Hello my fellow dungeon masters đź‘‹. I'm a fairly new dm and one of out players character died last session (he was fine with it because he had a new character he was wanting to play) and he had 5000 gold pieces on him. I thought this seemed like way too much as he is 3rd level and is much more than the other players have.
Is this too much? If so what should I do as want to keep my world balanced and realistic without pissing off my players?
All help would be greatly appreciated and thanks to all those who respond
Could kill 2 birds with 1 stone. It can be super awesome to have a base of operations for the party. A house a in central city or cabin in the woods. Whatever fits in to your campaign. You could have them put all that extra money you don't think they should have towards the purchasing or fixing up of their base. If he has 5000gp, and the others have a couple hundred an could help, make the price to buy it around 5000 (a lil higher or lower if you want) and in need of more money to upgrade it. You could give hints in the world that a fixer-upper is for sale. Maybe they have a quest to clear out unwanted trespassers and are offered a discount to buy it if they complete the quest. They can put money into it to fix it up, have the repairs or upgrades being done while they are away questing, and then have a place to come home to and keep their extra stuff.
Quick question. How did the character get 5000gp without you knowing about it? Usually parties split treasure that they find so they usually have roughly the same unless the characters are being played at different tables or with different DMs (like in Adventurers League). My first question would be where did the 5000gp come from?
The second comment is that everyone's world is different. 5000gp sounds like a lot for level 3 but in some campaigns it might be a drop in the bucket. Either way, unless you introduce some expensive things for the characters to buy, they will all typically have thousands of gold somewhere in tier 2. Adventuring is extremely profitable, that is why characters risk their lives exploring the dark places of the world to defeat bad guys and earn exceptional rewards. If you don't want gold to accumulate then you need to have the expense side of the economy. This would include things like buying houses, keeps, castles, estates ... paying for servants, assistants, guards ... purchasing horses, wagons, ships ... possibly purchasing or selling magic items if you want to introduce a magic item economy. Trading 5,000gp for a +1 dagger can be a method of removing gold but the important part is to limit the magic items you allow on the market (if you allow any) and make sure that selling is significantly marked down and buying is significantly marked up.
Other than that, a game can work fine with any amount of gold at any level. Buying food/water/equipment very quickly becomes a non-issue except perhaps for plate armor so gold isn't really a life or death resource after the first level or two.
If you want to get rid of their gold. Have them come across a money pouch with a single gold coin. They will probably add it to their collection, but the coin is enchanted and eats all the other coins, maybe teleporting it all to a dragons lair who commissioned the creation of the coin in order increase its hoard.
Bring in duffinsmertz the inator sales man Sell them magic items get them to start a business have them buy a home sell the cleric diamonds . Sell wizard a book with a bus load of spells.
If you want to get rid of their gold. Have them come across a money pouch with a single gold coin. They will probably add it to their collection, but the coin is enchanted and eats all the other coins, maybe teleporting it all to a dragons lair who commissioned the creation of the coin in order increase its hoard.
Yeah, whenever I got too much gold, my old DM did stuff like that. There was some creature that looked like a gem, but ate through my backpack at the most inconvenient time, the content falling from the rope bridge to the fast river never to be found again… there was a lord who said I stole my possessions and locked me in prison, taking all my stuff. And then there were regular thieves and bandits.
the downtime can get costly as well. And I like to offer costly consumables that can be handy but not game changing in the upcoming adventures.
Hello my fellow dungeon masters đź‘‹. I'm a fairly new dm and one of out players character died last session (he was fine with it because he had a new character he was wanting to play) and he had 5000 gold pieces on him. I thought this seemed like way too much as he is 3rd level and is much more than the other players have.
Is this too much? If so what should I do as want to keep my world balanced and realistic without pissing off my players?
All help would be greatly appreciated and thanks to all those who respond
Everyone's game is different... my game I've been running, my players hit level 9 (six of them in the party) and just established a base after defeating a greater mummy and taking over his pyramid - and the greater mummy had 30,000 gold which the party split between them. Now, to be fair, the cleric in the party has a few gems worth anywhere from 200 to 1,000 gold each - so she's been pretty tight with her gold, while others have bought weapons and armor and such. So she's a little ahead of the others. But they literally just got 5,000 gold at level 9 for my game. They've had gold off and on before then, but they never got a big treasure (though they've each got at least one magic weapon - so I often reward with that type of stuff).
But they began hiring staff (woodworkers, seamsters, etc) to help fix up the pyramid while they continue their adventure, so some of that gold they acquired is going into paying for their wages and supplies.
Guide cost of Plate Armor is 1,500GP. So, at tier one or two, yeah I'd say that 5000gp is a bit too much. It's about right for levels 8-10 though. Let's say they want barding for their riding horses, or a handy haversack...we're in the territory where 5000gp is about the level of coin you're going to need to do that.
