Banks

[Helldog]

Are there banks or something similar in D&D worlds?
If yes, then who would most probably use them? Merchants? Wizards? Adventurers?
I've read somewhere that in settings where there are gods of trade (like Waukeen in FR) the priests of those gods often work as moneylenders or cantors. I could imagine that they also could run a bank.

[CTrees]

There's gotta be in Eberron. Gotta be.

Ultimately, though... as a PC I wouldn't trust banks. Someone else is holding my money or goods? Seems like that makes it more likely for everything to get stolen. Further, I'm a PC... I hear "bank" and I think, "I know exactly where there's tons of loot." Glibness? Yes. Glibness.

[Big Fau]

House Kudarak, from the Eberron Campaign Setting, acts as a bank for the entirety of Khovaire.


It's actually fairly clever: The dwarves mine the gold, trade the mined gold to the rest of Khorvaire, and then talk those very people into giving the gold back for safekeeping. And they charge for it!

[Ravens_cry]

In Golarion (http://pathfinder.wikia.com/wiki/Golarion), the Pathfinder default setting, the god Abadar (http://pathfinder.wikia.com/wiki/Abadar) is, among other things, the god of banks and moneylending and his clergy do indeed run most of those institutions.

[missmvicious]

That's a DM call.

All my campaign's have banks, and I call BS on DMs that don't have them, or at least some viable way to store and safeguard loot.

Some DMs may require you to establish a home with it's own safe or locked chest. That's a fair solution as well.

IMHO, an NPC class would run a bank... probably an Expert with Warriors guarding the bank and Commoners working at the bank. However, it's not unrealistic to think that a spell-caster would run a bank, since they can use magical wards to keep out would-be thieves.

A Cleric... maybe not-so-much. A Cloistered Cleric may handle all the financial business of the temple, but probably (fluff-wise) wouldn't get involved in that kind of business.

Of course, I could see a Gnome Bank of Garl Glittergold making sense... still a stretch that it would be run by priests. That's Expert work, I think.

[gbprime]

Moneylenders were never institutionalized until recent centuries. A medieval setting would have wealthy individuals who loan money out to well landed clients and have a court system that allows them a reasonable chance to demand payment. Both the wealthy individual and the court could in fact be a church.

Institutionalized lending (aka "banks") began after intercontinental trade became common. They would underwrite profitable ventures and then invest the profits in loans to wealthy landowners or other ventures.

[GeekGirl]

I have used a few different types of banks in my campaigns. One keep the vault in a pocket dimension that was accessible only via a branch of the bank. So as long as you were in a city (only major city had them) you could access your account. Another that i like was in a city and it was run by the thieves guild in the town, so no one was stupid enough to try and rob it. But on the other side you were trusting the thieves guild with your money. I try and make it a trade of on how useful they are.

[Ravens_cry]

Of course, I could see a Gnome Bank of Garl Glittergold making sense... still a stretch that it would be run by priests. That's Expert work, I think.
Not really, if you consider that a bank is only as good as the confidence people have in it. A bank run by experts ,commoners and warriors is going to be easy to rob and therefore not going to be trusted, and therefore not going to stay in business.
A lot of mundane protections are less than effective in a world where magic is higher than Lord of the Rings levels.
You're going to need magic users and clerics to make sure it's a safe place to store your money.
GeekGirl has the right idea in my opinion.

[TheCountAlucard]

All my campaign's have banks, and I call BS on DMs that don't have them, or at least some viable way to store and safeguard loot.I'll be sure and not game with you, then. :smallsigh:

I dunno, to me, "default" D&D's always been a little too reminiscent of a pre-Dark Ages mindset, technology notwithstanding, so the idea of a bank really doesn't seem viable. It's up to the characters to decide how they want to store or otherwise protect their stuff, and while there are a number of ways to do so, the idea of a banking system that approaches anything we use really doesn't sound feasible.

Now, other gaming systems/settings? Sure! Exalted, Shadowrun, Star Wars, even Paranoia, but very little of what I've seen of D&D seems to indicate that such would work.

[MesiDoomstalker]

A modern bank? No, probably not.

But a place for storage of gold and magical items? Thats something most settings do or at least should have to some degree.

[chadmeister]

If there was one, it wouldn't be much like modern banks. You'd be charged a fee to store your money there and it would only be available at the physical bank you deposited it.

[jiriku]

I generally don't offer banks. Most of the civilizations in my campaign aren't advanced enough to make them work, and it's difficult to protect a large supply of wealth without spending so much on security that the entire venture becomes unprofitable. Magic really makes it so easy to convert your wealth into portable form and protect it yourself that there's little incentive to cache your cash and risk theft while you're away.

Historically, the lack of banking and severe influidity of money was one of the reasons early societies developed so slowly. I'm ok with my game world being limited in the same way.

[Ravens_cry]

@TheCountAlucard
Depends on the setting. D&D isn't just one setting you know.
Eberron should definitely have banks, while I see them being completely unreasonable in, say, a palaeolithic homebrew campaign setting that isn't aiming for humour.
Default D&D is a bit of a muddle. Plate armour exists, which tells me the technology is late medieval, early renaissance, both of which suggest banking in the form of money lending and perhaps more is a reasonable idea. On the other hand, all the dungeons and crypts suggest a recent apocalypse as do the monsters roaming the land.

[ericgrau]

Banks/lending have a long history deep into the BC years and some kind of lending should exist. Probably vaults too. Anyone with enough to protect could use them. And they'd have to be guarded of course. I've seen a lot of D&D adventures where churches, guard barracks, etc. held and guarded vaults. They often have a practical value to adventurers too so they do have a place in the game.

[Callyn]

Of course there are bank. If there weren't, where would I keep my 25,000 gp of diamonds and a note with my name and place of birth with instructions to get me True Rez'd if I don't check in for a year?:smalltongue: