D&D 5E Heroes Feast---holy moly this is an uber spell

[The Crimson Binome]

If you were a treasure hunter and you found a million old Roman gold coins... what would YOU do with your new wealth?

I would stop risking my life, traipsing through dank caves and looking for monsters. For various reasons, some of which should be obvious at a meta-game level, this is not an option for the Player Characters.

Any game where the reward for success is to stop playing the game is poorly designed.

 

[TheLoneRanger1979]

Think about this for a bit, and apply it to real life. Who (barring Bill Gates) has ever said this?

What are your PCs living in when they return from the monster and trap riddled rocky and dank dungeons they kick around in? Do they have some kind of aversion to luxury or something? Do they not care about their families (like most people) desiring to set them up for life with investments and status, or seek to donate to orginisations they work for, charities etc?

If you were a treasure hunter and you found a million old Roman gold coins... what would YOU do with your new wealth?

My PC's entire home town was burned to the ground by dragons. He's last remaining relatives gone. He is a wanderer. A homeless adventurer who may (or may not) find some solace in tracking down the cult behind the deed. As such he may spend some gold on items and tasks that might help him with this. But aside from that? In 1E he would have only carried around as much gold as he could (like the rangers did back then) and donate the rest to causes. But coming from a once powerful family my PC may decide he wants to try and bring the glory of old back to life. His grand parents were after all figures of power and trusted counselors of many a king and noble. Can gold be used in this way in a premade adventure?

 

[Flamestrike]

My PC's entire home town was burned to the ground by dragons. He's last remaining relatives gone. He is a wanderer. A homeless adventurer who may (or may not) find some solace in tracking down the cult behind the deed. As such he may spend some gold on items and tasks that might help him with this. But aside from that? In 1E he would have only carried around as much gold as he could (like the rangers did back then) and donate the rest to causes. But coming from a once powerful family my PC may decide he wants to try and bring the glory of old back to life. His grand parents were after all figures of power and trusted counselors of many a king and noble. Can gold be used in this way in a premade adventure?

Yes of course it can.

 

[TheLoneRanger1979]

Yes of course it can.

Lacking any insight into the DMG, how could this work? Are there mechanisms to invest your gold into banks and/or estates? Can we build strongholds? Are there rules for that like in 1E and 2E? How would all this affect game play?

 

[fjw70]

I can understand those not wanting to spend game time shopping for luxuries and such. However, if the PCs don't have stuff they can or want to spend money on then reduce the amount they get. The DM is in complete control of the amount of treasure available in the world. Alternately make the spell components contain a rare ingredient that is really hard to find. Or make it a requirement that the cleric must construct the bowl themselves and it take xdy days to do it.

 

[Kite474]

My issue with the whole grognard answer of "just buy rich people things" is that does not actually DO anything. I know the whole magic mart style may have made items less magical, but at least it allowed players to obtain progression that was usable and fun (barring the generics like +1 weaponry...Actually add those to because I know quite a few folks who enjoyed getting those).

And the problem with strongholds is that suddenly your bookkeeping just got a ton more problematic. Plus, depending on your DM it may serve as nothing more than a thing to get attacked constantly, drain resources, and not really give any tangible benefits

 

[Mephista]

If you were a treasure hunter and you found a million old Roman gold coins... what would YOU do with your new wealth?

Retire from an obscenely dangerous line of work. Which means its time to roll up a new character.

A surfiet of gold that does nothing but sit around actually discourages characters from doing adventure-y things. Which is the heart of the D&D game - exploring, combat, and interaction. This is not a game of economics (not to say that economic games aren't fun, but generally D&D is not made for it).

Believe it or not, it actually gets in the way of plot more than encourages it. Which is bad for the game. It requires players to kind of gloss over what they could do with the money, because for a lot of people, it doesn't relate to things we game for. Many people want to play adventurers. And if, for most people, its not helping to acomplish said adventuring? Money is dead weight.

All this disparraging about people complaining there's nothing to spend money on is pretty sad, from my point of view. As others mentioned, even in the early editions of D&D games, we had buying strongholds and followers. There was always a reason for all that gold. It had a purpose. Now? Its a meaningless statistic. "I get richer and lead a better life... when I'm actually in my home town and not doing stuff that we play the game to do." This is a game, and we want things for fun. And lots of people find resource management fun (thus, spell slots). There's no management here. It doesn't add anything to the game for most people.

 

[Ristamar]

Gold is not unlike many skills, spells, and class features that aren't considered to be the fundamental top-tier options. They're still useful tools, but they require engagement on the players' side along with a DM who will provide the respective opportunities to use them within the campaign or adventure.

Aside from pure roleplaying purposes (which can be enjoyable in their own right), if gold is useless in your game yet still dangled about as a motivation for adventure, you need to either be more creative with your treasure or have a discussion with your DM regarding the characters' goals.

 

[Saplatt]

 

[Flamestrike]

Lacking any insight into the DMG, how could this work? Are there mechanisms to invest your gold into banks and/or estates? Can we build strongholds? Are there rules for that like in 1E and 2E? How would all this affect game play?

Do you need rules for this? Buy a stronghold, titles and land.

Its a roleplaying game.