Remember that the prices listed in the PHB for equipment and items is only a recommended price, you as a DM can make anything cost as much or as little as you might desire. You can also throw appropriate money sinks their way to get players spending rather than hoarding: consumables like potions and poisons, a smithing station / vendor that enhances their weapons and armor (sharpening blades for a temporary damage bonus, or fitting/repairing their armor for a small/temporary AC bonus), mounts for long travel, supplies useful for dungeoneering like a special one-use spyglass that detects hidden objects, player housing, etc.
Like others said, you can throw curses and chicanery their way that eats / consumes coins (Or just an average street urchin pickpocket who hears their fat wallets clinking around). I'd encourage a banking system for your heroes to protect their hard-earned riches, after all people with lots of gold on them can be an enticing target for all sorts of nasties out there (You can even have it set up so that whatever's in the bank can be "willed" to the player's next character should they die again and have to re-roll).
I've never liked "realistic weight" rules for coinage as a DM or player, it's rarely as realistic as the DM might imagine (Gold, Silver and Platinum do not all share the same weight after all, and that's not getting into the problem of volume for different sized coins). It's just an extra slog for you the DM and the players themselves to keep track of, like "Oh hey, how much gold are you carrying? 5000gp? And what's your current encumbrance? 125 lbs? Add... 10 pounds extra weight, oh and you'll need 2 big fanny-pack-sized pouches to carry them in because realism." Some players just want to fight bad guys and pal around in their DnD, not have to worry about a tabulated excel spreadsheet of how much a 6'7", 235lbs barbarian can carry in a 12"x6"x24" backpack or a 1/5CF volume coin pouch.
Hard-capped wallets (i.e. players can just flat out only carry 1000gp because reasons) can be similarly janky, but honestly the simplest solution is just not to give them all that much in the first place unless they're doing something truly epic, like slaying a dragon or saving a whole city like Waterdeep from destruction.
The question of how much gold a party should have is better framed as, "When do you want your martials to have access to plate armor?" Avoid giving out 1500gp until that time...
5,000 GP sounds like a lot, and going off PHB prices it is, but you can use this as an opportunity to introduce lots of new things:
Transportation. How's the party getting around? Rented horses with hefty insurance policies? How about they buy their own, and all the equipment required like bit and bridle, barding, perhaps some carriages, carts or wagons to lug around their backpacks?
Hirelings. Need mercenaries to offer a helping hand to a threat that might be a bit too overlevelled? How about someone to carry all the loot from a dragon's hoard? Some fodder for detonating traps?
Improvements. This will require some homebrew on your part, but how about some bigger backpacks, sacks, pouches? If your Bard has a chest, something to attach wheels to or keep the capacity but make it lighter?
Training. 5th Edition isn't very good with this because most if not all of its adventures are penned in such a way that there's little time to stop and hit the books (or at least it doesn't remove the sense of urgency enough to do so), but training is a suggestion that's brought up in Xanathar's Guide to Everything (XGtE), or working with your Patron in Tasha's Cauldron in Everything (TCoE). You can build up skill proficiencies, learn specific lore, learn how to use certain tools (like the vehicles you've just bought), or as I'll say later, invest in a lucrative idea.
Stuff. Ball bearings, block and tackle, bottles, vials, tankards, mess kits, caltrops, oil, lanterns, torches, clothes, soap, quills, paper, pens, ink, fishing poles, bells, signal whistles, chalk, tartan paint, beam stretchers, skyhooks, glass hammers, left-handed smoke-shifters, non-conductive cardboard, snake oil and a bucket to catch the sparks of a blue dragon's breath. All of these things (read: some of these things) can and will have a use.
I know people tend to scoff at the admin of adventuring, but D&D is designed as a game of resource attrition. It works in sync with spell slots, (sub)class abilities, racial abilities and other means of interfacing with the game; the difference being you start out with some, and are buy others.
Above is the more helpful stuff; this is where the contras begin:
Inflation. Not everything in the PHB has to be sold as is. Some things will have a mark-up, especially if the party's trying to sell stuff to people that don't deal in that. Blacksmiths don't have to make and sell weapons, and may not be willing to buy them. If they do, they can sell them at a premium ("premium prices for premium service!"). They don't need adventurers for business, everyone else comes to them for nails and horseshoes and door knockers and are doing just fine, thank-you-very-much.
No Haggling. Nice and simple, a 'no haggling sign' hangs up behind the counter of the shops they go to. The party's got enough gold, they don't need to try and adjust the prices, and the shopkeeps are successful enough that they don't need to barter. If they push it the shop's guards come forth and drag the party into the street and bar the entrance. This may depend on the culture of the city they're in though: some may be offended you don't try to haggle.
