Would it be okay to have a level 1 character with a backstory as a rich spoiled brat?
They have no experience or strong abilities, but they come from a wealthy family that has procured, identified, collected and bankrolled the acquisition of many magic items over generations. Their family has all the money in the world (not literally of course) and therefore, all the magic items, up through rare and even a few very rare items (maybe a single legendary, eh?) heavily guarded by power and magic in large fortresses spread across the land.
The young player wants to break free from their mundane life of bonbons and servants and go on adventures. Of course, they are equipped with all the toys, like a new batman on day 1 with access to all the gadgets:
What are the best magic items to take? (ones that would thwart kidnapping or theft too) Rings, wands, amulets, boots, helms, scrolls, weapons, armor, potions, etc. The player brings this extensive collection of magic items (many not requiring attunement) and has previously attuned to 3 items (the max, I think) before seeking out the "party of adventurers".
If I walked into a game with this character, would DMs allow it? If not, why?
If other players in the party cry foul, the player invites them to their nearest mansion and equips them with everything they could desire (on loan of course).
As a DM, I might let the character come in with any number of expensive and powerful consumables... Superior Healing potions, Beads of Force, Feather Tokens, crazy strong potions of Giant Strength or whatever. Let them make a splash, throwing around their over the top equipment from their household, but over time those items will use up in a way that benefits the entire party while leaving that player no more or less powerful than any of their teammates. However, letting them start with permanent +1 items (or even stronger permanent items) just invites jealousy from teammates, and also will lead to boredom for that player, because none of the new loot the party comes across will be "for" them, since they already have as good or better gear that they tailored for themselves at creation.
Or, let them start with stuff, and then take it away with plot shenanigans down the road!
Would it be okay to have a level 1 character with a backstory as a rich spoiled brat?
They have no experience or strong abilities, but they come from a wealthy family that has procured, identified, collected and bankrolled the acquisition of many magic items over generations. Their family has all the money in the world (not literally of course) and therefore, all the magic items, up through rare and even a few very rare items (maybe a single legendary, eh?) heavily guarded by power and magic in large fortresses spread across the land.
The young player wants to break free from their mundane life of bonbons and servants and go on adventures. Of course, they are equipped with all the toys, like a new batman on day 1 with access to all the gadgets:
What are the best magic items to take? (ones that would thwart kidnapping or theft too) Rings, wands, amulets, boots, helms, scrolls, weapons, armor, potions, etc. The player brings this extensive collection of magic items (many not requiring attunement) and has previously attuned to 3 items (the max, I think) before seeking out the "party of adventurers".
If I walked into a game with this character, would DMs allow it? If not, why?
If other players in the party cry foul, the player invites them to their nearest mansion and equips them with everything they could desire (on loan of course).
As a DM, I would absolutely never allow this in a campaign, but if you were insistent and it was only for a goofy one-shot or something, here's what I'd offer as a take it or leave it deal:
You can start with 2d6 consumable common/uncommon magic items, and one common, one uncommon, and one rare attunable item to fill your slots. You won't have a class though (which will restrict your item choices due to attunement requirements) -- you will be a level 0 commoner, with straight 10s across the board in your stats regardless of your race, no class features, and no proficiency bonus (making skill proficiencies irrelevant).
You are a spoiled brat who has lived a life of luxury, indolence and privilege, and you have never put in the time or effort to actually get good at anything, instead just taking the easy short cut of relying on magic items. Your character will reflect that.
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I wouldn’t allow it. Or, I would allow everything except the magic items. Level 1 characters don’t have magic items, except maybe a potion of healing. As DM, I’m in charge of what loot you get, and when you get it. No way does a player get to outfit themself, let alone the whole party. Rich, spoiled brat, no problem, that can be accomplished through the noble background and role play (just don’t overdo it to the point it starts annoying other players).
What I would do is say, your parents are greatly ashamed of the way you comported yourself at the cotillion. You have been cast out onto the street until you can show you can be a functional adult. If you go out and prove yourself you may, may, be able to earn a long-term loan of one of the family’s items. For yourself, of course, not for the freak show you’ve managed to convince to help you.
