Wealth based Class

[Invader]

Is there a class/PRC that functions solely or primarily off increased wealth?

[EugeneVoid]

Artificer (kinda)

[Invader]

Artificer (kinda)

Not really at all. I don't want to manufacture stuff to sale to make money, any class can do that.

I feel like homebrew is the only answer and that won't work.

[Seerow]

Not really at all. I don't want to manufacture stuff to sale to make money, any class can do that.

I feel like homebrew is the only answer and that won't work.

Why would you manufacture stuff to sell it?

Presumably a class with increased wealth as a class feature would be using that wealth on magic items. The artificer skips the middle man and just says "Here make whatever magic items you want".

[Afgncaap5]

I think something like this would have to be campaign specific. And, as you say, Homebrew.

Though as an honorable mention, I think that Eberron's Thunder Guide prestige class gives you money as two separate class features. One lets you go to universities to get 200 gp by making a Perform (Oratory) check about your experiences as a dashing jungle explorer, and at another level you just get a lump sum of lotsa gold (at least a thousand, but I forget how much) as part of royalties paid from pulp-fiction stories sold to newspapers based on your exploits.

Again: very setting specific. And also not the point of the entire class, just a perk of it.

-Edit: Thanks to dnd tools, it seems like the actual amount of money earned is 1000 gp per point of Charisma bonus.

[limejuicepowder]

Does the aristocrat NPC class count? They start with more gold than any other class, if memory serves. And though they have no official class abilities, it's suggested in their fluff that they often have access to a great deal of resources: money and connections.

[Bigbeefie]

Basically Crafting is the way to handle that. I mean what do you want to crap out money for? In the end you end up spending all your money on Items somewhere. The ability to craft something at half cost eventually ups your Wealth in the long run. Wizards and Artificers do very well on that end.

[FreakyCheeseMan]

There are fun things to do with money besides items - they tend to be sub-optimal choices, so people don't usually try them, which is a shame.

First, you can hire help from outside your party - that could mean coming into every fight with a few mercenary bodyguards, or it could mean hiring local mages to do all your utility magic work for you.

Second, you can spend the money influencing the campaign world. Buy yourself some contacts at court; fund a rebellion against the king; hire a team of dwarves to divert a river into the BBEG's lair, so you don't have to fight him at all.

Making a class out of that stuff will be really difficult, though. Here are a few things I would bear in mind, if I was gonna try it.

1: The money needs to be an income stream, not *just* increased wealth by level. If you dumb a massive amount of gold on a 1st-level character, you break the game, and if you dump a reasonable amount of gold on a 1st-level character, by 5th level it's gotten lost in the couch cushions.

2: The campaign really needs to be able to handle it. This class would only be any fun by thinking outside the box - if your DMing style doesn't support that, it'll be a nightmare.

3: They might just try to spend it all on magic items, which would result in a boring but overpowered class. I can think of a few ways around that - if their other class abilities (see below) only apply to other things, which could discourage them from blowing it all at the magic mart. You could also have some sort of paladin-esque code to keep them from spending the money buying other people items, though that would be very tough to word. Finally, I know some people have rules that seperate "Money you use at Magic Mart" from "Money you use to buy everything else", and make the former something non-transferrable. That could have some potential, as well.

4: The stuff they can spend money on should be well-defined, and it typically isn't. I'd come up with expanded, balanced tables for how much hired help costs, as well as as many other things as you can think of - how much to field an army, how much do assassins go for, general bribe level suggestions.

5: They need to have some special abilities related to spending money. Maybe mercenaries will be unexpectedly loyal to them, and (somewhat) willing to risk their own lives; they could also benefit from skill bonuses to gather information, knowledge: Local and streetwise.

[tyckspoon]

Forgotten Realms has the Merchant Prince prestige class, the Mercantile Background feat, and there's the Landlord feat from Stronghold Builder's Guide, which if you apply them all correctly can generate pretty disgusting amounts of wealth.. but short of crafting or purchasing magic items, I don't know of any classes that are focused around transferring wealth into power (more accurately, crafting or buying magic IS how you turn wealth into power in D&D. In many adventurer situations it's the only kind of power that matters - the good will and political influence you bought in the Kingdom of Citysville by funding their new sewer system doesn't do you much good when you're fighting for your life against a Glabrezu in the Dark Pits of Evilness.)

[Invader]

There are fun things to do with money besides items -

Basically exactly this.

