D&D 5E Help - I Over-did It!

[ExploderWizard]

6000 gold per PC isn't campaign ending by any means. If you have been playing for 30 years then I'm sure you are familiar with all the tried true measures for helping bleed some of that away.

The tax man will be holding out his hand to collect the local governments share.

Thieves will be unable to resist that big a score.

Merchants will charge premium prices to such wealthy patrons.

The PCs will gain the amorous attention of would be lovers who are actually gold digging con artists.

Dwarves show up out of nowhere claiming the gold once belonged to their ancestors and they want whats theirs.

The PCs will be approached by numerous businesspersons looking for investors for their venture.

The PCs will suddenly be visited by relatives that they didn't even know existed.

In addition to being means to attempt to divest the party of its gold, these can lead to more adventures.

 

[Al2O3]

6000 gp at that level?
Depending on the players it might all go into artwork, carousing and new equipment if you let it. And if they can't find ways to spend it themselves just give them some downtime.

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[Caliban]

Unless you have Ye Olde Magic Shoppe in your campaign, extra gold doesn't really do much for PC's in 5th edition.

 

[Oofta]

Learning of their sudden wealth, the local thieves guild targets them for robbery and robs them blind.

Now they want revenge and you get to introduce a new NPC organization.

 

[aco175]

My PCs spent hundreds of gp going to Waterdeep for a week. They were meeting some nobles while doing business and ended up being invited to a ball. They stayed for a few day for free in a fancy inn with all the luxury like fuzzy slippers and midnight meals and decided to stay on when the free period was up. The merchant they were delivering supplies paid for three days. They ended up spending money on new clothing and taxi-wagons. They bought jewelry for their dates and even donated coin to the local orphanage and veteran's shelter, since they were sponsoring the ball with one of the noble families. The whole week took 500-750 gp from the PCs.

 

[Fanaelialae]

I would just let them keep the gold and give them something cool to spend it on.

For example, in one of the campaigns I'm playing in we just robbed the mansion of a very wealthy man, earning ourselves somewhere around 20k gp (at 4th level).

5k were in the form of business deeds, which we decided to return to the people of the town.

In the one abandoned business that we decided to keep as a hide out, we found a clockwork man that we reactivated. After a lot of role play, it turned out that his creator had been in the process of upgrading him, and that he would like to complete his creator's work but needed 5k gp to do so. Flush with gold, we gave it to him. He began cranking out more of his kind, which unlocked warforged as a playable race in that world.

Finally, most of the players had abysmal hp rolls this level. The DM informed us that for 1k gp (each) we could undergo special training, which would give us a reroll. Most of the players took him up on that too.

And just like that, 20k gp turned into 2.5k gp, for little in the way of added power but much in the way of enjoyment.

 

[Soul Stigma]

Thanks for all the replies, guys. It sounds like I haven't overdone it as much as I feared. Being in this new land (they are Norse and have landed in a much more advanced and magic rich country) will provide opportunities for them to spend/lose gold.

I do think I'll introduce the underground through some theft, as one of the PCs is a rogue with assassin leanings and could lose gold but gain contacts...

Thanks for all the ideas!


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[MNblockhead]

Read the Conan books. He's the archetype for making "the last adventure you'll ever need" money and just pissing it away or losing it. It was part of the inspiration of the early GP=XP mechanic.

Living the high live costs real money. Managing a lot of money is difficult, which is why nobles spend most of their time on that and politics than adventuring.

You have a lot of money, you have a lot of new friends and everyone wants a piece of you.

Word gets out about your wealth and suddenly informants and merchants are tougher to bargain with.

Also, DMs tend to overlook how expensive it should be to fund expeditions.

I just don't see 6,000 as game breaking at all.

When my party was lower level, they made some big hauls and even had some lucrative cuts in some profitable business interests. But they were adventurers in a dangerous political environment. Money was spend on ships, sailors, henchmen, supplies. They ended up trading business interests for political allies. They are adventurers, not merchants and accountants, the money slips away fast.

Now you may have some players that actually enjoy the downtime activity stuff and who carefully plan side ventures other ways to protect and grow their wealth. Let them. Let them invest in businesses and property. Find ways to work that into your adventure plots and campaign story lines. Much more interesting than "a thief steals all your gold" and less likely to lead to players feeling abused.

 

[MNblockhead]

duplicate post

 

[Ancalagon]

So... let's say there are 4 members... that's about 25 000 gp? Yeah that's a fortune for 3rd level characters! But it's not game ending.

If you look at page 127-128 of the DMG, a fortified tower or a fort costs 15 000 gp. The remaining gold will be needed to man the tower/fort (again page 127-128), and this will probably spur your characters to have to constantly get more money.