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

[SkidAce]

Play out the natural consequences of the PCs being penniless and broke, in campaign, and they will discover the point of gold.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

What else is there to do with gold? There is no other equipment progression beyond plate mail, most consumables besides healing potions and also upkeep is glossed over (and when not they are trivial). The often mentioned carousing pretty much is equal to throwing coins down the well as it serves no purpose. There are some big ticket items in the rules (hastily added when the designers realized that their reward balance is broken without magic items in my opinion) like strongholds and ships but, like bribes, they are extremely situational and there is absolutely no guidelines in the books about how to handle them in game neither for the DM or player making them more like vanity items than a actually useful things.

Even if you're purely combat-focused, and you hate the idea of hirelings, you could still blow all of your gold on purple worm venom and enjoy quadrupling your DPR against dragons. See DMG section on buying poisons.

 

[Derren]

Well, I suppose that's true if the DM needs his hand gently held throughout the duration Ida campaign.

And I assume thats why only bad DMs who "need their hand held" all their time buy campaign settings or the DMG. Real DMs don't need those silly rules and advise stuff. Even the PHB is vastly overblown. More than "Roll a D20, things happen according to the result" is not needed.

Short version: Gold is useless unless its making me moar powarfulz!!! 11!

Seriously, there is more to D&D then murderhobos slaughtering everything in sight and creating perfect combos of items to render you defenses perfect and your dps xtreme. I'm sorry you don't find land, businesses, followers, and such important, but pardon us who think the system as is isn't "broken" or "short sighted".

Go have fun equipping your toon with kewl powerz, I'm done with this.

Bye then. I will see you back when you realize that most stuff you have in mind is actually counter intuitive to an adventuring livestyle and at best only serves as a backdrop people spend money on because there is nothing else to do.
If you want to make something more out of them, don't forget to post how you do it in the houserule section as the books don't tell you anything about how to handle them in game besides "cross 100.000 gold off your sheet, now you own a stronghold."

 

[Riley37]

Well, okay, I managed to elicit a clear position post, and I'm no longer baffled. Thanks.

I also have no plans to change the role of loot in any table I run. Darn, that means some players might find my table unattractive, and go elsewhere. I... I guess I'll have to carry on without them. Somehow.

On the player side, I run a PC who, at the end of each day, uses remaining spell slots (which is usually all of them during downtime) to cast Goodberry, then takes an overnight Long Rest; and then, about 20 hours later, brings uneaten Goodberries (which is usually all of them) to a soup kitchen, to feed displaced people in Phlan. There might be tables which would find that inappropriate and unwelcome, because when 30-50 impoverished generic urban NPCs get a day's reprieve from starvation, that doesn't increase the party's firepower. If players or DMs at those tables find my play style offensive, then darn, I'll have to play elsewhere. So sad.

"What's the wealth level?"
"It's over 9,000 GP!"

 

[bedir than]

On the player side, I run a PC who, at the end of each day, uses remaining spell slots (which is usually all of them during downtime) to cast Goodberry, then takes an overnight Long Rest; and then, about 20 hours later, brings uneaten Goodberries (which is usually all of them) to a soup kitchen, to feed displaced people in Phlan. There might be tables which would find that inappropriate and unwelcome, because when 30-50 impoverished generic urban NPCs get a day's reprieve from starvation, that doesn't increase the party's firepower.

This should have an in-game effect even. Optional rules like renown and honor, or even something less scripted like being known as a noble-minded person should have an impact in the game. Word of this generosity would spread. That could lead to new adventures as someone who is needy knows there is a powerful caster who cares about others in the town.

The only limit on in-game effects is the imagination of all at the table.

 

[Salthorae]

most of this thread seemed like a digression on the OP and I stopped about page 12...

my 9th level character in a 5e game has spent over half of his wealth on buying a furnishing a large 2 story town home in the capital city and spends 150 gp/month on his staff and upkeep. He gave 600 gp to an NPC friend who wants to start and open a library. He went in with the other PC's to refurbish a keep they gained title to through adventures and now they are starting to pay maintenance and salaries for the guardsmen, etc who live there full time.