Or I might let you have snuck and stole an item from the stash, but you don’t quite know what it is, or what it does.
The rich spoiled brat character or one that is used to an extremely entitled way of living is a common trope. They usually don't get any of the toys you mentioned though and have to learn the hard way how to actually be an adventurer.
Would it be okay to have a level 1 character with a backstory as a rich spoiled brat?
They have no experience or strong abilities, but they come from a wealthy family that has procured, identified, collected and bankrolled the acquisition of many magic items over generations. Their family has all the money in the world (not literally of course) and therefore, all the magic items, up through rare and even a few very rare items (maybe a single legendary, eh?) heavily guarded by power and magic in large fortresses spread across the land.
The young player wants to break free from their mundane life of bonbons and servants and go on adventures. Of course, they are equipped with all the toys, like a new batman on day 1 with access to all the gadgets:
What are the best magic items to take? (ones that would thwart kidnapping or theft too) Rings, wands, amulets, boots, helms, scrolls, weapons, armor, potions, etc. The player brings this extensive collection of magic items (many not requiring attunement) and has previously attuned to 3 items (the max, I think) before seeking out the "party of adventurers".
If I walked into a game with this character, would DMs allow it? If not, why?
If other players in the party cry foul, the player invites them to their nearest mansion and equips them with everything they could desire (on loan of course).
Generally NO.
A DM typically creates a campaign in which magic items are one of the rewards for play. Magic items tend to be rare and special in most games. Your level 1 character sounds like they could be equipped with an entire campaign's worth of magic items before the game even began.
Note that offering to outfit all of the other characters with equally over the top magic items simply results in you hijacking the game and turning it into a Level 1 Monty Haul without any gameplay actually occurring.
You might be able to find a DM interested in running an over the top magic item campaign where the characters have a ridiculous amount of magic to start with ... but the DM and all the other players would have to buy into the concept as well.
The bottom line is "If I walked into a game with this character, would DMs allow it? If not, why?" the answer would usually be never - because a character massively equipped with magic items upsets the balance of every encounter a DM might have created for their campaign and telling the DM that they could give magic items to every character in the game to balance it out isn't an answer - it is a player telling the DM how to run their game to accommodate a character concept. This won't happen 99 times out of 100 ... so I would put it in the never category :)
P.S. There is nothing wrong with the background character concept itself - but don't expect the character to have unlimited access to their family wealth/connections/magic since it simply unbalances and disrupts most of the campaign unless the DM has taken it into account and planned for a character to have access to some resources and even then most DMs would limit that access or just say no.
So help me understand how having all the gadgets and toys that are provided by the family is this character "break(ing) free from their mundane life of bonbons and servants"? Seems like they are still being propped up by the family's wealth and doing absolutely nothing on their own.
I'm all in favor of the Noble background, but as for allowing a new PC access to the family "Commando Vault" - nope. I would allow the PC to show up decked out in a pile of fancy, gilded, costume/ceremonial pieces that *look* like they are real, actual magic items, but have a chance of bending or breaking upon first contact with the enemy. Glass flasks filled with novelty potions that taste like a Shirley Temple or some such but don't provide any serious effect other than a placebo.
Would DMs allow it? That is entirely up to the DM. As presented, I wouldn't. Character concept reads like an attempt to game the system so that the PC really doesn't have to struggle through anything.
As for the poll question - this concept clearly breaks a lot of rules.
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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
Rich spoiled brat character? Fine. But they'll get basic starting equipment just like everyone else, and nothing else. Legendary items coming from character background? That's ridiculous.
Go for the background, but have them thrown out with nothing but the adventuring gear on their back. Why would any player put up with being in a party where one character started with a Holy Avenger "just because it's in my backstory"? Why would they want to simply be gifted with magical items instead of earning them through epic adventures?
I would laugh this ludicrous character suggestion out of the room if someone presented it. It's utterly absurd.
"The young player wants to break free from their mundane life of bonbons and servants and go on adventures. Of course, they are equipped with all the toys, like a new batman on day 1 with access to all the gadgets." Frank Miller told the tale in the graphic novel "Batman, the Dark Knight" about both the earliest days and the last days of the Batman. The first try he wore a ski mask. The first time in costume he had no gadgets at all. Keep in mind, his costume was made out of cloth with no armor at all and he didn't carry weapons.
