How to Spend Your Gold in 5e Dungeons & Dragons | Web DM

What do you spend money on in 5e Dungeons and Dragons? Today, we're talking a bit about D&D Economics, how to tackle the problem of players who have tons of wealth but aren't sure what to do with it, and how we make spending gold a character-building and worldbuilding activity.
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[@WebDM]

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[@joshanderson3961]

Noted a weird edit towards the end, 18:00

[@cavareenvius7886]

@@pasp9866 Right? How can i suscribe to a channel when i can't enoy the content? Not the first time it happend. I mean common the video is only 3 hours out and i can't enoy it because no sound.....again D=

[@DownToTruck]

Do you take soul gems?

[@WebDM]

If only we could take soul gems!

[@jayteepodcast]

Do you have a video on renown points and how that works. You touched on it but I wanted to know more for my Ravnica campaign

[@CajunCrustacean]

My favorite way to sink my players' money has to be the time that a guy broke into their rooms and stole several hundred gold they had been saving. They hunted the guy down and it turned out he had stolen it to fund the orphanage he had been raised in, where the kids and their matron were living in squalor. The players had the choice of recovering their money or letting them have it, but they went further and started personally funding the place. As a result I started having them occasionally meet people that had heard what they'd done and giving them bonuses for it. Things like "You're the guys that are helping Mother Matilda? Here, I'll give you the information I have freely."

[@ussliberty8898]

great idea. its what i would do.

[@godofthunder4242]

See I'm hearing lots of ways for the DM to say "HEY you can't have that anymore." Not so many that makes the players go "Ooooohhhh I wanna spend money on that!"

[@williamwontiam3166]

Yeah, this is why I homebrew a lot of cool stuff for them to buy, along with standerd purchase options for magic items.

[@zacharyharwell351]

I refuse to do that to my players; if I mess up and give them something a bit too effective then I feel like it's my job to figure out a way to challenge them even WITH whatever the thing is

[@lord6617]

I kind of really like how Matt Colville set up how his mercenary group is running - the mercenary company has a treasury, and completing enough contracts and accruing enough wealth upgrades the treasury, and they can do more things in the overall world with their treasury as it grows. It means the players have some personal wealth, but the "greater" wealth that players might otherwise end up just hoarding instead upgrades the company treasury.

[@nickwilliams8302]

And of course there's his Strongholds and Followers sourcebook that pretty much guarantees the PCs will have a way to spend all that hard-earned cash...

[@marcopernechele5733]

@@nickwilliams8302 yeah, my players spent all the dragon's gold in rebuilding a village raided by goblins and included their own strongholds in the reconstruction. I seeded two gnome inventor brothers who are working on air balloons and other air transports but their projects are stalling cause they lack gold, so the players kinda already know where the next huge pile of gold is going to be spent, unless they come up with something else

[@NeflewitzInc]

@@nickwilliams8302 I backed that when it first started and my campaign is finally to the point where I'm able to start introducing those things. I can't wait to use them.

[@nickwilliams8302]

@@NeflewitzInc Likewise. There's a couple things I'm a bit doubtful about, but they seem more fluff-related than mechanical. At any rate, my players are going to be hitting the big city absolutely _loaded_ after having very little need - or, for that matter, opportunity - to spend money so far in the campaign. Of course, they'll have to clear out their new home first ...

[@timmyisbig]

It's based on the crusader model

[@EnnuiElpis]

I had a character in the Waterdeep Dragon Heist adventure who spent most of his money on the poor. He would buy like 20 bedrolls, blankets, and tents at a time and then just hand them out to the city’s homeless population. Seriously, charity is a good way to spend one’s money, and I did it knowing that it would give me a good reputation as a result of it.

[@dragonboyjgh]

I did this but traveling soup kitchen. Accidentally invented food trucks just trying to make sure people in need got help.

[@BarokaiRein]

In the very first campaign I ever played in my wizard ended up basically owning the entire starting city just due to investing gold in it. Basically I went around making deals that were like ''I'll give you 100 to 700 gold now if you send me 25% of all of your earnings annually for 12 years'' and every single local business agreed to that. It was a small town but we had just rebuilt the bridge that lead to the capital road so I figured I might as well spend all of the money we made from running through dungeons etc on that. I retired the character before we got to see how much money I would have made,but the DM decided to tell me anyway. The actual amount I would have gotten from all the farms,the inn,the blacksmith etc would have been something like 10 000 gold a year,which was about 5 times as much as I invested. So when we did this epilogue for our characters my wizard basically just became so goddamn rich that within the next 10 years he ended up having deals like that with every single business in Silverymoon and eventually got so rich that he just bought the whole city piece by piece.

[@WexMajor82]

Come on. I play a wizard. What is the meaning of the phrase: "Too much gold"?

[@solimanmohamed7977]

I feel ya I'm playing a lvl 3 abjuration wizard and I just spent all my loot on buying and copying spells 500gp

[@EnnuiElpis]

I would probably say that like Smaug’s horde is too much money. Like if you have so much gold that just finding a place to store it all is virtually impossible, you have too much money.

[@millerjames908]

@@solimanmohamed7977 This is why you start charging NPC's for spellcasting services, or use enchantment magic

[@asdasd-ty9se]

@@solimanmohamed7977 make low level magic items for profit

[@The_Sharktocrab]

I love how you put out this episode the same day I gave my party 100,000 gold as a campaign arc reward. It's like you guys watch my games or something

[@joshuarichardson6529]

FYI, 100,000 gold pieces, at a rate of 50 GP per pound, is a literal TON of gold. That's enough (back in AD&D anyway) to buy a castle.

[@The_Sharktocrab]

@@joshuarichardson6529 its 10,000 platinum

[@Mooxieclang]

My party just recently acquired 25,000 gp after raiding the vault of former nobleman turned crazed cannibal and they made a damn army. They bought 10 ballista, carts, horses and hired 40 peasants to fire them. Now they fight an undead army with their own army.

[@NebulousSpacePotato]

that sounds like the most righteous shit

[@Quandry1]

Did you make them pay to train the peasants?

[@borgshadow13]

THIS ! also: deus vult intensifies

[@chrisgood8438]

We bought a tavern to generate more profit and hang up trophies from our adventures inside to attract people. Some of the extra money we generate gets put into the local school to improve the living conditions of the village. My drunken master monk also teaches self defence as downtime for the locals.

[@Josiahiswatching]

huh... that'd be a fun idea. Have a village of stock non-player class characters BUT if you set up a school that teaches practical magic for the laymen everyone in town will get a level in wizard every time the person who trains them gains a level. So the next time you come back from an adventure you hear about how a group of raiders comes breezing into town got stopped up by the everybody scarring them out of town with level 0 cantrips.

[@luisitobardajibenitez8013]

@@Josiahiswatching just imagen like 40 magic missles being hurled your way

[@jeanschyso]

one of my players pays 4 times the price for everything in tips and gives rations to everyone he meets, then worries that he can't buy healing potions. Gotta love the noble background roleplayed well :) When they're done with Curse of Strahd, I'll introduce Strongholds and followers.