Donations/Investment. When the penny drops, you could make a million. Buying shares or investing in a start-up could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship and a lot more money in both your pockets... provided it goes well. This is a gamble for both of you, as you don't want the players' wealth to explode but you don't want every investment to be a trap. It's a good way of offloading money without drawing too much attention to yourselves or the person you're investing in, provided you do so in sensible amounts. You could also consider a bank which provides a small amount of interest but it means locking away that gold for [x] months and who knows what could happen to the bank in that time (very little as it will be well protected, but not entirely impregnable). Sure your players could buy plate armour (and how long's that going to last when enchantments comes into the mix), but they could also invest in an armour-smith who will be able to get them better than plate if they do well enough.
Theft. If ever you want the party to do something, make them go after their most treasured valuables. In this case, the most of their unspent treasure. It won't work all the time, and it will become apparent you're using it to get your own way if you keep using this, but it does work more often than not.
Coin Weight. As another user says, it's not easy carrying 5,000 gold pieces around without getting notice. How is it being stored, and how visibly is it? How loud is it?
Finally, an out-of-game solution is to say you think you messed up somewhere and for the sake of your ability to run a better game, you'd like to subtract all or sum of that gold. Your players might not like it, but they should be able to appreciate the reasoning. In-game the DM (or Luminous Master) is Good God Almighty, but out-of-game the DM is only human. You're allowed to make mistakes and you're allowed to correct those mistakes in any way you choose. The players might object to this, but if they let it go too far, you're well within your rights to say they're no longer welcome at your table if they're getting that mad about make believe money. Your enjoyment and participation matters too.
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
I think it's kind of depressing to me that allot of the suggestions seem to involve screwing over the characters rather than giving them something useful to spend the gold on.
Hello my fellow dungeon masters đź‘‹. I'm a fairly new dm and one of out players character died last session (he was fine with it because he had a new character he was wanting to play) and he had 5000 gold pieces on him. I thought this seemed like way too much as he is 3rd level and is much more than the other players have.
Is this too much? If so what should I do as want to keep my world balanced and realistic without pissing off my players?
All help would be greatly appreciated and thanks to all those who respond
Could kill 2 birds with 1 stone. It can be super awesome to have a base of operations for the party. A house a in central city or cabin in the woods. Whatever fits in to your campaign. You could have them put all that extra money you don't think they should have towards the purchasing or fixing up of their base. If he has 5000gp, and the others have a couple hundred an could help, make the price to buy it around 5000 (a lil higher or lower if you want) and in need of more money to upgrade it. You could give hints in the world that a fixer-upper is for sale. Maybe they have a quest to clear out unwanted trespassers and are offered a discount to buy it if they complete the quest. They can put money into it to fix it up, have the repairs or upgrades being done while they are away questing, and then have a place to come home to and keep their extra stuff.
Quick question. How did the character get 5000gp without you knowing about it? Usually parties split treasure that they find so they usually have roughly the same unless the characters are being played at different tables or with different DMs (like in Adventurers League). My first question would be where did the 5000gp come from?
The second comment is that everyone's world is different. 5000gp sounds like a lot for level 3 but in some campaigns it might be a drop in the bucket. Either way, unless you introduce some expensive things for the characters to buy, they will all typically have thousands of gold somewhere in tier 2. Adventuring is extremely profitable, that is why characters risk their lives exploring the dark places of the world to defeat bad guys and earn exceptional rewards. If you don't want gold to accumulate then you need to have the expense side of the economy. This would include things like buying houses, keeps, castles, estates ... paying for servants, assistants, guards ... purchasing horses, wagons, ships ... possibly purchasing or selling magic items if you want to introduce a magic item economy. Trading 5,000gp for a +1 dagger can be a method of removing gold but the important part is to limit the magic items you allow on the market (if you allow any) and make sure that selling is significantly marked down and buying is significantly marked up.
Other than that, a game can work fine with any amount of gold at any level. Buying food/water/equipment very quickly becomes a non-issue except perhaps for plate armor so gold isn't really a life or death resource after the first level or two.
If you want to get rid of their gold. Have them come across a money pouch with a single gold coin. They will probably add it to their collection, but the coin is enchanted and eats all the other coins, maybe teleporting it all to a dragons lair who commissioned the creation of the coin in order increase its hoard.
Bring in duffinsmertz the inator sales man Sell them magic items get them to start a business have them buy a home sell the cleric diamonds . Sell wizard a book with a bus load of spells.
Yeah, whenever I got too much gold, my old DM did stuff like that. There was some creature that looked like a gem, but ate through my backpack at the most inconvenient time, the content falling from the rope bridge to the fast river never to be found again… there was a lord who said I stole my possessions and locked me in prison, taking all my stuff. And then there were regular thieves and bandits.
the downtime can get costly as well. And I like to offer costly consumables that can be handy but not game changing in the upcoming adventures.
