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Gold buys people
Without a readily available source of high-end useful items, you can purchase large quantities of low-end things.
For example, a hundred swords, a hundred kits of armor, a thousand man-years in soldier's wages and a dozen wagons of supplies can achieve a variety of things that a squad of powerful murderhobos can't.
A supply of gold can ...
216
Reward the PCs with attention
A group of level 2 PCs with a staff of the magi will soon find that everyone wants it. Many of these will be bad guys, but a few of them will be good guys. The GM can reward the PCs for their superior play by having the good guys contact the PCs and offer to take the staff off their hands for their own safety (instead of, for ...
161
This is one of those "Let me tell you a story about how things were pre-third edition" questions. In every D&D edition from the 1970s to the year 2000, you couldn't buy magic items to spec. But you still got gold. We didn't complain about it and found it quite useful.
In most of real world history, you couldn't buy magic items. Yet still gold/money is ...
136
"There's no magic item economy" does not equal "Magic items are never bought and sold". It's just that there's no set market for them, they're too rare for that. If a character puts word out that he's looking for a particular item, someone might manage to turn it up for the right price. Barring that, commissioning someone to create the item might be ...
131
While a lot of the other answers are perfectly valid and good ideas, I'd like to offer an alternative solution that hasn't been mentioned yet which can also work in some situations: deal with the problem out-of-game, not through DM fiat, but rather through admitting you made a mistake. DMs shouldn't be expected to be infallible. If you can explain to your ...
112
Make it be cursed.
A very powerful item will make many adventuring parties suspicious, but if yours are just happy to go forward using it, they are in for a surprise.
I would pick an "interesting" curse that makes them wary of using it but still leaves them (technically) with the option to do so. For example, every charge used could alert some extraplanar ...
97
“When you agree who gets it they can use it. Meanwhile back in the dungeon ...”
Let the players sort it out however they like away from the table and when they have, the person who gets it can use it.
Why should you do this?
Because you are the DM, and you can explain to your players two things:
By forcing them to get a grip, and to come up with a team ...
91
The Brinks Job, The Italian Job, Willow, or Charlie Varrick?
the players worked their way through a series of fiendish traps into a high security vault, where they recovered a Staff of the Magi.
Your low level PC's broke into a secure storage site and stole something extremely valuable. Hollywood movies are packed with this trope: a big heist and the ...
82
You say "Before he or any of the others had a chance to pick it up, the controlling player snatched it up and refused to give it back (Even though she had no use for it)." I feel like I can identify 2 problems from this sentence.
First of all, how are you allowing her to pick it up without anyone else being allowed an "action"? Just because a player says ...
72
Treasure isn’t just money, it has inherent value on its own. No one will take you seriously as a goblin king without a proper jewel-encrusted crown and an evil-looking magic sword to beat up your foes with. Since goblins are not known for their crafting skills, any luxuries or jewelry or magic items are going to come from treasure.
If I was a goblin chief, ...
71
I just watched someone buy a painting for $3,500,000. It doesn't come to life, it doesn't tell the future, it doesn't even age while they stay young. They primarily bought it to annoy someone else that wanted it, as far as I could see.
What you're having is a failure to roleplay. The players are not imagining what they would do in the characters' place. ...
70
Don´t make it fair.
No, really. If you balance everything to be fair and equal, you take away the entire challenge of figuring out which contract is most lucrative, or which is the easiest money, or the biggest pay-off for a few hours of work.
Just introduce a bunch of contracts that make in-game sense, and let your players figure out which one they find ...
67
You're solving the wrong problem
In your question you didn't say what the very problem is. The only details were:
The problem is that he is the barbarian, so when he wakes an enemy by pick pocketing, he can usually down them or at least take the brunt of the hits.
But the problem isn't his class. The only clue we've got from the comments was:
— Is ...
62
This is evidence of a dysfunctional gaming group, if these actions and arguments are typical.
Hi, Fincam. I recognize you're new here, and I am aiming for 'stringent' rather than 'harsh.' I sincerely apologize if I miss the mark.
But that said, I think you have a larger problem than you think.
I see not one, not two, but three people with varying ...
58
In general, the best way is for greedy PCs not to get the loot in the first place thus side stepping the whole problem.
Despite the terrible pun (or nettle Eggcorn?):
However, in this case, it is a great role playing opportunity!
