Free gold?

[Private-Prinny]

You can cast Major Creation to create precious metals that last for 20 min./level. Can you create platinum to sell to sufficiently stupid NPCs for real money as long as you skip town quickly? Platinum is listed as 500 gp/lb, so a light load of platinum carried by the party's BSF should cost about 116,500 (assuming STR of 24 by the time the wizard can cast 5th level spells)

I think there may be something against creating money written somewhere, but I can't find it.

[Reynard]

As a DM, I'd allow it.

Depending on what sort of shop they're in.

A general, mundane item shop (tents, bedrolls, whathaveyou), yes, they'd probably get away with it. For as long as the spell lasts.
Magic item shop? Hell yes, but I'd have some sort of dispelling device the shopkeeper uses on coins to check for fakes. Which would lead to some fun.

[The Shadowmind]

Why not produce rare woods to sell instead? They would last long enough to skip town, and if you use summon monster VII, the Djinn can make permanent versions so no need to skip town.

[Geiger Counter]

This is however a chaotic evil act and will likely draw in a lot of bad press and attention. However if the party is made up of changelings pulling this off becomes a whole lot easier.

[Private-Prinny]

This is however a chaotic evil act and will likely draw in a lot of bad press and attention. However if the party is made up of changelings pulling this off becomes a whole lot easier.

I'm a Killer Gnome that can do this as a standard action while disguised. Does that count?

[Ravens_cry]

Sure, but you have to deal with the consequences. SUch as the fact you can't go to that nation again ever, as counterfeiting was petty treason. Before you get all excited about the petty part, it still carried a death penalty. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treason_Act_1351)

[Dairun Cates]

Short Answer: Sure. As long as your characters are willing to deal with the bounty on their own head and the fact that they'll be unable to enter said city or any of its neighboring cities or villages without either good disguise check, sneaking in, or fighting the town guard every single time. Even if you're a Changeling party, they'll catch on if you do this more than once.

Even the biggest cities aren't going to just turn the other cheek when you make off with over a hundred thousand gold in wealth.

Seriously, you'd be surprised how many players pull this kind of thing and are shocked when people either try to arrest them or kill them for a bounty.

[LibraryOgre]

Heh. This actually came up in a Dragonlance book. A hedge witch (in a generally arcane-hostile world) was getting strung up for passing bad money. Folks didn't mind phony love potions HALF as much as they did bad money.

[Dusk Eclipse]

This is however a chaotic evil act and will likely draw in a lot of bad press and attention. However if the party is made up of changelings pulling this off becomes a whole lot easier.

Evil yes, but I don't see why it is chaotic. Care to elaborate please?

[Starbuck_II]

This is however a chaotic evil act and will likely draw in a lot of bad press and attention. However if the party is made up of changelings pulling this off becomes a whole lot easier.

Chaotic sure but evil?
The first few times it won't be. I can see if you continue to do this leaving people destitute, but a few times no.

[LibraryOgre]

Evil yes, but I don't see why it is chaotic. Care to elaborate please?

Actually, I'd see it as far more chaotic than evil. I tend to associate chaotic acts with "crimes against property", rather than crimes against persons. Stabbing a dude is evil. Picking his pocket is chaotic. This is just a large-scale pocket pick.

[Dairun Cates]

Evil yes, but I don't see why it is chaotic. Care to elaborate please?

It's kinda breaking the law, don't you think?

NINJA'D!

Edit:

Chaotic sure but evil?
The first few times it won't be. I can see if you continue to do this leaving people destitute, but a few times no.

Uh... Stealing 116,000 gold is actually enough to leave a LOT of shopkeeps destitute. Not to mention, that this is still essentially doing something for incredibly selfish gain at the cost of someone else. Just cause an act is evil doesn't mean that the good guys don't do it occasionally, but this really does push the boundary.

Seriously. Unless you're stealing from a baron and giving this to the poor, this is going to be filed as an evil action by most GMs.

[2xMachina]

Why bother when you can cast Wall of Iron, and do it legitimately?

EDIT: Clarify.

Wall of Iron creates permanent iron. Which is a trade good. Which means it's as good as gold (except the price of course). Which is not a problem, given that how much you can create.

[Private-Prinny]

Why not produce rare woods to sell instead? They would last long enough to skip town, and if you use summon monster VII, the Djinn can make permanent versions so no need to skip town.

I like this one. Now I just need to find valuable wood.

[The Shadowmind]

I like this one. Now I just need to find valuable wood.

Not wood, but plant matter there is the Black lotus extract, 4,500gp each and since you are selling the thieves and assassins anyway, they might want a poison that by the time the body is check the poison has disappeared without tract.

[Private-Prinny]

Not wood, but plant matter there is the Black lotus extract, 4,500gp each and since you are selling the thieves and assassins anyway, they might want a poison that by the time the body is check the poison has disappeared without tract.

Not to mention we could keep some for ourselves. :smallbiggrin:

[Dairun Cates]

Also, another point a friend made. Selling cursed items is inherently an evil action (actually says it in the book). I'd put this on the same level of fraud and selfish gain.

[Ernir]

I'd allow it.

Evading the wrath of someone who is rich and powerful enough to toss around 116500 GP is an adventure of its own, anyway. So if that is the plot hook the PCs want to create, sure.

[Beorn080]

Yes, you could do it. However, you make a lot of people very mad, very quickly, for minimal gain. Any location rich enough to have routine transactions on the order of 100000 gold is going to be large enough to deal with magical fraud.

Personally, I would go the reverse route. Wizard hires party to do a job for massive payout, party comes back, gets paid in platinum ingots, party leaves. Next day, party notices their wagon is riding very high, checks, notices platinum is missing, heads back, wizards tower is old and decrepit. I would DEFINITELY do this if any of my PC's tried to do something like that.

[Keld Denar]

A 1st level wizard can do this all day, although the rewards are a bit lower.

Cast Disguise Self into a horse merchant, invest ranks as required.

Cast Mount to produce a magical mount

Cast Magic Aura to mask the mounts magical aura in case the uppity buyer gets fancy and tries to Detect Magic on it.

After all that, make like the Steve Miller Band (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-vBd-r_Pww).

[Dr Bwaa]

A 1st level wizard can do this all day, although the rewards are a bit lower.

Cast Disguise Self into a horse merchant, invest ranks as required.

Cast Mount to produce a magical mount

Cast Magic Aura to mask the mounts magical aura in case the uppity buyer gets fancy and tries to Detect Magic on it.

After all that, make like the Steve Miller Band (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-vBd-r_Pww).

Or the ever-popular Magic Aura on a pile of nonmagical swords (your whole WBL). Dress in your Adventurer's Outfit or whatever (you know, the clothes your DM doesn't make you pay for). The spell doesn't allow a save until the other person actually casts Identify; otherwise it radiates whatever magic you need. Sell as many as you can around the city. Then GTFO (as above).

[graeylin]

I have always played, and DMed, that in a world where a person can heal someone from the dead, make gold and fire and walls of blades appear and disappear on a whim, that games of chance and fooling the common merchant wouldn't be any easier than cheating a casino is in our world.

even the lowliest merchant would either have magic on hand to detect phony items, glamoured things, spells in place, anti-magic shields, etc., or the world would have evolved that all trades and transactions are done through escrow services, with your goods and their money set aside a certain length of time, to foil such things.

I just can't believe a world of wizards wouldn't have evolved a way to deal with magic in a mundane, daily basis way.

[Irreverent Fool]

I have always played, and DMed, that in a world where a person can heal someone from the dead, make gold and fire and walls of blades appear and disappear on a whim, that games of chance and fooling the common merchant wouldn't be any easier than cheating a casino is in our world.

even the lowliest merchant would either have magic on hand to detect phony items, glamoured things, spells in place, anti-magic shields, etc., or the world would have evolved that all trades and transactions are done through escrow services, with your goods and their money set aside a certain length of time, to foil such things.

I just can't believe a world of wizards wouldn't have evolved a way to deal with magic in a mundane, daily basis way.

The common merchant in real-life is much easier to cheat than a casino. Granted, if he's got the gold to be worth ripping off, I imagine he's at least got someone handy he can hire. Paying for a detect magic spell cast by someone else is pretty cheap. Arbitrarily giving them magic x-ray machines is just silly though.

Anyway, closer to being on-topic, I don't think ripping people off with major creation is necessarily a chaotic evil act. A character capable of using this spell has much better ways of causing direct misery. However, I cannot say it is a good act and is probably not a neutral act. Motivation comes into play, as well. If a character is doing it specifically to cause instability as part of a plot against the town, it's a different act than if he's just trying to get gold, or is punishing the populace, or for fun, or to bring everyone to 'equality' (ie: nobody has any money), and so on.

