We're Rich! Now What?

[Catullus64]

Our PCs have pulled off a heist of epic proportions. Neither we the players or the characters thought we'd come out of it with such an extensive haul; while we haven't valued most of the stuff in the hoard, the coin alone is many thousands of GP (much of it in nicely-portable platinum), with a large chest filled with jewels, extensive scrolls and potions, a great many unique art objects, and high-quality weaponry and magic items. Our characters are level 5, which is quite high-level for this world. I'm starting to wonder what we should actually do with this wealth, and whether it might put an end to our actual need to go adventuring.

Now, there are complications that the DM will doubtless throw at us, as he himself confessed that he hadn't planned on us getting all of the treasure (we pulled a surprise upset against the dragon that guarded the main vault). We have to get the stuff out of the vault where we found it, through the ruined city we're plundering, and to our boat, which may not hold all of it. There is of course the natural problem that all of this stuff is, ya know, stolen, so turning a profit on the more unique art objects may prove its own little challenge. Let's assume, thought, that we get clear of the ruined city and overcome these obstacles. What do we do now that our characters have more wealth than they have ever seen in a lifetime?

I'm not so much asking for advice, since any useful advice would have to take into account the campaign setting and our different characters' motives, and would get way beyond the scope of a single forum post. But relevant anecdotes are most welcome; I'm interested to hear stories of other campaigns in which people suddenly and unexpectedly burst the boundaries of the wealth-by-level guidelines and found their characters very rich, and how those campaigns developed afterwards.

[MaxWilson]

My preferred solution as a DM is to allow players to convert that wealth to XP by spending it offscreen on pre-defined character goals (buying gifts to woo a love interest; funding a rebellion back home; paying sages to search desperately for clues to a missing loved one's whereabouts). It ensures that even a truly absurd treasure hoard (200K+) is not just an abstract number, and it's meaningful to the players whether they can get the whole multi-ton hoard out or just a few hundred pounds (15K or so).

I also allow them to do other stuff with money of course, including spell research, hiring mercenaries, buying poison, etc. In the hands of a proactive player, wealth can have a huge impact on a campaign, but the XP option ensures that even a non-proactive player has an obvious default way to gain some benefit.

I don't generally do magic item shops BTW. I like magic items to be rare but powerful.

[Unoriginal]

Our PCs have pulled off a heist of epic proportions. Neither we the players or the characters thought we'd come out of it with such an extensive haul; while we haven't valued most of the stuff in the hoard, the coin alone is many thousands of GP (much of it in nicely-portable platinum), with a large chest filled with jewels, extensive scrolls and potions, a great many unique art objects, and high-quality weaponry and magic items. Our characters are level 5, which is quite high-level for this world. I'm starting to wonder what we should actually do with this wealth, and whether it might put an end to our actual need to go adventuring.

Now, there are complications that the DM will doubtless throw at us, as he himself confessed that he hadn't planned on us getting all of the treasure (we pulled a surprise upset against the dragon that guarded the main vault). We have to get the stuff out of the vault where we found it, through the ruined city we're plundering, and to our boat, which may not hold all of it. There is of course the natural problem that all of this stuff is, ya know, stolen, so turning a profit on the more unique art objects may prove its own little challenge. Let's assume, thought, that we get clear of the ruined city and overcome these obstacles. What do we do now that our characters have more wealth than they have ever seen in a lifetime?

I'm not so much asking for advice, since any useful advice would have to take into account the campaign setting and our different characters' motives, and would get way beyond the scope of a single forum post. But relevant anecdotes are most welcome; I'm interested to hear stories of other campaigns in which people suddenly and unexpectedly burst the boundaries of the wealth-by-level guidelines and found their characters very rich, and how those campaigns developed afterwards.

Your characters can now live like kings, be it spending it all on luxuries and pleasures, investing this money into either their old goals/into new goals that have become possible with that kind of cash backing them up, or both.

On the other hand, you now have to protect your money from everyone who wants to steal it. As I said the other day:


Sounds like the PCs will have to get some kind of protected building to house their treasure. Also hire people to guard it when they're not here, get a security system including both mechanical and magical contraptions, and then kill all the half-brained bravos, two-bit magicians and clueless gods-botherers who dare try to brave their stronghold.


Or in other words: you've beaten the dragon, now you are the dragon.

[TheMango55]

.

I don't generally do magic item shops BTW. I like magic items to be rare but powerful.

There’s always gonna be someone who has a bunch of money and want something rare and powerful, and another person who has something rare and powerful who wants a bunch of money.

Doesn’t need to be a physical storefront, but I think people should be able to buy magic weapons through contacts and private sales. Maybe there’s a semi annual magic auction for the elites of the city.

[Kurt Kurageous]

Your characters can now live like kings, be it spending it all on luxuries and pleasures, investing this money into either their old goals/into new goals that have become possible with that kind of cash backing them up, or both.

On the other hand, you now have to protect your money from everyone who wants to steal it...in other words: you've beaten the dragon, now you are the dragon.

This.

Spend it all, and quickly, in a way that benefits the world around you. Spend it on jewels/jewelry (easier to conceal!), improvements to the town/city/base of operations, in 'charity' to the thief's guild so they don't come to collect the penalty for making an "unauthorized heist" in their domain.

Yeah, I'd let you convert (at a rate of ten to one, perhaps) gp spent this way to xp, but only enough to take you to 6th level.

[Throne12]

Only people that stay rich are the dragon like people that collect money and barely use it. So just use the gold. Buy things it sound easy but it can be hard. What you need to know is just don't think about the gold. When you go into the tavren spend 100gp on buying everyone drinks for the night. If your looking for info pay the barkeep 50gp or drop down 1pp. Treat silver as if it's copper, treat gold as if it silver and treat platinum as if it gold. Pay a kid 100gp to run errands for you or any task you need done. Pay for to keep a Expensive escort around so you don't get lonely at night. Fund a school, orphanage, church and other goodie two shoes stuff. Here is the real fun stuff solve any problem by throwing money at it.(not really throwing gp at it but pay people to do it.)