If youre an Artificer or caster just creating magic items, you're still a caster at heart. I just want to be a rich guy that buys his way through the campaign.

Aristocrat is a good start and is partially the impetus for this but obviously doesn't go nearly far enough.

The landlord feat would be suitable as well as leadership used in the correct context. Is there anything else that would seem to fit the theme?

[Psyren]

Noble from Dragonlance Campaign Setting is basically a PC version of the Aristocrat. They can call in Favors from contacts throughout the campaign to assist them with various tasks. You will probably also want to mix in organization and reputation rules e.g. from DMGII to get the most out of them.

[Bigbeefie]

Eventually you become a high enough Level that you can buy a solution to your problems other then hiring your own party members. In most worlds you don't run across high powered NPCs who want to do your bidding just for simple money. Mages will scoff at the Idea and send you packing seeing that thier magic benifits them.

So you will need this idea in a complete home brew with a DM who understands and is willing to let you buy your way through the campaign.

[EugeneVoid]

Basically exactly this.

If youre an Artificer or caster just creating magic items, you're still a caster at heart. I just want to be a rich guy that buys his way through the campaign.

Aristocrat is a good start and is partially the impetus for this but obviously doesn't go nearly far enough.

The landlord feat would be suitable as well as leadership used in the correct context. Is there anything else that would seem to fit the theme?

Mercantile Background

[Invader]

Ok so far we have

The Noble Class
Merchant Prince Prestige Class

Mercantile Background Feat
Landlord Feat
Leadership Feat

[Afgncaap5]

I just want to be a rich guy that buys his way through the campaign.

Well... it's not D&D (and the book specifically recommends not mixing the classes from one game with the other), but the d20 retrofit of Adventure! (from the Trinity universe) contains the Aristocrat class. It doesn't use wealth as a class feature per se (though it has access to feats like "Wealth Beyond Avarice" and "Deep Pockets" that imply such things), but it does let you handle certain situations that imply wealth, or at least the high life of wealthiness. Being able to get better treatment anywhere, free access to the secret speakeasy that no one knows about, extra residencies in pretty much any location you wish, a free vehicle with crazy super science gadgets on it... I think there's even a class feature that basically lets you (temporarily) get away with cold-blooded, caught-you-red-handed murder with just a shout of "Do You Know Who I Am?!" I think the description says "You may not be able to break the law per se, but you can certainly bend it."

[Naanomi]

Cleric of Waukeen/Goldeneye? Probably not what you meant though...

[Zaydos]

Well on the homebrew front I made a courtier (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=304975) which is similar to the noble from Dragonlance, get a stipend of wealth, and is meant as a PC aristocrat.

There's also Owrtho's squillionaire (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13624972&postcount=3) which literally throws money at enemies (I forget what else they do).

[WhamBamSam]

Vassal of Bahamut (BoED) has a class feature that gives you extra money, based on your character level, at 2nd, 5th, and 8th level. You need to spend it in service to a good cause though, or else Gold Dragons show up and shake you down for repayment. The Lord of the North Wind keeps the pimp claw strong.

So if the non-item things you're buying are going to help you serve the forces of Good and slay the spawn of Tiamat, then the class might be for you. If you plan on buying hookers and blow, then you're out of luck.

[Erik Vale]

Noble Scion (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/other-paizo/n-r/noble-scion) from Pathfinder does that... And followers, but mostly wealth. It even gives you 'free money'. [A total of 41250gp]

Can even [kinda] progress old classes.

[AkbarTheGreat]

I was about to post the Noble Scion. One of my players is going Bard/Noble Scion at level 5. It's the closest I could think of to it. You also get improved leadership for free, always a plus.

[Rosstin]

There was a brew class on this forum that had only wealth-based abilities. The class had you literally throwing money around everywhere.

[FreakyCheeseMan]

There was a brew class on this forum that had only wealth-based abilities. The class had you literally throwing money around everywhere.

Yeah, that was a joke class, though. (You literally threw coins as an attack.)

It was also impossible to roleplay - the whole premise was that you *had* immeasurably much money, but you refused to spend it in more than tiny daily chunks.

[Psyren]

Yeah, that was a joke class, though. (You literally threw coins as an attack.)

It's not that silly (http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Gil_Toss) :smalltongue:

[Metahuman1]

Aren't there spells and psionic powers that let you literally conjure materials or poisons out of thin air that can be converted into coins?

