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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 3428578" data-attributes="member: 18280">Treebore,Those numbers may well be (close to) correct.  Of course, a lot of that money would be socked away, and a lot of that money would go to patronage as well.  Part of that patronage would, no doubt, include the hiring of magic workers and artificers of various stripes, who would then work exclusively for that noble.(We should also remember that much of that money would be in the form of perishable goods, such as grain, so that it wouldn't last if unused.)It was also a common practice for a noble to travel, holding court in the lands of his vassals, as a means of siphoning off their wealth (and ensuring that they know he is keeping tabs on them).  Many lords required military service from their vassals, or might accept scutage (payment to avoid sending men), which was another drain on resources.  Finally, many lords limited the size of the standing armies that their vassals could keep, primarily to prevent them from gaining enough power to overthrow the lord and take his place.  This last point is probably salient to how nobles in a mock-Medieval European world would view magic -- any lord in his right mind wouldn't allow his vassals to have more than about half what he does.  Even if the PCs are freemen, this would hold, and the government in a given location would do its best to ensure that no one had the power to overthrow it.  IRL, of course, governments have been overthrown and/or usurped, so no matter how strongly a government tries to limit the resources of the governed, failure is probably inevitable.  I tend to think of this sort of government as being rather like in The Godfather, where the Don protects his people and expects their fealty, but there are always people who want the power he represents.  As the PCs first emerge, they make gifts of items they recover to the local level of government.  As the PCs rise in power, the upper eschelons of government (and those factions wishing to depose the upper eschelons of government) seek them out and attempt to sway them into alliance.  PCs who ally with no one have no friends, and are seen as potential threats to be eliminated at the first opportunity.In this model, there are no magic shops, just individual artificers that are very often already attached to a given court, whose ruler you must sway to get any work done.  A good part of the cost of an item would be gifting the ruler, who could then simply order the work done.  What you owe is not so much gold as favours that can be called in at any time.That's my take, anyway.YMMV.RC</blockquote>

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