Spoiled rich kid who seeks to become a hero is a common enough trope, and there's nothing really wrong with it, but the version the original post talks about is leaning into the spoiled part more than the hero part. If he's going to renounce a life of luxury, he ought to renounce everything about it, the money, the magic items, pretty much everything but one of the equipment packs you get at character generation. The stuff he had once would need a care-taker or there would be nothing left to come back to, and that would leave things wide open for the DM to make sub-plots much later. Being full up on Atunable items and having even more beyond, as well as being able to outfit the entire party with just as much is insanely overpowered.
D&D is by default a fairly high magic setting. The only magic item in the Player's Handbook you can buy with gold costs 50 gold for 1d4+2 hit points worth of healing. The prices are high because player characters aren't supposed to be buying magic items, they are part of the whole reason why many characters become adventurers in the first place. Making them available as a background items really does violate the spirit of the game, and by that I mean not just the scenario the OP suggests, but the game of D&D itself.
Genuinely ridiculous. A *legendary?* Even a single +1 weapon would be far beyond what characters can earn at first level. The other players would be rightfully annoyed, and the solution can’t be “give them all cool things too!” because then balance goes even further out the window. Honestly, this whole idea is so far out I have a hard time imagining it’s anything but powergaming.
I’ve had a character with a similar concept in my game, he was fun. But he didn’t get any bonuses for it. And his arc was about a rich kid trying to leave his spoiled-ness behind and become a “real” orc, not using his privilege every chance he got.
If you want to be a Batman character with cool items, why not just play an Artificer? Remember, Batman might be rich, but he’s also a super-genius who designed a lot of his own tech, right? And like Geann said, even he didn’t start out with any of it.
(P.S. I suspect anyone answering “yes” on the poll is not a DM. But heck, even most PCs would be ticked if this character showed up to outshine their own.)
You do not have to be a noble your family could be wealthy merchants or artisans in which case you would start with A set of artisan’s tools (one of your choice), a letter of introduction from your guild, a set of traveler’s clothes, and a pouch containing 15 gp
Getting any more than the starting equipment set out in the rules is breaking them!
The OP also suggested the party could be balanced by equiping everyone in the party all the magic items they desire. This is essentially the same as the GM saying "you start at level 1 with 6 magic items of your choice only one of which can be legendary". This also doesn't work. If the party face typical of those faced by level 1 characters there would be no challenge and the game would not be fun, the DM would therefore have to up the difficulty of the monsters, but then things become very swingy. For example the party would be very likely to defeat a green dragon wyrmling within one round (a single hit with a dragonslayer sword would be likely to take out half it's max HP) but if the Wyrmling wins initiative a single poison breath is likely to wipe out the party.
What if the character was an artificer? Instead of magic items, the gadgets would be his artificer creation stuff.
I agree that magic items at first level is a bit overpowered. It’s a good concept, but I would be careful asking to have magic items at the beginning. Remember, even the simplest magic item is labeled uncommon, so nonadventurer people, even rich collector ones, probably wouldn’t have more then a few uncommon/rare items, and certainly not a legendary or very rare, unless it’s a family heirloom that they probably wouldn’t give to their spoiled adventuring kid.
What if the character was an artificer? Instead of magic items, the gadgets would be his artificer creation stuff.
I agree that magic items at first level is a bit overpowered. It’s a good concept, but I would be careful asking to have magic items at the beginning. Remember, even the simplest magic item is labeled uncommon, so nonadventurer people, even rich collector ones, probably wouldn’t have more then a few uncommon/rare items, and certainly not a legendary or very rare, unless it’s a family heirloom that they probably wouldn’t give to their spoiled adventuring kid.
I had a player in my game ask to play a character that had no skills and only a ton of money, and I told them 'no' because I did not know how I would motivate such a character in an sandbox, non 'save the world' setting.
Money is a great motivator to go on quests, seeking powerful magic items is a great motivator to go on quests, and I'm not fully sure how to manage a character who already has both.
You want to play a character that relies on magic items
You want the character to be roughly as strong as the other party members (...I hope?)
