D&D General Why would a Druid want money in a “gold for XP” game?

[not-so-newguy]

TL;DR
Why would a Druid want money in a “gold for XP” game?


Here’s why I’m asking…

The Into the Unknown supplement is a 5e b/x retro-clone that relies upon players gaining about 50% of their experience points by spending loot found while adventuring. They are expected to spend this loot “frivolously.” I’ve broaden the definition of “frivolously” to include anything that does NOT add to your character sheet, that includes personal inventory.

Into the Unknown reduces the class options available for character creation and combines race with class for non-humans. The list includes Fighter, Rogue, Priest, Magic-user, Elf, Dwarf, and Halfling. Each of the human Classes have sub classes. The Druid subclass is the one I am having trouble reconciling the desire to be a “treasure hunter,” for lack of a better term. Part of the Druid’s identity within a vanilla setting is that they eschew civilization, as far as I understand it, and that includes hoarding gold. They may use it as a means to an end out of necessity, but they’re ambivalent about it.

I can come up with one scenario that could compel a Druid to gather as much gold as the PC can: The Druid wants to pay the local king to buy a large tract of land in order to preserve it and prevent civilization’s encroachment (kinda like creating a national park).

ETA
Current list of ideas extracted from replies. Some of the responses won’t work at my table, but I left it on the list anyway.

Current compiled list

-Buy a tract of land (with a twist)
-PUT IT BACK IN THE GROUND. Bonus xp for dwarf druids
-Feed aurumvoraxes with precious metals
-melt it down and create sickles, lotsa sickles.
-buy precious spell components
-Train villagers to maintain lands in the most efficient and nature-friendly way possible.
-Bribe villagers to import lumber and other natural resources.
-create a network of allies to be the “eyes and ears” of the wilderness.
-Import dangerous beasts to defend the land
-Pay rangers to protect the land
-Sacrifice treasure to a lake or bog, just like the Ancient Celtic people.
-Donate money to Druidic order
-Get drunk, party like it’s 1999
-Hoard Gold, then saturate the market with gold, watch the value of gold drop. Destroy civilization and dance on its ashes.
-First you get the money, then you get the power. Now you got Tiger Clan Gangsta’ Druids.
-training costs
-leave it to the player to decide.
-revenge for a past grievance.
-throw huge festivals, make converts
-Staying within the confines of the pseudo-medieval D&D political system…
—a) Go straight to the top! Get the king or queen to give land for precious treasure.
—b) Influence local nobles to return the land to its natural state.
-Find skilled Followers to serve as protectors and guides of the wilderness.
-Use it to gain favor, influence, and news from intelligent monsters in the wilderness (Dragons, Hags, Giants, etc).
-Find serfs being treated poorly, use money to buy converts and spread propaganda, train them to fight and promise them riches... Destroy civilization and dance on its ashes.
-Hire a team of criers and storytellers to inform the public of what’s going on in the wilderness.
-Use loot to buy rare Wu-Tang albums

 

[iserith]

I can come up with one scenario that could compel a Druid to gather as much gold as the PC can: The Druid wants to pay the local king to buy a large tract of land in order to preserve it and prevent civilization’s encroachment (kinda like creating a national park).

Yep, go with that. If I was DM, the canny king would, as a condition of sale, require the druid to protect the adjoining lands from any monsters that derive from the druid's land. What the king knows that the druid does not (at least not yet) is that some kind of terrible monster lairs in a cave system beneath the ground - a terrible monster that awakens every 333 years to rampage across the kingdom. Now the druid's on the hook for dealing with it.

 

[Seramus]

PUT IT BACK IN THE GROUND!
Bonus points if the druid is a grumpy dwarf.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

The druid is collecting food for a family of aurumvoraxes.

 

[Lidgar]

melt it down to create copper, silver and gold sickles...lots of sickles...

 

[ad_hoc]

They can fight fire with fire.

Druids don't want natural lands overrun by civilization. They can use gold to purchase border lands to keep them free from cultivation.

 

[5ekyu]

First, why run a system that emphasizes frivolous gold spending with setting thst has dome classes eschew the civilization including currency value? Wouldn't it make sense to bake into each class a use for gold that makes acquiring it key for advancement in fiction?

If your setting provides for citizens " buying land" and controlling its use by law of deeds etc, as opposed to nobles controlling it, rule of might controlling it, etc and all the other less modern systrms for land use... then buy deeds to land seems obvious. Obvioudly though, that presumes land purchased within dome regulatory and enforcement controlled territory.

Otherwise, maybe the druid pays for minions and hunters to travel the lands reporting abuses and encroachments, setting up contacts network, using animals as messengers etc. Never underestimate the value of generosity and an ever expanding network of friends.

Be generous with those close to you, or someone else will.

 

[Salthorae]

Druid rituals and spells still require expensive components, so that could be one money sink/reason to gain gp.

As other said, buying tracts of land

Hirelings?

