Blog (A5E) Level Up: Spending Gold (At Higher Levels)

One of the challenges with designing an advanced 5th Edition (A5E) is filling in some of the areas of the original (O5E) game which have room for expansion.

We’ve looked previously at how we’re expanding the exploration pillar. This article takes a quick peak at ways to spend your gold at higher levels. Of course, at all levels characters can buy magic items and other equipment, but here we’ll explore some other options.

Spending Gold (At Higher Levels) — Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (A5E)

One of the challenges with designing an advanced 5th Edition (A5E) is filling in some of the areas of the original (O5E) game which have room for expansion.

www.levelup5e.com

 

[Morrus]

I can certainly agree there, but this isn't just a "how big is your bedroom?" list, it's a stronghold list.

Don't get too hung up on the word. All dungeons aren't literal dungeons, all monsters aren't literal monsters, all strongholds aren't literal strongholds. It's just a game term.

 

[Tonguez]

What can you put in a workshop of that size? Perhaps some woodworking stuff (I have a friend who has a shed out back that's probably on the 10'x10' scale that has some tools for handicraft stuff). Certainly not anything relating to a forge. Jewelrycrafting, perhaps. A small herbalist's or alchemist's hut. I don't think I'd trust that amount of space for brewing. Pottery, cobbling, etc. I could see 100 sq ft as the bare minimum to be functional. At the same time, working on something of that scale, without encroaching on "shop" territory, should allow for more space for something you're buying a feat for.

People can certainly make do with ridiculously little space, but is that a useful consideration with respect to finding ways to spend money in game, on a feature called "stronghold"?

This is the Medieval Blacksmith Forge at the Sandwich Town, Kent Heritage Center. I dont know the building size but it certainly indicates that a small forge could fit in a 10 x 10 space - especially in a village smithy only being asked to forge nails and ploughshares


Generally though I think the point is to simplify things (hence Stronghold as Feat) so players dont get caught up in the minutiae of detail. I can accept that 10 x 10 workshop is big enough, I dont need to know that the forge has an open side or that the wrought iron is stored in a outside shed.

As for building v land area, I always do a cross the board presumption that every cluster of rural buildings occupies 30 acres whether its a hamlet with surrounding fields and the woods, a cloistered monastery with its own vineyard, a Nobles Manor or a fortified castle (eg Windsor Castle occupies 13 acres).

 

[The Green Hermit]

Smallest modern bedroom. Things were... a bit smaller in history.

We have a nature center not too far from where I live that contains a reconstructed log cabin (built elsewhere in the 1830s, rebuilt on the center's property) where a married couple raised six kids, and later one of their kids raised fifteen kids... in 240 square feet. Over two floors. I've been in it. It made those little Ikea demo houses seem positively roomy.

The basic answer is: they did a lot of stuff, including sleeping, outside.

Now, in Medieval times, a peasant's house might indeed be about 630-1,500 ft.^2, but half of that is for the animals. In the more sanitation-aware D&D-land, where animals live in the barn, you could probably halve the size of your actual peasant house.

Now, of course, in a fantasy world, building things might be cheaper or easier: because of magic, ingenious gnomish joining methods that allow for larger rooms without pillars or flying buttresses, stuff like that.

I also took a look here, which lists some castles for sale (it's old, though, and some of the links don't work, but that's why we have the Wayback Machine, right?). One castle is 37,000 ft.^2; another was 40,902 ft.^2.

So possibly your sizes are too big, if you're going for realistic. If you're going for "it's D&D; you need the extra room to swing a sword around," then it's fine.

Modern day times: I grew up in a one-room cabin that was 15' x 30', no running water or electricity. Two dogs, multiple cats, and 4 people altogether. (We did have an artesian well, just no plumbing, and we did have a 2,000 watt generator for Seahawk games.)

 

[Darkwynters]

Hmmm, did you guys do anything interesting with Lifestyle… O5e was sort of blah on whether you live a wealthy lifestyle or poor… most of my gamers chose poor to save gold when I told them there was no rules.

 

[werecorpse]

My campaign has lingering injuries and peak condition benefits. I figure that the standard position of a character is the way they are after they’ve had a couple of days rest and are feeling fit. Not the way they are after they’ve properly trained and rested over a longer period of time. Anyone who plays a physical sport will tell you that it can take a week or two weeks or more to recover and professional players tend to be strongest just after a good preseason rather than towards the end of the season when most of got little niggling injuries but don’t stop them playing but mean they aren’t at their peak.

So in my game resting up and getting proper conditioning can (not always) give benefits over and above those of a base character. Here’s a summary of my home rules.

Gaining peak condition benefits over downtime

For each 10 days spent in downtime living aristocratically (wealthy each 20 days, comfortable each 40, modest each 80) without adventuring you gain a Peak Condition Benefit.

Peak condition benefits

If the GM considers you have undertaken appropriate training or rest and recuperation you can be rewarded with a bonus indicating you are in, or near, peak physical condition. You may not receive a particular peak condition ability more than one at a time, although you may have multiple abilities. These last until you choose to use them. If you start to rest and train again and you still have one or more conditioning benefits you keep them. You can gain these benefits from high morale proper rest or physical training (such that gaining them won't interfere with other roleplaying downtime activities). The benefits are either allocated by the GM or rolled randomly. They are:

1. (Resurgent) you can take a short rest in 1 minute.

2. (resilient ) you can spend hit dice as a reaction (maximum half level round up) to reduce damage taken from a single attack.

3. (hardy) instead of rolling you may automatically get a 20 on a death saving roll.

4. (agile) you may impose disadvantage on a attack roll against you that wasn’t at advantage after it has been rolled but before damage is rolled.

5. (insightful) you may re roll a non death saving throw you failed.

6. (powerful) on 3 occasions you may re roll a single damage die (whether inflicted physically or magically), when you do so increase the die step by 1 place and take the best result.

Once a character has all the 6 peak condition benefits then they can gain further small benefits reflected as:

A 1 hp increase in their Maximum hit points up to a maximum of 1 per level. These maximum hit points will reduce by one after a long rest if the character has been in a situation where they take damage, even if that damage is healed before they rest, until the character gets back to normal maximum hit points.

Final downtime R&R condition benefit is the ability to avoid lingering injuries. You may get up to your level in lingering injury re-rolls.

 

[MGibster]

Hmmm, did you guys do anything interesting with Lifestyle… O5e was sort of blah on whether you live a wealthy lifestyle or poor… most of my gamers chose poor to save gold when I told them there was no rules.

I've never really done anything interesting with the lifestyle rules. Most of my players have chosen to take the highest lifestyle possible except at the lowest levels because the gold flows like water.

 

[CapnZapp]

My takeaway from this thread is that everybody's campaign and focus on treasure is different, and thus provides no workable starting point for a published game product.

What remains is to consider the only 'objective" factor: game balance.

If you allow unregulated magic item purchase, what does a given item need to cost to not unbalance play at a given level?

In other words: utility-based magic item pricing.

Stripping away all the subjective arbitrary campaign-specific clutter and just focusing on the game aspect.

This is what a core rulebook should do. This is what a core rulebook can do.

It provides a sound foundation for players just interested in bashing dungeons and looting corpses.

Players who prefer to ignore the prices or economy can to that just as easily as if the published price lists were just made up arbitrarily, while players actually relying on the balance get actually useful stuff instead of worthless stuff.

It's a win-win.

Except it requires actual effort from the developers. But that is why we purchase published systems instead of creating then ourselves.