Epic Levels Without Ridiculous Amounts of Wealth?

[Upper_Krust]

Hi there Jester!

Hmm, maybe what I need to do is simply introduce extremely valuable loot infrequently, thus giving the party occasional bumps up above their recommended level and then letting it ride for a while...

Or allow them only four items each (artifacts?) which power up as they level up similar to something like weapons of legacy.

 

[Psion]

Use the Second World Sourcebook system that redefines large amounts of wealth as influence.

 

[the Jester]

Or allow them only four items each (artifacts?) which power up as they level up similar to something like weapons of legacy.

Well, frankly, I like breakin' and destroyin' gear too much for that...

 

[CRGreathouse]

I don't think any epic character should ever be able to liquidate their assets into a planet sized mountain of coins: there simply isn't that much gold in the world. PC wealth is holed up inside their magic items, and the extraordinarily weathy would most likely barter.

I agree that epic characters don't deal with their wealth in coin, but I'll note that an off-the-cuff calculation of the earth's gold deposits yields about 14 000 000 000 000 000gp worth, enough for about 1 billion 40th level characters.

 

[The Edge]

Use the Second World Sourcebook system that redefines large amounts of wealth as influence.

Not haveing a very large personal libary, I don't know that rule/system, but It sounds a little like what im thinking.

heres my thinking...

Think about what the gold costs actually represent. For magic items I imagine an asortment of magical 'ingredients', perhaps magic insence to create an aura while working, items that hold the power to be transfered into the new item, oils for this and that, special matierials for 'that bit' etc, maybe extra services or such. All presumed to be bought, probably dureing the creation. What if the ingredients for an epic item are so rare or otherwise special in some way, that no normal person has them, likely not even rulers and great wizards. These components can not be aquired though a meaningless exchange of metal, but must be seeked out or earned from greater powers; maybe an important celestial, a great slan lord, or just a farmer far across the matierial plane who dosen't know how much his prize vegtable is need.

To build such items is no simple task, and either you have to be prepared to do somthing extra, or be someone with good lackeys to help (like those special item infernal or celestial forges might work for months to build, they do so because they have the extra power to achive the steps required).

So a epic PC will either have to go exploreing, or use his incredible influence to enlist others to get involved. Matierial plane peasants won't 'charge' (require) much influence but likely have no way to do what you need. A friend in a high place likely could, but will expect a favour or a good reason on why that is how he needs to spend his time.

After all, spending a lump sump of gold when createing even minor objects or researching fairly mundane spells is handwaveing anyway. You dont just throw the gold into the cooking pot.

you may disagree; this is just my veiw on it. And as I said, I have no real experience of such matters.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

I think this is a problem with just high level D&D characters. But like others have said it's highly doubtful epic level characters actually carry around hundreds of thousands of GP. But the value of their gear is still just insane.

 

[Cheiromancer]

After all, spending a lump sump of gold when creating even minor objects or researching fairly mundane spells is handwaving anyway. You dont just throw the gold into the cooking pot.

You may disagree; this is just my view on it. And as I said, I have no real experience of such matters.

That's a great idea! Essence of gold; made from normal gold by alchemically refining it down to a tiny fraction of its original volume. Required as the ink to scribe a spell for the first time, or to empower magical items.

Of course, magical creatures tend to exhale this "quintessence" anyways; it mixes with ambient dust and vapors and congeals to form gold coins.

I like it.
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[The Edge]

That is an interesting idea. Doesn't really solve the epic cost problems as it changes things to make mountains of gold essential instead, and enforces the problem further. But I like the Idea. It at least works for normal items.

IMC Spell Writing Kits are required to write spells. These 'kits' are basicly the 100gp per page cost given form, with each kit costing 100gp per page it has suplys to write (with size of kit varying, normaly sold as 10 page kits or just separate suplys). I normaly handwave actually buying them provided the PC can get it easily like in a city. But far from civilisation you'll need to carry some on you.

I now know a main ingredient of the ink.

But I'd reckon that 'Epic Ink' would need a more interesting substance.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Two words: Iron Heroes.

That said, I know you didn't like this, but simply removing the gold piece cost for researching epic spells and keeping time and XP costs the same creates almost identical limitations on epic spellcasting until you get into REALLY high levels, so you could just do that.