Ripping off commoners should probably be considered evil, but why would you even bother?

obnoxious
sig

[Teddy]

You can cast Major Creation to create precious metals that last for 20 min./level. Can you create platinum to sell to sufficiently stupid NPCs for real money as long as you skip town quickly? Platinum is listed as 500 gp/lb, so a light load of platinum carried by the party's BSF should cost about 116,500 (assuming STR of 24 by the time the wizard can cast 5th level spells)

I think there may be something against creating money written somewhere, but I can't find it.

The big question is, who would buy 233 pounds of pure platinum from an adventurer? It's not like it isn't going to raise any suspicion from the precious metal merchant when a group of shaggy missfits carrying odd weapons and armor stomps into his shop and wants to sell a huge bag of platinum as soon as possible. At least I would hire a wizard or get some magic item to confirm that the metal isn't magical.

[Touchy]

The big question is, who would buy 233 pounds of pure platinum from an adventurer? It's not like it isn't going to raise any suspicion from the precious metal merchant when a group of shaggy missfits carrying odd weapons and armor stomps into his shop and wants to sell a huge bag of platinum as soon as possible. At least I would hire a wizard or get some magic item to confirm that the metal isn't magical in a way that would generally hurt my business/self.
Fixed.

white text to extend post

[Lord Loss]

Hehehe... Wall of Iron is truly devious. If WOTC bothered to reread their own products they wouldn't wind up with things being so Bah-Roken wizardmonksamuraisaywhat (or underpowered).

[Teddy]

Fixed.

Uhm, I know that there are a lot of whacky wizards out there, but who would get the idea to enchant 233 pounds of pure platinum with any helpful enchantment? Especially if you intend to sell it (although some sort of levitation spell would be usefull, if it wasn't for the fact that it's a light load for your Str 24 buddy (what does BSF stand for anyway), and thus carried around without any problem by him).

[Divide by Zero]

(what does BSF stand for anyway)

Big Stupid Fighter, I believe.

[Mastikator]

You can also use illusions to make copper pieces seem like platinum pieces.

Now, keep in mind that if something is easily doable, then it's often done. This is fraud, and if a form of fraud is often done then people look out for these sort of things. And you'll probably be put on some wanted list.
So it's not free, in the long run, sure, you'll make a monetary profit, but you'll have to pay for it one way or the other in the end. I would seriously recommend against it unless you want your character to be a devious little thief.

[awa]

Stealing in this manner is evil because you are injuring the person by taking their hard earned wealth for personal profit. Now their are mitigating factors if the person acquired it immoral.

Its chaotic because your breaking the law and disrupting civil order

[Set]

In a world with mages who can do this, the moneylenders in the communities large enough to make change for 223 lbs of platinum would have ways of getting around it.

Back in ye olde edition, it was rapping the fool's gold coins with cold iron, but it's just as feasible for the dude who has 116,000 gp lying around in his vaults to invest in some alchemical formula that costs 1 gp / dose and flares up brilliantly when smeared on magically-created materials that are going to vanish at some point in the future.

The moneylender can then smile and ask for 1 gp to cover his expenses, and inform the fraud that the captain of the town guard has already been informed that there's trouble at the treasury by programmed magic mouth spell, and he's got only a short time to get the heck out of the kingdom.

[Starbuck_II]

In a world with mages who can do this, the moneylenders in the communities large enough to make change for 223 lbs of platinum would have ways of getting around it.

Back in ye olde edition, it was rapping the fool's gold coins with cold iron, but it's just as feasible for the dude who has 116,000 gp lying around in his vaults to invest in some alchemical formula that costs 1 gp / dose and flares up brilliantly when smeared on magically-created materials that are going to vanish at some point in the future.

The moneylender can then smile and ask for 1 gp to cover his expenses, and inform the fraud that the captain of the town guard has already been informed that there's trouble at the treasury by programmed magic mouth spell, and he's got only a short time to get the heck out of the kingdom.

That assumes big rich town to afford programmed magic mouth useage for this situation, etc.