[@StevetheWizard2591]

DM: "So, you've got some down-time, couple weeks, what are you doing or planning?" Fighter: "I'm gonna train some more with that halberd we found, work toward learning the Great Weapon fighting style." DM: "You're going to get a decent start toward that, but it's not enough time to master that. If you keep practicing while adventuring, you can pick up where you left off when you get back to town." Cleric: "I'm going to spend that time doing charity work." Paladin: "I'm with the Cleric on-" Barbarian: "I'M GOING TO CARVE MY FACE INTO THE MOON SO THE MOON WILL LOOK LIKE MY FACE!"

[@Stopcontactgamesenvlogs]

Once, the party i dm'ed for found a bunch of gold and platinum coins in a dungeon. When they carted it out they got robbed by a large group of goblins (which they should have dismantled earlier in the campaign, but they refused to fight the goblins and went affter a dragon instead). Now there's a fortress of well outfitted goblins that they need to storm and take down to get their money back :q

[@Quandry1]

How much of that money is now gone and how much extra muscle did they hire or buy?

[@Stopcontactgamesenvlogs]

@@Quandry1 1/3 remains, the goblins have spend 2/3 of the hoard on armour, muscle and fortifications. They count about 600 right now in the campaign, including hobs and bugbears. The party can still recover enough wealth equivalent to 3000 Platinum coins of stuff.

[@Quandry1]

@@Stopcontactgamesenvlogs I love it. That's quite the living world concept as well as defined consequence to their choices. The goblins are now a far larger and more active threat than that Dragon they went after.

[@charlottewalnut3118]

@@Stopcontactgamesenvlogs How did they manage to steal that much not only should they not be able to carry that much there’s a secondary problem of actually having to fight through the group of adventurers who manage to kill a dragon

[@DrLipkin]

Fun fact. The book (DMG or PHB, can't remember) lists a 1 lb gold bar as being worth 50 gp. If you assume your coins are solid gold, you now know how much your money weighs. A lot.

[@billyjimbobjr]

For reference this is the size of 1kg (2lb ish) gold bar. images.csmonitor.com/csm/2012/03/GOLDBAR.JPG?alias=standard_900x600

[@Coid]

IIRC, they still use the rule from 3rd Edition onward where 1 standard coin = 1/50th of a pound. That's why 1 pound of copper = 50 cp or 5 sp. 1 pound of silver = 50 sp or 5 gp. 1 pound of gold = 50 gp. 1 pound of platinum = 500 gp. Adamantine, interestingly, is given a value of 1000 gp for a 10 lb bar in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, which scales down to 1 lb of adamantine = 100 gp.

[@bethmilam3772]

In the video I think they mentioned 10 gp = 1lb. FYI, their reference for this info is likely 1st and 2nd ed. AD&D. In those versions, all coins weighed 1/10th of a pound.

[@josephperez2004]

As of 5th edition, it's mentioned that 50 coins, regardless of denomination weigh 50 to apound.

[@TheBaconWizard]

It specifically says in the DMG that "gold" is merely representative, and that most people's wealth is in fact held as land, livestock, shares, bonds, IOUs, gems, etc etc. Relatively little of it is actual metal gold in their hand.

[@GoODanDEVIL666333]

I spent a good portion of my gold making a pouch of cursed copper pieces. They can be given away willingly and they act like normal. But when they get stolen the start screaming. So my party keeps them in their personal coin pouches.

[@androsh9039]

Matt Colville wrote a book called "Strongholds and Followers". It's pretty good.

[@ninthlevelcantrip799]

Best comment on the video.

[@ricktator1418]

My DM used it in our campaign and helped when creating an atmosphere for our newly established keep. The warfare rules I would say were fun but are rather rough.

[@adreabrooks11]

I don't normally post strictly-negative comments, but my group thought that book was terrible. The DM (a shameless book-hoarder) threw it away. The fighter options were *okay,* but the other classes' strongholds were extremely limited in their options, and founded on Colville's specific viewpoints regarding how the world ought to operate. For those considering this book, I'd much sooner recommend going back to the supplements from previous editions. It might be argued that doing so leads to more bookkeeping (as mentioned in this video, it leads to considerations such as the cost of X wall or Y business) - but, if the group is asking for a more in-depth economy, then this is probably more advantage than hindrance.

[@Bluecho4]

To paraphrase Matt Colville, no matter a PC's alignment, they can all use money to accomplish their goals. The obvious answer to "how do you spend all this gold", then, is obviously "make the PCs have goals". Long term goals, that might require wealth to accomplish. A religious character (whether Cleric, Paladin, or just faithful) might want money to give to the poor, or to build a new temple. Or their religion might have a land or city that is holy to it, and the PC needs money to fund a pilgrimage to it. A warrior type character (Fighter, Barbarian, even Rogue or Paladin) might want to become a lord by their own hand. Well, building (or buying) a keep costs money, as does maintaining and staffing it. Armies need to be paid, weapon and armor smiths need to be paid, supplies need to be purchased. If you want to take your army on campaign to some other region, you might need to pay for ships or wagons or the like, to allow that trip to take place. (For that matter, you might also need to pay to have your troops stay somewhere, whether camping in a field or bunking in a barracks or inn). And if you want the Lord part of being a lord, you'll need to look and dress the part, and be able to pay for all the displays of wealth needed to prove that you're not just a pretender or a simple warlord. A Wizard might want magical power. Well, that requires the ability to research. I personally expand the Research downtime activity in Xanathars to not just getting access to someone else's knowledge, but the ability to generate your own. _Research_ in the sense that you hold up in a lab and do experiments. Spend weeks or months or years, and you can figure out new spells or craft new magic items. I also think that owning books should help with Research (a book's gold value contributing to the Research expense), incentivizing the character collecting tomes, scrolls, codices, and tablets into a library. And you need a place to store your books and keep your lab or workshop. What better place for a Wizard to do this than a big Wizard's Tower?

[@freakyskull516]

or my necromancer wizard's dream of his own kingdom made perfect by commonplace magical literacy and an undead slave workforce. where the number of undead workers your family has is just as important as the gold in their pockets.

[@CasparLeones]

And Mr. Colville _just so happens_ to have written an _indispensable_ book on the subject. Get the pdf _right now_ for 20 USD, which is a gods-damned steal for how preposterously fat with content it is.

[@Quandry1]

Don't forget that to be a good lord your not just paying for your own keep and your lordly dress but you may likely be paying for costs of upkeep, maintenance, and protection of a certain area around that. Doing things like keeping that bridge over the river in good repair or the road through the woods properly trimmed back and patrolled is going to cost money.

[@Bluecho4]

@Lassi Kinnunen What if nothing is for sale? What if there ARE NO magic item sales, because the specific campaign setting doesn't have such a robust magic item economy? What if the players themselves have to take the initiative to research and create magic items themselves? Or what if they want a specific, custom magic item that does not and never has existed in their setting? Why do you think Wizards build towers in the first place? It's because they need space they can explore and perfect their magic.

[@osiriszoran2304]

I read this in mat colvilles voice.

[@grailchaser]

This is what I used to love about Rolemaster. There were extensive charts for goods and you could commission the manufacture of magical items that cost the price of small kingdoms.

[@xelaphalon5805]

By the end of the Tomb of Annihilation, my group had 50K gold, so I let them purchase and upgrade an airship. Sunk about 35K into it for safe, reliable fast travel. They paid a captain well to let him operate the ship for his own trade while they were adventuring just so long as he came to their beck and call when they wanted to go somewhere and found them potions. They bought a few magic items and most of their money was gone. My other group, money is scarce enough that we track day to day living expenses, but not so scarce that they aren't able to go live the high-life in town for a night or two and stay at the luxurious inn overlooking the ocean and carouse with the nobility to build up their names.

