Higher-level alternative currencies

[Necroticplague]

O.k, another thread about the various materials in DnD in value made me realize that the normal method of trading doesn't exactly work for trading magical goods of anything but the lowest level. Even a measely Decanter of Endless Water is paid for with 180 pound of coins. This is impractical and difficult to carry around, and that's a relatively low-level example. Items like grafts or higher level magic items might very well require you to lug literally tonnes of gold around to make payment. So clearly, assuming that you pay for things in actual GP is a very practical proposition. So what are some reasonable, more convenient currencies that might replace them? I considered trade goods already. Problem with these is, they either aren't worth their weight in gold, or aren't worth more than their weight by enough to do more than delay the problem. Even if all the actual trading was done in platinum coins, this still involves you carrying crushingly large amounts of platinum.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Gems work pretty well for larger sums. The most i can remember was something like 10,000gp value for one gem in one of the FR books somewhere.
There's also the Treasure Table (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/treasure.htm#tableGems) for gems, which has 8,000gp as the highest possible value.

Sure, if you buy that +5 sword you're still going to be lugging a bag full of diamonds, but it'll be a non-magical bag instead of a Bag of Holding IV.

In my campaigns big cities tend to have exchanges who will trade large amounts of currency for high-value gemstones for ease of carrying (for a nominal fee of course).
I'm handwaving the details though. Get to the city and i'll count it as exchanged as long as you have reasonable time.

The players still have to get it home first, but that's what extradimensional spaces and stuff like Tenser's Floating Disk is for.
By the time it becomes an issue they better have a plan to lug that dragon's hoard home or it's staying where it is.

[ComaVision]

There's an assumption in my games that the currency is a mix of valuable gems and coins. It's just easier to track the gp amount, and none of us have any interest in roleplaying currency exchange.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Platinum is the first one: 10 gp to the pp. It won't work for anything but the cheapest magic items.
The second is gems, as said above.
The third is letters of credit. An IOU worth 10 000 gp, issued by a reliable entity (such as an Inevitable), and secured against forgery (as per these (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21137158&postcount=16) posts (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21147136&postcount=36) - stamped with the fist of a Marut, fluff however you like) is a great currency, and only weighs an ounce, if that.

[exelsisxax]

Just add a few steps to the coin values.
copper
+brass
silver
+electrum
gold
platinum

The weight of gold for purchases just decreased by 99%. You can buy magic items without sacks of platinum. That's just adding 2 materials, as well. You could add half-steps too, with different measures of metal. [metal] pennies, nickels, dimes, pounds could have different gradations of value. Adding in just copper, silver, and gold "big coins" reduces the cost in gold coin count by an additional 999%.

[Mr Adventurer]

We imported Astral Diamonds from 4e, having them 1000gp each and have negligible weight.

[DarkSoul]

The Epic Level Handbook introduced the favor; parchment money with denominations worth 1,000, 10,000, and 100,000 gold. It's in there specifically because of situations where high-level characters make transactions involving enormous values which results in tens, hundreds, or thousands of pounds of gold.

[Vogie]

There's a couple different ways you can do it.

International Banking Conglomerate - There is a paper currency that so happens to be called "Gold pieces" controlled by the IBC. Local banks do have physical gold and gems, but Average Jo the murderhobo just has a wallet.

Wayfinder Vaults - Each character has access to extradimensional vault space. Made just for money, it would not have the many benefits of Bags of Holding & their ilk other than negating weight. It could be in the form of something like a Smuggler's Wayfinder or Bag of Concealment, variations on the Secret Chest, or even a weathered scroll with an image of a safe than can be manipulated and opened as safe of that size.

Mass-Appraised Magic Items - Because reasons, across the plane there is no question of the value of any type of Magic Item, and thus individual magic items by themselves are used as currency in the same vein as gold pieces & gems, a sort of transcended barter system. While this makes some things really easy, like the above-mentioned +5 sword that's worth a bag full of diamonds or a Decanter of Endless Water acting as a 9000-GP note, this would also give you the ability to create plentiful duplicate, useless, niche & silly magic/enhanced items that are flavored to the area. Enchanted acorns, Scythes with +1 Harvesting, Astrologist Spellbooks, Mithril Tiaras, Goblin Toys, et cetera.

