D&D 5E What's the point of gold?

[Chocolategravy]

Magic items. A party of level 5, just out of apprentice tier doing the typical 7 fights/day, will be making more than 1k/day in gold. By level 11 you'll be making enough gold a day to destroy the economy of large towns. So, buy magic items, or be the villain and destroy economies. Your choice.

 

[Paraxis]

DMG pg 126-131 has a section of recurring expenses, stuff like running a business, maintaining a keep, crafting magic items, training costs for leveling, building strongholds, and carousing. There are charts and suggestions but a lot of it is vague and more like guidelines.

Besides all of that you have the lifestyle expenses from the PHB pg 157.

But saving up for diamonds is the best use of most characters money, all those raise dead type spells use very expensive diamonds.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Keeping score.

 

[Celtavian]

Gold can be turned into power for casters (especially wizards). They do have some expensive components. The wizard should definitely hoard as much gold as possible.

For everyone else, healing potions and lifestyle.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

Keeping score.

Nuts, you beat me to it. And he who dies with the most gold wins.

 

[Kikuras]

I would suggest grand processions of parade scale. Trumpeters, jugglers, tumblers, fire-breathers, elephants and camels, colorful banners, minstrels, wagons of food to be given to the poor, wagons of extra coppers and silvers to be tossed to the poor, jewel encrusted saddles, all of this to announce the party's entrance into town, be it large or small.

Or you can raise an army and lay siege to the capitol of Whereverstan. Who made him king? I didn't vote for him. It's about time Grumblesnort the Gnome was king!

My favorite idea, however, is the construction of a large and very secure vault to keep the gold in, and then to swim in the afore mentioned piles of gold.

(all things I would do before buying a business that required my character to sit around 'managing' all the time or risk monetary loss)

 

[CapnZapp]

Buying magic items.

Sure, the DMG says they aren't available for purchase, but that's just a lie

LOL.

Yes, let's hope WotC or a good third party publisher, will soon fill the void for those who aren't interested in downtime between their adventures, and publishes a decent magic item creation and pricing PDF for us!

 

[Staffan]

http://pvponline.com/comic/1999/11/11/thu-nov-11

 

[delericho]

Since I haven't ran a game for long, I want to ask about gold use in the later levels, what do you use it for?

You're supposed to melt it down and use it to craft replacement parts for yourself. In case of any little... accidents.

 

[Kikuras]

From a roleplay perspective, I suppose it would make much more sense if everyone played a dwarf.