Gold per quest

[zinycor]

So, We are about to start our adventures at ravnica, I now have an idea of what the chracters will be and what motivates them... And surprise surprise!! Is money!!!

Now since many of their missions will be paid, how much would they be paid in regards to their level? Is there a table I could use for it?

[firelistener]

There are tables for treasure split up by Challenge Rating in chapter 7 of the Dungeon Master's Guide, towards the beginning. The individual treasure tables are a per-monster CR rating while the hoards are for dungeons and such. If you follow those, your party will have plenty of wealth. Don't be afraid to give them expensive ways to spend it as well, like buying rare magic items, spell scrolls, potions, or castles of their own.

[zinycor]

There are tables for treasure split up by Challenge Rating in chapter 7 of the Dungeon Master's Guide, towards the beginning. The individual treasure tables are a per-monster CR rating while the hoards are for dungeons and such. If you follow those, your party will have plenty of wealth. Don't be afraid to give them expensive ways to spend it as well, like buying rare magic items, spell scrolls, potions, or castles of their own.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking of using, thanks!

[Temperjoke]

I believe the guild backgrounds also provide for some living expenses as well, depending on circumstances, like staying in the Boros barracks for example.

[Greywander]

This was something I've had trouble wrapping my head around. Something that helped me a bit was comparing D&D currency to real world money: a copper piece is worth $1 (roughly, in reality it might be closer to $3 or more), so a gold piece is about $100. Daily rate (8 hours) is 2 gp for a skilled worker (~$200 for 8 hours, so $25 an hour), and 2 sp for an unskilled worker (~20 for 8 hours, or $2.50 an hour).

So I suppose think a bit in terms of pay per hour (or per day), extra pay for more difficult work, whether or not the job requires specific skills that are hard to come by, etc.

So for example, let's say you have a quest to rescue some villagers from a goblin camp. It's 8 hours (1 day) of travel to the camp, an indefinite amount of time attacking the camp (very dangerous), and another day of travel back. Adventurers are in short supply, and the work is dangerous, so this gets top billing. We can estimate travel costs of around 10 gp for two days of travel in the dangerous wilderness, more than double the rate of a skilled worker back in town. Actually attacking the goblin camp is much riskier, a bounty to rescue hostages would likely run several thousands of dollars, so perhaps 50 to 100 gp.

To put things into more perspective:

For a skilled worker (2 gp a day), 10 gp is a week's wages, and 40 gp is about a month's wages. Before expenses.

For an unskilled worker (2 sp a day), 1 gp is a week's wages, and 4 gp is about a month's wages.

For a much wealthier person like a noble or prosperous merchant, the numbers could be much higher. Probably anywhere from 100 gp to 1000 gp for a weekly income.

For a city-sponsored quest, things go even higher. You could easily see quests with rewards of 10,000 gp or more.

So I suppose you can ask yourself, "How much of this person's time are they willing to give up to have this quest done? Is it worth a week's wages to them? A day's wage? A month's? What will be the consequences if the quest isn't done? How desperate are they? Do they need the quest done quickly, or can they shop around to find cheap adventurers? Does this quest require delicacy or discretion? Does this quest require special skills that are hard to find?" And so on.

[opaopajr]

You could always use GP=XP... :smalltongue: Actually, it sorta works out well for older modules to slot right in: the higher GP burned into XP tends to balance out given party size (including hirelings and stuff). And now that D&D Essentials has Sidekicks, it could be a fun decision for parties!

How much wealth do you spend on Sidekicks leveling up? How quickly do you run in and out of a dungeon, avoiding monsters since GP also garners XP but with less threat of death? :smallsmile:

[Bjarkmundur]

I recommend using the treasure hoard tables, but not use the coins. Just items and gems/art objects.
You don't have to roll once for each quest. You can roll as many times as you need to get the Valur you need.

I spent months trying to find some way to give my group the correct amount of money to feel rewarded whilst still balanced, and just removing the coins from the tables worked perfectly. That alongside my trusty resources (markets, downtime, monthly expenses) has made a very nice party Economy not too centered around hoarding money, but investing it regularly.

Remember that gold only works for your players if they have learned its value. So make sure to have plenty of chances for your players to get some value out of their saved up coins.

Also, check my custom magic item tables, although I only have them up to CR 4. They've been a blast to use. I also have pregenerated markets and monthly expenses that'll keep the cash flow steady in and out of your player's pockets in my Houserule document, page 11.

[Reynaerde]

Don't be afraid to give them expensive ways to spend it as well, like buying rare magic items, spell scrolls, potions, or castles of their own.This is crucial advise! It can be really demotivating if you are raking in those gold pieces but are unsure on how you could even spend them in a fun (meaningful) way.

[zinycor]

Thanks a lot for the excellent advice everybody!! In about 5 to 6 hours we will start with character creation.

[LordEntrails]

Don't be afraid to give them expensive ways to spend it as well, like buying rare magic items, spell scrolls, potions, or castles of their own.

Uh, be very careful allowing the party to buy magic items. 5E assumes minimal magic, and allowing the party to buy lots of stuff that prices seem to allow them to buy will quickly cause you problems.

Instead of magic, give them a deed to property, like a run down castle. That will eat up tens of thousands of gold with them fixing it up.