D&D 5E What is REALLY wrong with the Wizard? (+)

[DND_Reborn]

Since this temporarily shifted to an economics discussion, FWIW in my games I equate 1 gp = 100 USD.

So, if the PCs dropped 2000 pp (like they ever would in my games LOL! they never really have the sort of cash...), it would be equal to 2 million USD today. Yes, it is A LOT of money, but spread throughout a town, it would not ruin the economy or anything.

Now, giving one person 100pp would be equal to 100,000 USD. Again, a ton of money to be sure, but for a small business owner it is a windfall, but not enough to stop running his business.

Finally, would that sort of cash attract attention? Depends on the town and whose in it. Remember, if the PCs did something to gain that money, to most townsfolk, they can certainly probably fight to keep it.

That is my take anyway.

 

[Digdude]

Since this temporarily shifted to an economics discussion, FWIW in my games I equate 1 gp = 100 USD.

So, if the PCs dropped 2000 pp (like they ever would in my games LOL! they never really have the sort of cash...), it would be equal to 2 million USD today. Yes, it is A LOT of money, but spread throughout a town, it would not ruin the economy or anything.

Now, giving one person 100pp would be equal to 100,000 USD. Again, a ton of money to be sure, but for a small business owner it is a windfall, but not enough to stop running his business.

Finally, would that sort of cash attract attention? Depends on the town and whose in it. Remember, if the PCs did something to gain that money, to most townsfolk, they can certainly probably fight to keep it.

That is my take anyway.

This sounds like another great thread to debate. One of you vets here should create it.

 

[James Gasik]

Well let's put this into perspective. According to Lifestyle Expenses in the PHB (page 157) a modest lifestyle is 1 gp/day which covers lodging, food, drink, and all other necessities. So just to live paycheck to paycheck requires someone to make 360 gold per year (36 platinum). It seems likely that anyone attempting to live at this level of income needs savings and "fun money", so let's make that 48 platinum per year...which I'll round up to 50 so I have to do less math.

The PHB says nothing about taxes, so I'm going to assume those are included in Expenses. Now, further extrapolating from this, the base value of anything you can sell is at least 50% (ie, what you can resell it for). So if I say that all goods and services are provided at twice what the merchant pays for them, it might mean that each modest lifestyle individual is actually generating 25 pp of profit to the community each year.

If we assume modest lifestyle people are the average, then we need to look at the size of a town. The DMG tells us the population of a town is around 6000 (page 17). So, one could say that this means, on average, the residents of a town earn 300,000 platinum each year, and the goods they purchase generate an additional 150,000 platinum of theoretical profit.

As a result, I don't see one guy spending 1000 platinum as wrecking the economy of a town, since what they are buying only costs 500 platinum in the first place for the community, which will make 500 platinum in profit.

 

[tetrasodium]

okay so lets talk impact of play... in two of the last 4 towns we visisted I dropped big money, but 1 of it was a donation to a church.

so what did I really effect? A church has more money to do with as they please and a small buisness (tavern/inn owner) is now rich.

I mean that is only limitedly useful here... 2e money and magic items were no where NEAR as generus as 5e (that I remember).
I'm not going to say I never had a bunch of money or some items we didn't need... but far less often. and when it was there were way less likely to be genric +x weapons and enough gold to be a king.

again, loot has not been a motivation for me or my buddies at all.


when we TRY to use loot as a motive we fall into "After a few adventures why not retire richer then most kingdoms"

If I take the idea that my character wants to be rich, and I have enough to buy a house, a farm, a bar and an inn (bar and inn are two different establishments) and pay wages so I don't have to work any of them for 5 years AND still afford a high or luxury life style during that time, why am I risking my life anymore?

Now this gets worse if you add in magic items

You are still talking about a different theoretical problem that is mostly unrelated to the one that impacts the game or the one that creeps in if the impact is avoided by not giving treasure. With 5e the expectation for the GM to hand out is zero & that results in almost any amount of treasure being more than is expected taking you right back to a group of PCs channeling the almighty dollar comic book character on a whim.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

But there are plenty of cases where that much money does ruin the person and their immediate family from theft, scammers, or just the implosion of having that much money and not know how to handle it.

I never said it was a guranteed GOOD life changer just that it was a life changer that would effect them (and there immediat friends/family I assum) but would not cause major issues for economy or world.

What we dont have extant examples of is what would happen if you showed up in a dark ages English town and dropped 20,000 gp at an inn.

no but we do have 10,000 tips in real life... no time travel needed.

I can not quote a source but I can''t imagine the following NEVER happened:
A rich boy wants to impress cute farmer's daughter/ bar wench... is ruch and has some minor title but isn't like the prince or anything (maybe even just from a rich merchent family) and they throw around money like water to show off in a small town...

Either the local lord is coming to visit you for a donation, or the locals are going to try and get your money.

lol... I wish the lord mayor who has a few town guard was good enough to pick a fight with our 9th or 12th level characters,,, that would mean they would be able to be a challenge to us, and if we work with them, an aid to us.

Again, I'm ready to agree to disagree and move back to the topic on hand. Thanks for keeping it civil.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

You are still talking about a different theoretical problem that is mostly unrelated to the one that impacts the game or the one that creeps in if the impact is avoided by not giving treasure.

yeah it's mostly useless for wealth in my experence... sometimes we build towns, bases, towers, churches... sometimes we outfit armies, sometimes we forget how much we have until someone asks

With 5e the expectation for the GM to hand out is zero & that results in almost any amount of treasure being more than is expected taking you right back to a group of PCs channeling the almighty dollar comic book character on a whim.

I'm not sure the defualt expectation is 0... but what ever it is it builds quick