[Bad Wolf]

At the planar level they use souls. Not sure of the exact value of them compared to GP, though.

[LordOfCain]

At the planar level they use souls. Not sure of the exact value of them compared to GP, though.
Gotta second this. Conversion rate would probably be based on alignment differences with the salesperson? I.E. a LG soul would be worth more to a CE salesperson than to a CN salesperson.

[Venger]

you could always just write them a check. even if your game's not set in eberron, house kundarak has useful resources for incorporating banks into your game.

[CaPtMalHammer]

In our games we use a couple of different methods. Platinum is always the first step because its 1 coin for every 10 gold so 1/10th the weight. After that we go to a Gem System.. Usually some home made system we all agree upon with denominations from 100, 500, 1000 and even 5000 which cuts down a lot at higher levels. Another suggestion is say the group was working for a noble or royalty or wealthy merchant. Instead of paying in gold they could give a scroll. This may only be good in the town you are in but allows you to get a large reward and spend it without actually carrying any cash around. The scrolls of patronage or whatever you wish to call them seem to get rid of a large portion of issues. The other thing is allowing upgrades and trade ins of weapons. Say you want to go from a +2 to a +3 sword.. Allow the players to pay the difference and make it a time thing to get he sword back rather then selling the old one for 1/2 and then carrying the money around for the new one. easier to carry the smaller amount and barter with the artisan or merchant.

[Klara Meison]

I adopted magical currency substitutes for anything over 16k in price-things like highly-powerful souls, blood of ancient dragons, dust from the body of a dead god, and whatever other epic thing you can come up with. You can't buy anything over 16k for mundane gold, and you can't exchange mundane gold for those special things(markets are effectively separate). Besides solving the weight problem (since high-level ingredients can cost as much per pound as you want to), it also allows your PCs to eventually find literal mountains of gems, buy castles, and basically use truly massive amounts of gold without it affecting their powerlevel. Finally, it means that after a certain point, looting and selling every little thing you can find is just not worth it.

It's great and I recommend everyone to use this system.

[LordOfCain]

Of course, there is always the option of using countries as currency...

[GilesTheCleric]

I adopted magical currency substitutes for anything over 16k in price-things like highly-powerful souls, blood of ancient dragons, dust from the body of a dead god, and whatever other epic thing you can come up with. You can't buy anything over 16k for mundane gold, and you can't exchange mundane gold for those special things(markets are effectively separate). Besides solving the weight problem (since high-level ingredients can cost as much per pound as you want to), it also allows your PCs to eventually find literal mountains of gems, buy castles, and basically use truly massive amounts of gold without it affecting their powerlevel. Finally, it means that after a certain point, looting and selling every little thing you can find is just not worth it.

It's great and I recommend everyone to use this system.

That's an interesting take; I like it. I might still allow players to use gold as a currency beyond 16k with kings, Sigil, and perhaps other extraplanar traders, but those all then become much more roleplay-oriented interactions for specific items, rather than the downtime magic mart experience.

[DarkSoul]

I adopted magical currency substitutes for anything over 16k in price-things like highly-powerful souls, blood of ancient dragons, dust from the body of a dead god, and whatever other epic thing you can come up with. You can't buy anything over 16k for mundane gold, and you can't exchange mundane gold for those special things(markets are effectively separate). Besides solving the weight problem (since high-level ingredients can cost as much per pound as you want to), it also allows your PCs to eventually find literal mountains of gems, buy castles, and basically use truly massive amounts of gold without it affecting their powerlevel. Finally, it means that after a certain point, looting and selling every little thing you can find is just not worth it.

It's great and I recommend everyone to use this system.That reminds me a lot of Tales of Wyre's system. What I gathered is that the magical item economy in Wyre is almost exclusively based on trading items for items.

[Zanos]

At the planar level they use souls. Not sure of the exact value of them compared to GP, though.
I know the soul trade is alive and well on the Lower Planes, but isn't that kind of Evil?


I adopted magical currency substitutes for anything over 16k in price-things like highly-powerful souls, blood of ancient dragons, dust from the body of a dead god, and whatever other epic thing you can come up with. You can't buy anything over 16k for mundane gold, and you can't exchange mundane gold for those special things(markets are effectively separate). Besides solving the weight problem (since high-level ingredients can cost as much per pound as you want to), it also allows your PCs to eventually find literal mountains of gems, buy castles, and basically use truly massive amounts of gold without it affecting their powerlevel. Finally, it means that after a certain point, looting and selling every little thing you can find is just not worth it.