Let's not overthink this. Just build a level 1 character like normal and say your burning hands spell is from a big garnet ring on your finger, or your second wind is a Belt of Health. You can 100% do this by reflavoring, which avoids all the unwanted side effects of dumping items on a low level PC. As you level and gain more abilities you could be figuring things out on your own or be receiving care packages from home with new items.
I would probably not be able to agree with the Player about the design of this character.
As for a Rich Spoiled Brat ... Noble Background is all you need.
It is all the top level magical item stuff that I couldn't abide. There is a story or two in the Bible about a rich man with fine things that is not strong enough to "keep them" so "one stronger than he" comes and takes them away. This is what would happen to your Brat Character if I were DM, and the Brat could spend most of his adult life questing to recover everything. If a Player wanted to play this build, that is what I would tell him. I doubt he would want to play the build after hearing that from me.
Not only would I find this difficult to DM, I imagine other players in the party would also not enjoy questing with Batman, or is it Syndrome?
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Would it be okay to have a level 1 character with a backstory as a rich spoiled brat?
They have no experience or strong abilities, but they come from a wealthy family that has procured, identified, collected and bankrolled the acquisition of many magic items over generations. Their family has all the money in the world (not literally of course) and therefore, all the magic items, up through rare and even a few very rare items (maybe a single legendary, eh?) heavily guarded by power and magic in large fortresses spread across the land.
The young player wants to break free from their mundane life of bonbons and servants and go on adventures. Of course, they are equipped with all the toys, like a new batman on day 1 with access to all the gadgets:
What are the best magic items to take? (ones that would thwart kidnapping or theft too)
Rings, wands, amulets, boots, helms, scrolls, weapons, armor, potions, etc.
The player brings this extensive collection of magic items (many not requiring attunement) and has previously attuned to 3 items (the max, I think) before seeking out the "party of adventurers".
If I walked into a game with this character, would DMs allow it? If not, why?
If other players in the party cry foul, the player invites them to their nearest mansion and equips them with everything they could desire (on loan of course).
I mean, as long as your DM is ok with it, go for it, but remember the DM could rule its a little too unbalanced
As a DM, I might let the character come in with any number of expensive and powerful consumables... Superior Healing potions, Beads of Force, Feather Tokens, crazy strong potions of Giant Strength or whatever. Let them make a splash, throwing around their over the top equipment from their household, but over time those items will use up in a way that benefits the entire party while leaving that player no more or less powerful than any of their teammates. However, letting them start with permanent +1 items (or even stronger permanent items) just invites jealousy from teammates, and also will lead to boredom for that player, because none of the new loot the party comes across will be "for" them, since they already have as good or better gear that they tailored for themselves at creation.
Or, let them start with stuff, and then take it away with plot shenanigans down the road!
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
As a DM, I would absolutely never allow this in a campaign, but if you were insistent and it was only for a goofy one-shot or something, here's what I'd offer as a take it or leave it deal:
You can start with 2d6 consumable common/uncommon magic items, and one common, one uncommon, and one rare attunable item to fill your slots. You won't have a class though (which will restrict your item choices due to attunement requirements) -- you will be a level 0 commoner, with straight 10s across the board in your stats regardless of your race, no class features, and no proficiency bonus (making skill proficiencies irrelevant).
You are a spoiled brat who has lived a life of luxury, indolence and privilege, and you have never put in the time or effort to actually get good at anything, instead just taking the easy short cut of relying on magic items. Your character will reflect that.
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I wouldn’t allow it. Or, I would allow everything except the magic items. Level 1 characters don’t have magic items, except maybe a potion of healing. As DM, I’m in charge of what loot you get, and when you get it. No way does a player get to outfit themself, let alone the whole party.
Rich, spoiled brat, no problem, that can be accomplished through the noble background and role play (just don’t overdo it to the point it starts annoying other players).
What I would do is say, your parents are greatly ashamed of the way you comported yourself at the cotillion. You have been cast out onto the street until you can show you can be a functional adult. If you go out and prove yourself you may, may, be able to earn a long-term loan of one of the family’s items. For yourself, of course, not for the freak show you’ve managed to convince to help you.