[@NickLandry]

Don't know what to do with gold? Easy! Play in The D&D Adventurers League and you won't have any gold to worry about.

[@stkaris]

Or just adopt their rules and limitations for in in-house world. One my players said they actually feel bad about having or acquiring magic items. Hehehe. I think they're just afraid of making the Persuasion roll.

[@buttmunchmcnugget328]

I have never played in adventure league so i dont understand? Do they not use/give out gold/items?

[@johnspencer7838]

They give gold, at least in season8 They actually use TCp. (Treasure check points) I actually don't mind these ( it gives a hard cost for some items, which is something the dmg doesnt)

[@NickLandry]

@@buttmunchmcnugget328 In a nutshell, since the season 8 changes, you earn NOTHING from the adventures. If you find/loot gold in the story, nothing is kept on your character at the end. You ONLY earn treasure points at a rate of 1-4 per adventure, and then spend them on magic items. The lowest items cost 8-16 treasure points. You only get gold when you level up, which is 75 gold for levels 2-4, 550 gold for levels 5-10, etc. That's it. You can also trade your precious treasure points for a measly 50gp/point. So if you're a class that needs a lot of gold, you're screwed. I play a wizard and I simply cannot afford to buy spell scrolls or even transcribe them. And forget about buying expensive spell components.

[@buttmunchmcnugget328]

Hmm, certainly different. I dont even know of any place near me that does Adventure League so ill probably never have to worry about it. It does certainly seem like something that makes some characters lives difficult

[@jemm113]

Whenever our DM would try to blindside us when we became complacent, you'd bet Morgan, the druid with 42 passive perception would find and almost immediately solve the problem with T-Rexes and/or stupid massive healing ( the passive was more so in the low to mid 30s before hitting endgame, with around a 13 to 22 bonus for the skill between him coming in and the campaign ending). And he was built on accident, at least the healing part, his player REALLY wanted a stupid perception and passive.

[@thehulkster9434]

A lot of this comes down to what the DM is actually going to make available. It's hard to spend thousands of gold pieces when you are always on the move and there are no shops where you can acquire anything of use to a mid to high level character. In order to make gold valuable, I think there are a few things to keep in mind - 1. The DM does control the rate a which players get gold. If they have so much gold they never have to worry about running low, that means you may have made it too readily available. On the other hand, if they never have the gold for anything beyond basic sustenance, that is also (probably) on the DM. 2. There needs to be time to spend gold, especially with high level parties in worlds where there isn't a magic shop in every town. Strongholds are no use without downtime, and you can't even really build them without a bit of downtime. 3. Allow them to sometimes use gold on something useful for the character sheet. Some people will be all in on having a statue of themselves made, or starting a guild, or building a stronghold, but not everyone wants to engage with that side of the game. Maybe there isn't a magic shop, and you shouldn't be able to buy legendary artifacts, but there should be an opportunity for players to spend gold on gear that they've been wanting. Not in the sense of giving them more power than a player who wanted to build a castle with their gold instead, but at least in the sense that they will get something to add a bit of cool flavor to their character. I'm not generally in favor of trying to force players to spend gold on a lot of minor stuff that provides little benefit to them other than "they don't try and kill you." Maybe I just don't care for that style of game, but I tend to feel that treasure should feel like a reward rather than a burden, and the more you try to weigh the players down with costs, the more they are going to try to find ways of getting around said costs.

[@pacattack2586]

1: The issue with what your saying here is everything in 5th ed either costs very little so you have to give players nothing but exactly what they need, or ALL OF THE GOLD - you want a house/plot it costs ALL OF THE GOLD, you want a nice +1 sword so that you can get on with your life without having to deal with the BS of enemies that are immune to non magical weapons so that you can have a +1 sword - in spite of being able to sell it, you can't buy it... There is no in-between costs where a pc can go "Oh I need this fairly expensive thing" (And this is keeping in mind a +1 used to be 1000 gold... because in D&D that is a low-middle cost...) you either have no money and can get only the essentials or enough that you don't have to worry about money ever again because there is NOTHING to spend it on between 100-10000 gold... 2: See issue one with even building a stronghold in the first place - there needs to be things you can put gold towards that isn't all of the gold... 3: Yes all of the yes - Please allow us to buy at the very least +1 weapons and +1 armor and some useful magical trinkets - Again something that's a middle cost - heck a lot of 3e non weapon/armors could fit here (You want to go a little faster that will be 10k for +10 speed) it's not a huge boost - it's noticable in combat sometimes but it's a mild boost ... if nothing else I want the non-weapon/armor from 3rd back (Plus again the +1 for ALL the enemies immune to non magical damage...) and PURCHASABLE because a lot of those are really minor conveniences...

[@mikegould6590]

When I played, I wanted a stronghold, an army, and all that There was never enough gold for more than splint mail When I DMed, my players never cared about money. They wanted cool magic items and to attract followers.

[@everybodytogether5532]

Running my first long term campaign [8 months in!] I threw a ton of gold early on with the expectation that as they explore and shape the world theyd find things to buy. Man oh man. They invested in mining. They run an inquisistion and are a power rivaled by kingdoms. I love my players

[@Darknight4434]

What to do with your gold? Oh thats quite easy fella companion. A simple keep isn't good enough, your wizard needs a high tower to look upon the stars and fill it with books, scrolls and amulets. Your druid needs to make an entire forest grow outside of it to build their place and make it secrect and a bit protected. The architects required ro make your own dungeon filled with traps beneath is quite expensive, nd your wealth on magic items need more magic items to be protected, all that while training your own militia, and who knows, maybe build a tribe of barbarians or a theives guild just for the sake of it. So... protect your expensive shit In a forest, inside a keep, beneath a tower, filled with traps, and arcane sigils... good lord I went far on this

[@FrostJarl]

You're forgetting the rogue buying/opening a brothel as a front for their information gathering and brokering operation

[@milesmatheson1142]

I was today years old when I realized that every "dungeon" I've ever raided, was just another adventuring parties homestead...

[@coolnamebro7363]

ey its back before i thought of an idea of a air genasi monk who doesent need to eat drink sleep or breath and just be constantly squalid.

[@abouttime837]

slowly on your way to warforged glory

[@vedymin1]

Better to live with an empty purse than to die with a full one :) ....so don't go cheap on useful gear :)

[@Quandry1]

Gear actually isn't as important in 5e for the most commonly played levels. Though at the highest levels that does change somewhat.

[@livedandletdie]

What are you a fool, save your gold for a rainy day, or a retirement home in the elemental plane of Fire or something... spending your money on a shitty sword is a waste of money. Go rogue, join the baddies and rob the corpses of adventurers of their gold, pile it up, buy yourself a nice house, fool more adventurers into their doom... Set up a store that sells adventurer's gear, for cheap, when the adventurers die, fix the gear up and resell it. The monsters get lunch and you get rich.

[@Coid]

@@Quandry1 Even at the highest levels, you're probably not going to be whipping out a spyglass all that often.

[@palexinchina]

I've never considered starting an oyster farm to harvest pearls...definitely doing that in my next game.

