I think he said "county" not "country".
The rub is, in the end, in two places:
1) rarity, as others have noted. Some folks treat PCs as special, others not. That's a setting assumption the rules don't actually cover.
2) is that 1st level spellcaster really going to devote themselves to
farm work? As if there aren't higher paying jobs that can use the same spell slots to good effect? If nothing else, couple "Mending" with just about any tool proficiency, and you have and improved craftsman pay rate instead of an improved manual laborer pay rate.
my mistake on kingdom...
but I have to say this touches on something I don't get about modern D&D... some players/characters find themselves motivated by money.
I played in a game where the DM would be like "I will pay you 25 thousand gold to split" and other players would be salavating... but I can't make a character think that way without a lot of hoops jumped through.
In the real world 70ish% of what I do is based on needing money or wanting money or spending money. I live in debt (revolving debt and I own things for it) If I could do a 1 week super dangerous (but some how in my broken capabilities) job for $25,000 that would be game changing. that would be life altering... if I could do that 2 or 3 times I could be set for life. I don't know that I WOULD do more then once.
D&D money is weird though
Lifestyle Expenses
Lifestyle | Price/Day |
Wretched | — |
Squalid | 1 sp |
Poor | 2 sp |
Modest | 1 gp |
Comfortable | 2 gp |
Wealthy | 4 gp |
Aristocratic | 10 gp minimum |
if I want to live 'comfortable' for 2gp a day so about 700gp a year and I assume I am 15 and going to live to be 70 that is 55 years so I need 40,000gp to live my life with comfortable money if we assume I am never going to make money or work again... if I have half that and can use that as a seed to start a farm, a bar, any business' really that is a set up for life and my family after I pass.