Now your Adventuring career isn't over almost everyone the won the lottery ends up broke and there are reasons for it. Like getting robbed or cheated out of money. This can because you invested into something and lost it/ect. You married a golddigger. Your family drained you dry, I'm looking you Kevin you may be my second cousin 5 times removed but I'm not giving you another 5000pp. So where there is a large sum of wealth there with be encounters form thifts, government looking for taxes, family drama, dragons, ect. So there is plenty of stuff to do even after you hit the jackpot.

On a side note this is why I real don't want to be rich. I just want a nice comfortable life.

[Unoriginal]

There’s always gonna be someone who has a bunch of money and want something rare and powerful, and another person who has something rare and powerful who wants a bunch of money.

Doesn’t need to be a physical storefront, but I think people should be able to buy magic weapons through contacts and private sales. Maybe there’s a semi annual magic auction for the elites of the city.

Indeed. Some people probably make a living trying to find people who have X and connect them to people who want X.

[Sandeman]

Build a castle.
You are going to need it to protect yourself from people wanting to take your gold.

[blackjack50]

Our PCs have pulled off a heist of epic proportions. Neither we the players or the characters thought we'd come out of it with such an extensive haul; while we haven't valued most of the stuff in the hoard, the coin alone is many thousands of GP (much of it in nicely-portable platinum), with a large chest filled with jewels, extensive scrolls and potions, a great many unique art objects, and high-quality weaponry and magic items. Our characters are level 5, which is quite high-level for this world. I'm starting to wonder what we should actually do with this wealth, and whether it might put an end to our actual need to go adventuring.

Now, there are complications that the DM will doubtless throw at us, as he himself confessed that he hadn't planned on us getting all of the treasure (we pulled a surprise upset against the dragon that guarded the main vault). We have to get the stuff out of the vault where we found it, through the ruined city we're plundering, and to our boat, which may not hold all of it. There is of course the natural problem that all of this stuff is, ya know, stolen, so turning a profit on the more unique art objects may prove its own little challenge. Let's assume, thought, that we get clear of the ruined city and overcome these obstacles. What do we do now that our characters have more wealth than they have ever seen in a lifetime?

I'm not so much asking for advice, since any useful advice would have to take into account the campaign setting and our different characters' motives, and would get way beyond the scope of a single forum post. But relevant anecdotes are most welcome; I'm interested to hear stories of other campaigns in which people suddenly and unexpectedly burst the boundaries of the wealth-by-level guidelines and found their characters very rich, and how those campaigns developed afterwards.

Ask yourself what rich people do. They invest, they govern, they buy things, and all of that.

My group diversified our wealth both vertically and horizontally in the only campaign we got rich in. We got a little ways before the game ended (and there is talk of picking it back up).

Basically? We owned a bar. So, being the captains of industry we had become, we bought the brewery. Then we bought the farms (to grow and make the stuff we needed to make alcohol). We also bought restaurants. We eventually ended up owning the small farming village (my character was in charge of transportation, but our paladin retired to the village and is running it as the defector mayor and captain of the militia).

[MoiMagnus]

Meta commentary
It's probably good if your table get to discuss with your GM the following point: do you want the gameplay to remain mostly the same, or would you be fine (or even prefer) if the gameplay were change as a consequence of this success?

Because now that you're rich, there is a universe of new RP opportunities, including power struggles, finding allies, etc. On the other side, it's probably reasonable for your character to no longer seek adventure and other "high risk, no that big of a gain" lifestyle.
[In practice, that means sessions that are mostly RP and skill checks, with combat taking a secondary role outside of big showdowns, as you know have hirelings to handle for the "day to day combats" for you instead of risking your own life.]

And such campaign can be the opportunity to do things you never done in any other D&D campaign. But some players might also feel like they're getting away from the experience they were actually seeking in D&D...

In universe commentary
You have material wealth, there is three main approach now:
(1) The spender: you spend it for more powers, more magic items, more training (aka XP), etc. Then you go back to your usual adventurer life once you no longer have any remaining money. Bonus: a one-way ticket to an extraplanar place can also be a good investment too. Higher risks, higher rewards, right? Surely some peoples at Sigil are looking for highly competent mercenaries like you.
(2) The dragon: you bunker down your wealth, protect it against peoples who want it back (or want to stole it from you), and you use in limited ways while continuing to acquire more of it.
(3) The ambitious: material wealth is not enough. Especially when it's not "legal" wealth. But that's just the first step in the higher society. Now the true game starts. Moneys well used bring powerful allies. Maybe you want to marry into royalty? Maybe you want a domain and work your way up the feudal system? Or just rule from the shadow at the top of a guild or mafia.

[Dork_Forge]

I imagine a decent chunk of that raw coinage will end up being burned in just housing the rest of it:

-You need a place to keep it

-That place needs security measures

-It also needs guards that are paid well enough they won't be vulnerable to bribes or attempting to help themselves

[blackjack50]

Your characters can now live like kings, be it spending it all on luxuries and pleasures, investing this money into either their old goals/into new goals that have become possible with that kind of cash backing them up, or both.

On the other hand, you now have to protect your money from everyone who wants to steal it. As I said the other day:




Or in other words: you've beaten the dragon, now you are the dragon.

I like this. And it is why you should invest your money. Especially in things that are hard to steal...like real estate.

[blackjack50]

Things that people invested money in back in the day:

Land, ships, land, mines, bridges, roads, land, and government (which actually controls land).

