Uh what do I spend money on?

[TheCrowing1432]

Alright, me and my group have been playing 3.5 for almost a decade now, and we've in the past year or so, have made the changeover to 5e because we feel 5e makes up for a lot of 3.5's shortcomings.

After running through the Tiamat Adventure, we decided to go through a custom campaign. Now the handy thing about premade modules is treasure and stuff is handled rather well, but in our custom one, we are left to treasure tables, which is fine.

Thing is, we're now a group of 6th level adventurers with 5000gp each and no idea what to spend it on.

Considering you can go from 1-20 in 5e with your starting gear and magic items and wealth by level doesnt seem to be a thing, what do we buy?

[Nifft]

1. Ale

2. Whores

[mephnick]

1. Ale

2. Whores

3. A keep to store your A&W (ale/whores)

[mephnick]

But in all seriousness, not much unless you're really into role-playing a philanthropist or city builder. I don't believe in the Magic Mart, but in my controversial opinion, 5e generally does need some way to exchange gold for mechanical power. I provide weapon upgrades and skill training for an extremely high cost and also cut the expected wealth of higher levels in half. I also provide some randomly rolled magic items for exorbitant prices if you're influential enough to be allowed to even see them.

[Arcangel4774]

If you every play OotA, you can take a page from my book and waste literally all your money making bets with a particular npc.

[Corran]

1. Ale

2. Whores


3. A keep to store your A&W (ale/whores)
4. Hire guards for the keep

[Thrasher92]

Build a castle, keep, or palace! Whatever you want but, some kind of stronghold. It adds an entire new kind of dimension to your game.

You can then go on missions to:
Add a special addition to your castle
Defend your castle from invaders
Use diplomacy to convince the ruler of the local land to let you govern the area and receive taxes (and pass on a percentage to him)
Conduct trade missions to places in the area to build up your castle, like getting dwarves from the nearby mountain to sell their wares in your area
Convince nearby people to live near your castle
Move a monster or an astounding work of art to your castle to have people look at

There are a TON of cool ideas and missions possible.

[Naez]

There are rules for spending money to gain new skill and tool proficiencies. I think it was 1 gp a day for 250 days.

[Xrposiedon]

I will give you my rule of thumb when it comes to playing as a PC.

If you want to live. You have two options....Armor / resistance items......or HEALING potions.

So you just started moving over at lvl 6....if you want to hit level 10....buy some healing.


Now....if you are going for pure raw power, and the shock and awe factor. See if you can find yourself a mount....or some really nifty magic items that blow stuff up!

[Marvnmartian]

The way I have my games set up I allow my players to use the stronghold rules and it makes more a lot of interesting things to happen (http://imgur.com/a/VB9xE)

with 5k or how my players do it they pool their money together to buy how big of a stronghold they want.

I run a Fairy tale-esque game where the crew has joined a adventuring guild and with the completion of their first quest (adventure enough to bring the characters to level 3-4) they are given their own store front basically but its flavored in the stronghold rules as a guild hall that allows some customization in what rooms you have. but what it does is allows the dm to literally throw quests at the players until one sticks.

so if it sounds fun to you i would show the rules to your dm and see if he would allow you to have one built in your home city which will make his life easier and also... who doesn't like a little sims minigame thrown into their game.

ps. with this method the magical enchanter room is also a great way to add back in the magical item shops from 3.5 though it takes time to make the items so gives it a little more realism

[Coidzor]

Spells for the Wizard to scribe into his spellbook.

Potions and Scrolls if available.

A stock of various healing potions of various grades. Raw materials to craft more of them over time if you have the time and tool proficiencies.

Good mounts/vehicles and some backups in case of loss of an animal.

Land, Buildings, Retainers.

Arms and Armor to outfit friendly NPCs or hired mercenaries with.

[Arkhios]

A crap-load of diamonds, diamond dust, healing potions, and other useful consumables?

[Tanarii]

Live like aristocrats. That's 3650 / year right there. You'll need to adventure about once a year to keep that up. If you go once every six months, you'll gain one level a year and will even have about 4k excess a year to invest in other things. Which is, despite the way most people play, a pretty reasonable pace at which to risk life and limb and gain levels, if you're playing in a living world.

I have ten days downtime between sessions. I wish now I'd made it something like thirty in Tier 1 and ninety in Tier 2. Ki do specify Tier 2 characters must live like aristocrats unless they can't afford it. And why wouldn't they? They're rich and usually don't have much to do.

IMO at level 6+, it's time to start buying power. Gifts to the powerful. If you have downtime, Military real estate. If you don't (typical for most games including mine, per the above), you could see if you can purchase or bribe a grant to an existing title (with associated tower), or just raise a medium size unit of mercenaries for short periods of time.

100 men cost 3000/month as Skilled Hirelings. I personally specify double pay if they're getting combat pay, although the PHB/DMG don't say that it makes sense to me. Even so, a level 6 character with 50 mercenaries and a month can accomplish a lot. A party of them pooling funds for 200-300 men (or double that if they're no combat pay penalty) is going to start conquering places in a typical pseudo-medieval world. Or pacifying the low-level nuisances in their home area.

Or you could sponsor lower level parties to do the stuff you no longer do, as a Tier 2 party.