Maybe the Druid uses their gained wealth to hire a troupe of rangers/scout rogues to patrol the lands that he's buying up. Rangers/Rogues have to keep their weapons and armor up kept and occasionally need supplies.

 

[Don Durito]

To buy up land and open animal sanctuaries.

 

[Li Shenron]

TL;DR
Why would a Druid want money in a “gold for XP” game?


Here’s why I’m asking…

The Into the Unknown supplement is a 5e b/x retro-clone that relies upon players gaining about 50% of their experience points by spending loot found while adventuring. They are expected to spend this loot “frivolously.” I’ve broaden the definition of “frivolously” to include anything that does NOT add to your character sheet, that includes personal inventory.

Into the Unknown reduces the class options available for character creation and combines race with class for non-humans. The list includes Fighter, Rogue, Priest, Magic-user, Elf, Dwarf, and Halfling. Each of the human Classes have sub classes. The Druid subclass is the one I am having trouble reconciling the desire to be a “treasure hunter,” for lack of a better term. Part of the Druid’s identity within a vanilla setting is that they eschew civilization, as far as I understand it, and that includes hoarding gold. They may use it as a means to an end out of necessity, but they’re ambivalent about it.

I can come up with one scenario that could compel a Druid to gather as much gold as the PC can: The Druid wants to pay the local king to buy a large tract of land in order to preserve it and prevent civilization’s encroachment (kinda like creating a national park).

Honestly, I wouldn't even try.

"Gold for XP" is a very old idea based on the assumption that treasure is the motivation for PCs to get into dungeons.

Modern RPGs are a LOT wider in scope than just ransacking dungeons for treasure, and the assumption above is just as limiting as assuming all PCs are always adventuring only to save princes(ses) and base XP on the number (and attractiveness) of those saved.

So if you are running a whole dungeon-based, treasure-focused campaign, then apply "gold for XP" and don't give a single thought about a Druid's personal motivations, because they just don't matter in that kind of campaign. And if instead you are running an RPG with a whole world of motivations around adventures, forget about "gold for XP" which would work like cr4p in that case.

 

[CapnZapp]

"gold for xp" pretty much assumes characters with a mercenary outlook.

So tell your players to create characters that are greedy enough to personally risk life and limb in order to get rich.

What says a Druid can't want material possessions? Or maybe he wants to populate the lands - in person? Maintaining thirteen wives is not cheap! (Especially when #11 is a silver dragon in elf maid form - she will want you to supply a pretty large hoard if she's gonna stay around!)

In short: if the player can't come up with a reason why a particular class or subclass would enter dungeons in search of gold, then the proper solution is to ask that player to play something else.

It's not like every possible class option must fit every campaign. Just like your idea of playing an angsty dark elf might not work in the DMs campaign world, playing an idealistic nature lover does not easily lend itself to an xp for gold campaign

 

[Don Durito]

Paladins may be an issue also.

 

[CapnZapp]

Paladins may be an issue also.

Yes, but again: instead of just assuming Paladins never want money, invent a reason! Maybe the Paladin is an heiress to a far-away kingdom that was devastated by a magical cataclysm, and now needs lots of funds to rebuild.

The details don't matter, and the kingdom will never feature in the campaign, but suddenly the Paladin is prepared to bend (or break!) her ideals for a greater cause! (A cause that just so happens involves gold by the truck-load )

Again, any player that goes "eww, I don't want to play that kind of Paladin" should be gently directed to play a greedy rogue, or greedy dwarf, or greedy rogue dwarf. Point is: there's no reason to automatically exclude any class or assume there will be problems.

Just be clear what the campaign motivations will be, tell the players its on them to supply the right kind of personalties, and you'll be fine!

 

[Eubani]

They may want to beat civilization at it's own game by for example buying up land so it has legal protections due to the druids ownership.

 

[Hriston]

Ancient Celtic people sacrificed gold and other precious things to their gods by throwing them into lakes and bogs. Maybe have that count as “spending frivolously”?

 

[Shiroiken]

Some ideas:
Buy land for a sanctuary
Hire mercenaries to defend sacred land
Import dangerous beasts to defend sacred land
Pay villagers to import wood, rather than logging

 

[Fanaelialae]

The simplest option might be to donate it all to his Druidic order (if there is one) and let them worry about what it's for. Maybe they use it for conservation, maybe they simply put it back in the ground "where it belongs".

That said, there's nothing to say that a druid couldn't enjoy spending all that gold frivolously by throwing a drunken party (possibly in the woods).

 

[akr71]

Some ideas:
...
Pay villagers to import wood, rather than logging

How about teaching them to sustainable harvest the wood & other resources from the forest. I mean importing wood still requires trees to be cut down somewhere. Or does the druid only care about this particular forest?

 

[Maestrino]

The druid can collect the gold and "spend" it by hoarding it in a bog. And then use it at an appropriate time to flood the market and tank the local kingdom's economy, returning "civilization" to a state of nature.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*