D&D 5E Do We Really Need a Lot of Gold? (D&D 5th Edition)

[Charlaquin]

Every DM i played with have magic shops to buy gear from.

This has not been my experience, and in general I get the sense that magic shops are shunned by a lot of 5e DMs. I don’t know about you, but I remember during the open playtest process there was a overwhelming anti-magic-shop sentiment.

 

[Immoralkickass]

This has not been my experience, and in general I get the sense that magic shops are shunned by a lot of 5e DMs. I don’t know about you, but I remember during the open playtest process there was a overwhelming anti-magic-shop sentiment.

Yes I've heard that before, and i find that opinion quite stupid. If magic items exist in your setting, how else are they created? Drop from the sky? Obviously the legendary artifacts would not be sold over the counter, but the basic +1 weapons and armor should be. Its not believable that such things would exist and nobody would put a value on them, or there is no economy around them, or that every owner of such items would never sell them.

 

[Charlaquin]

Yes I've heard that before, and i find that opinion quite stupid. If magic items exist in your setting, how else are they created? Drop from the sky? Obviously the legendary artifacts would not be sold over the counter, but the basic +1 weapons and armor should be. Its not believable that such things would exist and nobody would put a value on them, or there is no economy around them, or that every owner of such items would never sell them.

You don’t have to tell me - I’m advocating for magic items being buyable and sellable. I’m just saying, your experience of never having had a DM that didn’t include magic item shops is, from what I can tell, very uncommon.

 

[AnotherGuy]

The management of gold requires admin in order to bear its fruits - acquisition of masterwork items, components & consumables, basic enchantments, sourcing knowledge arcana or otherwise, better mounts, maps and vehicles, acquisition of land & buildings (via titles offered as rewards), commissioning of artwork as well as the use of life-style expenses table for the mundane expenditure.

If one is forever gallivanting and the need for acquisitions is minimal then of-course the value of gold in the game decreases to the point where it it no longer a worthwhile exercise.

The same can be said for other admin-heavy parts of the game such as encumbrance or XPs.

There are plenty of great options online one can find to substitute the record-keeping systems for simpler ones.

Our table's characters are 12th level and I can honestly say between lifestyle expenditure, inflation due to an ongoing war and the commissioning of items, gold still has value.

 

[Aldarc]

You don’t have to tell me - I’m advocating for magic items being buyable and sellable. I’m just saying, your experience of never having had a DM that didn’t include magic item shops is, from what I can tell, very uncommon.

I think it's the problem of D&D being a game containing competing aesthetics, resulting in a game world that is not entirely consistent with its own fantasies, though I do think that Eberron actually tried to address this.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Yes I've heard that before, and i find that opinion quite stupid. If magic items exist in your setting, how else are they created? Drop from the sky? Obviously the legendary artifacts would not be sold over the counter, but the basic +1 weapons and armor should be. Its not believable that such things would exist and nobody would put a value on them, or there is no economy around them, or that every owner of such items would never sell them.

There's sort of a big difference between (even low level) magic items being rare and precious items like unique art pieces by renowned (and probably long-dead) artists and being mass produced stuff that can be bought from a shop. In either case they can technically be bought, but in the former case finding what you want is much harder. I prefer the former over the latter, but I have no super strong feels about this; it depends on the setting which works best. Magic marts certainly make perfect sense for Eberron for example.

 

[Thunder Brother]

Count me amongst the anti-magic shop crowd. To me nothing saps the wonder out of setting faster than a magic shop.

Commissioning a blacksmith to craft a custom magical weapon or suit of armor? Maybe even involving the acquisition of a rare and exotic ingredient? Super cool. Buying a magic weapon of a rack? Dull as hell.

5e doesnt give many official avenues for spending gold, most just ideas. It's gotten to the point where I prefer giving out favors and reputation as a reward instead of actual money.

Don't even get me started on the badness of 5e's currency system.

 

[TerraDave]

Yes, obviously. Given that the OP started with “I don't know about you guys, but when I sit down to play D&D I want to go out and adventure not stay in my stronghold and figure out how to decorate the place,” I figured it was a given we were discussing non-roleplay uses for gold.

There is more to it than that.

As a DM who has had many uses for gold over the years...its like there is a missing pillar or something. Essentially the argument is made is that the PC wants money to be better at their job. Versus being good at their job to get money, the normal relationship, and the normal one in almost all times and places, given the vast range of things money can be used for.

 

[Minigiant]

Personally I wish 5th had in some way really came up for rules to create factions and strongholds. Starting and funding an international thieves guild would be both cool and useful.

 

[Shiroiken]

It really depends on the DM. For one, I don't give out a lot of gold in general (except for the occasional hoard). Secondly, I charge for a lot of things: taxes, sages, travel expenses, etc. In addition, I occasionally have wealth draining events, such as theft and massive inflation due to war, famine, etc. While my PCs might eventually accumulate a significant amount of wealth overall, they usually find a use for it.

As for a magic item shop, I use a barter economy instead. Using the Buying an Item downtime, I instead have options for the party to trade for. They won't necessarily get exactly what they want, but it's a way to get rid of undesired items for useful ones.

Personally I wish 5th had in some way really came up for rules to create factions and strongholds. Starting and funding an international thieves guild would be both cool and useful.

Strongholds & Followers is a 3PP from Matt Coleville, and it's probably just what you're looking for.