Spending gold at higher levels in 5e

[JamesIntrocaso]

I love giving my PCs gold, but I'm finding at higher levels they have no way to really spend it since they can't buy magic items with it. I've come up with a bunch of ideas on my blog for ways to tempt PCs into spending their hard-won gold in a worthwhile way. You can check it out here:

http://worldbuilderblog.me/2015/07/16/big-purchases/

How else are people tempting their PCs into spending bling?

[illyrus]

In our game that has the PCs at 11th level my wizard is spending it on expanding his spellbook and binding creatures, mostly elementals. The past 3 sessions my character has spent 1100 gold a session to add an elemental to our forces (water has been a group favorite for giving the restrained condition). Add in some other spell components for spells and my character has less than 100 gold to his name.

Common, uncommon, and rare potions are available in the game world at pretty limited availability so the other classes are buying those.

*Edit - On an unrelated note your zombie dragons and skeletal ogres made an appearance in last session which was fun.

[WampDiesel]

Have them spend money on things that people of their fame and status would spend money on.

Buy a keep. Start a business. Raise an army. Become a philanthropist.

My LVL12 halfling bard in our last game had a spy network that spanned the entire world and included a bronze dragon that I had befriended. Running a secrets network ain't cheap. Especially when you have to dispose of a bunch of pirates in the dock towns using mercenaries because you are busy taking care of world saving important stuff.

[JamesIntrocaso]

In our game that has the PCs at 11th level my wizard is spending it on expanding his spellbook and binding creatures, mostly elementals. The past 3 sessions my character has spent 1100 gold a session to add an elemental to our forces (water has been a group favorite for giving the restrained condition). Add in some other spell components for spells and my character has less than 100 gold to his name.

Common, uncommon, and rare potions are available in the game world at pretty limited availability so the other classes are buying those.

*Edit - On an unrelated note your zombie dragons and skeletal ogres made an appearance in last session which was fun.

Nice! Those are good ideas.

How did the zombie dragons and skeletal ogres work out? That's so awesome! Let me know if you've got any feedback, I'd love to hear it.

[Millface]

Casters will almost always be low on funds just because of expensive spell components.

For other characters I definitely agree with urging them to think big. My Rogue player got together with some gnomish engineers and used her considerable wealth to research new steam powered and gun powder technologies.

She currently runs what D&D would consider a cutting edge tech company. After several sessions and most of her wealth poured in (with some help from the party) and a recruiting effort to find the brightest engineering minds in Waterdeep they are currently working up the plans for a rudimentary railway system connecting the major cities on the Sword Coast.

@10+ your players should really be changing the face of the region they adventure in, if you ask me. If you run a consistent campaign they could have characters 3 rerolls from now hopping on a train to get from Luskan to Waterdeep. Player's love seeing the results of their work with older characters later on in a new campaign with new characters.

[illyrus]

How did the zombie dragons and skeletal ogres work out? That's so awesome! Let me know if you've got any feedback, I'd love to hear it.


Very well actually. Our party had ticked off a necromancer for setting back his invasion plans so they were part of an ambush when we went to attack one of his allies. We were a lvl 10 party at the time and fought 4 young and 1 adult zombie dragon + 2 skeletal ogres outdoors. The smaller dragons were hidden by illusionary stairs which were revealed early due to a PC trying to run up them to get a shot at the skeletal ogres. Normally we're a highly maneuverable party but with the dragons around we were outclassed in that area and instead of focusing fire we ended up spreading out to deal with them and keep from being hit by overlapping breath weapons. The adult was shut down early in with bestow curse after it had breathed on half the party, if it had not been I think we would have had half the party taking a dirt nap (still had someone examining the texture of the dirt). Regardless we had to take a short rest and burn plenty of HD after the single encounter.

Their CR seemed appropriate and overall the fight was very fun and challenging. I found the dragons more fun than most of the other baddies we've dealt with in that CR range. The skeletal ogres were overshadowed by the dragons but they played their part in that encounter and the one after that. Hoping that we'll encounter more of both later.

[VoxRationis]

Hiring mercenaries and embarking on a campaign of conquest, like any reasonable person would do when provided with enough money and personal power that they could get away with it.