It's great and I recommend everyone to use this system.
16k seems a little of a low threshold, although I guess that depends on how closely you cleave to WBL. You'll have to track the "virtual" gold values of the special components they can trade for magical gear either way.

Actual banks seem like the simplest way. The first banks were established around 1400, which is a little late for most pseudo-medieval settings, but I feel it's a fair thing to include. I do believe that carrying "trade goods" like art pieces and high value gems is how large transactions are made in the books.

[Nifft]

Infernal Green Steel coins are minted in Dis, the city of the arch-fiend Dispater.

Each IGS coin is backed by a soul. You don't have to cash it in, of course, but it's there. In a vault. Suffering.

If you know sufficiently subtle magic, you can figure out which soul corresponds to any given coin. You can cash a coin in for the specific soul that it represents. You can use the soul as you see fit.

Each coin goes for about a hundred GP, but some are worth more to the right party.

[Ualaa]

Barter works as well.

I'll give you this +2 dagger and this whatever, for the +3 sword.

[Necroticplague]

Why would souls be so valuable? Where do they get value beyond their utility use as Dark Crafting XP (which, incidentally, only pegs them at 25 GP a soul)?

[Thurbane]

Promissory notes?

[Nifft]

Why would souls be so valuable? Where do they get value

Same reason a spyglass is so valuable: because the source book says that it is. (This is exactly and precisely where they get their value.)

In this case, the source book is the BoVD, and the price is 200gp for a soul in a receptacle.

I reduced that in my game, to 100gp, so it was a nice round number.

It worked pretty well.

[Necroticplague]

Same reason a spyglass is so valuable: because the source book says that it is. (This is exactly and precisely where they get their value.)

In this case, the source book is the BoVD, and the price is 200gp for a soul in a receptacle.

I reduced that in my game, to 100gp, so it was a nice round number.

It worked pretty well.

That seems.....incredibly odd, given how all the methods I know of for trapping souls require significantly more than 200 GP to produce. Thinaum in 10K, Trap the Soul's gem is 1K/HD. So you'd expect nobody would produce souls for this economy, given how it would cost more to produce the soul than they could ever gain from selling it.

[Zanos]

That seems.....incredibly odd, given how all the methods I know of for trapping souls require significantly more than 200 GP to produce. Thinaum in 10K, Trap the Soul's gem is 1K/HD. So you'd expect nobody would produce souls for this economy, given how it would cost more to produce the soul than they could ever gain from selling it.

Soul Bind (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/soulBind.htm) has a focus instead of a material component, which would imply it's reusable.

[Coidzor]

O.k, another thread about the various materials in DnD in value made me realize that the normal method of trading doesn't exactly work for trading magical goods of anything but the lowest level. Even a measely Decanter of Endless Water is paid for with 180 pound of coins. This is impractical and difficult to carry around, and that's a relatively low-level example. Items like grafts or higher level magic items might very well require you to lug literally tonnes of gold around to make payment. So clearly, assuming that you pay for things in actual GP is a very practical proposition. So what are some reasonable, more convenient currencies that might replace them? I considered trade goods already. Problem with these is, they either aren't worth their weight in gold, or aren't worth more than their weight by enough to do more than delay the problem. Even if all the actual trading was done in platinum coins, this still involves you carrying crushingly large amounts of platinum.

Frank and K touched upon this a bit in... Dungeonomicon? Some of their ideas for planar currency might be of interest to you.

[Maxrim]

Trapping a soul is more expensive, but then, the souls being traded likely weren't trapped. I believe it talks in BoVD about soul larvae, harvested by green hags from the nine hells.
Additionally, souls given away aren't covered. Presumably, warlock patrons aren't dropping a sweet G every time one of their 1st level warlocks dies.

Nifft, is that something you came up with, or is it from a source book? Because it's REALLY sweet.

[Milo v3]

I had a mage who created a fabricate-based wondrous item which took gems and combined them into a a single gem without decrease in worth to better facilitate large amounts of money. Does become very risky if people steal that gem though, so he has started adding arcane mark to it so high level buyers can better tell who owned the gem.