If you're gonna herohobo (or more commonly murderhobo) your way through your career using only your own personal power, then there isn't a lot of detailed ways to spend your cash built in to 5e to do with gold. If that's your preferred game style (and I'm not going to bash it if it is) you probably want to speak to your DM about creating 'magic marts' in his world. The game doesn't have them built in for each item, but it has price ranges for magic items based on frequencies and the DM can use those as a basis for them. Or you can hunt around online, several people have made custom pricing for magic items before.

[Fey]

1. Ale

2. Whores

Alemental Whores

[Corran]

Ooooh, I've got it.
Hire two DMPCs. One is a skilled swordman (swashbuckler?) who is looking for his father's murderer (and is just travelling with you to pay the bills), and the other is a man of incredible strength (champion?) who is really good with rhymes too (valor bard!).

ps: Dont forget to buy a boat!

[MaxWilson]

Alright, me and my group have been playing 3.5 for almost a decade now, and we've in the past year or so, have made the changeover to 5e because we feel 5e makes up for a lot of 3.5's shortcomings.

After running through the Tiamat Adventure, we decided to go through a custom campaign. Now the handy thing about premade modules is treasure and stuff is handled rather well, but in our custom one, we are left to treasure tables, which is fine.

Thing is, we're now a group of 6th level adventurers with 5000gp each and no idea what to spend it on.

Considering you can go from 1-20 in 5e with your starting gear and magic items and wealth by level doesnt seem to be a thing, what do we buy?

There's a bunch of useful adventuring equipment you can buy, ranging from spell components (Planar Binding!) to exotic poisons to plate armor to hirelings to caltrops/horses/etc.

But the underlying question I detect is, "What do you do once you have enough money for all of that stuff? Is 100,000 gp different from 1 million gp? Should I even bother collecting gold as a thing, or should I just start leaving it on monsters' bodies?" My answer here is: talk to your DM. If he wants an old-school campaign, he may offer to let you spend gold offscreen during downtime on campaign goals (whatever those may be; probably related to Bonds/Ideals/Flaws) to get XP in its place on a 1:1 basis. If he does this, then even a "worthless" magic item becomes exciting because you can sell it for gold which turns into XP. I've done this and it's fun for the players. I often give them little bonuses as well, like "once you've spent 50,000 gp on presents for your lady love, not only do you have 50,000 XP but she finally agrees to marry you as well!"

Anyway, DMs who want to motivate you with treasure may choose this option. DMs who just want you to kill monsters probably won't; and in that case you either take the gold to use it for more and more spell components and hirelings, or you can safely ignore it once you have maybe about 100,000 in diamonds already.

[Sigreid]

Use your wealth to economically destabilize a region for the entertainment value. Revolution is good TV.

[sir_argo]

Place a bounty on the head of one of your fellow party members. When the assassins come skulking around, you'll feel a giddy sense of superiority because only you will know what's going on.

Hire an npc wizard who is of sufficiently high enough level to cast Teleport. His job is to keep a roster of items to various locations around the campaign world. He is your portal to speedy, accurate travel.

Pay a wizard to make clones of you. They take 120 days to mature. It costs 1,000gp (+2,000gp for container), so you can burn through quite a bit of money setting up an assembly line of clones so that death becomes but an inconvenience to you.

[ghost_warlock]

Obviously, an elephant with plate mail barding

[Sirdar]

Why spend the treasure when you can hoard it in your lair and sleep on top of the big pile of gold and magic items you collected? Now the adventure will come to you! Stupid MinMaxed heros will seek your death so they can take your sweet gold. Soften them up with some traps and just wait until you can beat them up on your home turf. It will give you even more gold and your collection of them +1 Swords (that lesser adventurers use) will grow even larger. :smallamused:

[ZorroGames]

My current (first 5e) character is a Mountain Dwarf Monk at level 3 and a fraction. Try not to accumulate personal wealth. Plan a Monastery? Build an Orphanage? Start a martial arts academy?

[nickl_2000]

Build a keep with a Scrooge McDuck style swimming pool so you can go swimming in your gold pieces

[qube]

The boateng saber costs 7.7 million

Dollar. Not gold. we're talking a real weapon here - and it probbably cuts just as good as any other saber.

If you don't know what you can spend your money only, you obviously never have been rich ...



Spells for the Wizard to scribe into his spellbook.

Potions and Scrolls if available.

A stock of various healing potions of various grades. Raw materials to craft more of them over time if you have the time and tool proficiencies.

Good mounts/vehicles and some backups in case of loss of an animal.

Land, Buildings, Retainers.

Arms and Armor to outfit friendly NPCs or hired mercenaries with.
Give it away to boost your reputation (or gods reputation, if you're a cleric).

Use it to be an a**hole, and each time you go eat in a tavern, pay 50 gold for the barkeep to kick everyone out - because you don't eat alongside scur.

Hoard it, because you can never have enough money

Use your background: start a trading comany if you were a guild member, or build a library, buying and let ship books from all over the world ...


----

In 5E, money is no longer the level system of power (8000 gp? Oh, that's a +2 sword, instead of my +1; now I get an extra +1 to attack & damage) - it's a roleplay tool.

[Lombra]

Buy ships and fund aitcrafts resarch (or buy one if you have it) or spend it to craft cool items with those tool proficiencies that you wouldn't use anyways. My monk spent something like 500GP on his spear to silver, jewel and chisel it, he is now stabbing monsters with a piece of art.

[Mikal]

Build a castle, keep, or palace! Whatever you want but, some kind of stronghold. It adds an entire new kind of dimension to your game.

You can then go on missions to:
Add a special addition to your castle
Defend your castle from invaders
Use diplomacy to convince the ruler of the local land to let you govern the area and receive taxes (and pass on a percentage to him)
Conduct trade missions to places in the area to build up your castle, like getting dwarves from the nearby mountain to sell their wares in your area
Convince nearby people to live near your castle
Move a monster or an astounding work of art to your castle to have people look at

There are a TON of cool ideas and missions possible.

So in other words, not much, from a game design standpoint. Hope your DM is inventive and open to money sinks!

[DeTess]

So in other words, not much, from a game design standpoint. Hope your DM is inventive and open to money sinks!

My 5e DM had a shop sell a bunch of pottery for 2 gold a piece. Each pot contained something from the trinket table (rolled after buying). As a party, we bought the entire supply.

[nickl_2000]

My 5e DM had a shop sell a bunch of pottery for 2 gold a piece. Each pot contained something from the trinket table (rolled after buying). As a party, we bought the entire supply.

Thank goodness that there wasn't a character based on Link in your party.

[Gryndle]

from a "how do I improve my character", theory-crafting or power-gaming point of view, gold doesn't do a lot in 5E once you can afford the best armor and horses if the campaign calls for it.

But in a campaign where the characters are actually part of a living world, gold is a way for you to affect the world beyond just your combat ability. You can establish a home, maybe eventually a keep; build a power base, help fund the kingdom, or fund a rebellion, build an orphanage, buy mercenaries to burn down an orphanage, etc.

Gold is a way to further a character's ambitions beyond just their ability as combatants.

[Mikal]

from a "how do I improve my character", theory-crafting or power-gaming point of view, gold doesn't do a lot in 5E once you can afford the best armor and horses if the campaign calls for it.

But in a campaign where the characters are actually part of a living world, gold is a way for you to affect the world beyond just your combat ability. You can establish a home, maybe eventually a keep; build a power base, help fund the kingdom, or fund a rebellion, build an orphanage, buy mercenaries to burn down an orphanage, etc.

Gold is a way to further a character's ambitions beyond just their ability as combatants.

So hopefully you're not playing in Adventurer's League, where none of that really happens.

[Tanarii]

In 5E, money is no longer the level system of power (8000 gp? Oh, that's a +2 sword, instead of my +1; now I get an extra +1 to attack & damage) - it's a roleplay tool.Technically not correct, although I know what you meant. It's still a system of power. After all, towers/outposts, keeps, and castles project power. The favor of nobles you've gifted is power. Having bribed judges, sheriffs and bureaucrats in your pocket is power. A chain of highly trained spies reporting back to you is power. Most of all, having a standing army is both insanely expensive (365 gp/year per person, not including housing or support costs), and of course a very powerful form of power.

In a more murderhobo way of thinking, you could hire other low level adventurers to scout out and find adventuring locations for you. Set up some quest givers, give them lots of gold and some of you second hand consumables you never consumed, and unleash the adventurers! Then when they report back, you'll have a laundry list of places you can descend on to kill everything and roll the bodies for loot.

Edit: Or buy a longboat and staff it with berserkers to travel to your place of murderhoboing. Even if they only charge Skilled Hireling rates (unlikely) that's still 10000gp down, and 40*30 = 1200 / month.

[tieren]

I always thought camp followers would be the natural extensions as characters move up to tier 2.

We're not hedge knights living out of saddle bags anymore, we have a wagon(s) with supplies, repair equipment, consumables, etc...And of course the wagons need oxen and teamsters and a foreperson, and a cook, some people to set up tents, foragers, etc...And you'll need some guards to keep them all safe while you are down exploring the dungeon.

Buying all that stuff, salaries to keep everyone sustained, etc... would be a pretty significant gold sink.

even if you don't have a magic mart you could use it as a bounty to send other adventurers out to get you stuff "100,000 gp to anyone who brings me the hammer of mcguffin"

[Tanarii]

We're not hedge knights living out of saddle bags anymore, Yeah, players just aren't trained to think this way. Seventeen years since 3e came out. It was a common thing even before that, but 3e and CRPGs have really cemented murderhobo (or more rarely, herohobo) thinking.

[Gryndle]

Yeah, I miss "name level" and followers from 2nd edition.

and no Mikal, I don't play Adventurer's League. I know it is supposed to be a "persistent world" (where your accomplishments & loot are meant to carry over to the next adventure), but it doesn't seem like a "living world" to me.

And there is the fact that I only play at home, and only people I know and trust come into my house, so there is a certain maturity level and trust in my gaming group that I don't think you can expect to be the norm in the pick-up groups common in Adventurer's League events.

[tieren]

Yeah, I miss "name level" and followers from 2nd edition.


Just because they aren't explicit in the level description anymore doesn't mean you can't have them. its a solution to the exact problem being discussed here. There are rules for dealing with hirelings, etc...Its not something that needs to be homebrewed.

Another point to make about vast gold hordes is storage and transportation. it seems paradoxical to me that DMs don't allow magic marts to offload the gold, but everyone and his brother has multidimensional storage solutions for transporting the gold hordes around.

