Spending gold: Ultimate power or riotous living?

[TheCorsairMalac]

I've got a character* who, from a roleplay perspective, wouldn't be very interested in the typical race for better gear. So I want to use his gold for other things... but honestly, I can't think of anything besides strongholds and fancy whores that could possibly use up the amount of gold adventurers come upon.

So what are other ENTERTAINING uses of a character's gold?


*An awakened dire weasel rogue/marlinspike(http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...prestige-class), who just loves rope and eating small people noisily.

[Coidzor]

If you wanna have a character who pisses his loot away rather than reinvest any of it in gear and not dying, either come up with a drug habit or squawling orphans with expensive tastes to begin with or retire the character and have a new one every adventure because they're out for one big haul and then they're done.

[legomaster00156]

Here's a suggestion: do both. You don't have to have the best gear to be competent. Distribute your WBL something like 60-90% for items, and the rest for whatever the hell your character wants. Fortresses, prostitutes, fountains of gold.

[goto124]

This sounds like DnD 3.5e.

I'm not sure how feasible that is?

[TheCorsairMalac]

Okay, lot's of "do this instead...", but that's not what I'm looking for. (I'm already only dedicating a percentage, chillax.)

Fountains of gold, bawling orphans, and drug habits are all good options! Thanks for those! Anyone else have something fun to blow gold on?

[Doorhandle]

A statue of yourself covered in gold leaf is a good start. Really fancy adventures could upgrade it to diamond, make it solid gold or even have a gold golem.

You could also combine form and fuction by having ludicrously ornate armour and weapons.

[Lord Torath]

The finest clothing from the most exclusive designers. Diamonds embedded in each claw, just for the sparkle! (These will need to be replaced as your claws grow out. A personal table at the best restaurants. ALL of the best restaurants. Gem-studded sheathes for all your weapons. All your leather gear is made from baby t-rex leather.

[ShikomeKidoMi]

Exotic pets and I mean really exotic. The aurumvorax literally eats gold, there's a good start.

Overly elaborate mechanical traps for your fortress.

[Lord Torath]

Season Tickets to the local Orchestra and Theatre. Season balcony seats. An ornate 4-horse coach. For each day of the week. Do you enjoy rubbing shoulders with the Pompous and Wealthy? Or are they likely to snub you for being non-human?

[dps]

Gambling. Sure, you might actually win, but if your DM knows what he's doing, the odds are on the house, so that won't be a problem in the long run. As an added bonus, if you want, you can actually play out card games and other games of chance in-game, using in-game wealth instead of RL money. And if the DM is interested in that sort of thing, he can even create new games for your characters to play.

[Flickerdart]

You can always sponsor another lower-level adventuring party.

[sovin_ndore]

I think if I wanted to play up this archetype, I would work really hard to keep my money in gear appropriate to such endeavors.

Want to be more reliable at finding company for the night? Pick up an Admiral's Bicorne. Want to win at gambling? Pick up a Mantle of Second Chances. Want to sate you ego? Commission an exquisitely crafted statue of yourself... then make it even better by getting it animated as a golem to lay waste to your enemies.

[Mrs Kat]

I suggest you watch the adventuretime episode "furniture and meat", as it covers this exact adventurer dilemma.

[Hawkstar]

Okay, lot's of "do this instead...", but that's not what I'm looking for. (I'm already only dedicating a percentage, chillax.)

Fountains of gold, bawling orphans, and drug habits are all good options! Thanks for those! Anyone else have something fun to blow gold on?

Swimming pools full of green Jell-O. Buy public appearances to make a giant fool of yourself. Sponsor giant festivals. Randomly pay to move some things from over here to over there. Ride a new horse on every road trip, and give it to whoever can cause the most mischief with it at your destination. Commission a big, gaudy superhero costume to wear and maintain while you take the fight to Evil (And anyone who gets in your way).

Start up a novelty item/trinket store, and manipulate bored peasants into buying squirt guns.

Break (Mostly-harmless) social moors (Streaking FTW!) and laws and pay off the fines. Or, if the guards/authorities can't be paid off, strip them to their underwear and suspend them from flagpoles.

Buy magic items that let you do crazy **** more than serve a combat function.

Hire several butlers in bellhop costumes, rename them all Jeeves, and make them talk in a Stereotypical High-Class British accent. Be sure to give them plenty of time off so they can enjoy their money (And so you don't have to feel as bad about the humiliating conditions you make them work for). Make the pay high, but very conditional to enforce obedience.

[The Fury]

Buy magic items that let you do crazy **** more than serve a combat function.

Might I suggest a Ring of Theme Music? Alternatively hire a bard that leads a full orchestra to follow you around and play music that makes you seem cooler.

As for strongholds? Fortresses? Ha! What do you need those for? You're rich! Why would you want a fortress when you can have a palace? When you do commission your palace though, make sure it's in a town with a well to do king, queen, nobleman or whatever. That way you can take pains to make sure your palace is bigger and more impressive than their stupid little manor house! Or maybe you'd prefer something more like a cathedral? Something with huge archways and big ol' stained glass windows, which naturally display images depicting how great you are.

[Talyn]

Throw wild, lavish feasts. Invite your friends. Invite your enemies! Shame them with the quality of your parties, and force them to do the same (and invite you!) or suffer social humiliation.