[JamesIntrocaso]

Very well actually. Our party had ticked off a necromancer for setting back his invasion plans so they were part of an ambush when we went to attack one of his allies. We were a lvl 10 party at the time and fought 4 young and 1 adult zombie dragon + 2 skeletal ogres outdoors. The smaller dragons were hidden by illusionary stairs which were revealed early due to a PC trying to run up them to get a shot at the skeletal ogres. Normally we're a highly maneuverable party but with the dragons around we were outclassed in that area and instead of focusing fire we ended up spreading out to deal with them and keep from being hit by overlapping breath weapons. The adult was shut down early in with bestow curse after it had breathed on half the party, if it had not been I think we would have had half the party taking a dirt nap (still had someone examining the texture of the dirt). Regardless we had to take a short rest and burn plenty of HD after the single encounter.

Their CR seemed appropriate and overall the fight was very fun and challenging. I found the dragons more fun than most of the other baddies we've dealt with in that CR range. The skeletal ogres were overshadowed by the dragons but they played their part in that encounter and the one after that. Hoping that we'll encounter more of both later.


Whoa! That sounds like a great time. You have a fun group! If you play more please let me know how it goes. Try not to piss off any more necromancers without killing them...

[WampDiesel]

Whoa! That sounds like a great time. You have a fun group! If you play more please let me know how it goes. Try not to piss off any more necromancers without killing them...

That's the trick with necromancers though. If you kill one, their dark and shady colleagues will just revive him as some animated dead (like an unkillable flameskull) and then you just have to fight them over and over again.

[Naanomi]

Invest in land, castles, armies, bribe your way into titles, donate to your church. Or, if none of that interests you, spend it on ale and loose women (men?) in epic parties.

If all of those do not appeal to you (why did you become an adventurer again?) get a Scrooge-McDuck money bin together and sit in it like a dragon.

[Coidzor]

Minions. Followers. Spy networks. Building up a territory to provide prestige, influence, and being taken more seriously by other power players. Increasing the quality of minions, followers, or spy networks.

Adventurer Conqueror King would probably give additional ideas, I imagine.

[Slipperychicken]

The Player’s Handbook has some good rules for hirelings which can add up over time.

I disagree. If you're looking for any kind of detail regarding what sort of mercenary your PCs can hire, or what sort of bonus a skilled hireling brings to the table, that section is pretty much worthless.

[Sigreid]

There's a section in the DMG for spending it on ale and whores. Seriously though. They could start spending to develop a reputation/fame (rules in DMG) which could move them into a higher social circle.

[mephnick]

I disagree. If you're looking for any kind of detail regarding what sort of mercenary your PCs can hire, or what sort of bonus a skilled hireling brings to the table, that section is pretty much worthless.

Do you have resources for an alternative? My group isn't in the money yet, but it's coming...

Some non-combat ideas for tempting them to hire...hirelings would be welcome.

[Sigreid]

Do you have resources for an alternative? My group isn't in the money yet, but it's coming...

Some non-combat ideas for tempting them to hire...hirelings would be welcome.

If there's a wizard, a few scribes/scholars to help him with his spell or magic item research, or just tend his library. In fact, if the group sets up a library filled with expensive books then the sending spell could be used to direct the librarians to do research to aid in a quest.

[PoeticDwarf]

I love giving my PCs gold, but I'm finding at higher levels they have no way to really spend it since they can't buy magic items with it. I've come up with a bunch of ideas on my blog for ways to tempt PCs into spending their hard-won gold in a worthwhile way. You can check it out here:

http://worldbuilderblog.me/2015/07/16/big-purchases/

How else are people tempting their PCs into spending bling?

Buy a castle! We just killled all the bullywugs but buying a castle doesn't hurt anyone, right?

[Spacehamster]

Myself I will allow for finding black markets with access to some magical items now and then in the bigger cities in the world. Could be fun like a mini game with a magic item auction. Say one of the PC's win an item a npc group of adventurers wanted, later they get ambushed by that party cause they REALLY wanted said item. :) But otherwise burn it on real estate, research, donations, booze, hookers or whatever tickles the characters fancy. :)

[JamesIntrocaso]

Do you have resources for an alternative? My group isn't in the money yet, but it's coming...

Some non-combat ideas for tempting them to hire...hirelings would be welcome.

Seconded. I also want to hear your alternatives!

