Why isn't every 9th level wizard rich?

[VirgilCaine]

It depends on how much work I want to put into making the change. Nerfing the spell has the advantage of being much simpler, with fewer follow-on effects to be considered.

Deleting the line about iron as a trade good vs. creating a new line of text in a spell.

Hmmmm. Which would be simpler?

 

[Baron Opal]

He's 9th level, of course he's rich. Why wouldn't he be? The method of him being rich and what it gets you changed from edition to edition but at that point gold, compared to when he was first level, isn't a concern anymore. His expenses are significant as well.

He didn't make his money by duplicating the craft of a common armorer, however. Such use of his skill would be ... tawdry. He would craft an item of use to the local lord or acquire and enchant a quality suit of armor for the lord's favored son; something that the wizard could take some pride in. A wizard would not whore himself out as some ... sweaty commoner ... he would fashion something beyond the concept of mere plainfolk.

Have some standards, sir.

 

[Maldor]

Something else about iron - iron, in most D&D settings, isn't all that useful by itself, you have to make steel out of it to create the products people want to buy.

So, no matter how much iron you have, it's only as useful as your capacity to smelt it into steel.

Also, you may just want to say that spells like wall of iron only produce low-quality iron that isn't of much use to smelt.

with the fabracate you can make iron into good steel just by taking out the right amount of carbon and other impuirtys

False Life only gives 1d10+caster level hit points. For a ninth level wizard facing four or five strong thugs, that's going away in the first couple of hits, if not the first hit. And he still has to deal with the negative modifiers to casting anything with all the pain involved. That's going to be around about a DC 18-23 Concentration check he has to make; that brings it to a 50/50 chance he'll get a spell off at all (that in addition to the Concentration check he has to make to cast defensively so they don't all get a free attack on him, so it's technically lower than that; more like a 20% any spell will go off). Sudden Still or Sudden Silent; either a grapple or gagging him one is going to prevent the other. I won't buy that he's spent more than one feat slot on such a exotic feat.

the corect thing to do is stoneskin and body of the sun
you might then call the cop since they're the one trying to assult and or murder you
if you like doing thing yourself i would go with knocking them out killing there familys bring them back as zombias and let their loved ones rip them apart in the town square as a reminder to not poke the bear

If a group of wizards does some of the other stuff you mention, that's when adventurers get called in to slaughter them to the man. They might be powerful, but they soon find out that secular authority is more powerful than they ever thought about being.

and in those time a army of a lord rairly topped 500
so as far as secular authority goes a 11 level wizards is about as powerful as a strong Baron or weak Duke

P.S. i don't think most wizards would take the time to do this more then hat was needed to fund their livelyhood and research after all most wizards are smart enough to know unspent gold is useless shiny metal thats only good quailty is that it doesn't rust or tarnish

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Did anyone of you get the idea that instead of nerfing spells to make a medival economy work (in that case nerf mosnters etc. too) you can instead create a new economy which works with the D&D rules?

Urbis attempts to do just that, although admittedly its economics aren't nearly as detailed as I want them to be yet.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

This will probably make all the DM's scream, but...

Intelligence being the primary ability, a wizard probably has at least a +2 modifier.
So, just putting 4 - 6 skill points in Craft; Armorsmithing and the Fabricate spell would provide you with 250 (Banded mail) to 1500 (Full Plate) each day for one-third the cost. And how many 9th level Wizards don't have 90 gp for materials?

Here is how you can justify why this doesn't happen in a standard medieval fantasy world:

- First of all, the wizard needs someone to teach them armorsmithing (I realize that this is often waived for PCs, but it makes sense for NPCs nonetheless - they don't usually learn skills like that all by themselves). This would usually involve a lengthy apprenticeship with an appropriate guild - but what guild would consent to training an already trained wizard? Especially in a world where the fabricate spell is already known?

- People know of "faery gold" - gold that will vanish in the morning. Armor that has been created by wizards might be seen as skeptically - what will happen to the armor once its magic "runs out"? Better to rely on genuine craft instead of magic transmutations...

- The market for armor is limited. I'm assuming that you are sticking to the cheaper types of armor (since anyone able to pay for plate mail is going to want a masterwork plate mail, which requires a DC of 20 and thus a skill bonus of at least +10). And there are only so many pieces of chain mail you can sell within a single community. Furthermore, if you create enough armor to supply all the armor the community needs, you will basically ruin the local armourer's guild (if you can even sell the armor legally - often such guilds have a monopoly). And guilds tend to be an entrenched part of the local power structure of medieval cities - which means that they will try to stop you with extreme prejudice. Which doesn't have to mean an assassination in the night - an even more likely scenario is a summons by the city council and being thrown into prison for fraud (after all, none of the other guilds want this to become a precedence - what if their own monopoly is destroyed by magic next?). You can try to sell more armor if you move from one community to the next - but this also means pissing off guilds across half the continent.


Mind you, none of these problems are unsolvable - and I'd certainly allow PCs to try such a scheme if they have a mind for it. Heck, I'd applaud it - this would cause all sorts of trouble which in turn would lead to all sorts of adventure possibilities! It's just not going to be simple.

But if the PC is able to pull this off and create a precendent, he might trigger a magical industrial revolution and cause widespread social upwheal as many thousands of craftsment suddenly become unemployed. But hey, at least he gets rich in the process - right?

 

[green slime]

Its perfectly obvious that wizard's have guilds and organisations amongst themselves. These have rules and laws of how to behave within civilised society, amongst peers, and how "others" should treated. No mere 9th level character is an island unto himself. Unsavoury wizards and those disinclined to abide by these rules of common conduct are opening themselves to be disciplined.

There are a multitude of reasons why guilds have these rules and regulations;

1) they provide a level of acceptance amongst the base population for the activities of the wizards who operate in the open and near the populace.
2) the economy as a whole isn't shot to pieces (with the suggestions here regarding fabricate, wall of iron, etc, inflation would run rampant and the gold piece standard would have to be abandoned (there isn't a limitless supply of gp, regardless of I.U.D.C. economics, centaurs, and mineable gems.)
3) Limits infighting and guarantees a decent standard of living for all who can accommodate the rules within their morality.

 

[Warren Okuma]

DnD is not a medieval economy. With magic and off planar transport, it resembles an early industrial economy. However if you look at the crafting rules, they are so production deficient, fabricate might be needed to supply the basics to the town/city.

And if you pick up Moment of Prescience, you don't have to limit yourself to merely armor. All goods becomes possible to manufacture, from boots to clothing to alchemical supplies. And if your market gets over saturated, just visit other planar metropolises or hire some people or things to do it for you, or export it by ship.

 

[Filcher]

"I'm unlocking the secrets of the universe and researching eternal life, and you're bothering me about what – gold? Please. That was so second level.

"Now don't bother me again! I'm in the middle of making an owlbear."

 

[Warren Okuma]

"I'm unlocking the secrets of the universe and researching eternal life, and you're bothering me about what – gold? Please. That was so second level.

"Now don't bother me again! I'm in the middle of making an owlbear."

So you are spending your money on a tower and on research then?


If you don't want to cast spells for gold, that's up to you, just be consistent. Not all wizards use wisdom as a dump stat or are altruistic as you.

 

[roguerouge]

I think probably the better way to go is to horn in on the supply of raw iron to the guilds that use it as a raw material. Then you cut deals with the crafts guilds to protect you from the miners legally and physically in exchange for a regular source of iron. Since you, as a single wizard, are doing this strictly to have a steady income of easy money, you take care not to put the miners out of business. Then, hopefully, the combination of craft guild protection and a lack of a truly DIRE economic threat means that the miners don't go aggro.