The Ancient Romans really knew how to waste money - do a little research about how they used to campaign for election. 5,000 seat banquets? Gladiatorial games conducted on ships? Twenty foot marble statues painted with gold leaf? The sky's the limit.

[goto124]

If you're getting a palacefortress, make it a flying palacefortress that you can take along on your adventures!

Are we reaching the point of the DM throwing dice and books yet?

[Slipperychicken]

Sponsor tournaments, watch NPCs from across the setting beat the crap out of each other for a week, schmooze with some of the best fighters in the land, then offer the winners a job as your bodyguards.

[GnomishPride]

Hire a bunch of drunken barbarians to defend you. The fun never ends.
Build an animated flying palacefortress made of pure gold and embedded with raw diamonds.
Get a gemstone golem.
Buy a city, or better yet, a country.
Find the most outrageously overpowered magic item, and buy it for twice the selling price.
Fill an ocean with whiskey.
Have assistants lay gold wherever you walk so that you are literally always walking on gold.
Get a T-Rex army.
Start a mercenary band paid out of pocket. Equip them in highest quality gear.
Fill the Abyss with molten gold.

[Enran]

Sorry for being boring, but I might actually recommend putting some of it to a practical use: paying people to research things for you. Want a new kind of item later? Pay them to start researching the spells for it now! Want an intelligent golem modeled after yourself? Research! Want to learn a new Maneuver for your next feat? Hire some initiators to invent a new Maneuver! Want a high-intensity waterslide that won't make everyone on it pass out or die? Have somebody research physics for you.

[icefractal]

Hedonistic magic items can eat up the gold as fast as you like. For example, why should you be subject to the whims of nature or time?

Sundial of Appropriate Conditions
The wearer of this dial (typically worn as a pendant) can choose the weather at any time, as per control weather. They may also set the light level within a 40' radius, anywhere from darkness to full daylight.
Price: ~270K gp by the standard formula. Probably not worth that much, but legitimately expensive.

[Draconium]

You hoard it. You hoard it all.

Spoiler

Show

Of course, if that isn't up your alley, then you could always spend your gold on researching and creating new magical items that are meant purely for your entertainment.

[Sredni Vashtar]

Buy a village/town/city, pass wacky laws, repeal them the next day, repeat until revolution occurs. That should keep you occupied for a little while.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Spend all of it on copper pieces of the smallest denomination you can find, then hire bearers to follow you around, each carrying a sack of coins. Pay for everything in small-denomination copper. Claim you don't know anything else.

[LadyFoxfire]

Make a flesh golem named Lurch to be your butler. Then make another flesh golem, named Morticia, to be his girlfriend, a la Bride of Frankenstein. My sister actually did that once, although technically she found and befriended Lurch, instead of creating him.

[Grek]

Buy 10 of every potion.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Travelling servants. Have a baggage train comprised of a small army of paid servants to pitch a fortress worth of tents and live like a king except when you're actually in a dungeon.

[stenver]

When going to new town, never sleep in an in. Buy a house. If none are for sail, build it. And if you get rich enough, then who needs houses?! You need a castle in every town! Local lord against it? Buy him out! Castles getting boring? Time to buy a palace!

If your character is really filthy rich, then he can just turn nuts. Buy a city! The city now needs a redesign! Burn it to the ground and rebuild it! EVERYONE should now your name! Each house should be modelled after you. Hell, the city plan should look like you

[Lvl 2 Expert]

And if all else fails you can still go for equipment you don't need. Maybe a goldened sword two size categories too large for mounting on a wall somewhere, or a white stallion of the finest breeding called Ferrari. Maybe a litter (as in one of those chairs with poles in them so servants can carry a sitting person) complete with servant to take the character anywhere they want to go. Make it the size of a chariot, so a few lady friends can travel along. Maybe only buy adamantine +5 enchanted equipment, because it's the best. I'm sure it will make a big difference to your firemaking flint, your bedroll and your toothbrush.

To raise the costs as quickly as possible, live like a king especially when you're in a dungeon. Can you just imagine the hazard pay for all those servants feeding you grapes and polishing your blade?

[snacksmoto]

Sorry for being boring, but I might actually recommend putting some of it to a practical use: paying people to research things for you. Want a new kind of item later? Pay them to start researching the spells for it now! Want an intelligent golem modeled after yourself? Research! Want to learn a new Maneuver for your next feat? Hire some initiators to invent a new Maneuver! Want a high-intensity waterslide that won't make everyone on it pass out or die? Have somebody research physics for you.

It's getting your money to work for you. (heh, pun) Investiture in getting others to work for you during your downtime is a great use of excess funds.

Something that my group has done is to help build and financially start a small library with an NPC who also has some skill at herbalism. As time goes on, I expect that the library will expand as we continue to invest, allowing our party's "hireling" to do some research for us if we don't want to do it ourselves. He will also crafts potions for the sale. Off-screen, he'll sell enough for the abstract general upkeep costs and once per session (once a week for our gaming group) he's crafted a potion of healing for each of us for free. Personally, a free potion of healing per session is a bit much for an initial investment but I seriously doubt we'll get more for free even later on. Any extra potions of healing as well as any other potions still have to be bought, with a bit of a discount.