NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="seasong" data-source="post: 843045" data-attributes="member: 5137">Note: some war stuff coming up this weekend, although as mentioned previously, the rules by which Theralis is playing the war game have changed. More importantly, Bellos will be unveiling his Beer Plan, which may well make the party filthy, filthy, filthy rich. By Theralis standards, anyway <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />.Anyway, because they might be rolling in disposable income within the next few game sessions, I thought I would share some of my thoughts as a GM about PCs and obscene wealth.It gets touched on a lot on these boards, but in D&D, wealth = magic items = combat power. Too much wealth under this system, and the balance of the system breaks. Worse, there are items one can buy in standard D&D which essentially allow you to throw money at a monster to make it go away, not to mention the hordes of mercenaries and spell casting armies one can buy.Theralis doesn't have hordes of spell casters to hire, and mercenaries (while they exist) are a mostly northern thing. The people of Theralis would likely frown strongly on the idea of such shiftless, landless criminals being relied on to defend Theralis lands. And magic items are generally on a per-commission basis, and take time to produce; those that already exist are usually in someone's hands already, and unless you can imagine Agina selling her sword (I can't), you are out of luck.Something to consider, however, is the threat range they are to face. At 7th level, verging 8th, they have become regional heroes and are verging near legendary status. Realistically, if they spearhead a plan, they'll have many, many times their wealth in people who will back them on the plan. Realistically, if they need something to break the back of the enemy, the military will buy it for them. And realistically, they're going to need it to win.Another consideration is that wealth, properly done, gives the characters something to lose. I love to allow characters to invest in things and then threaten that investment. They're usually jumping all over the threat like ugly on an ape before I can finish saying what the threat even is. Wealth ties you down - to land, to your partners, to the survival of the community that makes your wealth meaningful.And finally, wealth won't impact things that much from a challenge perspective. I've got whole armies of eye tyrants, orcs, giants, northern aggressors, and who knows what else. if the PCs, at semi-semi-legendary status, are too rich for more ordinary threats, I've got everything I need to achieve the destruction of all they hold near and dear. Balance is between party members, not between the party and the GM.Whew! Didn't mean to make that so long. Just my two cents <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />.</blockquote>

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