[@TheCinderfang]

If you are a terrible person healing magic could help.

[@jordanwilliams8994]

My neutral evil character was building an entire private navy (Pirate fleet) as an institution/nation. She had plenty of things to spend money on. Got a hold of an infinite flask. Put a rare, fine spirit from a defunct dwarven distillery in it. Profit. The plan was to always have a crewmate filling barrels to be stored on one of her three ships (gotta start somewhere right?) and these would act as the retirement fund for all senior members of the different crews. She also had a project to get necklaces of stabilization for all officers and a few rotating ones for like, an employee of the month kind of thing. I think eventually she would have gone into real-estate, protections and venture capital, with her own private banks. She had just defeated an undead fleet, and a squadron of dark elf submariners, to save the seas from dominion of a merwurm overlord, and I think her next step would have been to become an official privateer for a select two or three benefactors (she was personal friends with a Duchess and a baroness). From her perspective, there was no crisis so urgent that it wasn't worth doing a risk-benefit analysis to determine if it was worth getting involved. She had plenty to spend her money on.

[@roamingthereal4060]

I've never had the problem with too much money in D&D. I spend like a Lannister.

[@morganonstott97]

I did in my last campaign! My DM also realized he was giving us too much money. I was at level 14 after playing for almost 2 years. I ended up with like 3,000 gold that I only spent on magic items. I ended up getting complimented on being the smartest spender with the best items. But every time I tried to get rid of my money, it wouldn't work.... in our new campaign I am missing my previous character's magic items

[@Quandry1]

@@morganonstott97 I played with a guy who did a bard that was always trying to throw away money gambling and drinking because he didn't need much of it, would make rolls endlessly to lose it and usually end up gaining more than he spent. He did help my mage with spell and inscribing costs though. It was kind of interesting because my rolls were kind of low by contrast.

[@morganonstott97]

@@Quandry1 my DM ended up giving us too much money in the beginning and changed the system halfway through. We ended up getting robbed but I kept my money on me so I was fine 😂

[@Quandry1]

@@morganonstott97 I myself tend to either make a character that has a lot of ambitions and goals and ways to spend money upgrading themselves so they tell themselves it's not a money sink (like magical weapons and armor which are nice to have but not entirely necessary in 5e.) Or need very little money and find other ways to squirrel it away and spend it that are a bit less tangible. monks are a class I enjoy for example but they tend to not need a lot of money. Even when they are something like Way of the Four Elements, which I feel is greatly misunderstood (and that many monks are resource mismanaged in general), They don't need a lot of money to actually subsist and grow stronger and have few directly combat related magical items to aid them on things like attack modifier on the sheet. But it tends to let me invest far more in a community or social standing or something else where it's hard to directly steal any of the value from it but can open a great many role playing and story hook doors for me and the group. On the other hand I'll also do things like play a warrior or Wizard which can eat up a lot of money just as they are trying to get a good weapon or the best armor, but I might add something like Inheritor on it so I'm also dumping money into researching this item that I'm carrying around to find out what it's secrets are or restoring it to it's once prestigious condition or what have you. Which one just depends on the group and my mood and the kind of character I'm making personality wise.

[@moosemax6346]

@@morganonstott97 3000 gold and lvl 14? Im lvl 4 and got 1000 gold, i may be a rouge and im trying to take all the money i can...

[@TheHammertime51]

Fixing your editing issue, remaking your thumbnails. I appreciate the professionalism and attention to detail fellas.

[@joswire44]

why did they have to change them?

[@TheHammertime51]

@@joswire44 I cant be %100 sure, the photoshop with their faces was always a bit rough and sometimes didn't translate to what they were talking about very well. Not to say it was funny a lot of the time.

[@pacattack2586]

Web DM: What do we do with our gold - I know build a stronghold Also Web DM: Make sure to send thieves, monarchs whathaveyou to the party so they can't accumulate the wealth to build a stronghold

[@JohnSmith-ox3gy]

That's how the mafia works.

[@charlottewalnut3118]

And that is when the party decides to become the kings

[@Team_Orchid]

Thieves guild targeting the rich PCs? Sounds like more money and experience points walking up right to the party to me.

[@Bluecho4]

Exactly. It's why the DM should use them. Obviously, the DM should give the PCs a chance to stop the theft or get their money back. But that's free adventure fodder right there.

[@JohnSmith-ox3gy]

Good rping and they become the thieves guild -___-

[@paraalso]

A smart thieves guild won't go up against an experienced party directly. Having your wealth stolen in the night can be an interesting adventure hook, though.

[@yellowbeard1]

With the group I DM for I can see the party discovering the joys of Sharia law in response to this as they start cutting off the survivors hands. Which could be an interesting end to an adventure where the party just has a collection of severed hands. Maybe I can take a page from the Belgian Congo and have a “keeper of the hands” who smokes the hands to preserve them.

[@charlottewalnut3118]

@@paraalso Yeah but what stops you from having something like a bunch of devils guard your money get past these Abishsia bitches

[@marshallscot]

Buying a motherfuckin airship obviously.

[@dasirrlicht5415]

So we need to get from A to B? Airship. Somewhere to sleep? Airship. Somewhere to store stuff? Airship. Big Entrance? Airship. You need rumors? Have a casino on your Airship.

[@RelksTheDisturbed]

Literally what my players who just hit level 20 have been dumping money into. The downside is the ancient red dragon big bad just damaged it pretty bad.

[@ymmijx6061]

@@RelksTheDisturbed i was once in a party who's end goal was to build a flying castle which would be so magically overstuffed it would have been literally impossible to beat us. my character was a shadowcraft mage(3.5 prestige class) and using various abilites i would make superreal illusions which would manifest when you did stuff around the castle. we had traps and guards and a button that when pressed dropped a wall of lava from the bottem of the castle. also our lv 20 goal was to make the castle also be able to plane shift

[@thekingofgoons]

I bought a large amount of timber then used the year of down time i had to build a *fleet of longships*

[@Quandry1]

One of my gnomes built a boring machine. Complete with magical sensors to know what was ahead of and around us at all times. It actually turned out to be hard to attack and had a number of creative advantages.

[@jamesking4736]

fighter with a huge castle: oh man, 100,000 gold well spent! wizard: oh you took over a castle well done! fighter: no I had it built, cost me a TON of gold wizard: really....you know your my friend right...why did you waste your money? fighter: CUZ I WANTED MY OWN CASTLE! Wizard: you know I can just...make them right? fighter: wait...what? Wizard: *snaps fingers and a massive castle with a 50 foot high wall shows up* oh also there are several inter interdimensional portals in a few of the rooms that also lead into there own slightly smaller mansions inside Fighter:....I hate you.

[@JohnSmith-ox3gy]

Welcome to the party plane!

[@RedeemingDemon]

What spell is this?

[@Lowraith]

@@RedeemingDemon Well, it doesn't quite have the stats that James King described, but Level 8: Mighty Fortress www.dndbeyond.com/spells/mighty-fortress Of course, it has a gp-cost spell component of a diamond worth 500 gp, and lasts 7 days. If you cast it every 7 days for a year, it becomes permanent. But that would be ~52 x 500gp = 26,000 gp (not to mention the weekly casting - and if you miss even 1 week, you have to start over, wasting the gp cost of what you'd accomplished so far). Still cheaper than 100,000 gp, but not by enough to be close to what James seemed to be implying.

