Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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That is true to an extent, but the opposite side of the equation isn't: the cost of living and the buying value of the local currency changes quite a bit. You'll have a substantial difference with what you can buy with the same amount of gold in Monaco vs Zimbabwe. D&D doesn't do that and just assumes that all goods and services cost the same amount everywhere in the world because it's not trying to simulate any sort of real economy.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Mostly what causes fluctuations in precious metal prices are fluctuations in supply, if a large amount of gold suddenly enters the economy, the price of gold will drop dramatically. There's no particular reason to think that gold is equally common in D&D as it is in the real world, and fairly strong reason to think it isn't (for example, in D&D gold is 100x the cost of copper. The real world ratio varies but is never that low; at the time I'm checking gold is 9400x as expensive per unit weight).
The D&D economy is very very simplified. Because......
But that does not mean that in your games it has to stay that way.
At one point in England the King set ALL prices. The merchants were not allowed to charge more or less for any goods.
This worked great for the common man. Prices didn't change. But neither did his pay. It stagnated and fixed the classes into place. The common man had almost no chance of getting into the merchant class. The common man was not allowed to import a good and price his goods below the merchants already in business. Its how the ruling class kept their power.
Today is Sunday February 23. 2025. According to several commodities websites, gold is currently trading for $95.13 per gram. There are 453.592 grams per US pound. So 1 US pound of gold costs $43,150.2096. D&D says coins weigh 50 per pound. So 1 gp = $863. 1 sp = $86.30. 1 cp = $8.63.
So a blanket, or a day's rations, would cost $431.50. A dagger, or a shovel, would cost $1,726. A longsword would cost about $13,000. Plate armor would cost about $1.3 million. And a galley would cost about $26 million. For reference, $26.9 million would buy you the "Black Legend", a 50 meter award-winning Italian super yacht. It has a top speed of 35 knots, and boasts VIP accommodations for 10, two bars, a gym, a cinema, a private office, a DJ booth, and a garage for two chase boats or jetskis.
Fortunately none of that matters because D&D is a fantasy game. I'm just sayin'... I know how I'm gonna spend my next 30,000 gp.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
In 2026, I'd say 1 gp = $50. I typically take several historical prices into consideration like bread, ale, common wages. I tend to use medieval pricing while considering there is some magic afoot. I also take into account that most people in the middle ages were subsistence farmers--90% plus. Id say bread and ale were cheaper back then then it is today comparative to other things, especially ale, as most ale was like todays N/A beer with only .5% to 3% (leaning towards 2%). It was called small beer, table beer, or table ale. Everyone drank it a lot including little kids because it was sanitary. So really there should be 2 prices for ale, maybe 1 or 2 cp for small beer and 4 cp for common regular ale. Farmers typically made their own ale and bread. City folk quite often bought their bread due to cooking constraints. With that being said. bread and ale were cheaper because everyone was making it, so the profit margins were on the low side. I still double the cost for most items' price when in doubt, so you have to ask yourself is this wholesale/manufacturing price or retail price. I read the trade goods table as being retail, so I have most of that stuff if I'm considering what the manufacturing cost is. Back in 2014 when the first 5e books came out I would've said $35 to $40, but definitely $50 today. There are definitely some bad prices in the PHB/DMG but this is the best amount I've come up with. On a side note, I can't stand all those damn supplement books with common inns being 2gp, 5pg, 8gp, or even 12gp a night!! I suspect on my scale the PHB is fairly correct with a basic small room being 4sp to 1gp a night, while an open common sleeping room being a few copper to a silver. I would think as a valued patron, and you rent all month, you may get an average room for 4sp/night or even 10gp/month if you pay ahead. remember a normal room was not normal to have as poor people with was a majority of the population would have slept in a common room with a floor mat or shared a bed in a room with a few to several beds. "Rich" people like run of the mill merchants would never have typically splurged 1gp a night, but would've opted for a lodging that is a step above a large common room, but even typically a shared room with shared beds. Workers would typically make the equivalent of 2sp as used in the PHB, but that most likely did not include room/board which was a big deal; the wage could then be perhaps 1sp/day. Most workers would have been migrant farm hands from surrounding areas looking for farm work. Hope this helps.