[Xapi]

Our PCs have pulled off a heist of epic proportions. Neither we the players or the characters thought we'd come out of it with such an extensive haul; while we haven't valued most of the stuff in the hoard, the coin alone is many thousands of GP (much of it in nicely-portable platinum), with a large chest filled with jewels, extensive scrolls and potions, a great many unique art objects, and high-quality weaponry and magic items. Our characters are level 5, which is quite high-level for this world. I'm starting to wonder what we should actually do with this wealth, and whether it might put an end to our actual need to go adventuring.

Now, there are complications that the DM will doubtless throw at us, as he himself confessed that he hadn't planned on us getting all of the treasure (we pulled a surprise upset against the dragon that guarded the main vault). We have to get the stuff out of the vault where we found it, through the ruined city we're plundering, and to our boat, which may not hold all of it. There is of course the natural problem that all of this stuff is, ya know, stolen, so turning a profit on the more unique art objects may prove its own little challenge. Let's assume, thought, that we get clear of the ruined city and overcome these obstacles. What do we do now that our characters have more wealth than they have ever seen in a lifetime?

I'm not so much asking for advice, since any useful advice would have to take into account the campaign setting and our different characters' motives, and would get way beyond the scope of a single forum post. But relevant anecdotes are most welcome; I'm interested to hear stories of other campaigns in which people suddenly and unexpectedly burst the boundaries of the wealth-by-level guidelines and found their characters very rich, and how those campaigns developed afterwards.

Personally, I'd go with using the cash to reestablish the ruined city, calling on all friendly NPCs from before the campaign, that great riches await them if they move to the city, and bring your family with you!

The treasure functions like a high yield mine, and people would naturally flock to your city, repearings will be done, etc.

This will bring new problems, which is the point of anything that happens in a game, of course.

[blackjack50]

Personally, I'd go with using the cash to reestablish the ruined city, calling on all friendly NPCs from before the campaign, that great riches await them if they move to the city, and bring your family with you!

The treasure functions like a high yield mine, and people would naturally flock to your city, repearings will be done, etc.

This will bring new problems, which is the point of anything that happens in a game, of course.

Bingo. And if you front the money, you get the rent check too.

[Waterdeep Merch]

Spend it on building up a powerful network of merchants, artisans, blacksmiths, and mercenaries within your kingdom of operation. Create a reliable means of distant travel, mail delivery, and personal security services. Make yourself absolutely indispensable. Next, open up institutions of learning that are aimed at improving the lives of the lower class and finding them meaningful employment within your organization. Make sure everyone from the middle and lower classes love you.

Eventually, this will irritate the noble and possibly royal classes. You actually want this. The first time any of them makes a move against you, make a big public deal out of them trying to cut off the luxuries you've afforded the common folk, then use those military assets you've developed to show them absolutely no mercy. Let this stick out as a threat to the rest of them; any further movements and you will show no hesitation. With the majority of people on your side, start developing your military with the force necessary to overwhelm the kingdom, which shouldn't be hard if you've made it this far. You don't actually have to do this, but it's important that the upper classes understand that you can pull the trigger and turn them into a smear across history. And if they push you, do this without hesitation.

Congratulations, you essentially or literally run this kingdom now. So long as you make sure to develop and enrich the lower and middle classes you will maintain your power base, barring outside influences. Now expand your operations to other kingdoms under treaty with their ruling classes, making it understood that what happened in your's is simply due to being treated unfairly, and that you will do no such thing so long as they adhere to the terms both parties agree to. They'd be fools to say no. If any do (and there will be a few), make sure any of their local opposition gets cheap discounts on weaponry and mercenaries. The problem will sort itself out.

You will eventually become the most powerful group of people in the civilized world. Better, the civilized world will be undergoing rapid evolution into modernity, as a smarter population will inevitably become a more capable and inventive people. Make sure never to call yourself king and always situate yourself as the peoples' champion to avoid ending up on an executioner's block. You're ruthless and frightening, but you've also undoubtedly helped your world with your money rather than hoarding it or spending it on overpriced magic items. Congratulations!

[blackjack50]

Spend it on building up a powerful network of merchants, artisans, blacksmiths, and mercenaries within your kingdom of operation. Create a reliable means of distant travel, mail delivery, and personal security services. Make yourself absolutely indispensable. Next, open up institutions of learning that are aimed at improving the lives of the lower class and finding them meaningful employment within your organization. Make sure everyone from the middle and lower classes love you.

Eventually, this will irritate the noble and possibly royal classes. You actually want this. The first time any of them makes a move against you, make a big public deal out of them trying to cut off the luxuries you've afforded the common folk, then use those military assets you've developed to show them absolutely no mercy. Let this stick out as a threat to the rest of them; any further movements and you will show no hesitation. With the majority of people on your side, start developing your military with the force necessary to overwhelm the kingdom, which shouldn't be hard if you've made it this far. You don't actually have to do this, but it's important that the upper classes understand that you can pull the trigger and turn them into a smear across history. And if they push you, do this without hesitation.

Congratulations, you essentially or literally run this kingdom now. So long as you make sure to develop and enrich the lower and middle classes you will maintain your power base, barring outside influences. Now expand your operations to other kingdoms under treaty with their ruling classes, making it understood that what happened in your's is simply due to being treated unfairly, and that you will do no such thing so long as they adhere to the terms both parties agree to. They'd be fools to say no. If any do (and there will be a few), make sure any of their local opposition gets cheap discounts on weaponry and mercenaries. The problem will sort itself out.

You will eventually become the most powerful group of people in the civilized world. Better, the civilized world will be undergoing rapid evolution into modernity, as a smarter population will inevitably become a more capable and inventive people. Make sure never to call yourself king and always situate yourself as the peoples' champion to avoid ending up on an executioner's block. You're ruthless and frightening, but you've also undoubtedly helped your world with your money rather than hoarding it or spending it on overpriced magic items. Congratulations!

You wouldn’t happen to go by Machiavelli would you? Lol

[Waterdeep Merch]

You wouldn’t happen to go by Machiavelli would you? Lol

Some of this is what I ended up doing in a game years ago. I built up a massive power base that was ultimately interested in evolving people through learning and philosophy and had little patience for wannabe lords. About half the party thought I was a monster, the other half just marveled at how I changed the world. My ending got weird, though.

I was very anti-gods, as the setting had proven that the gods were essentially responsible for most of the horrors that mortals faced, including mortality itself. So I decided to find the means to permanently bar them from influencing mortal lives. I succeeded by ascending to godhood at the end of campaign. I used this power to restrict gods from influencing the world, awoke latent psychic talents in every single mortal regardless of race or station, then acted as a telepathic internet service, with explicit instructions on how to achieve the same godhood given freely for anyone else to follow. By the lore, this would inevitably lead to a war between the newly ascended gods and the older gods who were responsible for so much hardship and suffering in the past, but unlike the last time this happened in the world, the mortals would have a fighting chance.

Two other characters still considered my character evil for doing this. Both were extremely devout.

[Stabbey]

Did the existing lords survive the destruction of the city? If not, congratulations, you are now the lords of the city.

Spend the treasure to have the city re-built, to entice merchants and other businesses to return. Offer low tax rates for the first year, then gradually ramp them up. Be generous to those who lost people and property in the destruction, especially to those who had little to begin with. If there's a kingdom or other lord higher up, don't forgot to pay the taxes that they're due either. You don't want the army of the crown to pay your city a visit, you want them to see your as legitimate lords.

Try to find trustworthy mercenaries to serve as guards. Definitely find a chamberlain or council to manage the city affairs. Basically, spend almost all that gold to rebuild the city, and then as the city becomes successful, you'll have a stream of income in the form of taxes coming in. That won't be not nearly as much as it cost to rebuild the city, but it will be substantial, without being impossible to manage. It's an investment for the future.

[DwarfFighter]

You could start buying "luxury gear" that has the exact same effect as normal gear, but costs 10x the cost, and looks it! Splurge on useless luxury until it's all gone and you need to pick yourself up and get the crew back together for another heist to pay off your staggering debts!

(A throw-away statistic claims that 70% of lottery winners end up broke within 7 years. The numbers sounds a bit like BS to me, but I can believe that people who aren't used to money also don't know how to hold on to it when they score a sudden extreme winnings.)

-DF

[MaxWilson]

There’s always gonna be someone who has a bunch of money and want something rare and powerful, and another person who has something rare and powerful who wants a bunch of money.

Doesn’t need to be a physical storefront, but I think people should be able to buy magic weapons through contacts and private sales. Maybe there’s a semi annual magic auction for the elites of the city.

You're not wrong, but that's not what I mean by "magic item shop." What you're describing is more like arms trading.

I'm not opposed to brokered deals, although IMG it's easier to sell things for cash than to buy them for cash (because those who buy are typically going to be big, powerful organizations who aren't hurting for cash--word on the street is that the CIA will buy nuclear weapons from anybody for $10 million, no questions asked, but they won't sell you nukes for any amount of money).

[Ogun]

I like the idea of staying in the ruins and improving them.
Consider recruiting a displaced people to occupy the city, they are likely to be loyal and tenacious.
Maybe buy freedom for enslaved people?
Condemned prisoners given a second chance?
I would recruit a druid to care fore the people, they have great spells for feeding and protecting a populace.
Now, with a base of operations established, I would buy and equip a small fleet of ships and add a magical means of communication.
Then...explore!

[Xapi]

Consider recruiting a displaced people to occupy the city, they are likely to be loyal and tenacious.
Maybe buy freedom for enslaved people?
Condemned prisoners given a second chance?

Kobolds, it has to be kobolds.

[Corvino]

Sufficient Money = Narrative Power

Normally full casters end up able to influence the world at higher levels. Building their own castles in a day or two, devastating armies solo, feeding or transporting the huddled masses etc.

Money means Non-casters and Half-casters can too. As stated in multiple posts above, if you have a large and loyal organisation backing you (mercenary company, thieves guild, merchant's guild, holy order, government etc) then anyone can change the course of World history. With a big initial cash investment and some character input the organisation can become your savings account (via profitable activities), political leverage, and protection. As a bonus, it's harder for the DM to steal/destroy a widespread organisation than to loot a vault or pilfer your legendary sword while you sleep.

Obviously the initial spending is on expensive basics like full plate, warhorses etc. Next step beyond that is any magic items & spell scrolls available to buy. And of course a supply of diamonds for the inevitable Resurrections. Beyond that - get stuck into building yourself a powerbase!

[Contrast]

So two thoughts. Firstly, my experience is that no matter how much money you have, it runs out faster than you might think. Build a few castles, allocate the money for a few hundred servants and noble lifestyle expenses for the rest of your life and then then see how much money you really have.

Second, I once played a game of Rogue Trader which if you're not familiar is set in the Warhammer 40K universe. The starting point of that game is you're one of the richest, most powerful people in the setting. You typically start the game with a space ship that has a crew numbering in the 10s of thousands. Money does not solve all problems and we never really felt like we could rest on our laurels - particularly when your enemies may well have more money still.

It is also perfectly fine for someone to decide to retire their character though - no doubt you're about to have an influx of hangers on and new PCs could number amoung them.

[Schwann145]

Here's the thing: I'm willing to bet you're not rich. Not really.

Yes, you now have thousands upon thousands upon thousands of GP value that you didn't have before. Compared to the peasants, you're royalty.
But compared to the *actual* nobility? You're the cute kid who found a few bucks and thinks they won the lottery.
That merchant lord is worth multiple millions, and they only dream of controlling as much wealth as the crown.

You are small fries.

Once you figure out exactly where your share of the loot places you on the setting's economic scale, only then can you start to figure out what a good way to spend and/or invest said wealth will be. ;)

[Omni-Centrist]

I think the best way is always Adventures Guild. You start your own and you essentially create a whole new game on top of your own.

[Catullus64]

Here's the thing: I'm willing to bet you're not rich. Not really.

Yes, you now have thousands upon thousands upon thousands of GP value that you didn't have before. Compared to the peasants, you're royalty.
But compared to the *actual* nobility? You're the cute kid who found a few bucks and thinks they won the lottery.
That merchant lord is worth multiple millions, and they only dream of controlling as much wealth as the crown.

You are small fries.

Once you figure out exactly where your share of the loot places you on the setting's economic scale, only then can you start to figure out what a good way to spend and/or invest said wealth will be. ;)

We're in a colonial frontier setting. Based on what we've seen so far there is no real centralized government authority with state-scale spending power, or formal nobility; we're not wealthy on the scale of some of the biggest commercial interests in the region, or the imperial nobility back home, but as private individuals, we exceed anybody we've met. Near as I can tell, the people we just robbed of all their liquid assets were one of the wealthiest groups (they were destroyed before we got around to stealing from them). At least within this particular pond, most of what the DM's fed us indicates we are, in fact, bigger fish now. And from what I have ben observing about commerce and prices in the setting, a gold piece goes a lot further than it typically does in D&D, so thousands upon thousands of GP is closer to the value of a major estate.

Which kind of brings it back to the problem. Most of the advice people have given is about investing, building up power bases, changing and shaping the setting directly; changing our role from primarily one of adventurers to investors and managers. But from what I know of the other characters, most of us have very little interest in actually doing so. My own character mostly just view wealth as a goal with which to drive his own adventures, and at least one other party member feels the same. I think I agree most with the people who say we should look into spending and losing this wealth as soon as possible, so that our characters once again have finances as a motive for adventuring. I guess I ought to redirect the thread to asking what the best way is for us to lose our money quickly and spectacularly.

[MaxWilson]

I think I agree most with the people who say we should look into spending and losing this wealth as soon as possible, so that our characters once again have finances as a motive for adventuring. I guess I ought to redirect the thread to asking what the best way is for us to lose our money quickly and spectacularly.

I reiterate: gold into XP.

[Unoriginal]

Here's the thing: I'm willing to bet you're not rich. Not really.

Yes, you now have thousands upon thousands upon thousands of GP value that you didn't have before. Compared to the peasants, you're royalty.
But compared to the *actual* nobility? You're the cute kid who found a few bucks and thinks they won the lottery.
That merchant lord is worth multiple millions, and they only dream of controlling as much wealth as the crown.

You are small fries.

Once you figure out exactly where your share of the loot places you on the setting's economic scale, only then can you start to figure out what a good way to spend and/or invest said wealth will be. ;)

I think you're overestimating how much money rich people have. One of the module mentions that the richest noble family in Waterdeep *could* gather one million gold coins, but that it would leave them entirely bankrupt.

It's true an empire or big realm could have access to more, but still.

[blackjack50]

We're in a colonial frontier setting. Based on what we've seen so far there is no real centralized government authority with state-scale spending power, or formal nobility; we're not wealthy on the scale of some of the biggest commercial interests in the region, or the imperial nobility back home, but as private individuals, we exceed anybody we've met. Near as I can tell, the people we just robbed of all their liquid assets were one of the wealthiest groups (they were destroyed before we got around to stealing from them). At least within this particular pond, most of what the DM's fed us indicates we are, in fact, bigger fish now. And from what I have ben observing about commerce and prices in the setting, a gold piece goes a lot further than it typically does in D&D, so thousands upon thousands of GP is closer to the value of a major estate.

Which kind of brings it back to the problem. Most of the advice people have given is about investing, building up power bases, changing and shaping the setting directly; changing our role from primarily one of adventurers to investors and managers. But from what I know of the other characters, most of us have very little interest in actually doing so. My own character mostly just view wealth as a goal with which to drive his own adventures, and at least one other party member feels the same. I think I agree most with the people who say we should look into spending and losing this wealth as soon as possible, so that our characters once again have finances as a motive for adventuring. I guess I ought to redirect the thread to asking what the best way is for us to lose our money quickly and spectacularly.

Well. Wealthy people travel a lot too. Invest in transportation. Luxury yachts on the high seas can be an adventure. There are airships too. Maybe you can finance a “west March” further into the wild frontier lands? Pay for monsters to battle yourselves? Start paying for travel into different dimensions? Either as “tourism” or as a way to deal with creatures that come into your plane and disrupt life?

Those all seem like easy ways to keep adventuring and also ways to farm XP (if you use that method).

[kazaryu]

We're in a colonial frontier setting. Based on what we've seen so far there is no real centralized government authority with state-scale spending power, or formal nobility; we're not wealthy on the scale of some of the biggest commercial interests in the region, or the imperial nobility back home, but as private individuals, we exceed anybody we've met. Near as I can tell, the people we just robbed of all their liquid assets were one of the wealthiest groups (they were destroyed before we got around to stealing from them). At least within this particular pond, most of what the DM's fed us indicates we are, in fact, bigger fish now. And from what I have ben observing about commerce and prices in the setting, a gold piece goes a lot further than it typically does in D&D, so thousands upon thousands of GP is closer to the value of a major estate.

Which kind of brings it back to the problem. Most of the advice people have given is about investing, building up power bases, changing and shaping the setting directly; changing our role from primarily one of adventurers to investors and managers. But from what I know of the other characters, most of us have very little interest in actually doing so. My own character mostly just view wealth as a goal with which to drive his own adventures, and at least one other party member feels the same. I think I agree most with the people who say we should look into spending and losing this wealth as soon as possible, so that our characters once again have finances as a motive for adventuring. I guess I ought to redirect the thread to asking what the best way is for us to lose our money quickly and spectacularly.

invest in gear. magic items typically cost a truckload, and in a fairly low magic setting, that isn't going to change.

sponsor some local mages that are interested in artifice. give them the opportunity to practice/learn (the thing thats going to typically gate access to magic items, is people creating magic items). alternatively, use the money to try to contact other planes, see about striking a deal with some outsiders for gear/boons. but be careful, outsiders are tricksy.

that last one is a potential way to generate story hooks as well as loose the money in a satisfying way. but of course, acquiring magic items potentially throws off the balance of the game. so its something to discuss with your DM, if they're comfortable scaling encounters appropriately.


go on a charity spree. sneak through town dropping off 'small' bags of 10gp to as many people as practical in a town.

if you have some npc friends interested in bettering themselves. invest in them. give them some starting capital, so you cna see them grow from it.

rather than spending money on several little items, spend money on a few big, gamechanging items. for example:cubic gate. which would allow you to adventure on other planes of existence, but largely wouldn't affect PC level. perhaps get a spelljammer, or other some other form of expensive transport (like a fancy boat). (the goal being to spend the money increasing the places, and types of adventures you can have, without really affecting your power level.

invest in more expensive, but ultimately mundane gear. admantine, cold iron, or mithril tipped arrows can be extremely effective, but are expensive to gather en masse. now you can. now you needn't ever fire a 'normal' arrow ever again. see if your dm will let you get creative with the type of gear you can get manufactured. (overall this is similar to investing in magic gear, without needing magic gear to be acquirable)

there's always the expensive spells. planar ally costs can stack up quick, but you're also probably going to be able to find an outsider that doesn't actually care that the gold is stolen relatively easily. maybe you can find 2 or 3 to act as 'hirelings' for you. basic servants to keep your camp, watch your horses while you're in a dungeon. guard your camp while you sleep. some fun potential for roleplay imo, but again, doesn't really change the power level of your party, so long as the outsiders never volunteer to directly fight for you. (also, obviously, don't mistreat the being that you've hired...even like cr1 outsiders likely have connections to ridiculously powerful beings).

[Schwann145]

We're in a colonial frontier setting. Based on what we've seen so far there is no real centralized government authority with state-scale spending power, or formal nobility; we're not wealthy on the scale of some of the biggest commercial interests in the region, or the imperial nobility back home, but as private individuals, we exceed anybody we've met. Near as I can tell, the people we just robbed of all their liquid assets were one of the wealthiest groups (they were destroyed before we got around to stealing from them). At least within this particular pond, most of what the DM's fed us indicates we are, in fact, bigger fish now. And from what I have ben observing about commerce and prices in the setting, a gold piece goes a lot further than it typically does in D&D, so thousands upon thousands of GP is closer to the value of a major estate.

Which kind of brings it back to the problem. Most of the advice people have given is about investing, building up power bases, changing and shaping the setting directly; changing our role from primarily one of adventurers to investors and managers. But from what I know of the other characters, most of us have very little interest in actually doing so. My own character mostly just view wealth as a goal with which to drive his own adventures, and at least one other party member feels the same. I think I agree most with the people who say we should look into spending and losing this wealth as soon as possible, so that our characters once again have finances as a motive for adventuring. I guess I ought to redirect the thread to asking what the best way is for us to lose our money quickly and spectacularly.

Hm. In that case, it sounds like it's time for retirement/new characters. There very well may not even be enough ways to spend that much money on frivolities. The DM may just have to make your wealth removal part of the overall plot.

[Eriol]

Become a patron of the arts. And by arts I mean artisans who can supply your adventurers. Essentially, buy a castle and staff, with an emphasis on those types who can help you be better at what you like doing. Trick out a training yard for your fighter. Similar for the Wizard's library. Or whatever. Hire people to help you there so that you have an RP reason why you have new spells (George your retainer acquired them while you were out adventuring), or somebody who knows how to get things to find that one magic item you're looking for. You have an alchemy lab with its own resident alchemist that makes healing potions for you, but also comes up with "interesting" things now and then.

Basically, try and turn your wealth into both gear, and adventure hooks. Every time you return "home" it's both a place to do downtime stuff, and also discover what your "retainers" have found. Makes both the players', DM's, and your PCs lives easier!

[Corvino]

Having read the OP's followup post - that the party are not really the "sit still & invest patiently" sorts, I have a different proposal.

Money still means narrative power. If you plan to continue the campaign as adventurers, you could use cash to change the theme if you choose:

1) Buy a pirate fleet and go raiding.

2) Hire a mercenary army and march on the Evil kingdom next door, liberating the populace. You're bankrolling it, but still fighting on the front lines.

3) Buy an airship and explore lost continents.

4) Hire an archaeology team and go on a hunt for lost Legendary items. You're funding the expedition and scholars to hunt through dusty times, while you plunder the tombs they locate. (Don't tell Lara Croft)

5) Some similar sandbox-y change of direction that only a very wealthy and footloose group could manage!

[Mork]

Build a stronghold!

Build a stronghold, get followers so you can make them do your downtime stuff.
Invest in the town so it becomes bigger and you can get more rescources from it.
Strongholds often come with titles, meaning you will be taken more seriously by nobility from any region.

And if you use this ruleset:
https://shop.mcdmproductions.com/products/strongholds-followers-pdf
You'll get fancy new powers from your stronghold (*charachters name*- magnificent - fireball??)

[Angelalex242]

First...use it wisely.

Full Plate/Half Plate/Chain Shirts for everyone who wants armor.

Buy every wizard scroll the wizard can scribe.

Buy out the potion shop of every useful potion they have.

After that, I'm fond of the 'build a castle' idea.

Or, if this is Dragon Heist, the module, you might wish to trick out that Tavern after you've practically spent your money on things that help you adventure.