[@RedeemingDemon]

@@Lowraith I thought of that spell as well, it's more the bit about portals inside linking to several other mansions. Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion could be cast from within a permanently raised Daern's Instant Fortress; but was just curious if there was an ACTUAL spell that did all the things as being described above. There's not as far as I'm aware, without multiple castings, as you pointed out, and several other spells augmenting this fortress. James King is just over-exaggerating.

[@EnnuiElpis]

Couldn’t the fighter just hire someone to cast that? Like, spellcasting services are a thing in the game. They’d probably have to go to a big city to find a wizard able to cast 8th level spells (if I recall correctly, one of the spells introduced in the laboratory of Kwalish adventure is basically a smaller version of that). The spell costs 500 go to cast because of the diamond component which is consumed by the spell. If you cast it every week for a year it becomes permanent, so that’s 25,500 go. The fighter would also need to pay the wizard’s living expenses for that entire time, so assuming that a wizard of at least 15th level lives an aristocratic lifestyle that’s at least another 510 gold, so 26,010 gp.

[@timeforsuchaword]

I don't understand how people can't find ways to spend money when the standard rate for chickens is 20k gold for 1 million. If you're truly rich you can even move up to goats.

[@davidlewis5312]

why is most of this video dedicated to the GM messing with the players and making their treasure an inconvenience INSTEAD of character ideas for using that money?

[@thebolas000]

Yes, this. I have an 11th level paladin that wouldn't care if you took all of his cash because a half hour in ye olde goblin cave would give him enough to live on for a few months. It's not like I could buy magic armor because of how 5E is set up.

[@ikaemos]

Because it's a design oversight that 5e even showers you with as much money as it does in the first place, seeing how few sinks it provides. Asking "what do they spend it on?" when most of the systems of 5e are about the power fantasy is either asking for a 3e/4e/PF economy where money buys character power (which 5e wisely decided not to do), or the creation of new systems for reputation, social capital, progression in the feudal pecking order, etc. And that's hard to design - it's easier for a real person whose power and standing is tied to their philanthropic efforts to care about and be invested in the things they bought or funded or sponsored. How do you make a player in a D&D game care about that? The core of the game is a heroic, individualistic power fantasy, which is at odds with a social power fantasy that sees you embedding deeper and deeper into a society, where your power and privilege is measured in just how tied up in everything you are, and how much _less_ of a wandering adventurer you've become. From the game's perspective, that kind of power _is_ an inconvenience - it's inconvenient to have boatloads of cash in a world where wealth is _performed,_ not possessed.

[@curtisbrown547]

This. Your pcs have to much money so instead of finding ways for them to meaningfully use it in ways that are interesting or different lets just find gimmicky ways to take it away without any real benefit besides "people dont come and try and take it from you by force" that sounds like a really good way to push pc's down the path of "fuck that shit lets just be super powerful murder hobo's" or "heh what if we just throw all our gold away since you wont let us use it to do anything anyway? Wouldnt that be funny?"

[@davidlewis5312]

@@ikaemos then why bother having rewards? 'you have defeated the ancient red dragon, here is a fistsize chunk of iron and my gratitude' boy sounds like a blast.

[@jacobford3452]

Because, at least in my experience, players don't spend their gold UNLESS it's an inconvenience NOT to do so. I can give my players all sorts of things to do with gold that will give them bonuses if they invest in it, but they only ever spend money to get rid of negatives.

[@Joechef_]

Loved the video, really helped. Me and my party toppeled a small government so we really needed ideas for how to spend it.

[@frking100]

Melt it down and make statues of yourselves all around the country.

[@claduke]

Dungeons and Dragons: Taxation is Theft edition

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

@@spagandhi no, defeat the queen and force the signing of a Magna Carta, Bill of Rights, and Constitution in exchange for not killing, or dethroning her. Basically transition her to a powerless figurehead and wealthy land owner, and form a Republic. Then found the Federal Reserve and live comfortably off of the profit you make. Don't stop thievery, become the best thieves.

[@JohnSmith-ox3gy]

TheApexSurvivor Then insinuate hegailian dialectic by creating a two party system where participating in politics on both sides drive the good of the state while blaming all the victims of greater good on the other side.

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

@@JohnSmith-ox3gy don't forget to prohibit any substance that isn't at least mildly addictive and put hefty taxes on the legal ones, which you prescribe for even the most minor issues. Use your new authority and money to buy as many of the organised criminals loyalty as possible and have them sell mainly gateway drugs to the medications you're distributing and put the most destructive ones in neighbourhoods that have "enemies of the state" in them, so you can increase authority in those regions. Nothing like a war on drugs to move those nice government salaries discreetly to an offshore account or two...

[@JohnSmith-ox3gy]

TheApexSurvivor Force the chronically sick to deal in black markets and get sold bad drugs, use this as your reason for this at the first place even tho you created it and do the civil asset forfiture dance.

[@livedandletdie]

Sounds like you guys are sad over living in America... You could try Europe for once, or why not Scandinavia where people think Taxation is good, here take 90% of my earning as taxes, nah it's fine, take it... Sweden for instance is the nation where it costs nothing to be rich, well you still have to pay income tax, but no other tax as a rich person, no property tax, no tax on donations, no hereditary taxation. Nothing that the state could use to steal your funds... However With 30% or more income tax, plus church tax, goods and service tax, and a few others, you reach around 72% that you pay in taxes here, and none of that money ever comes to benefit the people who live here.

[@IVIaskerade]

What do I spend gold in in D&D? Buying up the entire country's stock of healing potions.

[@SgtSplatter782]

or better yet, buy up a secure farm and specialize supplying the ingredients to healing potions and other stuff. Good way for my Ranger/Druid to spend her downtime and work some influence.

[@SignumInterriti]

Fellow GMs, please do not look for ways to take your players money away! If they shouldn't have it, you should not have given it to them in the first place! When they realise you want to take it away, they will rightfully get frustrated with your game. As a player, this kind of GM behaviour has ruined game economy and even things like living expenses for me permanently.

[@PhabioTheHost]

To me that is the issue with living expenses. I play a Warforged Pally. I don't eat drink or breath. I dont sleep and therefore pay 0 for living expenses. What is there to do after plate mail... Items don't have values anymore so im left with enough gold to own an island nation and yet there is nothing but GM taxes to spend it on in the actual PHB

[@joe2125]

Phabio Host you need a creative table. ive spent untold thousands on shit like building an armored battle wagon, remodeling a monk monastery that we cleared out into a resort for the aristocratic elite of the capital (which came with employee contracts, health benefits, vacation time, taxes, ect)

[@yellowbeard1]

From the way they were talking he was expecting the party to get it back in the same session. Matthew Mercer in one of his episodes had some children steal from the party while they were drunk and it led to an adventure where they got their money back, found a foster family for a child they saved, freed 2 parents jailed for little reason(from what I remember) and fought a malfunctioning construct in the bowels of a prison. There’s a difference between taking it vs keeping it. Also Matt has only done this once in campaign 2 almost 100 episodes so far.

[@mrninjadude100]

Definitely something I've been curious about while going through my first game. Super helpful! Also, Jim be lookin' slimmer lately. Good on you my man.

[@WebDM]

Good luck in your first game!!

