D&D 5E What could 5E do to make wealth worthwhile?

[ezo]

I like the idea of starting the PCs off with a massive debt -- and someone willing to come looking for them if they don't make their regular payments. I don't think I have ever done this with D&D, but it was standard for Star Wars and other sci-fi games where the PCs started with a ship.

Hey, good point! Where did they get their starting gold from, anyway...

 

[Sacrosanct]

I was kinda tongue in cheek about my earlier post about going back to 1e. But the more I think about it, the more some of it might actually make sense. Too much gold is caused by easy access to spells like revivify and lesser restoration. Earlier editions didn't get resurrection magic until higher levels. You had to hire someone to do those things, and it was costly. If you remove those things that used party gold, then it shouldn't be surprised when there is so much wealth that it really doesn't matter.

 

[ezo]

I was kinda tongue in cheek about my earlier post about going back to 1e. But the more I think about it, the more some of it might actually make sense. Too much gold is caused by easy access to spells like revivify and lesser restoration. Earlier editions didn't get resurrection magic until higher levels. You had to hire someone to do those things, and it was costly. If you remove those things that used party gold, then it shouldn't be surprised when there is so much wealth that it really doesn't matter.

In my games if a PC dies in battle, often we never had revivify handy, so they had to hope they would get to a temple or some place with a priest who could (and would) cast raise dead before the time limit expired.

Good luck finding any NPC in my games who can cast resurrection... There are maybe a hand-ful in the entire game world and most of them don't care to be bothered by the PCs.

 

[Remathilis]

I was kinda tongue in cheek about my earlier post about going back to 1e. But the more I think about it, the more some of it might actually make sense. Too much gold is caused by easy access to spells like revivify and lesser restoration. Earlier editions didn't get resurrection magic until higher levels. You had to hire someone to do those things, and it was costly. If you remove those things that used party gold, then it shouldn't be surprised when there is so much wealth that it really doesn't matter.

During 2e, we had so much gold we'd ruin local economies for the lulz. The only edition where gold mattered was 3e, and that's because magic items were pay to win.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I was kinda tongue in cheek about my earlier post about going back to 1e. But the more I think about it, the more some of it might actually make sense. Too much gold is caused by easy access to spells like revivify and lesser restoration. Earlier editions didn't get resurrection magic until higher levels. You had to hire someone to do those things, and it was costly. If you remove those things that used party gold, then it shouldn't be surprised when there is so much wealth that it really doesn't matter.

On a similar note... throw over-leveled monsters at the party that can one or two-shot the PCs... thus inspiring the players to spend wads of cash on high-level Cure Wound wands to use during fights to try and keep people on their feet.

Most players won't want to spend one of their 4th or 5th level spells slot on a Cure Wounds spell... but would be happy to blow a charge from a wand that the entire group put their cash in to buy.

 

[dave2008]

My groups spends their money during downtime mostly. It cost money to level up (train, research, etc.) and that is the big money sink in our game.

Also, just give less loot. That is the easiest "fix."

 

[Stormonu]

NOT using it to buy magic items.

Somehow shifting it for extra XP (as in training expenses) or actually having something worth spending it on (again, NOT magic items) would be the direction I would go.

And, as others have stated, just giving out less of it so it is more significant would be smart.

 

[grimmgoose]

In my opinion, it's a foundational issue.

It's easy to make money mean something in a Cyberpunk game, because the squad is constantly desperate for money. Cybernetics, living conditions, food, bribes - eddies make the world go 'round.

In 5E, all of those are solved by magic. Goodberry, charm person, tiny hut. It's hard to make money important when the game itself doesn't view it as important.

I would go the opposite route: simplify money. Make it a score (like Call of Cthulhu). It comes up when necessary, but otherwise - ignore it, because it doesn't matter.

 

[Reynard]

"Give out less" isn't really a good solution if you want to incentivize PCs going for that big score (whether a heist or a dungeon crawl).

Buying titles is a real thing that the PCs might care about, now that I think of it.

 

[Blue]

It is pretty well agreed upon that monetary treasure and wealth does not have much use in 5E (especially compared to 3.x era games).

Gods, this is such a loaded statement. It's "true" except that the 3.x uses for money in terms of magic items as expected parts of character advancement math were intentionally taken out of 5e. So when you remove the parts that the designers considered harmful to the game to remove, the statement is false.

And since the statement is false, no changes need to be made.

So I reject the whole premise, as actively against design intent.

So what could 5E do to make money matter? What would you like to see? What things could help motivate the going into the holes and killing the monsters and taking their stuff?

Money matters! But it matters in in-world ways that the characters will use it, not meta-ways to improve your character sheet. If you can't picture ways for your characters to spend money in an RPG, that's a you failing, not a system failing.