Far as that goes, aren't there literally spells and powers that conjure coins out of thin air?

[prufock]

Haggling (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20050107a&page=3). A diplomacy check can get you 10% off market value of items. This is pretty handy, and it's easy to pump skill checks.

[Petrocorus]

Dweomerkeeper and Heir of Siberys allow you to cast true creation as an SLA or Su, which mean XP free.
So you can pop up platinum, mithral, adamanium for free several time a day.
A lvl 3 Heir of Siberys with an inproved mark of making can create 30 cu. ft of mithral out of thin air every day.

The SRD gives 500 gp / lb for the mithral, i don't really know how much it makes per cu. ft. but that's probably fair good.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Dweomerkeeper and Heir of Siberys allow you to cast true creation as an SLA or Su, which mean XP free.
So you can pop up platinum, mithral, adamanium for free several time a day.
A lvl 3 Heir of Siberys with an inproved mark of making can create 30 cu. ft of mithral out of thin air every day.

The SRD gives 500 gp / lb for the mithral, i don't really know how much it makes per cu. ft. but that's probably fair good.

Kind of high-level though. True creation is an 8th level spell after all.

On the weight, it'd be half the weight of a 30 cubic foot block of iron.

Iron is 7.87 grams per cubic centimeter.

A 30 cubic foot block would measure 36 inches by 36inches by 40 inches. Since a centimeter is 0.39 inches, we can convert that to 92.31cm by 92.31cm by 102.56 centimeters or 873,927.72 cubic centimeters.

At 7.87 grams per CC that's 6,877.81kg. That by 2.2lbs per kg makes 15,131.18 pounds of iron.

7,566 pounds of mithril comes to 3.78 million gold pieces.

[Thomar_of_Uointer]

D&D doesn't lend itself to this kind of thing because it has concrete wealth rules. Also, character power is directly tied to the value of equipment you have. Monster challenge ratings expect that you have good gear, and there is a table in the DMG explaining how much gear a PC is supposed to have at a given level.

Other systems, like White Wolf and L5R, abstract wealth a bit and also include character creation options that let you build characters based around wealth. Heck, even D20 Modern does a better job of this than D&D, having the Windfall feat that boosts your wealth and a second feat (I can't recall the name) that ensures that your wealth bonus can never drop below a certain amount.

[Petrocorus]

Kind of high-level though. True creation is an 8th level spell after all.

On the weight, it'd be half the weight of a 30 cubic foot block of iron.

Iron is 7.87 grams per cubic centimeter.

A 30 cubic foot block would measure 36 inches by 36inches by 40 inches. Since a centimeter is 0.39 inches, we can convert that to 92.31cm by 92.31cm by 102.56 centimeters or 873,927.72 cubic centimeters.

At 7.87 grams per CC that's 6,877.81kg. That by 2.2lbs per kg makes 15,131.18 pounds of iron.

7,566 pounds of mithril comes to 3.78 million gold pieces.

Thank you, you've done exactly the calculation i was too lazy to do when i made my post :)
Note that i was not sure to be able to do it outside the metric system.

[Invader]

D&D doesn't lend itself to this kind of thing because it has concrete wealth rules. Also, character power is directly tied to the value of equipment you have. Monster challenge ratings expect that you have good gear, and there is a table in the DMG explaining how much gear a PC is supposed to have at a given level.


IDK, I think this is exactly what d&d lends itself too. Find a role you want to play and use what you can to make it work. There's already been quite a few good suggestions and d&d by no means has concrete wealth rules, at most I'd say they're concrete guidelines. As for CR, it assumes a lot of things about a party and they're mostly always wrong so that's a dubious way point to say the least.

[Rubik]

So you can pop up platinum, mithral, adamanium for free several time a day.Nothing can conjure adamantium, aside from maybe Pun-Pun.

[Petrocorus]

Nothing can conjure adamantium, aside from maybe Pun-Pun.

OK, my bad, i was speaking of adamantine.

[Invader]

There's also Owrtho's squillionaire (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13624972&postcount=3) which literally throws money at enemies (I forget what else they do).

This really is wonderfully close to what I'd like to play, I'll have to make some adjustments to some abilities but I see this being a lot of fun to RP.

[Rubik]

There's also Owrtho's squillionaire (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13624972&postcount=3) which literally throws money at enemies (I forget what else they do).Also known as... (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU7gP9B7jh8)