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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5193923" data-attributes="member: 4937">Agreed, but in 4e's defense this is not a new problem.   Ever since 1e, D&D has tried to marry two different economies based on irreconcilable considerations.   On the one hand, Gygax created a silver piece economy in mundane items and wages based off a fairly reasonable abstraction of a medieval economy.   This economy can be seen in the wages of 1e men-at-arms, unskilled laborers, the prices of food and drink, and the income earned by PC's through taxation.  That is the simulationist economy.  But on the other hand, Gygax created a gold piece economy driven entirely by gamist considerations - the amount of XP a character needed to level and the utility of an item in the dungeon.   Big warning signs should go up when you read the 1e PH and read that the prices in the price list there in represent the effects of hyperinflation due to high demand and limited supply as for example would be seen in Alaska during the Klondike gold rush(!!!).  That is an amazing assumption for a standard price list, and the more amazing thing about it is that ever since that time those prices have influenced what is seen as the 'normal' price of a good to the extent that in many cases you see notes that the prices of goods in some remote locale should be two or three times higher than the PH standard (!!!). Gygax's explanation in the 1e PH indicates clearly that he knew he wasn't setting up a realistic economy, but that he could find a post hoc justification for the gamist prices which is arguably realistic but only for the very narrow situation envisioned.  Nonetheless, almost no designer following up on Gygax has ever addressed A book that actually gave reasonable prices and construction times for every imaginable good would be worth its weight in silver to me.   I've seen several bold attempts at it but nothing that really survives a realism test when you dig at the rules, and nothing which has a truly comprehensive simulationist based price list.As for magic item pricing and the prices of spell components, I really want to revisit that as well, but unlike a general price list I suspect my desires are going to be so personal that they won't translate from table to table.</blockquote>

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