Or I might let you have snuck and stole an item from the stash, but you don’t quite know what it is, or what it does.
The rich spoiled brat character or one that is used to an extremely entitled way of living is a common trope. They usually don't get any of the toys you mentioned though and have to learn the hard way how to actually be an adventurer.
Generally NO.
A DM typically creates a campaign in which magic items are one of the rewards for play. Magic items tend to be rare and special in most games. Your level 1 character sounds like they could be equipped with an entire campaign's worth of magic items before the game even began.
Note that offering to outfit all of the other characters with equally over the top magic items simply results in you hijacking the game and turning it into a Level 1 Monty Haul without any gameplay actually occurring.
You might be able to find a DM interested in running an over the top magic item campaign where the characters have a ridiculous amount of magic to start with ... but the DM and all the other players would have to buy into the concept as well.
The bottom line is "If I walked into a game with this character, would DMs allow it? If not, why?" the answer would usually be never - because a character massively equipped with magic items upsets the balance of every encounter a DM might have created for their campaign and telling the DM that they could give magic items to every character in the game to balance it out isn't an answer - it is a player telling the DM how to run their game to accommodate a character concept. This won't happen 99 times out of 100 ... so I would put it in the never category :)
P.S. There is nothing wrong with the background character concept itself - but don't expect the character to have unlimited access to their family wealth/connections/magic since it simply unbalances and disrupts most of the campaign unless the DM has taken it into account and planned for a character to have access to some resources and even then most DMs would limit that access or just say no.
So help me understand how having all the gadgets and toys that are provided by the family is this character "break(ing) free from their mundane life of bonbons and servants"? Seems like they are still being propped up by the family's wealth and doing absolutely nothing on their own.
I'm all in favor of the Noble background, but as for allowing a new PC access to the family "Commando Vault" - nope. I would allow the PC to show up decked out in a pile of fancy, gilded, costume/ceremonial pieces that *look* like they are real, actual magic items, but have a chance of bending or breaking upon first contact with the enemy. Glass flasks filled with novelty potions that taste like a Shirley Temple or some such but don't provide any serious effect other than a placebo.
Would DMs allow it? That is entirely up to the DM. As presented, I wouldn't. Character concept reads like an attempt to game the system so that the PC really doesn't have to struggle through anything.
As for the poll question - this concept clearly breaks a lot of rules.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
It sure can if the DM embraces such backstory.
Rich spoiled brat character? Fine. But they'll get basic starting equipment just like everyone else, and nothing else. Legendary items coming from character background? That's ridiculous.
Go for the background, but have them thrown out with nothing but the adventuring gear on their back. Why would any player put up with being in a party where one character started with a Holy Avenger "just because it's in my backstory"? Why would they want to simply be gifted with magical items instead of earning them through epic adventures?
I would laugh this ludicrous character suggestion out of the room if someone presented it. It's utterly absurd.
"The young player wants to break free from their mundane life of bonbons and servants and go on adventures. Of course, they are equipped with all the toys, like a new batman on day 1 with access to all the gadgets." Frank Miller told the tale in the graphic novel "Batman, the Dark Knight" about both the earliest days and the last days of the Batman. The first try he wore a ski mask. The first time in costume he had no gadgets at all. Keep in mind, his costume was made out of cloth with no armor at all and he didn't carry weapons.
Spoiled rich kid who seeks to become a hero is a common enough trope, and there's nothing really wrong with it, but the version the original post talks about is leaning into the spoiled part more than the hero part. If he's going to renounce a life of luxury, he ought to renounce everything about it, the money, the magic items, pretty much everything but one of the equipment packs you get at character generation. The stuff he had once would need a care-taker or there would be nothing left to come back to, and that would leave things wide open for the DM to make sub-plots much later. Being full up on Atunable items and having even more beyond, as well as being able to outfit the entire party with just as much is insanely overpowered.
D&D is by default a fairly high magic setting. The only magic item in the Player's Handbook you can buy with gold costs 50 gold for 1d4+2 hit points worth of healing. The prices are high because player characters aren't supposed to be buying magic items, they are part of the whole reason why many characters become adventurers in the first place. Making them available as a background items really does violate the spirit of the game, and by that I mean not just the scenario the OP suggests, but the game of D&D itself.
