D&D 5E Appropriate Rewards

[hbarsquared]

I'm not talking about "Expected Wealth" or "Wealth by Level" tables, or the tables for coinage you can find on monsters.

I'm curious what people think of appropriate rewards a patron might give for fulfilling a quest, possibly by tier/level.

In other words, if your level 1 party needs to save the kidnapped child, is 300gp too high or too low? 1,000gp? Or what about 10th? Is 1,000gp reward worth it? Is 10,000gp too much?

I'm just looking for guidance and suggestions.

 

[trentonjoe]

I have a hard time with that as well. I often talk to my players and ask them what they would like if they could buy stuff. Then I work backwards from that.

If it's a big quest then they might get enough gold to buy what they want or just have the patron give it to them.

I often say you're offered "x" gold and then we go back and figure out how much that should be.

 

[the Jester]

I'm not talking about "Expected Wealth" or "Wealth by Level" tables, or the tables for coinage you can find on monsters.

I'm curious what people think of appropriate rewards a patron might give for fulfilling a quest, possibly by tier/level.

It depends. What's it worth to the patron? How much can the patron afford? These questions are far more important, to me, than what level the pcs are.

In other words, if your level 1 party needs to save the kidnapped child, is 300gp too high or too low? 1,000gp? Or what about 10th? Is 1,000gp reward worth it? Is 10,000gp too much?

Who is it the child of? The local smith might offer free weapons and repair services for a year. The local priest might offer spellcasting services. The local farmer might have nothing at all to offer, or a few gps at most. The local baron might offer 1,000 gp, or if exceptionally rich, more.

This is too dependent on the specifics for a single answer to apply, IMHO.

 

[Bupp]

I find if I give out too much gold, it's pretty easy to just raise prices, or find things they want to storms money on.

Couple sessions ago the party later found that all the gold they got selling stuff in town turned out to be counterfeit. That dropped the loot levels significantly, as well as provided a side quest to track down the counterfeiting ring.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

I would use the Living Expenses as a guide. 4gp/day for the lifestyle of a wealthy man means some 1,500gp for the year, which sounds like a large reward. Better yet, have your patron provide for the living expenses (housing, food, servants) instead of handing over a bag of coins.