[@csilkenat]

When it comes to social status, I tend to think that adventuring is sort of a way around the whole structure. These people are diving dungeons and slaying great evils. As individuals they have the ability to wreck small armies in many cases, and tend to have the ability to throw enough gold around to create local and even regional economic distortions. That is what adventurers are, and they have an ability to move up and down the social ladder in a way that most can't.

[@MalevolentDivinity]

There is but one thing to buy. A demiplane.

[@donniejefferson9554]

My first thing is generally to buy a cart and however many horses the dm deems necessary to pull it. Quicker travel and really helpful for moving heavy stuff at levels before there's any chance of a bag of holding. Pretty affordable too

[@AvaniDK]

Well, what we did in a Planescape campaign, was buy our local bar, then the house next to it, then the one on the other side, and so on and so forth, until we owned the entire block. Then we converted all of it (except the bar) into a school teaching everything from fighting, sneaking and magic to architecture, smithing and languages. The bar was kept open (but made a bit more fancy), and used to recruit students. It was decorated with trophies from our various adventures, which tended to make people new to Sigil drop their lower jaw (well, that and the fact that there would often be a devil drinking alongside an angel at one of the tables).

[@jerod256]

Dungeons and Dragons: Post-scarcity economy through magic.

[@JohnSmith-ox3gy]

jerod256 To accomplish this, wish for more wishes from a wish spell.

[@Coid]

The Tippyverse explored this in the 3.5 revision of 3rd Edition. I believe it was also applied over to Pathfinder 1st Edition at one point and a similar effort was made to see what was possible in 4e. I'm sure someone's tried it so far in 5e, but it hasn't pinged on my radar.

[@yellowbeard1]

Depends on how many high level casters there are and how flexible the DM is with home brewing things. A player I DM for has an artificer who is trying to make constructs that are cheap and are basically a stone version of an unseen servant but permanent and with strength 10. He wants to make them cheap enough so any middle of nowhere Village can afford at least 5 of them. Constructs have existed forever in D&D but 5E does not have any cheap constructs average villages can buy.

[@procrastinatinggamer]

The talk about a wealth save sounds a lot like how Rogue Trader (one of Fantasy Flight Games’ 40k RPGs) did it - with a group-wide stat called Profit Factor.

[@roboraygun]

Yay! It’s back! And just in time to check out on the long commute home!

[@WebDM]

Have a good trip!

[@WisdomThumbs]

Actually, dung collectors (“gong farmers”) were typically well paid when they followed the rules.

[@AGrumpyPanda]

A lot of those terrible jobs were really well paid because they were such terrible jobs.

[@aqualust5016]

Yall addressed so many things I need to incorporate into my setting, thanks!

[@connor89385]

This pretty much sums up the past two years of the campaign. Party: Gets gold but what to spend it on. Fighter: All the armor, weapons and useful gear available. Bard: A nice hat.

[@Lowraith]

I personally love the idea of encouraging the party to spend gold and downtime to learn things or gain new abilities, similar to what you mentioned doing with languages back in the day. For 5e, that could mean spending time and gold during very long downtimes to buy your character Feats. A Fighter could learn Ritual Caster, or Initiate, by paying the party Wizard or the local Magic College or Temple a huge amount of money (some for tutelage, some for materials) and months or a year of practice, and come out the other side having permanently acquired the ability to cast Ritual spells, or some cantrips, without having to spend any character levels on multiclassing. Same goes for a Wizard paying and practicing to learn Medium or Heavy Armor proficiency feats. Or paying for special courses to gain Spellsniper. You could purchase supplies and pay instructors to gain proficiency in a language or skill. Train body, mind or spirit to gain a proficiency in an additional saving throw. You might even allow the players to pay a huge amount of money and spend a long period of time learning and following exercise, study, or discipline to increase an attribute by 1 point. This would be a huge motivator (tangible character advancement) for party members to seek out and accumulate treasures, and the DM could control the availability and pace of this kind of learning by making them take so long that players could only choose one or maybe two things to focus on at a time over the course of one or more stretches of downtime. Downtime between adventures is also a fairly controllable and finite resource doled out by the DM.

[@therealGibralter]

I ran into that problem in Adventure League running Tomb of Annihilation. My monk got talked into betting on the dinosaur races and through the luck of the dice won over 5k in gold. Which sucked because in AL you literally can not buy anything worth while. Ended the campaign a wealthy man that didn't need to buy anything. 😣

[@PhabioTheHost]

Yeah this is the problem that the 20 minute long video gave no answers to. in fact all their suggestions were on how to steal money from players and waste their fucking time. Because the real answer is that there is NOTHING to spend money on after a certain point.

[@marshallscot]

You could always do the Dark Souls approach where your XP is also your currency.

[@angelusmortis8142]

Okay, but then the game runs the risk of becoming too easy. I'm running a homebrew engine for a campaign were credits and XP can be interchanged. So then one of the players started with a megacorperation backing him financially. And he payrolled all the other players so none of them will be low on credits again. The system I run is very much unquantified. It's perfect for those who want to say "there's nothing in the rules that say I can't do this, so therefore I can do it." The party, short of a major financial crash in game, will be rich for life.

[@TheMightyFraser]

It's not just from Dark Souls. Gold for XP was literally what older DnD editions used to do. The only way to level up was to spend gold.

[@jloren4647]

Wow, Jim! Looking good! Looking energetic and vibrant. Keep it up!

[@TheRoloSound]

This is why all my characters have hobbies or passions. Spending gold becomes pretty easy once you need to feed a quirk. So, my advice to others is to advise your players to give their characters hobbies/passions/addictions. I currently have a character that is obsessed with keeping his bow in good working order (even if literally no mechanics cause my bow to deteriorate), so I'm always making sure he has some kind of oil/polish on him to keep the wood from being exposed to humid climates or becoming stiff/brittle in dry climates. My DM sells me the oil/polish through proper merchants, giving me a specific "number of uses" and I spend every single long rest maintaining my bow (when I run low, I buy more). At the same time, that same character enjoys making tea. It has become a bit of a ritual for my character to make tea for the whole party, so I spent money on a metal "teapot" and constantly buy tea (the prices vary depending on the type and quality of the tea) because after having run out of tea two sessions into the campaign it had already become expected of my character to have tea available for the party. Seriously, while spending your gold on mechanically satisfying equipment is nice and all, spending your money to inject deep character interests is AMAZING. I never thought I would say "We need more money or we won't have tea tomorrow," and hear the response, "No tea?! We have to kill something and sell its hide!" from the party's super passive and eco-crazy Druid. TL;DR Let your players know that having hobbies/passions that can cost money is a great way to spend gold while elevating gameplay.

[@noblegame4189]

I have a dwarf whose acquisition of wealth was the point. Made a hoard. Never enough.

[@joshuarichardson6529]

That was a thing in Norse mythology. Fafnir collected a pile of gold coins, and his own greed turned him into a dragon. He spent all his time guarding his collection, until slain by Siegfried.

[@VBadBaboon]

Strongholds and Followers by Matt Colville is a great way to fight this problem.

[@whowasibeing]

A stronghold will eat your gold like no other.

[@OrangeRising]

I built an establishment. It generated gold. I invested that gold back into the stronghold. It now generates even more gold. I now have a fort, standing army, and the start of my own town to rule over.