Take out those bags of holding, portables holes, hewards haversacks, etc... and people would be a lot more concerned with hiring some wagons and trusted guards, or a stronghold, etc...

[Tanarii]

Yeah, I use encumbrance for exactly that reason. One of my favorites:
http://www.critical-hits.com/blog/2016/03/15/youre-gonna-carry-that-weight/

[GlenSmash!]

Spend it all on Mastiffs. Now you combat can have a huge pack of dogs on your side.

Also, will you ever get tired of saying "Who's a good boy/girl?"

[Naanomi]

Personally I'm glad there isn't a gold->item treadmill anymore... it felt weird being an adventurer who couldn't go out partying or waste gold in temple donations or supporting my beloved kingdom or whatever (or, heaven forbid, play a hero largely uninterested in carrying around piles of cash to begin with) for fear of 'falling behind' my wealth-by-level expectations. It also makes it easier to hand out 'cool but not powerful' items as a GM without either destroying the economy or WBL math

[tieren]

Yeah, I use encumbrance for exactly that reason. One of my favorites:
http://www.critical-hits.com/blog/2016/03/15/youre-gonna-carry-that-weight/

A good campaign I was in a few years ago, we fought our way to the BBEG and he had a chest with a bunch of silver and 6000 copper pieces. We were so bogged down with the other stuff we had looted we couldn't get the copper out and ultimately decided it was too inefficient for the relative small monetary value to worry about it.

we ended up promising the copper to some goblins we had captured to help us haul out sacks of silver (didn't trust them with the gold).

[Finieous]

One of the smartest things I did in my current campaign is have the PCs' patron deed them a ruined keep. It cemented their ties to the community and gave them a huge money sink that they felt literally and figuratively invested in.

[Zorku]

Although 5e doesn't really say anything about what to do with your cash, earlier editions did. Tier 2 heroes seem to roughly equate to lords and similar nobles, tier 3 heroes equate to kings and nobility almost as powerful, and tier 4 heroes equate to something like "king of the planet," but generally without the management issues.

Since we're focused on tiers 2 and 3, this is roughly the point where early D&D went with the path of least resistance and assumed that you would do wargaming stuff. Namely: defending all that wealth from evil forces that would steal it away from you. I haven't played in any games that featured hirelings and keep defense, but two UA articles have attempted to provide rules for army scale combat (though I would consider both of these attempts to fail in different ways,) so it's not crazy speculation to assume that they want to open the whole "run a keep" option up, but right now there aren't very good rules for that.

Being nobility in a court also makes a lot of sense, but that kind of position pays you almost as much money as you spent to get into the position in the first place, and from such a position you get a lot of opportunities to make even more money, so it's only a temporary solution for draining the party's coffers.

It's probably best to session zero this with any new group of players and ask them what they would probably do with rich-people money. If they wanna set up a keep then you proceed as normal and turn it into an enormous gold sink, but also weave your story around it. If they don't really want to spend their money on anything besides direct character sheet power gains, maybe go the gold converts into xp route, or if you're not really into that, then only give them 1/10th as much gold for everything they do (and probably dump some platemail into their hands about the time they'd normally buy it, so they just have to pay to have it refit before they can wear it.)


"once you've spent 50,000 gp on presents for your lady love, not only do you have 50,000 XP but she finally agrees to marry you as well!"

Just a little nitpick here- I hate gameifying relationships like that. It's real bad to think that you're grinding to fill up some progress bar until you've got exalted rep.

Once you pay 50,000gp on presents then your lady love's FATHER agrees to let you marry her.
#Ifeeldeadinside

[sir_argo]

Do you know who else has problems spending money? The monsters. I've never understood why monsters even have gold. I mean, where do they spend it? Does that Troll really go to the local market to buy groceries? As far as I can tell, they have no use for human currency.


Troll #1: Dude, I just scored! Do you remember Joey the dragon, who lives in neighboring dungeon? Yeah, he got killed by some murder hobos and they couldn't haul away all of his gold! I've been making trips over there all day and brought back at least 5,000gp!

Troll #3: Awesome! I'll head over there too. Easy money, man!

Troll #1: Hey, where is Troll #2?

Troll #3: Oh... he had about 200gp and went to town to see if a blacksmith would make him some armor. Never came back. Not sure why.

Zombie: Rrrrrrrrrrr <translation: Oh man, I wish he had asked me to join him. I wanted to buy a new sword and a sewing kit.>


I know this may be a shocking deviation from the whole D&D concept, but monsters should have nearly no loot at all. Adventurers should be motivated primarily to achieve a goal, such as rid the land of the raiding bugbears, or slay the evil necromancer in the swamp, etc. When you think about it... it's ridiculous to look at going into dungeons as a way to make money.

[Nifft]

Personally I'm glad there isn't a gold->item treadmill anymore... it felt weird being an adventurer who couldn't go out partying or waste gold in temple donations or supporting my beloved kingdom or whatever (or, heaven forbid, play a hero largely uninterested in carrying around piles of cash to begin with) for fear of 'falling behind' my wealth-by-level expectations. It also makes it easier to hand out 'cool but not powerful' items as a GM without either destroying the economy or WBL math

One interesting thing about the Conan RPG was that after you got back from an adventure, every single day in town, you spent half your gold.

It was an RPG with enforced decadent partying.

Probably not useful in many other games, but it certainly broke the WBL scrounging habits that my group had formed.