[Klara Meison]

I know the soul trade is alive and well on the Lower Planes, but isn't that kind of Evil?


16k seems a little of a low threshold, although I guess that depends on how closely you cleave to WBL. You'll have to track the "virtual" gold values of the special components they can trade for magical gear either way.

Actual banks seem like the simplest way. The first banks were established around 1400, which is a little late for most pseudo-medieval settings, but I feel it's a fair thing to include. I do believe that carrying "trade goods" like art pieces and high value gems is how large transactions are made in the books.

It's what's in the CRB under the highest "base settlement value". See this table (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/settlements#TOC-Table:-Available-Magic-Items). Basically, all I am doing is making it impossible for random magical items over that value to be purchased for gold. It's a pretty minor change.

[Nifft]

That seems.....incredibly odd, given how all the methods I know of for trapping souls require significantly more than 200 GP to produce. Thinaum in 10K, Trap the Soul's gem is 1K/HD. So you'd expect nobody would produce souls for this economy, given how it would cost more to produce the soul than they could ever gain from selling it. Trapping the soul might just be step 1 if you have the technology of Hell on your side. Nobody says that the "receptacle" in which the soul is housed is the same one which the spells use. That's just an assumption on your part, because you don't know of any printed rules about transferring souls out of expensive gems.

In my game, Dis was the only place which minted these coins, so I was able to defer making decisions about the specifics because raiding the Mint Infernal didn't come up in the game.


Trapping a soul is more expensive, but then, the souls being traded likely weren't trapped. I believe it talks in BoVD about soul larvae, harvested by green hags from the nine hells. Yeah, by BoVD rules, soul larvae sell for 250gp.

That's 50gp over a soul in a "receptacle".


Nifft, is that something you came up with, or is it from a source book? Because it's REALLY sweet. Thanks!

I came up with it, using the BoVD as inspiration.

[Fizban]

As mentioned, magic items have a verifiable value: there's no such thing as required "recipes" in 3.5, once you Identify it you know enough to make it and there's a specific market price/cost to create associated.

It's the Identify that's the problem, as well as the old "wah that's not useful to me so it's worthless" argument. Both are solved by using scrolls. Anyone with a decent spellcraft check can just read the scroll and know what it does and therefore how much it's worth. Even without the skill, the bog standard 100% core Helm of Comprehending Languages and Reading Magic will let anybody do so, as well as understand any language at all times (another ability worth every penny when you're wandering the planes). While resurrection spells are the most obvious, they include rather than replace gems. Other spells like Teleport, Greater Teleport, Plane Shift, Heal, and Limited Wish are worth more than 1,000gp and never lose their value.

Also worth noting: the soul larvae that spawn in the lower planes are full of the souls of the damned. That's Evil people who've gone on to their reward. The upper planes shouldn't really care much about hell coins backed by larval souls, distasteful but less so than handling the larvae. While some people are tricked into losing their souls unjustly, it's less than the number that go bad for their own reasons and I'm fairly sure those who run afoul of a devil's deal aren't officially turned into larvae by default.

[prufock]

The bank uses plaques notarized by the king himself, in denominations of 100g, 1000g, 10,000g, 100,000g, and 1,000,000g.

In another game, dragon scales were used as high-value currency.

[Telok]

Rings of protection work pretty well, we used them in one game that didn't go extraplanar. The scroll idea is good, easier to verify than using artificers monocoles several times. We've had banks in several games, which works up to about 12th level. They never go out of style with kings and such though, because kings pay most people in less than 20kgp increments. It's funny to have players who look down on a 6th level aristocrat because he's not blinged out with 30,000 gold worth of magic and then watch their eyes widen when the guy signs for a 5 million gp loan using only two castles as collateral.

Ah, that reminds me. Deeds to land and favors owed. Although the former can be forged and the latter are hard to transfer sometimes.

[Cirrylius]

That seems.....incredibly odd, given how all the methods I know of for trapping souls require significantly more than 200 GP to produce. Thinaum in 10K, Trap the Soul's gem is 1K/HD.
Considering the economic pull of all of the Nine Hells, I could totally see the Bank of Dis being made available on the Prime, perhaps at cost, or even a loss, just to snare more powerful souls who would be motivated/capable of rooting around in extraplanar economics for the sake of a single individual.

...or maybe my paranoia about Devilish plots is showing.

