Cure for greedy parties

[Hario]

So in responce to the vendictive DM's thread I thought of a funny yet vendictive way to tick off the overly greedy party who hunts dragon's all day long: Throw a Vow of Poverty Lawful Good Dragon at their faces, this is better done in Eberron when Color's don't matter. Any other Ideas to stop an overly greedy party and stick to the Wealth by Level guidlines?

[kamikasei]

Any other Ideas to stop an overly greedy party and stick to the Wealth by Level guidlines?

Surely, if they're managing to get their hands on wealth inappropriate for their current level, they're having to overcome enough obstacles in doing so that they gain commensurate XP?

[RandomNPC]

i figure you either mess up the economy, the bank forgets you, or an etherial filcher hits your bag of holding.

if that doesn't work, the etherial filcher steals the bag of holding and stufs it into its portable hole while still next to its target.

[Reltzik]

Here's one I posted perhaps a year ago in the cursed items thread:

Bad Penny:
To all appearances, the Bad Penny is an extremely worn and corroded copper piece -- still valid tender, but not much to look at. If found heads-up, it acts as a perfectly normal copper piece, save that unless its carrier makes a conscience effort not to spend or discard it, it will be in the first batch of copper pieces spent, lost, or discarded -- and it will always be face up when left behind or handed over, going so far as to magically swap the shape of its faces while no one's looking.

If found tails-up, however, a person must make a DC 25 will save five minutes after picking it up -- even if they discard it sooner. The source of this will save is known to the character to be the coin, though its nature is not. Should they pass this will save, treat the coin as if it was found heads-up for purposes of discarding it, but it when discarded or handed over, it will be tails-up. Should the will save fail, the coin becomes tied to its hapless finder. It may only be spent, lost, or discarded by a conscious effort, or by spending, losing, or discarding ALL of your CPs -- and will be heads-up when it is so spent, lost, or discarded. Furthermore, the complexities of economy and the vaguaries of chance will contrive that the discarded Bad Penny will be the next copper piece which the cursed character acquires. However, the character is granted a new will save every time the Bad Penny returns to his possession to remove this curse.

At dawn on every day that a character, who failed his will save not to become tied to the Bad Penny must pass a DC 20 will save, or be affected by the spell Bestow Curse for the next 24 hours. A given Bad Penny will always bestow the same curse, though curses vary from Bad Penny to Bad Penny.

Bad Pennies are difficult to recognize as the same coin one has dealt with earlier. Doing so requires a DC 30 appraise check. If a character is tied to a given Bad Penny, reduce the DC by 1 for every time he has failed his will save not to be tied to it.

A Remove Curse will remove this day's curse bestowed by the coin, but NOT allow it to be discarded as would be normal for a cursed item. Break Enchantment can remove both effects; in this case, the Bad Penny is discarded tails-up. A Wish or Miracle is required to destroy a Bad Penny.

[daggaz]

Ummm..... but once the penny ends up heads up, it stays that way. You failed to include some way for it to turn over to tails again.

[Reltzik]

No, it leaves tails-up if you pass your will save to keep it from being tied to you, or if you get Break Enchantment cast. (I had that second one as "face down" a moment ago, fixed.)

(EDIT: It's only heads-up when it's tied to someone. Presumably, when a heads-up coin leaves its present owner, it's on its way back to whoever it's tied to.)

The idea is to get the players hyper-paranoid about the loot they pick up. It is SO fun for a sadistic DM to say to someone who's Appraise DC is now 5, "oh, look, it's that same copper piece again".

[Renegade Paladin]

But if it's found heads up in the first place, it will never be tails up as written, because it's always heads up from then forward.

[Wolf_Shade]

But if it's found heads up in the first place, it will never be tails up as written, because it's always heads up from then forward.

This chap is correct. By the way you described it the only way for it to be passed on tails up is succeed your will save. By succeeding your will save it isn't bound to you, and whoever it does end up bound to will release it heads up.

The copper piece, unless always found with a random facing (you'd have to remove the "magically changes facing when no one's looking) will eventually become just another coin, because after the first person fails their will save and spends all their CP, the coin will be perpetually heads up.

[Bender]

This chap is correct. By the way you described it the only way for it to be passed on tails up is succeed your will save. By succeeding your will save it isn't bound to you, and whoever it does end up bound to will release it heads up.

The copper piece, unless always found with a random facing (you'd have to remove the "magically changes facing when no one's looking) will eventually become just another coin, because after the first person fails their will save and spends all their CP, the coin will be perpetually heads up.

As I understood it, it probably turns tails up when someone casts break enchantment to the person currently bound to it. The penny is then 'free' again, until it is found by its next victim.

So it is only face up when it already has a victim, it doesn't make multiple victims

[Counterspin]

If you want your players to change their ways, talk to them. If you steal their stuff without talking to them, they'll just redouble their efforts. Things like this should be dealt with out of game.

[Human Paragon 3]

Set your next campaign in a jungle/wilderness. Nothing to spend gold on, nobody to hire, no access to an alchemical lab, just you, the wilderness and the primal magic of the land.

