How Have You Spent Excess Gold in Downtime?

[ChaosGenerators]

So given 5E characters have lots of gold but (typically) can't spend it on magic items...

What have your characters been spending their gold on in their downtime? Or want to spend it on?

Beyond lavish parties that is

 

[iserith]

In the current campaign, they spend it on gathering information and allied contacts, plus some spellcasting services. They can buy magic items in this campaign but haven't yet found someone who can sell them anything outside of scrolls. It's also quite expensive for lodging/food in this city so that adds up.

In my last campaign, they had a caravan of hirelings with upkeep costs that served as a mobile base in which they could take long rests and avoid random encounters. They could buy upgrades to the caravan such as a mobile alchemist that could supply them with healing potions on the road.

In the campaign previous to that, they could buy real estate and did so - houses, a temple, and a guildhall, each of which provided some benefits. Plus they spent money on a political operation to oust the mayor of the town who was suspects of colluding with the campaign's villain.

 

[UnknownDyson]

My cambion son of Graz'zt (demon lord of fathering bastard children) that I'm currently playing, is laying the ground work (buying property and loyalties) for starting his own crime family. He's planning on using the influence of said crime family to eventually buy his way into becoming a masked lord of Waterdeep (The equivalent of a secret oligarchy senator). My character is currently masquerading as a social rights activist/ philanthropist to fool the state and a group of crusaders known as the Golden Inquisition who want him dead because Waukeen (Goddess that has a grudge against Graz'zt, turns out many do) has a grudge against his father (that he doesn't know).

So the crime family is as much a power grab as it is a protection buffer. In the campaign, corrupt Waterdhavian leadership working in conjunction with the Xanathar(his slaver's guild not the actual beholder) ended up expelling all of the city's poor from Mistshore (Waterdeep's slums) to make the city look better for visiting Cormyran royalty. My character rounded up all of the displaced urchins in secret and started up an orphanage with money received from quests which gives his philanthropist cover credence.

But actually he's planning on instructing these kids on how to become the perfect mobsters (playing the long game). When he's out of town (he doesn't like to think of himself as an adventurer, he's a business man), the children are being taken care of by his marilith (six armed serpentine demon) love interest (long story), but he basically seduced her for protection and offered her free lodging that isn't in the demon eat demon world that is the Abyss.

Soo yeah, most of my money goes into money laundering schemes, and property acquisition.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Satyrn]

UnknownDyson, ChaosGenerators gave XP for this post

To follow on your post, maps and chaos generators both seem like excellent things to spend money on.

 

[Shiroiken]

We hired/bribed/raised a barbarian horde to raid a city in order to get vengeance on a noble house that had slandered our name (and tried to have us killed).

 

[Sleepy Walker]

Hired an adventurer to do the adventuring work for him.

1.) Took the earnings from that contract to buy (gets sheets out) 8 large houses, each containing the operations for a tavern, lodgings, and some goods selling in:
-Neverwinter
-Luskan
-Mirabar
-Rivermoot
-Yartar
-Daggerford
-Baldersgate
-Murann

2.) 3 small houses containing a tavern in:
-phandalin
-waterdeep
-silvermoon

estimated earnings: 7,343 gp every 5 years (practically no profit), a general information network, and providing wages for around 43 beings.

3.) 1 military mining outpost near orlbar earning roughly 56,600 gp every 5 years, but trade routes are not cool and has a slight monster problem (hence the extra military expense)

4.) The wages and equipment for some 200 employees, including 12 Mintarn mercenaries, 22+ hired guards and 23 personal fighters equipped with some of the best (cost effective) gear money can buy for something like 300,000 gp every 5 years.


Only way to make a profit is by selling information, but at least the operation is mainly self-sufficient. Has some serious weak spots (mining outpost super far away from main base near Neverwinter), but generally self-sufficient. Was pretty fun running all the numbers, though the 3rd party rules I was using made most taverns and other small businesses not make all that much profit (can't put a full blown bazaar anywhere you like either, bribes and fines would sink you).

 

[aco175]

Insert Random harlot table here.

Last campaign one of the PCs sponsored an orphanage. Mostly due to his backstory involving him being an orphan. The campaign ended before he could get and benefits from it. Typically, the PCs build towers and taverns. I'm still looking for a good buildings and businesses book to make them gain advantages and have stories come from.

 

[Oofta]

In a recent campaign we funded a revolution. The BBEG had taken over our country so we decided we weren't going to have any of that. We bought arms and equipment, hired mercenaries to fight and train the locals to use those arms and equipment. I think at one point we started buying healing potions by the cart-load from a neighboring country that was more than happy to help us overthrow the despot.

We also had to support our ongoing propaganda apparatus and to hire spies. A fair amount of money went to bribe the mercenaries that the BBEG had hired to look the other way. We paid off some of his henchmen to leave and take their troops with them. Mages had to be hired to camouflage and protect our base of operations from divination magic.

After the dust settled, we had to help rebuild the country that had been ransacked, and to build ourselves appropriate defenses. Rumors of gold-plated outhouse seats were highly exaggerated, we were benevolent rulers.

Funny thing was, the DM (my wife) had never really planned any of this initially. It was just supposed to be a simple loot-the-dungeon campaign that sort of morphed along the way. One of the things I love about D&D is how things change sometimes and the story you tell is not the one you thought you were going to tell initially. It was quite a memorable campaign.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

Well, I'm a stingy "son of Graz'zt", , so my players PC's buy mundane stuff like horses, better armor, more food, more rope, more torches, more oil, more iron spikes, more sacks, more wineskins, more wine for the wineskins, a cart or wagon, tents, maybe a few nights in the "luxury suites" at a really nice inn.

So far they've only once managed to get enough coin to actually pool together to buy an old run-down manor house in a rather poor town. They were planning on making it their "adventuring guild headquarters". Worked ok for about a month, then something very, very bad happened in town that involved failing to stop an evil cleric group from mass-raising (as skeletons and zombies) just about every corpse in a 1km radius; including the hill giant corpse that proceeded to do serious damage to their "adventuring guild headquarters". Needless to say, they were pretty much broke after that.

Always keep 'em hungry for more o' that shiny stuff!

PS: As for magic items...as one of my players said last year... "Magic items? Wait...this game has magic items?!". As I said, I'm a stingy SOB.

^_^

Paul L. Ming