Just an option - a cursed item I wrote on a prior account - https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/208287-lodecoin
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.
Everyone's game is different... my game I've been running, my players hit level 9 (six of them in the party) and just established a base after defeating a greater mummy and taking over his pyramid - and the greater mummy had 30,000 gold which the party split between them. Now, to be fair, the cleric in the party has a few gems worth anywhere from 200 to 1,000 gold each - so she's been pretty tight with her gold, while others have bought weapons and armor and such. So she's a little ahead of the others. But they literally just got 5,000 gold at level 9 for my game. They've had gold off and on before then, but they never got a big treasure (though they've each got at least one magic weapon - so I often reward with that type of stuff).
But they began hiring staff (woodworkers, seamsters, etc) to help fix up the pyramid while they continue their adventure, so some of that gold they acquired is going into paying for their wages and supplies.
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Guide cost of Plate Armor is 1,500GP. So, at tier one or two, yeah I'd say that 5000gp is a bit too much. It's about right for levels 8-10 though. Let's say they want barding for their riding horses, or a handy haversack...we're in the territory where 5000gp is about the level of coin you're going to need to do that.
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Remember that the prices listed in the PHB for equipment and items is only a recommended price, you as a DM can make anything cost as much or as little as you might desire. You can also throw appropriate money sinks their way to get players spending rather than hoarding: consumables like potions and poisons, a smithing station / vendor that enhances their weapons and armor (sharpening blades for a temporary damage bonus, or fitting/repairing their armor for a small/temporary AC bonus), mounts for long travel, supplies useful for dungeoneering like a special one-use spyglass that detects hidden objects, player housing, etc.
Like others said, you can throw curses and chicanery their way that eats / consumes coins (Or just an average street urchin pickpocket who hears their fat wallets clinking around). I'd encourage a banking system for your heroes to protect their hard-earned riches, after all people with lots of gold on them can be an enticing target for all sorts of nasties out there (You can even have it set up so that whatever's in the bank can be "willed" to the player's next character should they die again and have to re-roll).
I've never liked "realistic weight" rules for coinage as a DM or player, it's rarely as realistic as the DM might imagine (Gold, Silver and Platinum do not all share the same weight after all, and that's not getting into the problem of volume for different sized coins). It's just an extra slog for you the DM and the players themselves to keep track of, like "Oh hey, how much gold are you carrying? 5000gp? And what's your current encumbrance? 125 lbs? Add... 10 pounds extra weight, oh and you'll need 2 big fanny-pack-sized pouches to carry them in because realism." Some players just want to fight bad guys and pal around in their DnD, not have to worry about a tabulated excel spreadsheet of how much a 6'7", 235lbs barbarian can carry in a 12"x6"x24" backpack or a 1/5CF volume coin pouch.
Hard-capped wallets (i.e. players can just flat out only carry 1000gp because reasons) can be similarly janky, but honestly the simplest solution is just not to give them all that much in the first place unless they're doing something truly epic, like slaying a dragon or saving a whole city like Waterdeep from destruction.
The question of how much gold a party should have is better framed as, "When do you want your martials to have access to plate armor?" Avoid giving out 1500gp until that time...
5,000 GP sounds like a lot, and going off PHB prices it is, but you can use this as an opportunity to introduce lots of new things:
I know people tend to scoff at the admin of adventuring, but D&D is designed as a game of resource attrition. It works in sync with spell slots, (sub)class abilities, racial abilities and other means of interfacing with the game; the difference being you start out with some, and are buy others.
Above is the more helpful stuff; this is where the contras begin:
Finally, an out-of-game solution is to say you think you messed up somewhere and for the sake of your ability to run a better game, you'd like to subtract all or sum of that gold. Your players might not like it, but they should be able to appreciate the reasoning. In-game the DM (or Luminous Master) is Good God Almighty, but out-of-game the DM is only human. You're allowed to make mistakes and you're allowed to correct those mistakes in any way you choose. The players might object to this, but if they let it go too far, you're well within your rights to say they're no longer welcome at your table if they're getting that mad about make believe money. Your enjoyment and participation matters too.
I hope that helps!
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
- The Assemblage of Houses, World of Warcraft
I think it's kind of depressing to me that allot of the suggestions seem to involve screwing over the characters rather than giving them something useful to spend the gold on.
I feel the pain, my party has 90k between the 5 of them and is currently pursuing the rest of the dragon horde which was stolen by dragons!
luckily they are wanting to buy a school so I have my vent for their money!
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That just sounds to me like an opportunity to offer them the Downtime Activity of Building a Stronghold! :)