[Telonius]

The King had his Gnomish advisors build a special army of Inevitables, called the Revenue Securing model. This "I-RS" has taken over all of the taxation duties in the kingdom. Same stats and advancement as a Marut, except +20 Intimidate and +30 Appraise. Special "Deliver Audit" ability - identical to a Power Word Stun spell, usable 1/day. Also 1/day: Demand. I-RS's of 25 HD or more have the ability to use "Trap the Soul" and "Imprisonment" 1/day. I-RS's of 50 HDs or more are able to produce one "Ruin" card (as from the Deck of Many Things) per day.

[Human Paragon 3]

The King had his Gnomish advisors build a special army of Inevitables, called the Revenue Securing model. This "I-RS" has taken over all of the taxation duties in the kingdom. Same stats and advancement as a Marut, except +20 Intimidate and +30 Appraise. Special "Deliver Audit" ability - identical to a Power Word Stun spell, usable 1/day. Also 1/day: Demand. I-RS's of 25 HD or more have the ability to use "Trap the Soul" and "Imprisonment" 1/day. I-RS's of 50 HDs or more are able to produce one "Ruin" card (as from the Deck of Many Things) per day.

Tell me you actually did this!

[Telonius]

Haven't had the occasion to, no. I play with mainly sane people. But it's in the stack o' ideas.

[RandomNPC]

The King had his Gnomish advisors build a special army of Inevitables, called the Revenue Securing model. This "I-RS" has taken over all of the taxation duties in the kingdom. Same stats and advancement as a Marut, except +20 Intimidate and +30 Appraise. Special "Deliver Audit" ability - identical to a Power Word Stun spell, usable 1/day. Also 1/day: Demand. I-RS's of 25 HD or more have the ability to use "Trap the Soul" and "Imprisonment" 1/day. I-RS's of 50 HDs or more are able to produce one "Ruin" card (as from the Deck of Many Things) per day.

Cruel and unusual punishment anyone?

needless to say they stun/trap/inprison, for tax collecting, not just for kicks... right????

[Telonius]

Cruel and unusual punishment anyone?

needless to say they stun/trap/inprison, for tax collecting, not just for kicks... right????

That's where the Plot Hooks start coming in.

[The Prince of Cats]

Maybe you 3.5 players never saw one of these, but back in 2e, we had a little somthing called a Rust Monster. Very nasty, very good for cleaning up inconvenient overallocation of metallic assets. And yes, they do eat coins...

[bosssmiley]

Ditto Goldbugs (from an early edition Fiend Folio IIRC), little gold-coloured coin-shaped vermin that eat you lewts. They are nasty, cruel, vile, downright unfair things to use on players.

[Driderman]

I have to agree on the 'solving it out of game' solution, that would probably be the best.
Otherwise, if you're going to steal the players loot at least do it with an entertaining plothook and the chance for them to get some of it back if they solve the quest adequately.

In the end though, you're the DM and if you know your players, you should really be the best person to figure out how to limit their lootings.


And of course, to remove people of their wealth, there's always... inflation!
Due to the fact that large quantities of the kings coin is being hoarded by greedy dragons, villains and adventurers the kingdom has to mint new coins. Trying not to exhaust the mineral deposits of the realm, the percentage of gold in the currency is lowered, thereby lessening the value. With the lessened worth of the currency, prices soar and in an act of foolish desperation, the Royal Mint molds even more coins as wages rises in numeric value but fall in ACTUAL value and prices everything skyrockets.

The next time the heroes tries to spend their illgotten gains, you'll have a perfectly explanation for why the usual prices in the Players Handbook are multiplied by 100.
That, and the crazy little demagogue with the funny moustache rabble-rousing in the capital might make an excellent plothook...

[Reltzik]

Also, in the long term, this isn't necessarilly something that NEEDS to be solved. A smart DM LOVES knowing what motivates the players; it's what lets him trick them into subjecting themselves to sadistic adventure after sadistic adventure. This way, you don't NEED to come up with yet another end-the-world plot.... you just have to let them hear about the unique 200 carat diamond in so-and-so villain's possession, and off they go!

Of course, in the short term, the end-of-the-world plot you already HAVE is sort of getting ignored....

[Thrawn183]

I'm personally a fan of pairing a VoP monk with a wizard. You can give the wizard twice the gear you normally would (making for a more difficult challenge) while not increasing the total value of the gear the party receives. The party gets exactly the same amount of gold they normally would, but it gives the DM a little more flexibility in creating encounters.

[Dan_Hemmens]

The best cure for greedy parties is running a game in which your character-effectiveness isn't directly proportional to the cash value of your accumulated equipment.

[Thunder_Ranger]

Set your next campaign in a jungle/wilderness. Nothing to spend gold on, nobody to hire, no access to an alchemical lab, just you, the wilderness and the primal magic of the land.

So if you're in Eberron: Shadow Marshes anyone?

[Dark]

Have them all step through a cosmic portal to get to their next adventure. In the new universe, gold is worthless and their magic items don't work.