It makes me think that 5e could use some sort of Extravagant Expenditure mini-game, whereby you build up a reputation of some kind through exorbitant exhibitions.

This could be used to either set the tone for NPC interactions at higher levels of society, or to allow an entirely new category of conflict -- i.e. the Anti-Pope of Hextor might object to your big new Pelorian Cathedral project, or the Duke of La Wful-Snoot might take exception to your week-long ale-fueled debauchery that doubled the flesh trade's profits in his city.

[Finieous]

As long as adventurers with money keep dying in monster lairs, monster lairs will have money.

[Naanomi]

Monsters like trolls have use for money so long as other monsters are willing to use it as currency... goblins/hobgoblins and the like acting as intermediaries of trade; or perhaps ogres to giants and the like; or through shared demon worship with more civilized humanoids via gnolls and so on.

Others might just use it as a status symbol because other races value it; or to attract 'free food' in the form of would-be-thieves; or for religious purposes (like Xvarts)

[mgshamster]

So hopefully you're not playing in Adventurer's League, where none of that really happens.

For AL, you can spend money on mundane equipment + healing potions. You can spend money on spellcasting services. You can spend money on downtime activities, and you're required to spend money for lifestyle expenses if you want to keep your lifestyle (only during downtime).

If you belong to a faction, you can go up in rank by spending renown. Once you reach certain ranks, the purchase of magical equipment becomes available. Also, the purchase of proficiency training is cut in half in both cost and downtime days (remember to pay for lifestyle, too!).

You can trade magic items with other players, but it costs 15 downtime days (plus lifestyle expenses). And when you're a faction member, there's many little things you can do that cost downtime days (plus lifestyle expenses).

Finally, during adventures, there is often gold expenditure in game when interacting with NPCs, whether it's bribes, or loosening the lips of a bartender, gaining access to an area, and more.

There are plenty of things to spend gold on in AL.

[CursedRhubarb]

Build a ship to equal the HMS Victory (104 gun ship), would likely be about 100,000gp - 300,000gp or more to make/buy. Then hire a full crew (850 people), you will want skilled workers so 1,700gp a day, and become a legendary pirate and scourge of the seas!

[JackPhoenix]

Yeah, I use encumbrance for exactly that reason. One of my favorites:
http://www.critical-hits.com/blog/2016/03/15/youre-gonna-carry-that-weight/

You wouldn't believe the lengths my players would go to haul the 200+ lb chest of coins they stole from a cult leader to the next city country. And it's mostly silver, so the actual value is somewhere over 2000 gp. Of course, they were afraid to show up at the bank in Sharn where they got the gold to turn it into more portable form (i.e. letters of credit), because all of them have aberrant dragonmarks and didn't want to piss off a dragonmarked house. For the same reason, they avoided Orien-operated transport services.

Not that it stops them from planning to hijack Lyrandar airship in Trolanport.

Though in their defense, there isn't a national witch-hunt for bearers of aberrant marks in Zilargo. Yet.

[Zorku]

I know this may be a shocking deviation from the whole D&D concept, but monsters should have nearly no loot at all. Adventurers should be motivated primarily to achieve a goal, such as rid the land of the raiding bugbears, or slay the evil necromancer in the swamp, etc. When you think about it... it's ridiculous to look at going into dungeons as a way to make money.
Monsters largely don't carry gold. Dungeons have gold in them because they are faint memories of a vast and powerful civilization that fell and left lots of wondrous items just lying around on shelves, and because it's kind of weird for a dungeon to be so full of crap when you could be fighting with the question of "how exactly do we move 20000 copper pieces?"

You're largely assumed to be medievals sacking forgotten Roman ruins. The monsters that infest these places mostly don't touch "the treasure chest" full of loot because they're too stupid to know how to use it (even when that doesn't make sense,) and they're occupying these places the same way that bandits occupy a ruined keep. These structures are fine for low profile weirdos but they're not fit for actually defending, as evidenced by how 4-6 adventurers can slip in and execute a few dozen grunts in a bloody kerfuffle before they take any condensed wealth in the area as spoils of war and then head into town to get paid for however many kobold ears they can turn in to the local authority.

If every ogre out in the woods has 25 gold then yeah, this is a silly world. If the Orog that the evil sorcerer is paying to serve as his bodyguard has 25 gold on him, then that makes obvious sense. It doesn't make much sense for the Orog to amble into a town to try and spend any of that coin, but there are also bandits operating out of this ruin so he probably just points to the shiny crap they have and jingles his coin purse and then they sell him their crap at a huge mark up and go buy replacements in town the next time they get sent on recon or actually get to take a short leave (assuming this particular bandit isn't permanently kicks out of the local city yet. Otherwise they send their buddy that's still got good standing in with a shopping list, and pay a less ridiculous mark up cost.)

If you've got an opening to the underdark, and the beastie with 6-8 INT is the kind of thing you'd find down there, then they might be able to walk right into one of those cities, but more likely they've got a merchant buddy that they meet halfway in between.

If it's an otyugh then maybe they swallowed some silver coins, but that should be rare, and why do these adventurers have the time to cut that thing's belly open in the first place?

[Unoriginal]

Sapient beings have use for currency, or at minimum for the goods and loot they take from others.

Non-sapient monsters probably have remains of their victims hanging around, with some of their money at least. But of course they'll have less loot that sapient ones.

[Knaight]

ps: Dont forget to buy a boat!

I believe the technical term for what to purchase is "merchant fleet".

[Tanarii]

Do you know who else has problems spending money? The monsters. I've never understood why monsters even have gold. I mean, where do they spend it? Does that Troll really go to the local market to buy groceries? As far as I can tell, they have no use for human currency.What on earth makes you think that all humans are unwilling to trade with monsters in return for gold? Of course there will be 'unscrupulous' traders, black marketeers, tinkers, smugglers, and the like willing to deal with 'the enemy', probably for a huge mark-up. At least in any sensible campaign.

And that's assuming monsters are even 'the enemy' in the campaign. Certainly Humanoid tribes might be treated something like steppes warriors were ... at the one had a dire threat to the entire civilized world, on the other a raiding threat to heavily laden caravans getting too close to their territory, and on the gripping hand a slightly dangerous but prosperous trading opportunity.

Edit: Also I agree that in the vast majority of campaigns and worlds I've played in that feature dungeons and loot, they're basically the fantasy equivalent of the early middle ages post-fall of the roman empire.

[Sigreid]

What on earth makes you think that all humans are unwilling to trade with monsters in return for gold? Of course there will be 'unscrupulous' traders, black marketeers, tinkers, smugglers, and the like willing to deal with 'the enemy', probably for a huge mark-up. At least in any sensible campaign.

And that's assuming monsters are even 'the enemy' in the campaign. Certainly Humanoid tribes might be treated something like steppes warriors were ... at the one had a dire threat to the entire civilized world, on the other a raiding threat to heavily laden caravans getting too close to their territory, and on the gripping hand a slightly dangerous but prosperous trading opportunity.

Edit: Also I agree that in the vast majority of campaigns and worlds I've played in that feature dungeons and loot, they're basically the fantasy equivalent of the early middle ages post-fall of the roman empire.

I have a character with aspirations of luring kobolds in to their home town's under city. they can mine and expand their tribe's subterranean lands and I'll happily trade with them so they can get food and tools. They just have to leave the town's folk alone. If they behave themselves, I'd be more than willing to help them deal with defending their home should it come up.

[furby076]

Why spend the treasure when you can hoard it in your lair and sleep on top of the big pile of gold and magic items you collected? Now the adventure will come to you! Stupid MinMaxed heros will seek your death so they can take your sweet gold. Soften them up with some traps and just wait until you can beat them up on your home turf. It will give you even more gold and your collection of them +1 Swords (that lesser adventurers use) will grow even larger. :smallamused:

Make sure you have henchmen in your dungeon, cause action economy


Do you know who else has problems spending money? The monsters. I've never understood why monsters even have gold. I mean, where do they spend it? Does that Troll really go to the local market to buy groceries? As far as I can tell, they have no use for human currency.


I know this may be a shocking deviation from the whole D&D concept, but monsters should have nearly no loot at all. Adventurers should be motivated primarily to achieve a goal, such as rid the land of the raiding bugbears, or slay the evil necromancer in the swamp, etc. When you think about it... it's ridiculous to look at going into dungeons as a way to make money.

Some monsters just like shiny.
Why is it ridiculous to risk life and limb for treasure? People do that today (bounty hunters, mercenaries, etc). I would say its more ridiculous to risk your life to find out why the farmers land is corrupted by magic

[Sirdar]

Make sure you have henchmen in your dungeon, cause action economy

Are you applying for work in my dungeon?

Right now we are looking for a senior Wizard with leadership skills and a mid-level Rogue that can handle all our traps. We also have our famous internship program Life is a blast for young low-level emo Warlocks with sunlight sensitivity.

[Zorku]

I have a character with aspirations of luring kobolds in to their home town's under city. they can mine and expand their tribe's subterranean lands and I'll happily trade with them so they can get food and tools. They just have to leave the town's folk alone. If they behave themselves, I'd be more than willing to help them deal with defending their home should it come up.
Now you've got me thinking about realistic reasons they wouldn't behave themselves...

Since they're miners there's gonna be some sort of brothel and probably gambling, so there will probably be some concerned townsfolk that think the kobold community that lives so close to them is a bad influence on their children, and that will probably be at least partially true...

[GlenSmash!]

I like to convert my coin into precious Gems. They weigh a lot less/take up a lot less space.

If I'm DMing my players can typically find a Jeweler in decent to large size cities who will do it for around 10% of the total currency to be converted.

[Sir cryosin]

Potions, armor, hireling, business, vehicle (boat, airship, wagon) scrolls, magic items,

[WereRabbitz]

Random minor powerups for their items for expensive gems

Betting parlors

Lavish roleplaying

my favorite story was when the group unexpected bought a place.

I had a campaign once for my wife and her friends that got side tracked badly when they decided to give up on the main quest and built a tavern in a random port town. I had to ditch weeks of planning to change the campaign to evolve around their growing and mildly successful business. They were even members of the local guild and had voting rights on local policy. Even once going on a secret mission to reveal a conspiracy in the guild to gain levy unfair taxes.

It ended up being more fun then i could of imagined.

I once had a brutal war break out and the NPC's had to pay a dear sum to be smuggled out of the country.

[Sigreid]

Now you've got me thinking about realistic reasons they wouldn't behave themselves...

