Quote Originally Posted by Pelle View Post
To me, it wasn't as much an issue that Magic Items could be buyed for gold and had a listed price, but rather the common assumption that every item published would be available and for sale everywhere.
For me, it was the sense that you couldn't spend your gold pieces on: merchant ships, retainers, fancy clothes, castles, bribing people, hiring people, armies, boozin' & wimminizin', etc. etc. etc. unless everyone else bought into that idea (including the DM and the CR system) because then you were mechanically behind anyone else who toed the party line of gold=resource gained from defeating enemies, used to improve your characters stats and abilities. We already have a resource like that, it's called xp (used to come along with the gold at a near 1:1 ratio. If gold becomes that, then you can't unabashedly use it for, y'know, gold things.