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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jfdlsjfd" data-source="post: 7869277" data-attributes="member: 42856">I feel that the "pricing-derived" Eberron world is dystopian enough without adding the DM conspiring against the poor. They are probably cutthroat, but compete among the richer circles, where the real money is made.Let's continue from the wonderful tables made by@HawkDiesel. If we substract the cost of food from the yearly income, we get the rest of the family budget. Still going from the analysis of 1880s budget, we can see that 10-20% of yearly income was spent on clothing and lodging -- a surprisingly small amount but most people would be living in overcrowded lodging or in "employer-sponsored" lodging (not much better but so the employer could keep control of the workforce). The "clothing" part increased with the wealth of the family, because upper class couldn't use second-hand attire. 0 to 10% was spent on education, leisure, charity... (grouped under "moral needs" by the 19th century observer). And the remainder was savings, ranging from 0% to 60% for the richest families surveyed.Those savings would be the expandable income Eberronian could afford to spend on "wide-magic" items. We can deduct that squalid and poor people would be able to afford none of the wide magic services, unless they are community-based. Common magic items are still hard to find for sale in villages (RfTLW p. 281) and cost 20-80 gp. By RAW, that's limited to potions of climbing, potions of healing, 1st-level and cantrip-level scrolls. (not useable by most people since they don't have class levels and can't decipher the scroll). Xanatar's adds many common, flavourful magic items, among which like a pill that nourishes for a day (equivalent to a single goodberry...), a cheating die, magically self-mending clothes, a replacement eye, a seasoning pouch, a talking doll, a tankard of protection agains inebriation... Many of these wouldn't affect the gameworld in a significant way and while a set of self-mending clothes would certainly help a household (by removing the need of spending up to 10% of their income on clothes, the price of these clothes would make them unaffordable to most (like the boot example given earlier in this thread). You'd have the majority of the population using handmade clothes and mostly reusing and patching them, while the upper class routeliny tailors eternally shiny, color-changing (to follow the fashion) clothes. At 50 gp apiece, it's several years of savings for our Poor family of 5 (and a single laborer yearly income), but it's pocket change for the comfortable family (who can spare 840 gp yearly on luxuries, and so is certainly valueing this magical clothes). You're in childbirth and something is turning out wrong? Jorasco maternity will gladly accept you for regular, medical care for a month, for the listed price of 9 gp... You're poor? Well, get some herbal tea and nonmagical healing. You're comfortable? Childbirth is a problem no more: have a cure wounds for the inexpensive price of 25 gp, drawn directly from you Kundarak account. 19th century had a maternity death rate of up to 1% ; mortality under 5 was around 17% in 1900 based on an NBER analysis of the 1900 census data, the average in an English industrial city was 19% for all of the 19th century <a href="https://www.open.edu/openlearn/ocw/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=28151&section=2.2" target="_blank">Infection and immunity</a>. That's the life of the majority of the population, while once you hit "middle class" you're golden: modest lifestyle can afford you enough magical healing to mitigate most health problem and if you're comfortable, you can afford a healthcare BETTER than what we get in our 21st century (a pop-up replacement eye, a sensitive replacement arm!).Our 19th century was a terrible time for social unequalities, but at least there was not that much things to spend money on... (it has been said that nowadays the average joe can live more comfortably than Rockefeller could, because of the technological progress...) With "wide magic" the concentration of wealth can flow toward luxuries unheard of and the difference in living conditions would be even starker than it was historically. Without any need for a dystopian conspiracy.If you want a rosier approach, you can postulate that the Khorvaire elite is conscious of the problem and the fact that even with magical weapons, they can't stand a chance in a proletarian revolution and buy social peace... You can't really hate William Jones, the local factory owner & deputy at the Brelish Parliament if he donated a cleaning stone for public use in replacement of the old wash house, changing the life of his community. And he created the William Jones Institution for the Destitutes and Elderlies, a boarding house taking care of 20 orphans and elders. It would certainly soothe the social unrest... And cost William Jones less than 2% of his yearly aristocratic income for hiring a resident Jorasco magewright. A kind man, that William Jones. Nobody would blink an eye knowing the doll he brought back from the city for his daugher to play with cost a year of wages from his workers.</blockquote>

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