Hey fellow DMs. I was wondering what is the general consensus on the pricing of items in the core rules? I've always found it weird that you can buy a draft horse for 50GP, which is the same price as a basic healing potion, a chain shirt, scale male, etc. Or that a four ounce vial of acid that does 2d6 damage is the same price as a book and holy water, but that's also the same price as a whole disguise kit. Or even thinking that book (or vial of acid or flask of holy water) is half the price of a draft horse. Or that a magnifying glass is the price of two draft horses. Why is a poison vial that only does 1d4 damage double the price of the vial of acid that does 2d6 damage? I know we can talk about accessibility of some of it, but it seems really weird to me.
Is this something that a lot of you guys have a weird concept of? Is it a me thing? I feel like I'm struggling to give my players enough loot and gold because one thing seems low in price but then something I'd value as similar is way higher (or vice versa).
Prices are more about game balance than economics. It’s keeping some things out of the hands of lower level characters, while things with minimal mechanical impact they don’t worry about.
Prices are more about game balance than economics. It’s keeping some things out of the hands of lower level characters, while things with minimal mechanical impact they don’t worry about.
It's not just that. Poison for example is expensive to create the image that it's an illicit substance, similarly a spy glass is expensive to show it as a luxury good.
There's not a great correlation between cost and power.
I think this is helping me conceptualize it better. For me a spy glass doesn't seem super luxurious but once I step back and think of the fantasy context, it makes more sense. I still think some of the pricing seems wild but this has helped me a lot, thank you!
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Hey fellow DMs. I was wondering what is the general consensus on the pricing of items in the core rules? I've always found it weird that you can buy a draft horse for 50GP, which is the same price as a basic healing potion, a chain shirt, scale male, etc. Or that a four ounce vial of acid that does 2d6 damage is the same price as a book and holy water, but that's also the same price as a whole disguise kit. Or even thinking that book (or vial of acid or flask of holy water) is half the price of a draft horse. Or that a magnifying glass is the price of two draft horses. Why is a poison vial that only does 1d4 damage double the price of the vial of acid that does 2d6 damage? I know we can talk about accessibility of some of it, but it seems really weird to me.
Is this something that a lot of you guys have a weird concept of? Is it a me thing? I feel like I'm struggling to give my players enough loot and gold because one thing seems low in price but then something I'd value as similar is way higher (or vice versa).
Prices are more about game balance than economics. It’s keeping some things out of the hands of lower level characters, while things with minimal mechanical impact they don’t worry about.
It's not just that. Poison for example is expensive to create the image that it's an illicit substance, similarly a spy glass is expensive to show it as a luxury good.
There's not a great correlation between cost and power.
I think this is helping me conceptualize it better. For me a spy glass doesn't seem super luxurious but once I step back and think of the fantasy context, it makes more sense. I still think some of the pricing seems wild but this has helped me a lot, thank you!