Suitable ransom for nobility

[Ronnocius]

A horde of barbarians are invading a kingdom in my game, and have captured an entire house of nobles after they surrendered. How much would the nobles's ransom be worth in gold pieces? I'm looking for the ransom of minor nobility, but if anyone has ideas for knights/gentry, major nobility, and royalty that would also be appreciated.

[Balyano]

The ransom is not in gold pieces, but service rendered. They need a cleric, and they need a cleric bad, one who can cast remove disease, them boys got the clap, the whole hoard of them, except for Jimmy, Jimmy isn't lucky enough to get an STD.

[Rusvul]

I'm not well-versed enough in 5e economics to really say, but it's undoubtedly going to be a lot, so... who's paying it? Is there anyone who actually cares enough about this house to give the barbarians their wheelbarrows of gold?

[Ronnocius]

I'm not well-versed enough in 5e economics to really say, but it's undoubtedly going to be a lot, so... who's paying it? Is there anyone who actually cares enough about this house to give the barbarians their wheelbarrows of gold?

The entirety of the noble house is being held hostage, and the king can afford to pay the ransom (he might not in the end, but the barbarians are going to demand a ransom nonetheless). The main reason he will pay for their return is to avoid a power struggle in the aftermath.

If the ransom is paid it will likely be in shipments of supplies (food, medicine, weapons/tools etc) but I'm mostly looking at a gold value of the ransom.

[Tanarii]

Couple of things you can use to baseline.

Aristocratic daily living costs 10+ gp / day. So a years worth of living is at least 3,650 gp. IMO that makes a good value for nobles.

A tower or fort costs 15,000 gp to build. A keep or noble estate costs 25,000 gp to build. So it'd have to be a pretty important noble, or group of minor nobles together, for a king to be willing to ransom them for that much.

[JackPhoenix]

Does the king care?

Generally, the ransom will get paid by the noble's relatives. If there are no free relatives left, well... guess what, there's a freshly vacant castle (ruin?) over there!

Does the king profits more from having the nobles free and in his debt when they've lost everything than from taking the land for himself? As a ruler, it technically belongs to him anyway, there shouldn't be any "power struggle". He may give it as a reward/bribe to some noble who's better at not getting captured by a bunch of barbarians, though. In such case, "power struggle" may occur... between the nobles striving for the king's favor! Which is generally a good thing for the king... if the nobles plot against each other, they aren't plotting against him (well, they are, but they aren't spending all their energy on it).

[yellowrocket]

If they have the whole family, they should be asking for the title they carried and the land, and whatever other honors the received due to their title (ie tax revenue and leeves).

[Ronnocius]

Couple of things you can use to baseline.

Aristocratic daily living costs 10+ gp / day. So a years worth of living is at least 3,650 gp. IMO that makes a good value for nobles.

A tower or fort costs 15,000 gp to build. A keep or noble estate costs 25,000 gp to build. So it'd have to be a pretty important noble, or group of minor nobles together, for a king to be willing to ransom them for that much.

I did use the price of an estate as a baseline, but aristocratic living didn't occur to me. I think a reasonable sum for now is 10,000 gp, with the possibility of being lowered.

As for whether the king would care (and power struggle) the land is very far removed from the crownlands, so it would make more sense to give it to another noble than to claim it himself. However there would be several nobles seeking to claim it, and some minor relations of the noble house (or false relations) would also seek to keep it. In the middle of the invasion it would probably be in his interest to avoid this kind of internal conflict (although he is just as likely to mount a rescue of the nobles instead of ransoming them). At the end of the day the barbarians are still going to demand a ransom regardless of if anyone actually pays it.