[Contrast]

We're in a colonial frontier setting. Based on what we've seen so far there is no real centralized government authority with state-scale spending power, or formal nobility; we're not wealthy on the scale of some of the biggest commercial interests in the region, or the imperial nobility back home, but as private individuals, we exceed anybody we've met. Near as I can tell, the people we just robbed of all their liquid assets were one of the wealthiest groups (they were destroyed before we got around to stealing from them). At least within this particular pond, most of what the DM's fed us indicates we are, in fact, bigger fish now. And from what I have ben observing about commerce and prices in the setting, a gold piece goes a lot further than it typically does in D&D, so thousands upon thousands of GP is closer to the value of a major estate.

I mean it sounds like what you've just done isn't become incredibly wealthy so much as you're shortly about to massively devalue currency in your local area :smallwink:

[hifidelity2]

When this happened to a party I was in we agreed the following once we had divvied up the treasure
There would a 1 year down time (in game) where our characters could spend their money

In my case my char came form a poor noble family (think rundown castle / estate out in the wilds etc)
So I (my char was a Wizard)
- Invested in the castle
- Built as part of the renovation a wizards tower and created a school of magic
- in the game setting there was distrust between the races but I made my school open to all (a sort of Babylon 5). This was also to stick two fingers up the the empires magic guild as they had at one stage rejected me and so I wanted to build a rival school
- Built good road to pass by our castle between 2 major cities for future income

Because of people we had met in adventures I was able to hire dwarfs for the construction (far superior)

Then we met up again and carried on adventuring when a new BBEG started to threaten the world

[da newt]

Build your Utopia. Create a great town with good schools, excellent medical, and a superb infrastructure. Entice the best and brightest to join you - scholars, artisans, craftsmen, etc.

Train the next generation of heroes. Create a Hogwarts for adventurers.

Start a Griffin or Owl Bear stable.

Create a Golem factory.

Adopt every orphan - gods know there are more orphans in the DnD universe than you can shake a stick at. Create a school for them.

Hire Druids to create and tend the best fishing lake/river in all the world.

Hire the finest brewers and farmers to create the best beer. Don't ever sell the beer, only give it freely to those who you believe deserve it.

[Ogun]

If you are looking for adventure, you need a millennium falcon, a serenity, a tardis, an enterprise, a dawntreader, an argo....
You get the idea,buy an amazing ship/mobile base and get back out into the game.
Transportation to and from the fight plus a way to fight on a bigger scale
A dimension hopping voltron could be the perfect vehicle for adventure.
Maybe a giant spider construct, maybe an awakened redwood, maybe a space whale?

[Sigreid]

Ideally this is why you have characters with bigger goals than $$.

Last two times it happened in my group we didn't "take over the town" but our home town was important to us so we spent significant resources making the town better at our expense. While we did not run the town, it did give us a significant bump in our reputation and how anything we said was taken in town since we clearly were a benefit to it.

[SLOTHRPG95]

Work on recruiting loyal henchmen/retainers, and kit them out. Equipping a small-ish (two dozen) elite unit of heavy cavalry can easily cost 50-60Kgp, or more if you really want to splurge on the barding for all their warhorses. Sure, you can't effectively field them in a dungeon, but they'd make a good core to any army you'd want to raise to defend your new home (assuming you help rebuild the city).

[Zorku]

I think you're overestimating how much money rich people have. One of the module mentions that the richest noble family in Waterdeep *could* gather one million gold coins, but that it would leave them entirely bankrupt.

It's true an empire or big realm could have access to more, but still.

An important idea in economics (BOO!) is liquid assets. These are the things that you can very quickly turn into hard cash, but you can also own fabulously expensive property that is not so easy to sell, where you've got to negotiate for quite awhile with any would be buyer, and possibly have to jump through a great deal of legal hoops, which all have their own costs, in order to get rid of the thing. Long time nobility invariably have a lot of their wealth tied up in things that they can't just get rid of like that, but that nonetheless generate steady streams of cash or confer the kind of prestige that allows them to be involved in lots of prospects that allow them to keep bringing in money as fast as they spend it.

-

In the modern day, lottery winners most often have their lives ruined by their sudden influx of money (including the long term option where they get regular payments from the lottery instead of a lump sum.) Getting this kind of money kicks you out of your social station, because you've suddenly got the means to take care of a lot of the problems that your former friends struggle with. Seems easy enough to just help them all, but you don't really have that much money, and being the person that pays for all of this stuff puts you in a position of power over them. They cannot look at you the same way for fear that you could take this away, and you can't look at them the same way because you're clearly no longer equals- and because there are kind of a ton of people that will just try to leech off of you for as long as you allow them to. Even if you do achieve some kind of balance in this, those people aren't paying for their own expenses, and a really big portion of people will quickly get themselves into trouble. There are just an unfathomable number of ways for this to go wrong, and it does go wrong, over and over, for these people.

People who are suddenly rich should find themselves beset by more problems than they possibly know how to handle, or even keep track of. That's kind of hard to do as a DM, but you can pretty easily make it work by organizing it in a smart way. You want to come up with an idea, and give it roughly 7 moving parts. 7 is easy enough to keep track of. Somebody the party knows has gone into debt, and some of the shady elements are going to take it out of his hide if he can't come up with the money. Easy fix- just pay it. He goes into debt again almost immediately, because he has a bad gambling habit and it seemed like he was due for a win after that; he becomes bad at his actual job and needs money to keep that going; the people he owes money to start to use it to sinister ends (but probably not directly illegal ones;) somebody else gets in debt to the same people and also wants help; somebody robs the guy; and so on until you've got about 7 things going on. Don't present them all at once, because you're going to do a second or third set of things, and just kind of pitch one or two from one then move to another, jumping back and forth between these. It's easy for you to keep track of where you are on 3 different lists, but the party isn't going to really understand that the renovations for the blacksmith branch out into a list of 7 things, the new bridge out of the millers branches into 7 things, and the soup kitchen branches out into 7 things. It's just gonna look like 21 things all happening, and they probably won't know how the hell you juggled so many events. The ways that they try to prevent the same problem from happening again will largely be unrelated to any of the other ways that something goes wrong for them as well, so it will quickly turn into a mad scramble that tears through their treasure.