Anyway. My suggestions for high-end currency are obdurium trade bars and whatever currency Union uses; I can't recall if that's been mentioned or not.

[Necroticplague]

Hmmm....some people mentioned promissory notes, and that gives me an idea for an appropriately interesting one for planar metropolis.

Some creatures, Djinni being the most notable/famous, have free Wishes that they can't use on themselves. Because it takes minimal effort for them to use, and they get it back for free every day, they're more than willing to blow Wishes on others if they can get something in exchange. Sometimes, however, they have people who would like the benefits of a Wish, and can pay, but the Efreeti is out of wishes. So they issue notes of some type that are basically 'IOU one wish', and use these to pay for some services. In order to make these notes less risky (and thus worth more to give out), they secure it by forming groups to pool wishes (if one's out of wishes, another one might cover it for good cut). This group and promise system evolves into fractional-reserve banking (as they simply make notes and say 'as long as they don't all suddenly come in for wishes, we're good'). The default note is 25K GP (the maximum amount of value that can be created with the Wish it represents), with smaller denominations being 'how much of these do I need to trade for a wish', and larger being 'how many wishes do i get when i trade this in'. Given the flexibility of a Wish, this should be a sufficiently universal medium of exchange for those who frequent the kind of places you might expect to see these used in.

Of course, this is assuming you stay on the safe list, and that magic items are limited by the 25K ceiling for free wishes, like nonmagical items.

[Tvtyrant]

My group uses 1/day custom magic items of Prestidigitation as currency. They are worth 1000 GP each, and make the holder's life slightly better by making them cleaner, healthier, and their food taste better but the more you get the better off you are.

[Âmesang]

I assume that the 200 gp cost for a "soul in a receptacle" is derived from magic jar, which requires a 100 gp gemstone as a focus. Awhile back I had started a thread suggesting that outsiders using magic jar cause a logic break in how the spell functions due to them lacking a dual nature.

Their soul and body for a single unit, so when they enter a target's body, their body is technically entering it, too; when the spell ends the caster would normally return to his body, but they can't because they never left their body in the first place… which could infer that they can't/won't leave the target's body, which means the target's soul remains inside of the magic jar's focus permanently/instantaneously (once the magic powering the spell ends).

I like the use of favors (ƒ), astral diamonds (though I stick with 10,000 gp, 1/500th of a pound), platinum ingots from Shackled City (100 gp, 1/5th of a pound; I'm using a variation in 5th Edition—500 gp, 1 lb. platinum trade bars), and if in the FORGOTTEN REALMS®, Waterdeep's harbor moons and taols.

Were I ever to run a WORLD OF GREYHAWK® campaign set during the Suel Imperium, I'd be borrowing heavily from the Age of Glory fan module so, for ease-of-use, I threw together a table for Imperium currency (basing value/weight calculations on 3rd Edition instead of 2nd):



Coin
Orb
Chip
Rod
Wheel
Ingot
Ember
Weight


Perfume Orb (po)
1
1/2
1/10
1/100
1/200
1/1,000
—


Amber Chip (ac)
2
1
1/5
1/50
1/100
1/500
1/500 lb.*


Silver Rod (sr)
10
5
1
1/10
1/20
1/100
1/25 lb.


Gold Wheel (gw)
100
50
10
1
1/2
1/10
1/5 lb.


Platinum Ingot (pi)
200
100
20
2
1
1/5
1/10 lb.


Mithral Ember (me)
1,000
500
100
10
5
1
1/50 lb.




*Based on what I could find regarding the (average) density of amber and judging its "thumbnail sized chunk" description as approximately 1/2" wide, 1/2" long, and 1/16" thick.

"Spherical orbs of perfume chrystals," on the other hand…

[Ashtagon]

I adjusted coin values. All raw prices are converted to the gp value. That number is then treated as sp. 10000 cp = 100 sp = 1 gp.

That 4000 gp sword is now a much more manageable 40 gp.

For even larger sums, gems promissory notes and title deeds can be used.

[Mordaedil]

Trading in souls is popular in the same way trading in slaves is popular: It's a matter of power over another life-form and humiliating to the one being no better than a currency. It's not because there's some inherent value in a soul (albeit some souls are more priced than others, just like some slaves are more priced and usually by the same definitions as well).

