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Message: <blockquote data-quote="merelycompetent" data-source="post: 2916946" data-attributes="member: 33830">I just hope that the wizard remembers that when the PCs look at the oncoming horde of bandits and yell out, "Hey! We're not guarding the Wizard! He doesn't pay us 500gp per dead corpse for stopping you from mobbing him and slitting his throat!" To which the wizard shouts, "Hey, don't blame me! The caravan master charges me 500gp per mile just for this cruddy wagon! He's the one with all the money!"Based on what you've posted in this thread, and solely IMO: The NPC wizard, and you, are gouging the PCs. Unless the cost of Identify scrolls is similarly high (with commensurate increase for all magical services across the board - and that will *really* mess up the assumed wealth/power levels vs. encounters), it'd be cheaper for the PCs to outright buy the scrolls themselves, even at 2x listed cost, and get a PC, follower, or henchman to cast it. If it were me playing, I'd have no choice but to pay those outrageous, criminal prices since I have no gear and started broke when I'm supposedly halfway to maxing out my possible level limit in the game. Once I got enough stuff to survive the average encounter, though, that gouging little (censored) isn't getting another copper piece from me. Heck, I'll save my cash up to commision an item that does Identify twice a day, and still come out ahead. In the meantime, once I reach that survivability point, that wizard's going to have to pay my character to keep me from informing every opponent that I meet that I'm not paid to  protect the wizard. Worse, if I'm not playing a good-aligned character, robbing the wizard becomes *real* attractive. And if the wizard is so powerful that he doesn't need any meat shields... then he's either a DMPC (and blessed with the DM's grace) or I'm staying the heck away from him (why would he be travelling in a caravan like this if, in metagame terms, he can slag EL10's that easily?). I'm also surprised that the LG characters haven't followed up on this interpretation of not gouging. The paladin could make a killing just charging for curing diseases or laying on hands (to say nothing of spells), and it sounds like it wouldn't be an alignment violation.In any case, the PCs are trapped paying whatever the wizard chooses to charge, unless they want to derail the session (and potentially the campaign) by traipsing back to a town that has more reasonable prices. Unless they can do this, they're being gouged. This sort of setup can easily lead to player resentment. Resentment can lead to untimely NPC deaths. Untimely NPC deaths can lead dead PCs. Dead PCs can lead to premature campaign deaths.</blockquote>

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