[Beorn080]

Could simply be a bluff. Personally, I've always been annoyed at the lack of "mundane" counters to magic, especially with money. I mean, magic does everything, yet there is no response to it except more magic. Especially with money, there should be an easy way to figure out if something is fake or not, since a quick silent image cast on a copper piece will fool your standard peasant.

[Divide by Zero]

Could simply be a bluff. Personally, I've always been annoyed at the lack of "mundane" counters to magic, especially with money. I mean, magic does everything, yet there is no response to it except more magic. Especially with money, there should be an easy way to figure out if something is fake or not, since a quick silent image cast on a copper piece will fool your standard peasant.

Uncle says: magic must defeat magic!

[Private-Prinny]

Uncle says: magic must defeat magic!

I love that show. :smallbiggrin:

But in a more general sense, magic is really the only thing that stands a chance. When your opponent starts chain-gating Solars, poking them with a stick isn't going to help much.

[Divide by Zero]

I love that show. :smallbiggrin:

But in a more general sense, magic is really the only thing that stands a chance. When your opponent starts chain-gating Solars, poking them with a stick isn't going to help much.

I think it's really a problem with the system. There is nothing noncasters can do that caster's can't, and the list of things that casters can do that noncasters can't would fill several books (it already fills all of one).

[Lysander]

There are three problems:

1. It's hard to move that kind of money quickly. You'd have more luck with a smaller amount, but that makes the scam less worthwhile
2. You have to worry about magical detection before the transaction, and diviners hunting you down after the fact
3. Even if everything is fine on the magic side, shopkeepers still get sense motive checks to tell you're pulling something over them.

The real problem though is that any wizard capable of casting Major Creation should have plenty of legitimate methods of making money quickly.

[The Shadowmind]

Doesn't flesh to salt, with a colossal creature given you more money that you need, making scam tricks a method that delights in inefficiency?

[MickJay]

Anyone making transactions on a scale of more than few hundred gp would be prepared to check the goods for magic, curses etc (if they didn't, they wouldn't be in business anymore, thanks to various con artists). Ergo, it's very, very improbable that this kind of trick would work on any scale that would make it worthwhile, except perhaps on first or second level.

[Thurbane]

As a DM, I'd allow it.

Depending on what sort of shop they're in.

A general, mundane item shop (tents, bedrolls, whathaveyou), yes, they'd probably get away with it. For as long as the spell lasts.
Magic item shop? Hell yes, but I'd have some sort of dispelling device the shopkeeper uses on coins to check for fakes. Which would lead to some fun.
Have the shopkeep be (or employ) a Dragonfire Adept. With the right invocations, he can have unlimited Detect Magic/Identify (at level 1, and the Identify only requires 1 round and no material components) and unlimited Dispel Magic (by level 6).

[Greenish]

Player: "Hello, I'm here to sell 233 lb. of platinum."
Shopkeep: *Sense Motive check* "No, you aren't."

Though of course party face and/or Glibness defeats that pretty easily, assuming the PCs even think of it.

[Asheram]

Doesn't flesh to salt, with a colossal creature given you more money that you need, making scam tricks a method that delights in inefficiency?

Oh yes. Stone to flesh and Flesh to salt; Making money while slowly building a home in a mountain.

[Beorn080]

Or just wall of stone, stone to flesh, flesh to salt. Interestingly, if you can cast wall of stone, your component pouch always has small granite bricks in it. Dwarven wizard, master bricklayer anyone?

[LibraryOgre]

I love that show. :smallbiggrin:

But in a more general sense, magic is really the only thing that stands a chance. When your opponent starts chain-gating Solars, poking them with a stick isn't going to help much.

This is because you've failed to learn the most important lesson:

No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades will severely cramp his style.

[Ravens_cry]

Why bother when you can cast Wall of Iron, and do it legitimately?

EDIT: Clarify.

Wall of Iron creates permanent iron. Which is a trade good. Which means it's as good as gold (except the price of course). Which is not a problem, given that how much you can create.
If you can do it, so can others. Iron is now so cheap in this world that you will only get iron for it. What, you think your the only devious mage to think this up?
Same with all the rest.
Large amounts of gold or platinum will have dispel magic cast on them by a well paid wizard, with a scry in place at all times on him. If he breaks off the scry, or is seen taking a bribe, he will be executed.