There is a ton of stuff to do with gold even without purchasing magic items.

I love this change with 5e, characters are more important than the stuff they can get their grubby hands on...

 

[Hussar]

most of this thread seemed like a digression on the OP and I stopped about page 12...

my 9th level character in a 5e game has spent over half of his wealth on buying a furnishing a large 2 story town home in the capital city and spends 150 gp/month on his staff and upkeep. He gave 600 gp to an NPC friend who wants to start and open a library. He went in with the other PC's to refurbish a keep they gained title to through adventures and now they are starting to pay maintenance and salaries for the guardsmen, etc who live there full time.

There is a ton of stuff to do with gold even without purchasing magic items.

I love this change with 5e, characters are more important than the stuff they can get their grubby hands on...

According to some in this thread, you are a very bad player and your character should get kicked from the group. It's rather sad to see to be honest.

 

[Shasarak]

most of this thread seemed like a digression on the OP and I stopped about page 12...

my 9th level character in a 5e game has spent over half of his wealth on buying a furnishing a large 2 story town home in the capital city and spends 150 gp/month on his staff and upkeep. He gave 600 gp to an NPC friend who wants to start and open a library. He went in with the other PC's to refurbish a keep they gained title to through adventures and now they are starting to pay maintenance and salaries for the guardsmen, etc who live there full time.

Personally my PC would have tracked down someone with books and then arranged to get the books to give to my NPC friend. Most likely by tricking them into attacking me so that the rest of the party would have an excuse to slaughter them mercilessly.

 

[Ahrimon]

most of this thread seemed like a digression on the OP and I stopped about page 12...

my 9th level character in a 5e game has spent over half of his wealth on buying a furnishing a large 2 story town home in the capital city and spends 150 gp/month on his staff and upkeep. He gave 600 gp to an NPC friend who wants to start and open a library. He went in with the other PC's to refurbish a keep they gained title to through adventures and now they are starting to pay maintenance and salaries for the guardsmen, etc who live there full time.

There is a ton of stuff to do with gold even without purchasing magic items.

I love this change with 5e, characters are more important than the stuff they can get their grubby hands on...

That's awesome and I'm very glad of the systemic changes that have helped to immerse the characters in the game. I'm looking forward to actually playing and having a character involved in the world.

That said, I do understand that there are folks out there who want kick in the door dungeon delving style of game. I believe it's called a beer and pretzel game. They're not interested in anything outside of the dungeon and play DnD as more of an action game. There's nothing wrong with this, the game mostly supports it, and I hope they all have great games. 5e does put the ball in the DMs court for things to spend gold on for this style of game. I can understand why these players and DMs would be a little frustrated that they weren't given everything in one package, but I can't understand the wailing and gnashing of teeth from some people here. I'm sorry if the game didn't give you everything you need without any input from you, but it did give you everything you need with a little bit of work. To these folks I would like to say, don't sweat the small stuff. So what if your home pricing system isn't 100% balanced. Go with it and adjust as needed. You don't need everything spelled out to have a great game. Embrace what you have, make up the rest, and have fun with your friends.

For those who say they don't have time, I just can't see it. I manage 60 people at work and have two kids and a wife at home and can still find time to make up campaign details. You may have to sacrifice some XBox/Netflix/PS4/Game of Thrones time to make it work, but if you really want those details it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

That said, I do understand that there are folks out there who want kick in the door dungeon delving style of game. I believe it's called a beer and pretzel game. They're not interested in anything outside of the dungeon and play DnD as more of an action game. There's nothing wrong with this, the game mostly supports it, and I hope they all have great games. 5e does put the ball in the DMs court for things to spend gold on for this style of game.

For beer and pretzels style, I think XP is already a plenty good positive-reinforcement mechanism, plus any magic items that you happen to find while dungeon delving. I think such players are safely ignore gold if they want to. (Or not, if they prefer to buy purple worm poison and hunting dogs and thousands of crossbow quarrels and caltrops to take with them on their dungeon delves.)