d20 Economy - Has anyone revamped it?

[S'mon]

Re prices charged by spellcasters - obviously those are just a guide as to what prices PCs & PC-like NPCs are charged. The priestesses of Freya don't charge the faithful peasant 50gp for a cure light wounds spell; they'll do it for free. The faithful rich merchant donates a few gp. The Freyite adventurer back from goblin-killing gets charged 25 or 50 gp. The unknown adventurers who the priestess has never seen before who turn up demanding healing may get charged 50gp, or much more - I once had LG priests successfully extract 1600gp from a (LE) PC to cast a 4th level Restoration spell on him, 4 times the list price.

 

[S'mon]

And even if they don't, it still stands that a 9th level wizard could go into the magic item and spellcasting buisness and live a very, very comfortable life.

If they have the XP to spare, they certainly can live a very comfortable life, probably one of the wealthiest people in their city. I don't see a problem with that. Getting to 9th level is (or should be) hard!

Edit: The master armoursmith who makes & sells full plate armour will be pretty comfy too, and he doesn't even need to spend XP...

 

[S'mon]

But compare the spell cost per level to the daily wages of pretty much every profession listed. If spellcasters really charged that much, they could only ever cast spells for adventurers, because nobody else could afford them. Rich nobles wouldn't have to, because they could just hire/keep as a retainer a "pet spellcaster" to cast spells for them all the time.

What this reminds me of is lawyers, in a law & litigation based society like modern America, lawyers effectively have magical powers - they can change reality, generating or destroying vast wealth or monetary loss, causing or preventing imprisonment, all kinds of enormous effects. Someone like Dershowitz is effectively an Archmage - how much does he charge to a wealthy celebrity client (adventurer PC)? OTOH, lawyers will often work for reduced rates or do pro bono work, and in-house lawyers are much cheaper to use, but usually less effective (low-level).

 

[S'mon]

One change I do make IMC is generally to increase NPC wages somewhat, roughly double 3e norms, eg IMC a 1st level mercenary Warrior costs ca 12gp/month gross, including food board & equipment. I retain 1sp/day as subsistence level for a single person (so eg a maid or scullion will cost 1sp/day, assuming accommodation provided), but labourers hired by adventurers on a short term basis will cost more like 5sp/day each. A peasant family of 5 IMC has a typical GDP of 5sp/day or 15gp/month and produces taxes of around 2.5gp/month, or 5sp/person/month.

 

[S'mon]

Who's going to pay for that? Barristers and Alchemists, the richest hirelings listed in the DMG (table 4-1) get 1 gp per day.

This is obviously too low, when compared to the 1sp/day subsistence level - IMC 1sp = about $10 or £5 in modern US/UK prices, or about $1 if we were using sub-Saharan Africa prices. A typical skilled Expert should be making around 2gp/day or 12 gp/week gross income; which fits the Craft/Profession rules, about 50 gp/month, about $5,000 at modern US prices. A top-of-the-heap barrister in a major metropolis should make much more, maybe 10 times more.

 

[S'mon]

No thoughts on me comparing modern lawyers to D&D Wizards?

 

[Drew]

No thoughts on me comparing modern lawyers to D&D Wizards?

I thought it was a fairly good analogy.