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

[Herobizkit]

I find that in most vanilla fantasy D&D games (ie the pseudo-European model where society hasn't progressed past the Medieval Era), the most valuable thing a regular person can be expected to buy with Gold is land and (possibly) the accompanying titles.

1e D&D accurately reflected this with their Stronghold rules baked-in with level progression.

5e does try and support "side projects" like running a business or a stronghold, but such projects are handled during Downtime - the time when adventurers aren't off being heroes.

Once the adventurers stop being heroes and settle down, their story is pretty much over. Mind, their stories don't _have_ to be (especially in games with lots of courtly intrigue, or perhaps guild intrigue like in Eberron)... but unless the protagonists of you story continue to be protagonists, there is little reason to continue their stories.

With piles and piles of Gold, you can't buy a stealth bomber to take out the enemy cult - they don't exist. Best you can hope for is to raise an army and slug it out. Hiring characters with PC class levels higher than your own is kind of cheating, but hey, if your DM lets you...

And yes, I get that "you're only limited by you and your DM's imaginations". My DM was not prepared when I came up with a plan to make a flying Airship - but I have one now, and it's both unique to the campaign world and awesome.

 

[Arial Black]

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

....Um....buy a magic sword?

Well, I could spend half of it on loose women, half of it on booze, a third half on chocolate and...well, I'd probably just waste the rest...

I seem to remember one Conan RPG where it was a game rule that your cash got halved every week on the assumption that you spent it like this anyway.

 

[TheLoneRanger1979]

With piles and piles of Gold, you can't buy a stealth bomber to take out the enemy cult - they don't exist. Best you can hope for is to raise an army and slug it out. Hiring characters with PC class levels higher than your own is kind of cheating, but hey, if your DM lets you...

In 1E and 2E i think you needed to be at least level 9 before you could hire mercenaries. Is there such a cap in 5E?

EDIT: or maybe this was about followers.....

 

[Merudo]

Can familiars/animal companions/raised undead/summoned monsters take part in the feast? My party typically has less than 12 people in it.

 

[jaelis]

Can familiars/animal companions/raised undead/summoned monsters take part in the feast? My party typically has less than 12 people in it.

The spell imposes no constraints, so any creature able to eat should be able to benefit. I would probably disallow skeletons and zombies.

 

[CapnZapp]

Yes, it's powerful. However, it does cost 1,000 gp per cast, so it's hardly a spell you can use in a routine situation.

You don't need to use it in a routine situation.

In any situation where it would be exactly as awesome as described, a thousand gold is pocket change.

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[CapnZapp]

Is that 200 points of damage before or after you account for Protection From Poison, which you would otherwise have been using?

Not comparable. Not even close.

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[CapnZapp]

I think more people would have more fun if they completely abandoned the idea of money being there to buy magic iitems. Of course if that is how you are coming into the game you'll be thinking, "what can I spend my money on?" You shouldn't be coming into 5e that way though. You should be thinking, "I'm rich! No more cheap inns and torn clothes for me!" It's time to buy real-estate, pay for expensive cruises, wear that jewelry you found rather than selling it.

These kids today...*Shakes head*

Reserving a few thou for casting spells with expensive material components remains fairly trivial, however. Filthy rich minus 1,000 gp = still filthy rich.

Unless you deliberately hand out much less gold than default it's time to let go of the idea that material component costs have an actually game balancing effect.

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[CapnZapp]

So much this. I think it's a bad habit from video games like Diablo, wherein gold is just a number that you genuinely can't do anything interesting with except buy weapons, because it's not really a role-playing game.

Sometimes you get the impression that some people, when reading the story of the Goose That Laid Golden Eggs, would immediately ask whether you can use those eggs to buy magic swords. "And if not, then what's the point?"

If ever you feel like you somehow have nothing to spend money on in D&D, try:

1.) Offering a giant guard a sack full of gold to skedaddle,
2.) Paying for a new roof for your widowed neighbor,
3.) Buying a fancy car^H^H^Hmanor to impress girls,
4.) Buying orphans out of slavery when you can't feasibly free them by violence without causing legal trouble for yourself,
5.) Hiring a dozen hobgoblin mercenaries to fight for you,
6.) Buying a thousand hobgoblin mercenaries to fight for you.

If none of these choices appeal to you, then I guess you live 24-7 in a dungeon. Hence the name "murderhobo."

But why should the game be better just because it does not support

7) buy a shiny new magic sword

To me it's completely self-evident that a game that supports 1-7 is better, more flexible, and can be applied to more playing styles than a game that only supports 1-6.

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[Ancalagon]

But why should the game be better just because it does not support

7) buy a shiny new magic sword

To me it's completely self-evident that a game that supports 1-7 is better, more flexible, and can be applied to more playing styles than a game that only supports 1-6.

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This is a fallacy. Look at say, pathfinder with a gazillion choices. Infinite builds right? Except that only a very small subset is optimal.

If you have 6 choices, and you add a seventh choice that is clearly better than 1-6, you have effectively reduced choices, not increased...

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