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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charles Rampant" data-source="post: 7151443" data-attributes="member: 32659">It's an interesting question. I read a blog post that someone shared on here last time this came up, which noted that the amount of gold in D&D treasure tables has remained the same since 1e, more or less, even as magic items have fluctuated wildly, but the actual reason for 1e having so much money (you were expected to run strongholds, etc) has fallen out of the game. The end result is treasure tables that give out masses of gold, but the game has no real purpose for that gold. It's just meaningless numbers.The simplest solution seems, to me, to just give out less treasure. So the party kills the Bandit King and finds a +1 longsword and three potions, or whatever, but only 100gp. That keeps them keen, and also seems probably more reasonable for a crime-lord's 'money on hand'. It also has the benefit that you get a vaguely Three Musketeers vibe to it, with the party lounging around the tavern with empty wallets and extravagant armour and weapons. I'd not thought of the Platemail angle, but that could be covered with a helpful sidequest (The Dwarf smith goes missing! He happens to be an expert at making platemail for that character's race and sex!). I tried having a big money sink in my campaign. It was a castle - one of the characters inherited it, but it was full of monsters and had no roof, etc. So it would cost 20,000gp to repair. Great! That's a cool goal, the players could work towards it, gain a stronghold. But in practice it remained out of reach until they hit level 6 and suddenly got 50,000gp in one go, which rather took the sails out of the project. (I also kept having adventures that took them away from it, so that it never really took on the focal point I was intending. Oh well.) What I'm saying is that money sinks can be cool and all, but you'll still need to control the treasure to keep them relevant; the default treasure tables are kind of calibrated for a Louis XIV level of extravagance, after a certain level.</blockquote>

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