If you were king, how would equip your kids?

[Imperialus]

I'll look at Dwarves IMC just because I've given them the most attention. I'm not going to go into detailed explanations because frankly it would take too long to explain the ins and outs of dwarves IMC

First of all it doesn't matter so much who your father is but who your uncle on your mothers side is. For the purpose of this I'll assume he's the society leader of a militant warrior society like Axe or Shield. Being the society leader is roughly analagous to having a large dukedom in an equivilant human kingdom and both Axe and Shield focus a great deal on warfare.

Anyhow upon completing his tenure as a thrall (a squire or apprentice in other societies) a young dwarf will be accepted into his uncles warrior society as a full fledged member. During this ceremony his uncle will give him his first suit of wargear. This armour will typically be custom made for the young dwarf who has been wearing hand me downs and borrowed weapons prior to this since he wasn't considered a man yet and wasn't permited to own his own weapons. This wargear will usually consist of a full suit of plate armour a hand weapon and a shield. It's very rarely magical though there is oftenimes at least one masterworked item among them.

 

[Zerovoid]

Vest of False Life. 12k for +10 hitpoints. For a 1st level character this doubles their hitpoints. Its not just good in battle, it'll keep them from dying from mundane injuries like falling off a horse.

 

[Torm]

Aside from the matters already mentioned by folks above: Let's assume for a moment that your emperor lives in an empire so wealthy that it doesn't mind spending that much on the royal heirs. Why does your list assume the heirs are fighters or other martial classes? Or, put another way, what good is +5 Full Plate Armor of Fortification to Her Royal Highness The Princess Rebecca Felicia Renwick Balinaughton, Princess of Highbrook, Duchess of the Farrowed Dales and Countess of Rivensborough, Duchess of Burnsley, Countess of Feck, Baroness of Fenton, Lady of the Isles, Enchantress of the Most Mystic Order of the Azure Skywatchers, First Witch of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Great Mistress of the Most Honourable Order of the Covenant, Member of the Order of Merit, Enchantress of the Order of Coorsbury, Companion of the King's Service Order, Honorary Member of the Suttony Order of Merit, Chief Grand Sorceress of the Order of the Kobold, Member of His Majesty's Most Honorable Privy Council, and Aide-de-Camp to His Majesty - when all of dear Becky's training has been in the arcane arts?

 

[drothgery]

Given a sufficiently prosperous kingdom, it's quite possible that a king could equip his kids pretty well before it would start affecting the budget much. Mainting roads, castles, standing armies (especially with the mid-level magical support a standing army needs in D&D world to avoid being wiped out by a handful of medium-high level adventurers or monsters), a navy, etc. is very expensive (probably millions of gp in all but the smallest kingdoms) -- if they're getting the money for that, spending 1% on the heir's adventuring gear is not really a big deal.

So if your King rules your campaign equivalent of the Roman empire, and the kids aren't setting out with hundreds of thousands of gp worth of gear, it's not because of the budget.

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

My thought are that such a ruler would not equip the youths any better than all masterwork items (of heirloom status as well). The funding would go to well equipped and highly esteemed tutors (of high level).

The tutors would be with the youths at all times, but allow them to fight their own fights, learn from their own mistakes, and otherwise earn their own xp's. If somehow, the youths bite off more than they can chew, then the tutors can step in at the appropriate moment and save their butts.

A ruler with these kinds of resources would also have 'wise' resources which would tell the wisdom of allowing the youths to learn what it takes to succeed. If you take many historical figures into account, you will note that they often left the 'safety' of home to experience life - but I would bet that behind the scenes (and unwritten into the history books) there were minders around to keep them from going off the deep end.

I think this is the most compelling argument. I've often wondered how the Black Prince became such a high level knight without getting killed young.

With regards to the other posters, let's look at some basic numbers:

• 978,000 gp actually costs 489,000 in raw materials. Labour cost is already taken care of by the royal wizard.

• England had a population of approximately 3,750,000 shortly before the Black Death. London was around 80,000. Paris 250,000 and perhaps France had 7,500,000 (at least double England). Constantinople had a population of 1 million or more. The Byzantium Empire had around 30 million inhabitants at its peak. Let's say your typical fantasy kingdom is like France.

• Let's say that the king levies a one-time tax of 1sp per working adult to pay for equiping the heir at the time of his knighting. The tax is potentially worth 750,000 gold pieces and 1/3 of the tax is lost due to non-payment, corruption, etc. Which leaves around 500,000 gp which covers the raw materials with some leftovers.

• Historically the ruling class levied all sorts of taxes to fund a number of things, many of which could be quite frivolous. Therefore I believe that paying for the gear is not an issue in a D&D kingdom.