Your player characters have a chance to turn evil or good based on their actions. As the GM, you should lay out to them the ...
answered Nov 7 '16 at 13:38
Sardathrion - against SE abuse
38.6k8 gold badges108 silver badges170 bronze badges
58
D&D is a rules set, not a setting. Therefore details like this are never RAW, but they may be described in a setting. For example, if you play in the Forgotten Realms, there may be some canon as to the availability of banking there. If it's your/your GM's own world, then it is completely up to you.
In most fantasy worlds there's not widely available ...
55
The only way to do this inconspicuously is to convert all that money into gems. A mundane backpack could easily carry 500,000 gp worth of gems with room left over for camping gear. Upon arrival, gems would be easily converted back to gold pieces one or two at a time, as gems are used as currency (PHB, ch. 5, "Gems, Jewelry, and Art Objects"). This is even ...
55
I kind of feel you're in the wrong here.
You've written that your character found a really good magic sword, and you've written that four other members of the party had proficiency in it and your character didn't. And you've written that you decided to keep the sword and "lend it out" to people.
I have played in many D&D groups, and I can tell you ...
54
They can, sure. But the D&D basic rules (p. 45, under "Selling Treasure") are quite explicit that they typically have no value:
Weapons and armor used by monsters are rarely in good enough condition to sell.
So they can collect them, they can even use them, but no, merchants won't buy them unless they are particularly pristine.
50
To me the problem seems to be that the other players think that they gained treasure as a team and divided it up according to some measure of 'fairness' and 'need.' So when one player leaves, they think that their joint loot is up for redistribution. That's a very pragmatic approach, and perhaps you should discourage it to encourage in-character gameplay (...
46
Not necessarily any smaller than the 500 GP diamond
In the real world, diamond value has as much to do with cut, clarity, and color as it does about size. So the price difference between a "regular" 500 GP diamond from the DM Guide and this 50 GP material component wouldn't necessarily denote a size difference at all.
(Maybe jewelers in the Forgotten ...
43
Your Rogue Has a Case of My Guy Syndrome
Assuming the standard party of good-aligned murderhobos, that is. If you have a bunch of evil backstabbers, everyone should pretty much be expecting this behavior from everyone else. But if the party is more or less good-aligned or lawful-aligned, then rogues steal FOR the party, not FROM the party. Even a neutral ...
42
A Portable Hole
10,000 lbs of gold is about a 24-inch cube (0.235 m^3) and a Portable Hole doesn't have a weight limit. Since the interior of a portable hole is 6ft by 10ft, it can easily hold 500,000 gp even if it's not in one convenient cube. The rules for a portable hole say:
Folding the cloth closes the hole, and any creatures or Objects within ...
40
You can have several tricks to get around this, I've used similar methods with fantasy and cyberpunk games.
Security Weapons are keycoded, or Palmprinting - this stops anyone but a certain person using it. Yes you can bypass it, but it's either difficult or very pricey.
Limited uses Yes, you've got a melta gun - but getting ammo/powerpacks for it is ...
40
You say:
Once you've got the top level mundane gear and a stockpile of potions (which won't take long), doesn't gold become sort of worthless?
equally, in a 3rd edition setting:
Once you've got the top level wands, magic armor, vorpal swords and a stockpile of wondrous items (which won't take long), doesn't gold become sort of worthless?
or to bring ...
40
The best solution I think is to talk to the person that is causing the issue. She might not realise that she is causing a problem. She might think that because that is what chaotic character would/should do, therefore it is her job to do it Then ask her as one person to another to please find another action that is equally plausible for a chaotic character ...
40
The following analysis focuses on spell scrolls in particular, but the same logic applies to spellbooks. In terms of their effect on the number of spells in your spellbook, the two are interchangeable.
In my experience, you won't be a burden
I play a wizard in a game where due to some unfortunate relations with the town militia, my adventuring party and I ...
39
Break it up.
A gem that large is literally priceless. As in, it's worth so much that no one will be willing to buy it for more than a tiny fraction of its value. Imagine that happened on earth. Its value would be several hundreds of billions of dollars. Who would pay that much?
Now think about trying to sell chunks of it. You could much more easily sell a ...
39
You keep hoping for the players to push back against this behavior in-game, but that's not a fair expectation. The other players may not want to stir things up because, frankly, that's your job. You're running the show and you're responsible for the fun of the group. You set the tone. You're in a position of authority, so if you allow this behavior to happen,...
38
The Player's Handbook and basic rules both say this under "Selling Treasure" in chapter 5:
Gems, Jewelry, and Art Objects. These items retain their full value in the marketplace, and you can either trade them in for coin or use them as currency for other transactions. For exceptionally valuable treasures, the DM might require you to find a buyer in a ...
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