It's certainly not an accepted currency outside of the bottom layer of the planes.

If you want a segmented currency system, might I suggest opening a bank that trades in paper currency?

[zergling.exe]

I adjusted coin values. All raw prices are converted to the gp value. That number is then treated as sp. 10000 cp = 100 sp = 1 gp.

That 4000 gp sword is now a much more manageable 40 gp.

For even larger sums, gems promissory notes and title deeds can be used.

This creates a separate problem, in that now 1 sp is worth 200 lbs of copper. Also I'm not entirely understanding your conversion. Would that make things worth less than 1 gp be worth a percentage's worth of a sp as cp?

[Ashtagon]

This creates a separate problem, in that now 1 sp is worth 200 lbs of copper. Also I'm not entirely understanding your conversion. Would that make things worth less than 1 gp be worth a percentage's worth of a sp as cp?

A raw 1 cp item remains as 1 cp. A raw 1 sp item become 10 cp. A raw 1 gp item becomes 1 sp. A raw 1 pp item becomes 10 sp.

1 sp is worth 100 cp under this rule, or 2 lb of copper. 1 gp is worth 100 sp, or 2 lb of silver. I'm not sure where you got 200 lb from.

[zergling.exe]

A raw 1 cp item remains as 1 cp. A raw 1 sp item become 10 cp. A raw 1 gp item becomes 1 sp. A raw 1 pp item becomes 10 sp.

1 sp is worth 100 cp under this rule, or 2 lb of copper. 1 gp is worth 100 sp, or 2 lb of silver. I'm not sure where you got 200 lb from.

Oh, I see it now. Having 10,000 cp equal 100 sp made my brain skip a little and make 10,000 cp = 1 sp. Which is what caused all the confusion.

[Flickerdart]

Skulls. But instead of paying for things with the skulls, you just show the skulls to the shopkeeper and say "I'm so tired of carrying these heavy skulls around, it would be a shame if I somehow ended up having to carry yet another skull." And then you get stuff for free!

[ExLibrisMortis]

Skulls. But instead of paying for things with the skulls, you just show the skulls to the shopkeeper and say "I'm so tired of carrying these heavy skulls around, it would be a shame if I somehow ended up having to carry yet another skull." And then you get stuff for free!
This works very well with those systems of wealth categories. Your wealth category is simply the size of the skull you're carrying!


*Everything in category n - 1 is 'free' (neglegible), everything in category n reduces your category by some amount, etc.

[Boogastreehouse]

*

In my Pathfinder game, I've wanted to create a currency based on spells, but I've never been sure how to implement it.

The general idea is that a token, perhaps a coin with a small gem set into it, can hold a spell. Different coins can hold spells of different levels, and each type of coin is easily identifiable as to the level of spell it can contain. I sort of envision it as specifically geared toward Arcane magic, as it seems like something wizards would invent, but anyone could use the coins as currency.

When the coin has a spell cast into it, it has a value based on the worth of the coin itself as a magic item, plus the value of the spell contained therein. Mundane persons such as very wealthy merchants and kings would simply acquire and spend the coins, but arcane spellcasters could actually choose to use the power within the coin, perhaps depleting it to cast a spell that they know, without using up a spell slot.

I suppose the spell itself could have a value based on the value of a scroll of the same level (caster level x spell level x 25GP). Alternately, it could have a value based on the cost of hiring an arcanist to cast the spell (caster level x spell level x 10GP).

I'm thinking that the the process of using the energy within the coin should be taxing in some way, so that the amount of coins an arcanist could use in a day would be limited. I want to use this as currency, mainly, and to be useful in a pinch, but I don't want to turn this into an abusable source of extra spells.

I imagine an arcanist wearing a small stack of coins on a silver chain, as both a display of wealth and of magical power. Merchants would keep such valuable coins hidden and carefully protected.

Until reinvested with magical energy, the empty coin's value is only that of an appropriate magic item, but I'm not quite sure how to determine the value of such an item.

It seems to me that the coin is a bit like a pearl of power, though it's only usable once before it needs to be recharged, and it's also a bit like a ring of spell storing, but it doesn't cast the spell for you. Any thoughts?


*

[Emperor Tippy]

The easiest way is to just set up a bank.

