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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 8451924" data-attributes="member: 6779196">Yeah, this shift towards adventure-path play is definitely what I was zeroing in on.I don’t think it’s a matter of lacking design level focus. 5e does include downtime activity as part of its design, and even added some more robust downtime mechanics in Xanathar’s Guide. The problem isn’t that there aren’t rules for downtime, it’s that those rules aren’t any more useful than gold in the way the game is typically played. It’s a lack of campaign-level focus, because “campaign” has become synonymous with “adventure path” (for most players).True. They could become an incentive though, if they did something other than soak up gold. Hypothetically, your character’s lifestyle is supposed to affect them socially - NPCs will associate with characters in similar lifestyle categories and distance themselves from characters in lower categories. But, it’s all very nebulous with no hard rules for how it actually affects any given character, and again, none of this matters while adventuring, so nobody cares.I don’t think the amount they cost even really matters, because most players these days don’t really care about hirelings. The campaign is now about the party’s exploits. Adding hirelings to the mix just distracts from that. Players don’t want more characters in the party taking away from time that could be spent spotlighting their own character, especially not NPCs.Yeah, expensive material components can be a good gold sink for casters - Arcane included, in my opinion - to make up for their decreased reliance on magic weapons and armor. But, having specific components for specific spells runs into the healing potion problem again. Players hold on to whatever doodad they need to cast a particular spell “in case they need it more later” and it never gets spent. This is I think part of why 3e moved to generic diamond dust and 4e used residuum. 4e’s ritual spells were actually an excellent gold sink in my opinion.</blockquote>

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