• NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.

Providing low level PCs with a huge treasure hoard.


log in or register to remove this ad

I've had a bad experience with wealth gone awry, and a devil of a time clearing it up afterwards.

The big problem was letting the players buy magic items from a white dragon's hoard (it was a 1E dragon, with the likes of 14 hit points, the halfling thief got in a lucky backstab - of sorts). So I think as long as you stick to keeping them from using the money to buy magic, it might work.

D&D tends to be built in a way that money is power - buying henchmen, goods, gear and influence that make challenges easier. If you can balance it with the greed, responsibility and taxes that go with such wealth, I think you and the players will have a lot of fun and it can create a lot of investment (hurh) that you can use as leverage later to temper the party's reactions to threats and events.
 

Loads of wealth is fine under the circumstances you describe.

a couple of things occur to me:
Much of the wealth created by the kingdom will not be accessible to the PCs; it will belong to the miners, farmers, smiths, etc. who do the work. The precise ratio wil depend on the type of realm the PCs have created.

The PCs will have access to all the Mithral arms and equipment they want, basically at the cost of labour.
 

D&D really needs a "you lost your ill-gotten wealth by..." table. Appendix N is replete with tales where the PCs come by huge hoards of gold and then, somehow, by the time the next story rolls around they're once again dirt poor - a bad investment, or a succession of epic parties, or their inn burns down, or...
 

Wealth is great...but then you have to hold on to it. As news of their fortune spreads, opportunists of all kinds will see potential pickings. Some will merely be thieves. Others will be adventurers much like themselves. Others still may be rivals of the hoard's former owner. Then there are the scammers, "long lost" relatives, and even shopkeepers who jack up the prices just because they know you can afford it ("ya rich suckers").

As far as using the wealth goes, the standard for nearly every campaign I've been in- on either side of the screen- is that the game books determine the average price of an object, not the actual price or availability of something where the PCs are. Sometimes what you want isn't available. Or it isn't for sale at a price you can or care to meet.
 
Last edited:

Sensible PCs of that level might give it away. Either to the king or the clan. You know, because they're too busy running around slaying monsters, rescuing princesses, and generally saving the world and you never know when they'll need a really big favour.
 

Sensible PCs of that level might give it away. Either to the king or the clan. You know, because they're too busy running around slaying monsters, rescuing princesses, and generally saving the world and you never know when they'll need a really big favour.

"give it away" ???

At least use it to buy a patent of nobility/ecclesiastic title/roaming ambassadorship from said worthy. Also, buy the title to the most worthless patch of borderland in the kingdom, if all else fails, the king expects nothing from you except maybe maintaining a garrison there, if you make something from it you solidify your reputation in the kings eyes. eh, whatever.
 

Into the Woods

Remove ads

Top