[Zaq]

If you can do it, so can others. Iron is now so cheap in this world that you will only get iron for it. What, you think your the only devious mage to think this up?
Same with all the rest.
Large amounts of gold or platinum will have dispel magic cast on them by a well paid wizard, with a scry in place at all times on him. If he breaks off the scry, or is seen taking a bribe, he will be executed.

If only it actually worked that way. Unfortunately, that's to stupidities in RAW, iron isn't something you sell, but something you use as money (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/wealthAndMoney.htm#wealthOtherThanCoins). The PCs aren't making iron and selling it to get gold. They're making iron and using it as gold, because the rules explicitly say you can.

This is dumb, of course, and just about any reasonable GM will houserule it into oblivion, but the (stupid) rules say you can't flood the "iron market" because there IS no "iron market." There's just a sign that RAW hangs outside every shop which might say "we accept gold, platinum, souls, promissory notes with the king's arcane mark (and don't you friggin' dare try to copy it, we can tell), and LARGE CARTLOADS OF IRON."

Stupid? Yes. Should be houseruled away? Absolutely. But technically, in hilarious WotC fashion, you're attacking the wrong issue.

[Ravens_cry]

If only it actually worked that way. Unfortunately, that's to stupidities in RAW, iron isn't something you sell, but something you use as money (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/wealthAndMoney.htm#wealthOtherThanCoins). The PCs aren't making iron and selling it to get gold. They're making iron and using it as gold, because the rules explicitly say you can.

This is dumb, of course, and just about any reasonable GM will houserule it into oblivion, but the (stupid) rules say you can't flood the "iron market" because there IS no "iron market." There's just a sign that RAW hangs outside every shop which might say "we accept gold, platinum, souls, promissory notes with the king's arcane mark (and don't you friggin' dare try to copy it, we can tell), and LARGE CARTLOADS OF IRON."

Stupid? Yes. Should be houseruled away? Absolutely. But technically, in hilarious WotC fashion, you're attacking the wrong issue.
Creating a rich and meaningful world, where consequences, good and bad, MATTER, is more important then some fiddly piece of RAW. Now, if you can find a place out in the boonies where they don't have so much iron that they use it for everything up to, and including, toothpicks, and someone who actually WANTS to buy it, then sure, you can sell your magically created iron.
Just remember, 'Rule Zero is Also RAW.'

[Set]

That assumes big rich town to afford programmed magic mouth useage for this situation, etc.

Any town that has a moneylender with 116,500 gp lying around, probably has a 3rd level wizard with the Craft Wondrous Item feat living within a few days travel. We're not talking fishing village here. :)

For any worthwhile abuse of magically conjured materials (selling hundreds of pounds of platinum), you're pretty much stuck trying to convince the royal moneylender at the imperial treasury that your stuff is good.

And finding someone willing to buy thousands of gold worth of black lotus extract? Yeah. That's a fun clientele to work with. Good luck with that.

If you want to pull these sorts of shenanigans in a town with no standards at all, you'll probably be stuck selling Mounts in a town with a 250 gp purchase limit, since no merchant will have more than 50 gp on hand anyway, and there won't be a professional moneylender / banker / moneychanger.

[Set]

Or just wall of stone, stone to flesh, flesh to salt. Interestingly, if you can cast wall of stone, your component pouch always has small granite bricks in it. Dwarven wizard, master bricklayer anyone?

If you cast Hideous Laughter, you always have tiny fruit tarts in your component pouch. Never go hungry again!

There should totally be a higher-level version called Hideous Slaughter.

[tyckspoon]

There should totally be a higher-level version called Hideous Slaughter.

Whirling Blade? Maw of Chaos? Avascular Mass? Avascular Mass is pretty hideous.. oh, Mass Extract Elemental! (Not an official spell.)

[Beorn080]

If you cast Hideous Laughter, you always have tiny fruit tarts in your component pouch. Never go hungry again!

There should totally be a higher-level version called Hideous Slaughter.

Any arcane caster has unlimited fireflies in their spell component pouch, and their state of health isn't mentioned, so one could assume you have billions of living fireflies in your pouch.

[Dr Bwaa]

Any arcane caster has unlimited fireflies in their spell component pouch, and their state of health isn't mentioned, so one could assume you have billions of living fireflies in your pouch.

Nah, you always have two. They instantly reproduce when (just before) you take one out.