<Insert clever signature here>
Genuinely ridiculous. A *legendary?* Even a single +1 weapon would be far beyond what characters can earn at first level. The other players would be rightfully annoyed, and the solution can’t be “give them all cool things too!” because then balance goes even further out the window. Honestly, this whole idea is so far out I have a hard time imagining it’s anything but powergaming.
I’ve had a character with a similar concept in my game, he was fun. But he didn’t get any bonuses for it. And his arc was about a rich kid trying to leave his spoiled-ness behind and become a “real” orc, not using his privilege every chance he got.
If you want to be a Batman character with cool items, why not just play an Artificer? Remember, Batman might be rich, but he’s also a super-genius who designed a lot of his own tech, right? And like Geann said, even he didn’t start out with any of it.
(P.S. I suspect anyone answering “yes” on the poll is not a DM. But heck, even most PCs would be ticked if this character showed up to outshine their own.)
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
The OP says there character doesn't break any of the rules, but the rules tell you what you get as a result of your background:
As a noble you would get
A set of fine clothes, a signet ring, a scroll of pedigree, and a purse containing 25 gp
You do not have to be a noble your family could be wealthy merchants or artisans in which case you would start with
A set of artisan’s tools (one of your choice), a letter of introduction from your guild, a set of traveler’s clothes, and a pouch containing 15 gp
Getting any more than the starting equipment set out in the rules is breaking them!
The OP also suggested the party could be balanced by equiping everyone in the party all the magic items they desire. This is essentially the same as the GM saying "you start at level 1 with 6 magic items of your choice only one of which can be legendary". This also doesn't work. If the party face typical of those faced by level 1 characters there would be no challenge and the game would not be fun, the DM would therefore have to up the difficulty of the monsters, but then things become very swingy. For example the party would be very likely to defeat a green dragon wyrmling within one round (a single hit with a dragonslayer sword would be likely to take out half it's max HP) but if the Wyrmling wins initiative a single poison breath is likely to wipe out the party.
What if the character was an artificer? Instead of magic items, the gadgets would be his artificer creation stuff.
I agree that magic items at first level is a bit overpowered. It’s a good concept, but I would be careful asking to have magic items at the beginning. Remember, even the simplest magic item is labeled uncommon, so nonadventurer people, even rich collector ones, probably wouldn’t have more then a few uncommon/rare items, and certainly not a legendary or very rare, unless it’s a family heirloom that they probably wouldn’t give to their spoiled adventuring kid.
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
A bit overpowered?????
It's game breakingly absurd.
So you are saying you want your lvl 1 character to have a heap of powerful magic items because backstory?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA no.
I would totally allow this in my game. First scene they get jumped by a bunch of human commoners and all their stuff is stolen.
This seems like a great fit for the Inheritor background.
I had a player in my game ask to play a character that had no skills and only a ton of money, and I told them 'no' because I did not know how I would motivate such a character in an sandbox, non 'save the world' setting.
Money is a great motivator to go on quests, seeking powerful magic items is a great motivator to go on quests, and I'm not fully sure how to manage a character who already has both.
Let's not overthink this. Just build a level 1 character like normal and say your burning hands spell is from a big garnet ring on your finger, or your second wind is a Belt of Health. You can 100% do this by reflavoring, which avoids all the unwanted side effects of dumping items on a low level PC. As you level and gain more abilities you could be figuring things out on your own or be receiving care packages from home with new items.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
I would probably not be able to agree with the Player about the design of this character.
As for a Rich Spoiled Brat ... Noble Background is all you need.
It is all the top level magical item stuff that I couldn't abide. There is a story or two in the Bible about a rich man with fine things that is not strong enough to "keep them" so "one stronger than he" comes and takes them away. This is what would happen to your Brat Character if I were DM, and the Brat could spend most of his adult life questing to recover everything. If a Player wanted to play this build, that is what I would tell him. I doubt he would want to play the build after hearing that from me.
Not only would I find this difficult to DM, I imagine other players in the party would also not enjoy questing with Batman, or is it Syndrome?
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt