Nonstandard WBL NPCs

[unseenmage]

Assuming the WBL guidelines and settlement gp guidelines are only indicative of the average NPC and settlement then how often should/would we run across the nonstandard instances?

How often should we find towns struck by fiscal calamity or home to a prolific entrepreneurial inventor?
How often the beggar? The merchant lord?

Am trying to wrap my head around how rare (or not) settlements that are uncommonly wealthy should be.

Also, any info on real world stats for such would also be appreciated.

[Uckleverry]

The NPC wealth by level exists purely for them to be killed and looted by the PCs. It's just an attempt at game balance. Using it to make sense of the inner workings of the fictional world will produce strange results -- which may have prompted your post.

Best just to sort of brush it off as a game thing. Yeah, the large majority of NPCs the PCs face as adversaries happen to abide by the table, but other NPCs... they can vary. Wealth could more be a factor of social class (peasant, merchant, noble, etc.) and location rather than level.

[Vizzerdrix]

As often as the plot demands.

[Fizban]

NPCs of increased level are already the incredibly wealthy- the only people more wealthy are PCs. And rulers who aren't so much wealthy as it is they command a lot of wealth. NPCs who lack wealth are appropriate whenever they are appropriate.

Cities with exceptional wealth go wherever you want. If there are enough cities of a certain size that there's a wide gap in wealth between those of the same size, some can be better and some worse. You've probably seen me link this before, but here (http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/blueroom/demog.htm) is a medieval demographic generator/article for games that can tell you how many cities you should have of what size, after which you can decide which are more or less prosperous for their size. There's also just the fact that a wealthy settlement will attract more people, normalizing its wealth relative to its size over time: the main question is how many large settlements.

If you want historical data, well there's a bibliography there and you can google around, but I've never heard of anyone putting together that detailed of a report for gaming. Most people don't even care about demographics, let alone famine or recession cycles. If you want it you'll probably have to research it yourself.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by unseenmage
Also, any info on real world stats for such would also be appreciated.

This will depend heavily on the timeframe and the location. Is there any particular region and period you’re looking to emulate?

As others have noted, trying to extrapolate sensible economics from the DMG will give results that are wonky at best. These wonkinomics work, just barely, for a typical dungeon crawl, but for anything more it’s better to build the economy from scratch.

And there’s the rub, as you well know. I’ve been interested in doing this myself, but it’s an immense project. I have some historical references which give prices for a lot of items, but they're narrowly focused on one region and period. I’d certainly be interested in any other detailed game economies you might run across.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Well, the easy solution is to give NPCs (2d6+3)*10% of WBL (cribbed from the Appraise rules).

Of course, money doesn't have a nice normal distribution. I'd say some sort of exploding dice mechanism can account for really wealthy individuals.

Anydice tells me the that with 2d6+3 with individually exploding dice (explode depth 10), the 1% would sit at about 270-280% of WBL, and the maximum would be 1350%. That might be considered quite egalitarian when compared to Earth (assuming WBL in D&D ~ mean wealth on Earth), so that suits some societies, but not the ultra-corrupt LE tyrannies of the Great Wheel.

Now, the real fun happens when you start multiplying exploding dice. 1d4*1d4 with individually exploding dice (explode depth 10) gets you a mean of 111% WBL, but the 1% sits at 770%, and the maximum is at a whopping 19 360%. It also results in a significant group (~40%) with less than 50% of WBL. It's a weird distribution that avoids prime numbers, but hey, can't have everything.

[unseenmage]

NPCs of increased level are already the incredibly wealthy- ...

...
Was more interested in NPCs with wealth that is not level appropriate.


I also just remembered the Merchant Prince PRC and am trying to remember if there are any feats or traits that could give an NPC more or less than appropriate level wealth.

[Hecuba]

Unless the PCs are able to loot and sell the NPCs WBL, you can move off table there with little repercussion.

It's also worth noting that WBL does not necessarily map neatly to real world net worth, especially for NPCs.

Princess Richface of Moneybagsia may have a net worth of 17 skajillion GP, but she's probably not carrying it around in gear and liquid currency like most PCs. And the PCs probably can't grab and liquidate her real estate holdings if the kill her for the money.

[Friv]

Was more interested in NPCs with wealth that is not level appropriate.


I also just remembered the Merchant Prince PRC and am trying to remember if there are any feats or traits that could give an NPC more or less than appropriate level wealth.

Yeah, WBL is meant to be an average, not a hard rule - NPC wealth exists to say "this is how much equipment their CR is worth", with a side of "this is how much treasure you get if you kill them". If you give someone a ton of extra cash in a manner that gives them skill or combat advantages, bump their CR up a bit. If you take their gear away in a way that makes them easier to bypass or defeat, reduce their CR a bit.

If you find an extra 20,000 GP at Level 3, you don't need to take a feat to represent it. You just found a whole mess of cash.