[illyrus]

I think you can setup situations where spending gold might aid the party socially.

- A big court function comes up. If they go dressed as normal they get disadvantage to all social checks. If they pay a small amount (or perhaps have a change of nice clothes) they roll normally. If they go to a tailor in the city to have clothing made for them, they get advantage on the first social check at the function. If they splurge then they could get advantage on all social checks made at that function. Fashions change country to country and over time so it is not a one time purchase.

- Pulling up to a town in a carriage fit for a king should see them treated differently than riding up on horses with blood splattered over their clothing.

- Bribing officials is often overlooked. Not as in the guard shakes you down, but you need some records and you have no social character or they failed. Use money to grease the wheels, whether it is an outright bribe "This diamond says differently" or an indirect bribe "I'm funding a church to be built here".

[Slipperychicken]

Do you have resources for an alternative? My group isn't in the money yet, but it's coming...


I'd either try to make a conversion from ACKS (first establishing a conversion rate between ACKS gold and 5e gold, then looking up rules for buying humanoid mercenaries and replacing the mercs' stats with 5e equivalents), or I'd look to a different edition of dnd and pull numbers from there.

My main point is that the 5th edition PHB rules for hirelings are more of a starting point than a full system. It seems fine for ballparking the cost of NPC servants whose stats don't really matter (after all, no-one needs to roll for how skillfully your maids dusted a bookshelf), but not so much for running a mercenary group or knowing exactly what game statistics are appropriate for a given hireling or a given cost (or vice versa; how much exactly would a knight, paladin, veteran, or man-at-arms charge for his services? Don't even get me started on spellcasters..)

[JAL_1138]

Siege engines. With unconventional ammo.

Back in 2e, I made some anti-dragon ammo consisting of a couple of heavy weights festooned with giant treble hooks made from meathooks linked by a heavy chain which was also festooned with treble hooks, and customized a catapult to launch it. Actually hitting was dubious at best because of dragons having fairly low AC (back when lower was better), but the one time I did, the combo of the impact, the hooks, and the falling damage one-shotted a dragon.

Or pack a bunch of flasks of alchemist's fire into a barrel full of nails & caltrops and launch that out of your catapult.

Or load your catapult with caltrops and angle the base of it so it fires an antipersonnel AoE.

Or (as suggested above), invest in developing such things as gunpowder, Thermite, and other incendiaries and explosives.

Devise little clockwork robots that can be loaded with explosives, wound up, and sent toward the enemy.

Hire a bunch of mages and smiths and work together to crank out magical items much faster than doing it solo.

Once you've invented gunpowder, invent large hollow iron balls and fuses. Use these in your catapults.

Breed Giant Space Hamsters until you arrive at the I-swear-this-was-a-real-monster Fire-Breathing Phase Doppelganger Giant Space Hamster.

(Incidentally, I'm no longer allowed to play gnomes.)

[SharkForce]

huh. I don't remember the doppleganger part of that combination. guess i'll have to review my SJ stuff :P

[Balain]

Let them buy magic items, but it is not as simple as "I walk into the magic item store and walk down all the aisles picking up wands, swords, etc.". Instead the merchant wants a deposit for searching out a possible seller, based on the rarity ofthe item, which is not refundable, he has to do work looking for sellers and they may not even buy the items id the price is too high.

It could also take weeks or months to even find the item they want. When they do find someone willing to sell the item it doesn'tcome cheap, or maybe it does but it is stolen. If it was stolen do they have to pay fines? After paying the fines the item is returned to the rightful owner. Now they need to find someone else willing to buy that item, oh need to pay a deposit again for the work on looking for a seller.

[Coidzor]

It could also take weeks or months to even find the item they want. When they do find someone willing to sell the item it doesn'tcome cheap, or maybe it does but it is stolen. If it was stolen do they have to pay fines? After paying the fines the item is returned to the rightful owner. Now they need to find someone else willing to buy that item, oh need to pay a deposit again for the work on looking for a seller.

Your games must go at a positively glacial pace, then, if there's that much downtime to spend twiddling one's thumbs.

[Pikkle]

GM has set up a fast and loose prestige/reputation system to encourage us players to spend our pennies. By Level 4 my barbarian also has a share in an Inn and he shall keep trying to come up with recipes for greater beers and ales there.