D&D 3E/3.5 D&D 3.5 GP Limit and Community Wealth

[Gromnar]

Hi everyone,

I have what's most likely a basic question from the DMG. In the DMG, pg. 137, it details GP Limit and Community Wealth. The point I'm confused on is which value does one go by for determining how much the character's can buy and sell? In the first paragraph under "Community Wealth and Population", it says that "Nothing that costs more than a community's GP limit is available for purchase in that community." Yet, in the paragraph below this, it indicates that characters could sell items in a 100gp limit city (in this case, a hamlet), actually selling 450gp worth of items. I get the math how they got this number, I just don't understand which section is right...GP limit or community wealth?

My characters have a pretty good haul and they are going to a small city to sell some of it. The numbers for the city that matters are:

Population: 10874

GP Limit: 15000 Gold Pieces
Coummunity Wealth: 8155500 Gold Pieces.

Can anyone give me a hand on which ruleset is the one they are to use for selling or buying?

Thanks!

 

[anest1s]

I think it works like this:
-No item above 15000gp is available.
-You can buy as many items cheaper than 15000gp you want, if they sum up below 815550.

This means that all the wealth of a community isn't ''stored'' in a single item.

 

[Gilladian]

Anest1s is right. But the other thing to remember is that the larger number is the TOTAL coinage available to the city. To spend that much, every single community member would be using up every single coin in their pockets.

I typically won't let my players dump more than 1/3 of the community's total wealth in one "unit"; if they want to sell more stuff than that, they've gotta spread it out over time so people can recover their wealth in other ways.

 

[Sekhmet]

Anest1s is perfect in his description.
Depending on the size of the city, I range from 1/10th the communal wealth up to 1/4, but never any higher.
In a smaller hamlet like that one being described, with a 100GP limit, I'd probably go for the 1/10 side of things. No one is able to lay down that much money without being concerned about his business going under.

 

[Gromnar]

Thank you everyone for the prompt reply, and the clarification. Now I can better manage their buying and selling