Asisreo
Patron Badass
I'd say commoner which makes it 0 CR and you'd roll on the 0-4 CR individual table in the DMG on page 136.
D&D 5E What Sort Of Income For Commoners To Get A Coherent Economy?
doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
But that doesn't have to be the case. Obviously I can only give out so much direct income and instead reward with things like land and access to resources that bypass cost, and access to sages and expert hirelings, etc, but I shouldn't need to do all that for the PCs to not become more wealthy than the wealthiest of kings.
I'm not saying the default is bad, simply that it isn't the only way, and if anyone else if interested in the particulars of a different model we can hash it out here.
CubicsRube
Hero
I really want to run a 5e campaign where the characters have to define a personal goal (get their family out of debt and restore the name, spread the influence of their deity, raise a mercenary army under their control, research how to magically change an event in time, etc) and the characters get XP per GP spent on that goal.
This would be designed to specifically create adventures around how the PCs are breaking the economy and changing the power blocks in the world. Jealous lords, rival religious groups, etc.
If I wanted to go the other way I'd leave commoner/professional incomes the same but convert all costs and treasure to silver standard.
This will reduce the income gap reasonably. It'd also make professions reasonably competitive vs adventuring, and considering hiw much safer it is it provides a rationale for why most people become adventurers.
I can't say It'd prevent the PCs breaking the economy, but it should delay it a few levels. Later on the PCs are mostly breaking reality anyway, so I'm fine with them changing the economic rules at this point.
This would be designed to specifically create adventures around how the PCs are breaking the economy and changing the power blocks in the world. Jealous lords, rival religious groups, etc.
If I wanted to go the other way I'd leave commoner/professional incomes the same but convert all costs and treasure to silver standard.
This will reduce the income gap reasonably. It'd also make professions reasonably competitive vs adventuring, and considering hiw much safer it is it provides a rationale for why most people become adventurers.
I can't say It'd prevent the PCs breaking the economy, but it should delay it a few levels. Later on the PCs are mostly breaking reality anyway, so I'm fine with them changing the economic rules at this point.
CubicsRube
Hero
You can also make them need a yacht at tier 2 as a status symbol.
Then at tier 3 you need to buy a bigger yacht that the first yacht sits in.
At tier 4 you just have to buy the navy
Then at tier 3 you need to buy a bigger yacht that the first yacht sits in.
At tier 4 you just have to buy the navy
Don Durito
Hero
You can but then you also get the PCs looking for all kinds of ways to grub money by stealing bandits' shoes and then trying to sell them in town by haggling for the highest price they can and things like that.
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Problem largely solved.
Most DMs don't really run stuff like upkeep or anything. Characters only spend money on food or drink while they're actively hanging out in a tavern and it makes money go a -long- way...
1 gold per player per day to stay in a Tavern, maintain their gear, and eat decent meals. With a 5-man band it's 5 gold a day.
Just make sure they're hanging around for more than a couple days at a time and you can take big bites out of their income. At -least- in the lower tiers.
Once they're taking out dragons on the regular, economics go out the window.
It would be extremely difficult to solve without dual currencies. Normal people use gold silver & platinum wuth gems trade goods & the like typically being priced in this format. Political powers like towns/cities nation states magic item crafters of meaningful skill & PCs also use magic stones with a value that doesn't simply convert to gold like residuum did. It doesn't matter if you have 5 5k or 500k units worth of magic stones when you want to bribe someone because that's not a meaningful form of currency to them any more than a drum of crude oil or a ton of coal is something most people are even capable of putting to use.
doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
I think I disagree, but i'd like to examine this more. Why couldn't you just convert gold to silver, keep gold as ten silver and platinum as ten gold, which reduces the value of goods dramatically, but keep the income of people the same? 1 gold a day becomes the equivelent of 10 gold a day, but it's easier to track this way rather than inflating the numbers of coins involved.
A 100g ruby becomes a 10g or 100 silver ruby, for instance.
As for trade goods, a lot of lower and middle class commerce is direct bartering until the modern age, so why couldn't that still be the case in dndland?
I've had a long day, so I'll readily allow that I might be missing something.
That's usually called the silver standard & I've done it. At first it seems to work ok, but the resource pressure ranges from overwhelming to so far above any reasonable need that you ae back to the original problem with barely razor's edge between the two points. This happens because PCs just don't work like normal people & NPCs wen it comes to expenses & that becomes a mess tracking clothing wear & tear for example.
Using a completely different category of currency allows the gm to give apply pressure & excess to both as desired while giving each their own consumption forms if the players become too flush. Wanna buy that cool magic doodad with your magic crystals?... sure but those kind of people aren't going to talk to you with how you dress & live within society & that part costs gold. Want to save for that really really nice magic item? sure it's a hundred times more expensive than the one you are trying to buy at the silent auction, this one is worth a thousand crystals but it's the only one up for auction, how much is it worth to you?
Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
D&D doesn’t really have an economy as such. What it has is a system whereby players are rewarded with two kinds of resources: XP, which they can spend to directly advance their characters along a fixed path determined by their class, and GP, which they can spend to gain enhancements outside that fixed advancement track, via equipment. They can also convert undesired equipment into GP, and then into desired equipment, at a surcharge.
The problem, particularly in 5e, is that players can easily gain huge amounts of GP, and there is precious little DM guidance on how much of it to charge for what sort of enhancements.
The problem, particularly in 5e, is that players can easily gain huge amounts of GP, and there is precious little DM guidance on how much of it to charge for what sort of enhancements.
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