[@adreabrooks11]

I couldn't disagree more - though I'll refrain from unasked-for critique. The rules for constructing a keep were worth looking at, though.

[@VBadBaboon]

@@adreabrooks11 Was it the rules for getting and keeping a stronghold that didn't do anything for you or something else?

[@dylanlewis3038]

I like the idea of your character’s gear being a sign of their wealth or reputation. My brother and I recently made new characters for Curse of Strahd. He’s a Lawful Good Half-Elf Paladin with the Acolyte background. He was sent out by his Church to fight evil and spread their gospel, so he was given the best equipment the Church could spare (Chainmail, Warhammer, Shield). My Lawful Neutral Human (Magic Initiate) Fighter is a mercenary soldier (Soldier Background). His Mercenary Guild (Silver Stars) supplies members with training in various combat and magic techniques, but members must pay for their own gear. He is armed with a longsword, a dagger, two throwing axes and a longbow. His armor is leather. I plan to go Eldritch Knight, eventually get Plate Armor and become some kind of Medieval Iron Man.

[@michaelcross7665]

Interesting video, definitely have always felt that we end up getting too much gold from our adventures with nothing to actually spend it on. Really digging the idea of a parade though

[@bmcgivrn]

For inspiration on how to spend your surplus gold, I would recommend the Strongholds & Domains section of the Adventurer, Conquerer, King tabletop game. A wealth of information there!

[@roamingthereal4060]

"What gold?" Said every AL player....

[@fpanch0]

I get paid in fake TCP

[@johnspencer7838]

What's going on? I ran season 8, you get gold,tcp and acp. TCP did something that the dmg couldnt, give costs that are relatable to items.

[@Tmanowns]

"You guys are getting paid?"

[@comma1737]

It was problematic when you reached higher levels and oh this spell needs 5000 gp worth of gems on a statue.....guess I'm spending a lot of downtime working to make a living.

[@aylameridian]

Gets a like just for that opening bit. Love it.

[@TwoGoblinsInATrenchCoat]

17:00 "Where did you get all this money?" " Simple." replies the Adventurer. "I found it in a cave over there."

[@cannastartover1720]

I just went back to gold for xp. I feel knowing how a player spends their money is a shortcut to getting to know the characters. Works for my game, good luck everyone

[@mordiveer5957]

So good i can watch it twice.

[@vallettapetracyneran8587]

I actually was part of a D&D where when traveling there was a solid Highway system. Travel times were cut in half and you were protected from bandits but you had to pay the tolls.

[@jacobsipes]

"...just walk around with their sacks hanging out...gold-laden." Thanks, Pruit.

[@hairyheartsmith8513]

By the power of Grayskull. That's a DM screen.

[@WebDM]

Thank you Dwarven Forge!!

[@MrGorn25]

Well I would think if it was more of a Medieval setting, to reward the players with Lands and Titles instead of gold for the most part. Something that perhaps gives them the feeling of being powerful without having to throw around money, perhaps even have things come up where nobles or just under the noble title trying to arrange a marriage to their son or Daughter to further your influence?

[@Quanefel]

My old character invested his wealth to begin the process of building an empire. Building better roads, colleges & basic educational structure, basic healing "hospitals", building a airship fleet for defense and better trade options, etc. As well as moving towards development of my own spelljammer helms to explore the spheres. It all worked out better than expected.

[@Freelancer4tehwin]

My recommendations for using gold, if you don't choose to reduce how much you award, are very similar: Require living expenses, and tie it to social access. If you're making a squalid living, that's great, but it means your clothes aren't in the best shape, that you're not as clean as could be, et cetera; all of that factors into who will talk to you and how. And have it be that you can't change things on a whim. If you want to go from squalid to wealthy, you have to transition through poor, modest, and comfortable to reflect that change. And, when you're wealthy, maybe you can schedule appointments with other wealthy folks, but when your poor, you have to buy an appointment with an underling. When you're squalid, you can talk to the dung-collector as an equal, when you're comfortable, the collector is more reticent to be totally honest for fear they'll say something wrong. And maybe your rouge lives "poor" with large gold reserves, and your bard is wealthy, and they each have their contacts, but can't be seen together in public because it'll muck-up their status. If they have proficiency in performance, or another business, make them make those checks. Force them during "off time" to make a check for every week, and tie that into their access; after all, if they never roll less than a 25, they're probably performing at high-class venues and famous in their art, or they're making swords for officers and not line infantry and known in senior military circles. They'll also be local to a region most likely. Force them, if they're going to smith or bowyer, or such to have a workshop, to pay rent or taxes and so on. Re-introduce the ongoing expenses for an established life. And also introduce competition. If they suddenly show up and muscle in on the local tenor's residency at Ye Olde Internationale Hotelle, maybe that person hires a contract killer to try and bump the PC off (which is a great way to support one-on-one sessions, and let the player flex their skills and their world tools in isolation, or a chance for the group to have an impromtu adventure without all their stuff set-up just right. Is your wizard enchanting a bunch of stuff for their job? Whelp, they don't have those spell slots while they're saving the bard!) Force them to have longer down time. Sure, maybe they can get a short rest in an hour and a long rest after a solid night's sleep, but non-stop adventuring takes its toll too; have them gain exhaustion if they're on a battle footing, or traveling at a fast pace, or what have you for days on end. Have their life-style covers their home expenses, but not food for travel, or maintenance on a horse, so that they might have to plan ahead for the costs of travel. Have time-critical adventures, so they need to rely on things like healing potions and one-use items more often. At the same time, have plots that take time, so they have down time. Have banks, where they have to just pay to store their riches. Or have the PCs run a bank, and have them figure out what kinds of loans they give out. Have tolls, and travel costs. Most adventurers aren't Nobles, so have laws that introduce burdens on the player. Have them pay to access the halls of power. They might finagle an audience with a king because of the climax of an adventure, but that doesn't mean they're important enough afterward to get the king's ear again. Make it so, if they want to access the highest circles, they need to have the prestige to match. If their backgrounds provide a benefit like a sailor always finding passage, limit it. After all, the sailor who is always grousing a free ride soon becomes disliked. Use "favour points" where they can use a favour, but might have to re-earn it. And re-earning it can be as simple as coming back after the adventure and paying the captain, or sending them a valuable or novel artifact as a gift. Reward players for getting to know a character. If they're talking to someone to get a free ride, and they look around the cabin and see a bunch of small wood carvings from different cultures, then maybe a 100gp a head trip for 5 can be repaid if with a 50gp fine carving by a master carver, brought as thanks (which, yeah, saves them coin, but fleshes out the idea of owing favours and such) With property: Maybe you have the players build a temple, and that gives them access to information, because a small temple gathers hear-say for the local area, and a grand temple might get news from afar, and become a local hub of the faith. Building a library might give a wizard access to traveling arcanists and reduce the difficulty in finding a spell to add to their book. If you run with books outside the PHB for spells, maybe those spells aren't available without either traveling to distant lands, or enticing distant travelers to come to your lands. And, if you're rich and you want to have better intel from the common folk, hold festivals and feast-days.