As to how to spend the money, there has been some good suggestions. The dilemma of course is how to ensure that the children (or perhaps the heir) can earn exp without dying too often. As I mentioned above, I think having the wise tutors in the background is perhaps the most effective.

For the children who become wizards, I would imagine that they would be given the best possible education and probably have learned every known spell. But would still have some cool gear.

As for being targets of robbers and assassins, I should think that they already are even without the gear. In a D&D world, the ruling class would take great precautions to prevent assassinations, teleporting commandos, elementals, demons, etc. from kidnapping themselves or their families.

My point of this thought exercise is to challenge the pre 3.x thinking regarding wealth. High level magic items can be created, bought, and sold per the RAW in metropolises of 25,000+. In the real Middle Ages, there were a number of cities that fit that category. I think that in a D&D world, populations would be higher due to the amount of healing and plant growth available. And given the number of high level spellcasters available, it is not a stretch at all to imagine royal and ducal wizards, sorcerers, clerics, and druids of high level.

I think it's easy for us to forget just how wealthy the peerage and royalty really were back then. And even more importantly it's easy for us to get so wrapped up in wealth by level, NPC classes, etc. that we forget that the truly wealthy are going to have much more wealth by level than others are. Would the top 1% wealth holders of the kingdom invest in magic items for their own and their family's safety? Of course. Would they collect magic items in the way the wealthy today collect yachts and exotic sports cars? Sure they would. And they would show off their toys to their rivals and friends. Are they targets for thieves? Yes but there would be precautions.

Personally, I think there is too much magic in D&D. I don't like the fact that magic items can so easily be made, sold, and purchased. But if I'm going to play D&D, then I'm going to follow the logical conclusions even if that means placing high level spellcasters and lots of magic items in the hands of the great magnates.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

After reading these posts, something else came to mind for me:

Why would the king have to buy this stuff? What are the chances there's heirlooms & hand-me-downs that can fit the bill already?

This could solve the problem in some instances, though a king with a lot of kids could be an issue (who gets what, for example).

If anything, I could see the heirs getting protective & preventative items first, like a ring of sustenance, periapt of health, or a ring of mind shielding rather than a +X weapon, shield, or suit of armor.

The court wizard creating new items isn't a sure thing--I don't think manufacturing costs will be enough, and the sheer XP cost could be more costly on the caster than necessary. It also doesn't consider the cost of keeping a court wizard, or even touch the issue if the court wizard is totally trustworthy or not.

 

[WayneLigon]

Most of the emperors, kings, etc in my campaigns are not former adventurers. They'd keep the heir close at hand, and probably his spare. They don't get to go out and do stupid things. The rest, he might provide certain items to if they insisted on risking their necks.

For the one king I have that trusts his head wizard, each of his kids has a tattoo in the small of their back. At a command word from the wizard, or in case of death, the person is teleported to a circle engraved in the floor of the wizard's lab.

Now in general I assume that the king can command the services of any mage in his kingdom, so likewise I assume he has fairly easy access to most commonly available spells. Thus, if the heir dies he has him True Ressurected.

 

[shilsen]

I think this is the most compelling argument. I've often wondered how the Black Prince became such a high level knight without getting killed young.

High level? The Black Prince wasn't a D&D character.

 

[Umbran]

Scenario
You are the king of a prosperous kingdom and like most kings, engage in wars with your neighbors from time to time. Some of your children wish to become knights of renown (or maybe wizards, clerics, &c.). ...

What do you give them?

In the usual case - a good stern talking to about the responsibilities of hereditary monarchy, is what. Unless the ruler has a whole lot of kids, he probably cannot risk them to such stuff. Death can come rather easily to a monach and his or her family. Heirs are for marriage into other powerful families, or diplomatic missions, or the like, rather than free-roaming adventuring or some other such foolishness.

In less usual cases - loading the youth up with tons of really high-end equipment won't reduce the risk to a young adventurer as much as you might think. Ultimately, he or she still only has a handfull of hit points, and only so much good sense and skill.

Next, is the fact that being given power like that does not make you a knight (or anything erlse) of renown. It makes people laugh at you and ask if you're actually worth anything yourself inside your sheath of magical protection. The #1 risk to this character becomes, "If you're so good, let's see you fight me without that tin can!"

Plus, huge amounts of expensive equipment will make the character a target of theft in the field. Stealing hugely expensive gear from a relatively low-level character should be pretty easy. And that means the king is likely throwing money away to equipe people of ill-repute!

 

[Aeolius]

In "Servant Unseen", an urban adventure of mine, the local king hired adventurers and equipped them with rings of invisibility, to silently protect his young heir on his first adventure.