[herrhauptmann]

Stealing in this manner is evil because you are injuring the person by taking their hard earned wealth for personal profit. Now their are mitigating factors if the person acquired it immoral.

Its chaotic because your breaking the law and disrupting civil order

So picking pockets is automatically evil then? What if you're using the trick to defraud an evil shopkeeper, one who uses slaves, cheats his customers, kicks puppies, and clubs seals? Better to just leave it to the DM to decide if it's evil and/or chaotic. Or save it for an evil campaign that isn't Stupid Evil, at which point chaotic/evil questions are moot.

Personally, rather than use the platinum block to get gold, I'd use it as currency to purchase items. "I'm going to trade you this 200 pound block worth a kings ransom, and instead get 3000 pounds of gold coins." Lacks verismilitude.
Rather, "I'm going to trade you this 200 pound block, and instead get the following items on my list.... Actually, I know you owe me some change, but I know you're an honest man, and I'll be back in a few days after we slaughter some Red Wizards. So could we count the change as a downpayment on my next purchase, probably the following items. So would you mind trying to get those in stock before I return? "
Party immediately leaves the city of XXXX, and heads towards the country YYYY, where they'll be safe from any Fourecksian pursuit which could be considered an invasion of country YYYY.

[2xMachina]

Personally, I don't see the special thing about iron. If you can conjure iron out of nothing, you can conjure gold out of nothing.

Also, the Iron is not sold, just like gold is not sold. It's the currency. It's just stupid that any wizard can be a money printing machine.

But thankfully, all items in D&D are worth certain gold pieces. Even if it's worthless, and it's bloody flooding the market, you can buy it with that gold.

Same way a tiny, tiny diamond can be worth 5k, and be used to True Ress regardless of actual size.

[Roderick_BR]

I have always played, and DMed, that in a world where a person can heal someone from the dead, make gold and fire and walls of blades appear and disappear on a whim, that games of chance and fooling the common merchant wouldn't be any easier than cheating a casino is in our world.

even the lowliest merchant would either have magic on hand to detect phony items, glamoured things, spells in place, anti-magic shields, etc., or the world would have evolved that all trades and transactions are done through escrow services, with your goods and their money set aside a certain length of time, to foil such things.

I just can't believe a world of wizards wouldn't have evolved a way to deal with magic in a mundane, daily basis way.
Considering how magic in D&D is mundade, common, and easy to do, yeah, most places would have ways to detect this sorta thing.

Want a cheap and legal way to make money? Pick lots of pieces of wood (staves and clubs, they are free), use all your spells slots to cast Continual Flame on them (no cost, and permanent). Sell them as magic light devices (that is exactly what they are). They are listed as 50 gp magic itens in the PHB. Considering the average size of a city, and every citizen needing one of that, you could make quite a buck. And flee from the oil, lamps, and torches merchants.

Edit: Aaaand I *just* read the material component cost... need to find a way to cover that. Maybe use a spell to create temporary jewels?

[hamishspence]

So picking pockets is automatically evil then? What if you're using the trick to defraud an evil shopkeeper, one who uses slaves, cheats his customers, kicks puppies, and clubs seals? Better to just leave it to the DM to decide if it's evil and/or chaotic. Or save it for an evil campaign that isn't Stupid Evil, at which point chaotic/evil questions are moot.

While BoVD lists stealing among the "normally evil" acts, pointing out "Even a child can tell you that stealing is wrong", depending on the DM, stealing from thieves/frauds/tyrants with the specific intention of returning it to the robbed/defrauded/unjustly taxed, may be considered nonevil theft.

Stealing for personal gain, rather than to help others, is harder to justify.

BoVD does say killing an evil creature solely in order to get its wealth, is "not an evil act, though it's not a good act" but explicitly states that this justification "only works for creatures of consummate, irredeemable evil"

FC2 specifics "stealing from the needy" as a Corrupt act- but it doesn't say anything about stealing from the non-needy.

[LibraryOgre]

I saw an interesting interpretation of the 4e economy that had it based on a residuum-standard. Residuum is something of true value (unlike gold, which has a somewhat artificial value), and which requires a fairly fixed amount of work to create a given value of. Most people don't deal in residuum, but it's the actual underpining of the economy.

[Darth Stabber]

Mount + Magic Aura = Horse for sale..........

Far easier, and More usable in a medieval setting.