Since they're miners there's gonna be some sort of brothel and probably gambling, so there will probably be some concerned townsfolk that think the kobold community that lives so close to them is a bad influence on their children, and that will probably be at least partially true...

Ideally the locals will mostly not be aware of the kobolds. Much like I'm not really aware of the drug dealers in my city.

Edit: And if they become too much trouble I murder them all...

[gkathellar]

Nothing, the books are made of wet tissue paaaaa...

Oh, in game.

Yeah, still nothing.

[cZak]

1. Ale

1. Whores

modified for personal priority...

Monetary gain has always been a secondary (or more) concern with my characters.
I like the intangibles of wealth; knowledge, contacts, etc...
A Base is always nice, which I guess can be considered a tangible... Even just a regular cottage or house in a city where the party can be localized for contact or develop as a stronghold. Kinda gets the thought juices flowing for development beyond 'what feat/spell/ invocation/ etc... should I plan for'

[cZak]

Ideally the locals will mostly not be aware of the kobolds. Much like I'm not really aware of the drug dealers in my city.

Edit: And if they become too much trouble I murder them all...

Wait, the kobold miners (in game) or the drug dealers (in your city)..?
🤔

[Sigreid]

Wait, the kobold miners (in game) or the drug dealers (in your city)..?
🤔

The kobold miners in game. I don't want to go to prison, there are no women there. :smalleek:

[Spiritchaser]

Buy the fastest ship in the realms, and make it faster

[Kite474]

Mechanically speaking? Not much. Gold in 5e is pretty much just for roleplay purposes which unfortunately or unfortunately means it varies astronomically between tables.

For ones where the plot matters it can be an invaluable tool.

For one where nothing matters all its good for is the usual stupid ales and whores jokes and other equally standard shenanigans.

Basically ask your DM.

[TheCrowing1432]

Yeesh, three years out and I thought money would be good for something mechanical.

Guess not?

its so weird coming from an edition where money is everything, to one where its not.

[Kite474]

Yeesh, three years out and I thought money would be good for something mechanical.

Guess not?

its so weird coming from an edition where money is everything, to one where its not.

This mostly has to do with 5e's design philosophy of keeping things barebones and simple. More mechanics complicate things. Which for some is great (it has certainly made the math easier) and for others (like myself) it kind of makes money useless outside of RP stuff that never really matters.

[Theodoxus]

Couple weeks ago, starting LMoP, our characters were given marks of credit to buy supplies. I asked if it was enough for a house. I was less interested in adventuring and more in settling down. Sadly, the marks weren't enough... so, we set off on this ill fated caravan and proceeded to get schooled by goblins. I would have much rather been sitting in a cottage, smoking some halfling weed and contemplating on the afterlife, rather than being in the afterlife.

Ah well, it was a learning experience on not playing 5E as if it were Diablo 2.

[Nifft]

modified for personal priority...

Perhaps we can compromise?


1 Ale

2 Whores

[Tvtyrant]

Pick some impossible goal, pilot a way to get there and start spending money. Communist enclave, city sized mech, new city in the middle of a desert run on decanters of endless water, rocket to get to the moon, the sky isn't the limit.

[Coidzor]

Now you've got me thinking about realistic reasons they wouldn't behave themselves...

Since they're miners there's gonna be some sort of brothel and probably gambling, so there will probably be some concerned townsfolk that think the kobold community that lives so close to them is a bad influence on their children, and that will probably be at least partially true...

I'm now trying to imagine how a kobold brothel could work, given what snippets I can recall of their reproductive systems. I'm not entirely certain if they have internal or external fertilization, to be honest.


Perhaps we can compromise?

2 Whores 1 Ale? :smallconfused:

[Corran]

Pick some impossible goal, pilot a way to get there and start spending money. Communist enclave, city sized mech, new city in the middle of a desert run on decanters of endless water, rocket to get to the moon, the sky isn't the limit.
Oh, I've heard of that one. A player wanted his character to go to the moon. He was giving away almost all his share of the loot to a gnome engineer, who was supposed to make him a device that would get him to the moon. Now, this went on, and on, and on, for a very long time. A little before the campaign ended, said PC receives a letter that the machine he had ordered was successfully finished. It was a GIANT catapult....

Bottom line, dont trust your money to gnomes!

[Quoxis]

Alemental Whores

So, basic bitches?

[Tanarii]

Yeesh, three years out and I thought money would be good for something mechanical.

Guess not?

its so weird coming from an edition where money is everything, to one where its not.
There's a plethora of options in the PHB, the DMG, and in any game world that aren't listed, that allow you to translate your gold into direct PC power. Magic items and +1s aren't the only way to do that.

I advise not falling into the 'mechanical vs not-mechanical' division of the rules. It's a trap.

Likewise, don't let yourself label not-magical-items stuff as 'for roleplaying'. Unless you actually mean roleplaying, ie things that help you make new and better decisions for your character.

It's fine to play the herohobo (or murderhobo) and only care about enhancing your character sheet mechanical power. But that's not the only source of in-game power in most campaigns. In many cases, it's the least effective way to increase power via gold.

[Naanomi]

I think having a hero in it for the heroics... sure she will take a new magic doodad to help her hero better, but largely she will leave mountains of cash behind (or take what she can conveniently transport to donate)... and not feeling guilty for then having 'gimped her character' is a great possibility for the game that hasn't existed for two editions or so

[Nifft]

2 Whores 1 Ale? :smallconfused: Each, yes.

I'm not asking you to share one ale.


I think having a hero in it for the heroics... sure she will take a new magic doodad to help her hero better, but largely she will leave mountains of cash behind (or take what she can conveniently transport to donate)... and not feeling guilty for then having 'gimped her character' is a great possibility for the game that hasn't existed for two editions or so Another way to spin this is that YOU, the rich character, now become a quest-giver for lower-level adventurers.

Gold doesn't matter, but the low-level NPCs don't know that (yet).

So you offer them gold, just like you were offered gold, to go fix the world.

Gold never mattered, but you ended up doing a lot of good in search of it, so now you use it to send others on the same path.

[Renduaz]

You spend it on making more money, obviously. Buy out the stores, then the mercantile empire itself, then the production, and then set up the gold mining operations on the Elemental plane of Earth with magical security. When you have all the gold, ALL the gold, you build a swimming pool filled with gold coins and swim in it, obviously.

[Garresh]

A castle, with blackjack, and hookers. In fact, forget the castle.

[Sigreid]

Spend it on wooing the king into giving you the hand of his favorite daughter. Then crush her spirit and pimp her out. :smallbiggrin:

[Zorku]

Ideally the locals will mostly not be aware of the kobolds. Much like I'm not really aware of the drug dealers in my city.

Edit: And if they become too much trouble I murder them all...
And then lure a new group of kobolds in...


I'm now trying to imagine how a kobold brothel could work, given what snippets I can recall of their reproductive systems. I'm not entirely certain if they have internal or external fertilization, to be honest.
For some reason external fertilization feels like both going into more detail than I expect the books to and knowing more about the diversity of life than I expect the books to.

Since they don't have any special needs in terms of moist living spaces, and are not sessile, my money is on internal fertilization.

Even if they're external I can picture a few means by which they could run a brothel, without constantly producing hungry mouths to feed, but it's all probably too squickish for polite conversation.


Each, yes.

I'm not asking you to share one ale.Uhh, it's two wenches, one chalice. There's probably lots of ale for all parties involved beforehand.

[Nifft]

Uhh, it's two wenches, one chalice.

Did you just assume the whores' genders?

Get out.

[Tvtyrant]

Oh, I've heard of that one. A player wanted his character to go to the moon. He was giving away almost all his share of the loot to a gnome engineer, who was supposed to make him a device that would get him to the moon. Now, this went on, and on, and on, for a very long time. A little before the campaign ended, said PC receives a letter that the machine he had ordered was successfully finished. It was a GIANT catapult....

Bottom line, dont trust your money to gnomes!

We built a water based rocket in a thread years ago, which would be great for a character goal.

http://orig03.deviantart.net/8e29/f/2013/070/f/c/decanter_steam_rocket_by_tvtyrant-d5xrei2.png

[Finger6842]

Save it... Keeps, Simulacrum, Golems, Planer Gates, NPC's and second generation PC's are all stupid expensive and you will need a nest egg. Don't even get me started on research, political and consumables costs as you transition into tier 3 & 4.

Why seek my opinion though, this is your fantasy so discuss your dreams with your DM. In search of a particular artifact? Research will burn through many a treasure hoard with no guarantee of success! Need a new skill to continue the next step? Yep, another hoard of gold and gems... travel to new location(s), more setup costs, the need to gain local renown for cooperation.

Your alignment, race, background, and class CAN matter.
Good; help the local leaders etc.
Evil; oppose the local leaders etc.
Neutral; manipulate the local leaders etc.

Cleric; Appease your God, spread the word
Bard; Buy a choice Performance spot or political affiliation
Fighter; Compete in the arena, entry fees can be brutal
etc.

Half-Elf; Undertake a Diplomatic mission, bribes can be brutal and detrimental
Dwarf; Undertake an epic crafting mission
etc.

Entertainer; Perfect the ultimate performance, write poetry (ink and paper)
Folk Hero; Give back to the community, improve a town
etc.

What do you do with money in real life? Need a new dish washer? Hire a maid. Need the lawn mowed? Hire a grounds keeper. Need fresh vegetables? Hire a farmer or gardener. Fruit? Tree surgeon. Heat? Woodsman. Taxes? Never mind.
Want to keep all those hirelings? Show some interest in their welfare.

[Zorku]

Did you just assume the whores' genders?

Get out.

No, but it's necessary for the ye olde meme that we're dancing around.

[LordVonDerp]

Now the handy thing about premade modules is treasure and stuff is handled rather well, but in our custom one, we are left to treasure tables, which is fine.

Treasure tables don't usually end well.





Thing is, we're now a group of 6th level adventurers with 5000gp each and no idea what to spend it on.


Invest in the Dwarven Stock Market?

[Lombra]

There are never enaugh potions/scrolls in a party, pour money into them.

[UberN3wb]

Create a ludicrous goal and fulfill it. Jurassic Park? Massive roller coaster? Tomb of Horrors Theme Park? Carve a mountain into your statue? Obtain ALL of the ale and wenches? Your options are limited only by your imagination.

[LordVonDerp]

I believe the technical term for what to purchase is "merchant fleet".

Don't purchase the fleet, just invest in partial ownership of it.