D&D 5E If you aren't buying magic items, where will you spend your gold?

[CapnZapp]

I did a quick calculation on some of the treasure in Lost Mine of Phandelver. If the PCs find all the treasure before entering the mine, where they are assumed to have reached 4th level, it comes to just over 3000 gp (4000 if they score all the various rewards from the people of Phandalin) plus various magic items. Shared equally in a party of four, that isn't even enough for the fighter to buy a plate mail.

And that is fine.

For a level 4ish party.

No wait, it isn't fine at all. Once my sorcerer amasses a thousand gold, I want something shinier to buy than "my share of the party plate mail I'm never gonna wear". I don't want to settle for just buying healing potions all my life. I want to hope for a cool wand, or a ring or something else with awesome properties.

And if you say "but you'll find all that on your adventures!" you've missed the entire point. Finding things does not give my gold value. And it is the seemingly worthlessness of my gold that is the issue at hand here.

And then when I get 5,000 gp...? And when I get 20,000 gp? What then? Mundane personal items do get eclipsed even in 5th ed.

Just a sweeping statement along the lines of "a common-uncommon item costs 5K, while a ultra-infra-rare item costs 50K" doesn't cut it. For this traditional type of campaign.

How do you put a rarity on an item the DM have created himself? Saying a specific rarity just to set the price band that you feel suits the item's power best feels very backwards.

Tying rarity to price simply makes no sense. There are plenty of stuff that's mighty rare that still costs way less than a Toyota car, and while no car is exactly "common" even today, you would be a hundred times more likely to see this $20,000 item than the $1,000 novelty rare.

Z

PS. And of this completely ignores how the DMg contains rarities costed at 50,000 and 500,000 gp... so the sidetrack about PCs not getting their hands on loads of gold is probably nonsense in this edition too. Why would the DMG otherwise bother?

(I'm basing this restart of the thread on Niko's "I have the DMG" thread, by the way. Thanks.)

 

[CapnZapp]

But in a few weeks, we will have better answers to these questions.

I should have explained that I wrote my post after reading Niko's thread. My apologies if I appeared to just ramble - I only posted after getting confirmation that
a) the DMG does indeed not contain any system that resembles the magic item pricing of previous editions
and
b) the DMG does not contain any replacement subsystems to act as a correspondingly motivating money drain

In other words, it appears 5E simply does not support the type of play where you go from one published module to the next, spending gold only on stuff you find immediately useful on your next quest.

Or put simply: we're cashing in on gold at a steady rate. On what are we expected to spend it all?

If not on magic items, then what?

 

[KarinsDad]

And please, no suggestions from your own campaign.

I'm looking for official support, if any.

What the DMG contains, that is.

Just as you can fix this for your campaign, I can fix for mine. I'm looking for what the DMG offers in support for one of the main playstyles of previous editions, here. And only that.

Unfortunately, you now know that this is not going to happen, at least not in the DMG.


However, if I might make a suggestion, many of the normal items in the PHB are similar to those from earlier editions.

So a reasonable course of action is to look at earlier editions as a guideline to cost. I wouldn't use 4E, but 1E to 3E might give you a good idea of at least a start for a system.


I too am annoyed that they did not have costs in 5E.

 

[Boarstorm]

I'm going to spend my gold on a fleet of merchantmen and transition from adventurer to merchant magnate, then use the profits to buy a writ of nobility. Then, my adventurer friends can use their vast power to ... clear the path, as it were... for my eventual inheritance of the throne.

But, y'know, if you'd prefer to buy goggles of night, more power to you.

 

[chriton227]

I'm going to spend my gold on a fleet of merchantmen and transition from adventurer to merchant magnate, then use the profits to buy a writ of nobility. Then, my adventurer friends can use their vast power to ... clear the path, as it were... for my eventual inheritance of the throne.

But, y'know, if you'd prefer to buy goggles of night, more power to you.

Just as not everyone wants to be President or a CEO, not every adventurer wants to be a ruler. Some may long to be like Batman, spending their money on a utility belt of cool gizmos they can use to bring wrongdoers to justice, or spend it on a magical ship to allow them to explore the world in safety and comfort.

 

[Boarstorm]

As I said, more power to you. Sincerely.

I was just responding to the OP's question as to where _I_ will spend my gold. Admittedly, the last bit might be seen as a little condescending (which wasn't intentional, and apologies if taken that way), but it was meant more to illustrate that there are plenty of uses of gold that can grow a character's power (via influence, etc) in ways tangential to the pluses on his character sheet.

 

[chriton227]

As I said, more power to you. Sincerely.

I was just responding to the OP's question as to where _I_ will spend my gold. Admittedly, the last bit might be seen as a little condescending (which wasn't intentional, and apologies if taken that way), but it was meant more to illustrate that there are plenty of uses of gold that can grow a character's power (via influence, etc) in ways tangential to the pluses on his character sheet.

I think the OP's issue is that you can only spend gold to grow a character's power in ways tangential to the pluses on the character sheet, there is no option to spend the money on more direct benefits like magical gizmos or fantastic ships. So for someone that doesn't want to spend the money on growing their influence by becoming a merchant or purchasing a noble title or a domain, the money beyond their lifestyle expense is worthless to them.

 

[steeldragons]

Pretty sure the "I have the DMG" thread has said there are crafting magic item and spell creation guidelines. Make your own fantastic ship and goggles of night. Your DM will tell you how much gold and time you get to spend for them.

 

[MoutonRustique]

[MENTION=63913]Boarstorm[/MENTION] - while your goals are quite cool, for many campaigns, they would equate to a retirement fund for your PC.

If you're playing a more "dungeon delver/ruins explorer/temple clearer" game, having your PC gain such an important "off-scene" role, would pretty much "upgrade" it to NPC status.

In these kinds of situations, acquiring gold is, in a sense, hurrying towards retiring your character... Which is kind of C'thulu

 

[Sailor Moon]

Has anyone mentioned scaling back on the gold? If you aren't going to allow purchasing of items or even the creation of items - why not just give out less gold? That way, you won't have people complaining about tons of gold but nothing to spend it on.

I personally think people have gotten entirely too hung up on the way 3rd and 4th edition handled items. There is more to gold than spending it on magical items.