[@Quandry1]

Something like the sailors background actually has a cost that is ignored. First. It only works for that character. Second. That free trip is probably a "working" trip meaning they aren't so free to have downtime on the trip. The background that provides food and board is similar. Being usually only for that character and coming with duties or activities to perform for the faithful while there. And these activities don't have to mean they get any monetary compensation because their compensation is that place to stay or the ship taking on the costs of supplying for that extra hand on ship. If they skimp on those duties then I fully support them suffering for it, and requiring valuable reparations and efforts to fix their reputation and get them back.

[@TheNerdySimulation]

This problem is why the last two characters I had would throw it around carelessly when the rest of the party hoarded it like Dragons. I think taking the idea that was presented here in the video of having "Lifestyle Expenses" and actually attaching certain mechanical effects to it, or restricting access to particular downtime activities based on which Lifestyle you take on. This will make the players care about their gold and how they spend it even more, since they are seeing actual consequences to their actions rather than fluffs of descriptions.

[@Marchanman]

I see a random D&D video on my recommended lists, click on it. notice those dimly lit orange pipe lights in the back. then the couch then the book case, then it hits me. oh shit, i rented this studio a couple months back for a shoot! what a small world! good show guys!

[@WebDM]

We love Hawgfly!!! Glad you liked the show!

[@AEB1066]

Things I've managed to get my players to reluctantly fork out the gold for. Fines. Transport. Research by sages. Hirelings. Allies who need cash (gave GP to players when they were poor, now expect a lot back). Setting up a safe base in the wilds (no long rests unless the patrols keep the owlbears in check). But mostly I don't hand out huge amounts of coin. Treasure is often assorted loot - gear, supplies, household stuff - and the players let others haul it off to market.

[@andrewwestfall65]

I gave my group a rundown bar as their first major quest reward. They expanded it out, added an inn, a stage, expanded the kitchen, added in a guild hall. This has been increasing the size of their town, and they're planning on purchasing siege weaponry and such

[@diehardskeptic]

In the longest running campaign I played in, we were all really entrepreneurial. We found a small town, where we had a mishap with some magic beans (a number of mishaps actually). This left half the town in ruins and some brand new pyramids where some stores and the local tavern had once stood. We quickly bought up the land, cleared out the pyramids and converted them to a home base and a new tavern we named "The Pointy Bit". After that we became the town benafactors and all our treasure went to building it up and defending it. Over time the town grew as refugee communities moved in, so there was always more building and planning and gold to spend. It was a lot of fun.

[@TheMerrox]

My groups love downtime, "gold spending" and a little micro managing on the side of the actual games. In my longer campaigns my players have invested in stores, taverns, merchant ships, mines, thief guilds, wizard acadamys, pirate fleet, mercenary companys, outposts, keeps, temples and even villages and a great city which they rule over from "behind the curtains". We have had political intrigues and even wars between their city and neighbouring cities and small kingdoms and even between a couple of the players, trying to outmanouvering eachother on a "game of throne" kind of powerplay. Its A LOT more work as GM, but totally worth it if you dont mind it. We have had a blast and a lot of awesome scenarios and memories!

[@slikshot6]

some weird editing on this episode.... however that aside I thought there were some great ideas tossed around here!

[@LakeVermilionDreams]

Yeah, I noticed the same thing, maybe their normal editor has the day off

[@daddyp1877]

Simply put... Scrooge Mcduck style gold piece swimming pool

[@JacksonOwex]

Hey I watch Family Guy, I know how that works out ;)

[@daddyp1877]

John Willis Peter forgot to rage first. Rookie mistake

[@charlottewalnut3118]

@@JacksonOwex My Dragonborn can do it

[@kelleymcmahan6457]

Goblin chariot races. The chariots are drawn by feral war boars and charioteers are allowed one single hand weapon of their choice.

[@BRoyce69]

On the note of gold being heavy/cumbersome, dangerous to carry, etc. as well as fitting in with the video's theme: Consider having banking institutions to hold the gold in an account for a membership price with like atm style fees on the non home branch withdraws. You could have the bank automate their taxes, living expenses and stuff included in their branch's fee. It makes the individual sink ideas into one money-sink with a decent explanation, and actual perceived positives over the alternatives (if the taxes, fees etc are omnipresent in the world regardless of PCs banking or not.)

[@Viktor16161616]

Used plant growth after I made a deal with a vineyard owner. Got me almost half a million gold. Made some upgrades to our ship, bought 5 wands of magic missile and some other cheap stuff. Accidentally removed the character from play by unwise use of a wish. The other PC spent 11 years of downtime getting rid of that huge pile of cash and still had around 80k left when we introduced my next character. Was good fun. Just two weeks ago all but 9 1k diamonds were lost when his character put a bag of holding into another bag of holding to save the rest of us from a vampire. We got him back last week and made two simulacrums. So 6 gems left. The heritage of Ebaldir Elegan still lives on so far.

[@bunklewis5543]

10 mins in and all they've talked about is how *IF* you have a lavish lifestyle, you can maybe spend some of your gold there..

[@mintayayy27]

Around 15 minutes and up are really good ideas

[@PhabioTheHost]

@@mintayayy27 Meh. Its all about how to steal players wealth rather than give players good things to do with it.

[@egirlSkeletor]

If you're looking for a mechanical system for having lots of gold, maintaining an organization/building/etc. Strongholds and Followers is pretty rad.

[@lukehoward3087]

I need a reaction gif of Jim wiggling his eyebrows at the camera.

[@Dorian_sapiens]

i.imgflip.com/32yc25.gif

[@scottmcarthur207]

Is that a Crown Royal bag for dice? Classic. Loved 1st Ed using tons of gp for training etc

[@Oguzalp97]

Tattoos, Keeps, Shops/Business, Ornate Fluff Armour, Drugs, Fine Wine, Land, Workers, Books and many others things, Charity, Our GM tries to make those things interesting and works them into the story

[@Fetch26291]

cleaner of latrines(cesspits) = Gongfarmer or Nightsoilman

[@AGrumpyPanda]

I remember when I first heard "gong farmer" back before I had double digits, and I thought they grew musical instruments.

[@headintheclouds926]

When Joe nods at the camera, that really killed me

[@alkirk6]

One of my favorite campaigns I played in, My DM designed a world wide Banking system. Where you could actually deposit your collected valuables and money in a bank account. So long as you were in a MAJOR CITY CENTER. The bank owners/operators were a clan of dwarves. With the Bank, after you amassed a certain amount in your account, (I think it was 100,000 GP) you could actually accrue 1% yearly interest.

[@thune4944]

Fantastic video guys!!!!

[@efraim3364]

spent most of my gold on Ale and wenches, then like an idiot i squandered the rest

[@jimmystyles670]

Prodical son much?

[@aarondavis7391]

Well said!

[@cmstone5178]

You're doing the lords work Trav.

[@devinanni8117]

The problem with 5th edition is all of the interesting things comes from your class. If a dm is to stingy with doling out levels you are going to get bored with what you can do.

[@astramancer]

There was an old marvel superheros system that handled wealth in an interesting way. Basically you had a wealth rating (ranging from "abject poverty" to "most nations have nothing on you") and you made a roll to determine if you could actually afford to do the thing. If your wealth was poverty you'd need a really good roll to order pizza, whereas ultra-wealthy couldn't even fail to buy a car.

[@kynandesouza]

ending was great and totally unexpected!

[@shallendor]

My Pathfinder character spends some of his money buying a silent partnership in some Inns, to provide a bit of income and as boltholes in case something happens.