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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 6461485" data-attributes="member: 12731">I think so too, yes... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />That is why I am having this conversation: I want - at least until I know what I am doing - to keep the levelling pace, that is, handing out the same amounts of xp that the adventure designer assumes.But, since I'm - for the purposes of this thread - handing out gold, not xp directly, this would, in the simplest case mean, that for every 1000 xp a hero is getting, he or she will also be getting a thousand gold pieces.And herein lies my question: what are the 5E design teams expectations on wealth per level?For instance, a level 5 character will - by this scheme - have amassed a total of 6500 gp give or take. A level 15 character will have collected 165,000 gp during his career, a cool 25,000 gp during his most recent adventure. Will this make sense? What do published official modules contain?Should these characters be given more? Less?My feeling is that this question is mostly left unanswered.Specifically, I suspect that adventure writers leave this up to the rules system to handle, which it does not do.In d20, all you had to do as a writer was to find out roughly how much gold a PC was expected to have for his level. In 4E, there were detailed instructions on "treasure parcels".In 5E, there's this old skool notion that "money always finds its uses". But that is incompatible with a tight focused adventure campaign with little energy spent on downtime. (The downtime is still there, but nobody focuses on it. In many cases, its only function is to make the journey from grubby peasant boy to gleaming interplanar hero take weeks instead of days <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> )You simply can't just hand out gold, and expect the system to just soak it up, like in previous editions. There is no magic supermarket where you quickly and easily can have players eagerly spending their cash on stuff that is actually useful in the next dungeon. Okay, fine, so there is no Spellmart. But the DMG does not provide any alternatives, it seems, for groups such as mine!This, writers assuming that gold is always spent without making sure there is something worthwhile to spend it on, is exactly what is happening. Now, I happen to believe this should not be the adventure writer's task. It would be far simpler if the rules system would provide a number of basic options, from which play groups could choose. This would also mean that any given adventure can find a maximum audience by not catering only to those with a certain preference for how to treat downtime and what to spend gold on.And that is why we're having this conversation! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />To create a reliable money drain that actually gives players something they want. If not magic items, then xp. If not xp, then what?I couldn't say whether my character's wealth is high or low for my level. Since there are no wealth by level guidelines in the DMG! *drumroll*All I know is: I have far more gold than I know what to do with. And I'm only level four.To me, this is a major headache and a critical failing of the system.Why is all that gold in the module (Lost Mines of Phandelver) if there's nothing to spend it on?</blockquote>

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