Now, D&D is also a heroic fantasy game, so you don't necessarily need to put them through the wringer for all of the wealth they acquired. You do want to get them kind of lost in all of the unexpected expenses, but once they've lost like 10% of the money (maybe 8 steps into them throwing coin around,) you should probably stop and ask them how their characters are feeling about what they've been doing, if they feel like the riches are being used to good effect, etc. As soon as they express some doubt simply ask them if they have any ideas about how to fix that, and if they're struggling then you can tell them that they'd get a lot less attention if they had less money, and that an easy way to deal with that would be to give most of it to the local governor/baron/duke/king and simply ask that this other person make good use of the money to improve the lives of whatever population. There aren't going to be any magic item merchants demanding 20000 gold for some magic item, so how much actually covers their expenses for a good chunk of time and enables them to get back to the kind of adventures that they'd rather be doing?

[Witty Username]

Retire and hire adventuring parties to do quests for you, get those strongholds built up, get those lordships.

[noob]

People who are suddenly rich should find themselves beset by more problems than they possibly know how to handle, or even keep track of. That's kind of hard to do as a DM, but you can pretty easily make it work by organizing it in a smart way. You want to come up with an idea, and give it roughly 7 moving parts. 7 is easy enough to keep track of. Somebody the party knows has gone into debt, and some of the shady elements are going to take it out of his hide if he can't come up with the money. Easy fix- just pay it. He goes into debt again almost immediately, because he has a bad gambling habit and it seemed like he was due for a win after that; he becomes bad at his actual job and needs money to keep that going; the people he owes money to start to use it to sinister ends (but probably not directly illegal ones;) somebody else gets in debt to the same people and also wants help; somebody robs the guy; and so on until you've got about 7 things going on. Don't present them all at once, because you're going to do a second or third set of things, and just kind of pitch one or two from one then move to another, jumping back and forth between these. It's easy for you to keep track of where you are on 3 different lists, but the party isn't going to really understand that the renovations for the blacksmith branch out into a list of 7 things, the new bridge out of the millers branches into 7 things, and the soup kitchen branches out into 7 things. It's just gonna look like 21 things all happening, and they probably won't know how the hell you juggled so many events. The ways that they try to prevent the same problem from happening again will largely be unrelated to any of the other ways that something goes wrong for them as well, so it will quickly turn into a mad scramble that tears through their treasure.


Except what would happen is that the adventurers would just use their massive firepower to destroy the shady elements and loot them and then be even richer.
Someone using money for "sinister ends" that are indirectly illegal will probably be killed and looted by the party then all the people that got paid that money for using it for the indirectly illegal means will get killed and looted too and so on until the people doing the illegal stuff is killed and looted.
The adventurers are so rich that if they are supporting the institutions in place and the law through their killing spree then the law will just let them get away with it (especially since they will get stronger during the killing spree because they are doing the "root out crime" self imposed quest).
The people in power usually does not like corrupt mafias and shady people doing stuff they are not aware off and even if they are aware of it then if they get killed they feel nothing about it unless the government was too corrupt at which point the adventurers can claim that their quest to destroy the government is justified then they will take the country too.

So many of those problems you indicated are not actually "money problems" they are "firepower problems" for people with the willingness to bring enough firepower.
If the forge takes unusual amount of money do not forget: the adventurers probably knows what is needed in a forge(even if the players do not) and they will realise that the forge is taking way more money to "repair" than it costs to build a new forge with their spellcasting(4 or 5 walls of stone + buying a ton of iron + a bunch of fabricate ought to do a significant portion of the needed stuff at which point the rest probably costs half of the forge price) and their already available money at which point the adventurers will just kick the current craftsmen that are overcharging by a factor 10 and train their own smith.
A forge is not as much ridiculously expensive as mandating any significant portion of the loot they have even if they have to make it from the ground up.

[Stabbey]

All right, you want to lose a lot of the money quickly and don't care about rebuilding a city. Reading the OP again, a fix comes to mind - one which should be especially obvious in hindsight to readers of this webcomic.

Summon Bigger Dragon.

It's a little unclear on whether the dragon is dead or not, but one thing dragons like is hoarding treasure. A dragon weak enough to be defeated by a party of level 5 adventurers is also going to be weak enough to be defeated by a tougher dragon, who wants the first dragon's treasure for themself.

Summoning a bigger dragon means that the PC's can still comfortably walk away with a nice haul... but not an ridiculous amount of gold. After the PC's are driven off by the tougher dragon and leave the area, that dragon can move the loot to their own, original lair, leaving only a few bits behind.

***

Even if you don't like that idea, if you're not going to go into the castle-building or town-building business, losing all that gold is going to be really easy. In fact, I don't see any way you can actually keep it all. Carts can only hold so much weight. Ships can only hold so much weight. People can only hold so much weight.

You're going to need to leave the majority of that gold unguarded, because you can only transport so much at a time away. Whether you leave it in the vault or take it someplace else and leave it there, it'll still be unguarded.

If you hire guards, how can you be sure that the guards are trustworthy? Even if the guards are trustworthy, there are going to be people out there more powerful than any guards you hire. Your party is level 5. If you hire people weaker than you to guard the gold, someone stronger can take it. If you hire people stronger than you, they can take it from you.

If you leave it in the vault, your choices are to stay there forever and guard it - which you say the group doesn't want to do - or to go off and continue adventuring, in which case you'll be leaving it at the mercy of anyone who comes along.