You pay a fee to the bank and they have a Solar with Tenacious Spell cast a Permanent Telepathic Bond between you and a bank golem so that you can contact the bank from anywhere on the same plane. When you want to deposit or retrieve money they will dispatch a bound Hound Archon with a Portable Hole to greater teleport to your location and pick up/deliver your money. If you are purchasing from someone who also has an account then you just instruct the bank golem to move the appropriate amount of money from your account to their account and the golem then informs the other party that the money has been delivered.

Of course the bank also offers escrow, identification, and brokerage services.

---
Any non magical material good is essentially worthless as a currency in higher level play because it is way too easy to solve. Traditional magical items are almost as worthless simply because of the ability to Wish them into existence for free, although given that they have to be Wished up one at a time just making a magical coin that serves no purpose but to be magical makes forging them in large numbers far more difficult (at least if you don't let people Wish up Wish traps).

There is a reason that my desire for a decent currency culminated in the CHIT (Credit of His Imperial Tippyness), but those things are far outside the realms that most people are willing to play with. I mean an Ice Assassin Aleax of a Great Wyrm Red Dragon True Mindswitched into a coin does tend to rub some people the wrong way for some reason =)

[GilesTheCleric]

The general idea is that a token, perhaps a coin with a small gem set into it, can hold a spell.

Eberron has a craftable gem that can contain spells; I believe it's called A khyber shard. IIrc, they work just like potions, but you don't drink them.

[Nifft]

Eberron has a craftable gem that can contain spells; I believe it's called A khyber shard. IIrc, they work just like potions, but you don't drink them.

... unless the spell is create water.

:wink:

[DeadMech]

Looking through the srd I found a few things that I'd consider using as currency. They all have nice round values that are a multiple of ten, have negligible weight, and are arguably something the people wealthy enough to afford will want.

The average pearls is a nice 100gp putting it one step up from a platinum piece. I choose pearls over some of the other gems because I felt a bag full of pearls was less likely to devalue itself compared to gems that might scratch one another. Though I'm no expert in such fields.

Pearls of power for 1st level spells are 1,000gp a piece. It's a little less universally useful than I would like but given where you spend this kind of money it'll probably do. Most people passing this amount of money around either are prepared casters or probably work with some. Added bonus they don't take up body slots and there is no apparent limit to how many any single caster can benefit from. Alternatively people dealing with bags full of the things can equip the casters in their armies or other underlings with them.

Bronze griffin figurines of wondrous power falls in neatly at 10,000gp a piece. Arguably useful to everyone. A personal flying mount or ally who will obey your instructions. There is a certain diminishing returns for a single person have multiple of these but again someone can outfit their army or underlings with them if you had a bag full.

For 100,000 gp... well the only item I found of negligible weight for that amount was the ring of wizardry for 4th level spells. Which while useful and desirable is only so to arcane casters. And it takes up a body slot. Though yeah anyone with a bag full of them probably can distribute them but I've certainly never played or even seen a game played where such an expensive item would see use.

[Nifft]

Looking through the srd I found a few things that I'd consider using as currency. They all have nice round values that are a multiple of ten, have negligible weight, and are arguably something the people wealthy enough to afford will want.

The average pearls is a nice 100gp putting it one step up from a platinum piece. I choose pearls over some of the other gems because I felt a bag full of pearls was less likely to devalue itself compared to gems that might scratch one another. Though I'm no expert in such fields.

Pearls of power for 1st level spells are 1,000gp a piece. It's a little less universally useful than I would like but given where you spend this kind of money it'll probably do. Most people passing this amount of money around either are prepared casters or probably work with some. Added bonus they don't take up body slots and there is no apparent limit to how many any single caster can benefit from. Alternatively people dealing with bags full of the things can equip the casters in their armies or other underlings with them.

Bronze griffin figurines of wondrous power falls in neatly at 10,000gp a piece. Arguably useful to everyone. A personal flying mount or ally who will obey your instructions. There is a certain diminishing returns for a single person have multiple of these but again someone can outfit their army or underlings with them if you had a bag full. Heh.

My first thought is that Nystul's Magic Aura would be a lot more useful for mundane counterfeiting in your universe, and IMHO that's a very good thing.

In addition, I like the idea of 100 gp pearls as a unit of wealth because a 100 gp pearl is a material component for identify, which is going to keep their market value pretty stable even as people start farming for a greater supply.