The weight of wealth

[Narzul]

What is the weight of a typical copper/silver/gold piece ?

What is the weight of a typical gem ?


For DM's...

Are you cautious on the weight of wealth carried by low-level PCs ?

 

[Caliber]

I believe it says that 50 coins (of any type) weigh 1 pound.

As a DM, I am normally pretty lenient on the weight issue. However, if the party has a HUGE amount of treasure, I normally tell them that they are weighed down. How much is huge? Normally its just a DM call, since I rarely bother to actually make the players figure the total weight. Your mileage may vary.

 

[Narzul]

IMHO, under D&D 3E rules, movement speed is a big factor in combat, it's why I feel that I need to be more cautious on emcumbrance...

... and I don't even talk about Climb and Swim check

 

[Jack Haggerty]

Heh heh... that's why gems and jewelry are an adventurer's best friend.

 

[Kip the Bold]

Bags of holding are an adventurer's best friend. Over the course of several 3e campaigns, we have abandoned thousands upon thousands of copper pieces. Gems are cool when you can get them, but should be a little harder to use to buy stuff with.

 

[Gromm]

Bags of holding are an adventurer's best friend.

Every party I know of invests in one of them. Being able to carry 250 lbs of stuff is invaluable.

 

[KarinsDad]

Every party I know of invests in one of them. Being able to carry 250 lbs of stuff is invaluable.

The problem with Bags of Holding is that a lot of DMs do not run them properly (or maybe I should say realistically).

A Bag of Holding is about 2 feet by 4 feet in size. That means that if a human or elf has it strapped onto them, it goes from their shoulders down to their calves. No room for a backpack as well. If a Dwarf is carrying it, it goes from the top of his head to his ankles. Halflings should find them very difficult to carry, not because of weight alone, but because of mass.

There are very bulky.

Plus, a Bag of Holding is very fragile. A single sword thrust from the outside will ruin it.

So, you have this large bulky object which should be very recognizable (at least for some foes adventurers run into), which is very fragile, and which should be really easy to hit in combat.

In fact, it should be easy to hit it accidentally in combat (although there are no rules for that).

As a DM, I told my players how easy it is to destroy straight up and they take precautions with the one they have (had, they recently went through a portal that would not allow extra-dimensional objects to travel through, so they temporarily lost the one they had, but they should get it back when they return).


Getting back on the topic of weight carried, I ask my players to keep track of their own weight, but they rarely do. It's kind of annoying, but not important enough that I'm going to do it myself. In fact, that is one of the reasons I allowed a Bag of Holding to enter the game: so that we could ignore most weight issues. Course, it was kind of funny when they filled it up with stuff they generally do not need and now they do not have it.

 

[Berk]

portable holes are an adventurers best friend =op
both of my 3e chars have like 4 each. But then again the party usually gives me all of their portable holes also since I seem to have the only chars that haven't died. =op
*opens up a portable hole and sticks his head inside, then pulls it out and says, "Ok, you had the hole with the skeleton and golem inside?"

 

[Jack Haggerty]

So, you have this large bulky object which should be very recognizable (at least for some foes adventurers run into), which is very fragile, and which should be really easy to hit in combat.

From the SRD:

Bag of Holding

This appears to be a common cloth sack about 2 feet by 4 feet in size.

Why should a 4' x 2' common cloth sack be very recognizable as a Bag of Holding, unless someone casts Detect Magic?

And in that case, isn't that what Nystul's Undetectable Aura is for?

 

[doktorstick]

Why should a 4' x 2' common cloth sack be very recognizable as a Bag of Holding, unless someone casts Detect Magic?

Yes. The common, ignorant townsman isn't going to differentiate a bag of holding from his wife's linen sack, but adventurers would recognize it on the spot. Or rather, they would almost always assume that it was the mystical bag and nothing less. A cloth sack on the backs of well-armored folk would draw thieves to it like flies to honey.

/ds