing: 5e effects, 5000 gp. Puts them up a category to Rare rather than Uncommon, but that's not too bad?

This too would take a bit of work, which is why I suggested forking the thread.

Salthorae · Mar 12, 2015

Frodo and the Fellowship knew after Gimli and other discussed it. It's never discussed in text with Bilbo, he may or may not have known the relative value of the shirt.

But again, who would ever ever pay that much to buy it?

Derren · Mar 12, 2015

Hussar said:
again, you're forcing demographics onto other people's games.

And you are not?

As for the rest of your post, the others have covered that pretty well. According to you the Vatican would have never been able to find Michelangelo as mass communication didn't exist back then. And you are still hung up on the idea that the less information the books contain the better (see also strongholds). Or does this only apply for information you do not like?

Jester Canuck said:
Now, a noble with more gold coins than brain cells might opt to buy a couple eternal lamps or continual torches, but they're unlikely to be everywhere.
On the other hand, a wizard's tower or cathedral to a sun deity might have braziers every dozen feet. Because they can.

Considering how dangerous fires were in medieval times that is still a very good investment. You can easily see a noble demanding that all lights in the city to be continual flames for safety reasons, at least in wealthy cities.

Wicht · Mar 12, 2015

Hussar said:
So, as a player, you would be perfectly happy if I told you that purchasing a magic item, using the system you outline, will take anywhere from 6 months to 1 year? That's a pretty rare player IMO.

After all, it takes weeks for mail to pass from one town to the next, if it passes at all. Again, setting presumptions. Let's see you send out mail during the War of the Lance. Or during Age of Worms.

I tend to roll the times randomly so that it takes from 2-12 weeks. Or longer for really rare items and sometimes I will tell them the item is not available. I tend to assign a percentage for availability and then roll randomly to see whether an item is even for sale anywhere.

Mirtek · Mar 12, 2015

Salthorae said:
Let me clarify, as maybe I wasn't as clear as could be there.

Maybe I wasn't either

Salthorae said:
I mean, for those items in the 5e DMG (with the 5e stats associated with it and all), just use the price listed in the SRD for that item?

Which is faulty, because it's based on a different system.

Salthorae said:
I.e. 5e Vorpal Sword: +3 Magic weapon ignores Slashing Immunity and beheads on a 20? 128,3XX gp (per SRD rules for +3 Vorpal Sword) That is right in line with a Legendary (50,001+gp) Vorpal Sword Price to me...

Yet the +3 has a different value in 5e than in 3.x. When you're "BAB" is capped at +6 rather than +15-20

Same as a 3.x adventure might having an encounter with 15 kobolds being balanced for the party doing it a same level party in 5e could be devasting due to bounded accuracy. So you likely need to do more than just switching the stats and leaving all other set-ups the same

billd91 · Mar 13, 2015

Mirtek said:
Which is faulty, because it's based on a different system.

I would say it was faulty even within its system since it led to the Big 6. Moreover, it would also have been faulty from individual campaign to individual campaign given varying play styles. I think it may be better, at this point, to have broad ranges and not sweat it too much.

Salthorae · Mar 13, 2015

Mirtek said:
Maybe I wasn't either
Which is faulty, because it's based on a different system.
Yet the +3 has a different value in 5e than in 3.x. When you're "BAB" is capped at +6 rather than +15-20

Same as a 3.x adventure might having an encounter with 15 kobolds being balanced for the party doing it a same level party in 5e could be devasting due to bounded accuracy. So you likely need to do more than just switching the stats and leaving all other set-ups the same

Right, in 5e the +3 is actually MORE valuable than it was in 3.x, therefore the vorpal sword should be higher priced than 128,300 gp per 3.x, but I think it's a fair price.

Either way. I've said my piece many times over in this thread, as have others.

Gold is not worthless unless you choose to make it so based on your game style. I'm unsubscribing to this thread now.

See you all elsewhere

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

Mirtek

Hero

Wicht

Hero

Hussar

Legend

Salthorae

Imperial Mountain Dew Taster

Salthorae

Imperial Mountain Dew Taster

Derren

Hero

Wicht

Hero

Mirtek

Hero

billd91

Not your screen monkey (he/him)

Salthorae

Imperial Mountain Dew Taster

Similar Threads