Leonine Roar

What should you save your gold for in the magic item rarity era of 4e? 

What  are the best things to spend all that unearthed, hard-earned currency and monetary wealth on?  Who and what will pry those coins, gems, jewelry and art objects from your pockets?

Similar to a more practical categorization of rituals, there’s also several areas where you could wisely invest your gold in 4e.  And by wise investment, I mean anything from increasing your personal power to amplifying your influence in the campaign setting’s world and every kind of brilliant purchase or entertaining expense in between. 

The list includes everything from combat power to roleplay and storytelling.  Use these lists below for inspiration when your or your playgroup’s coffers get too full or they’re itching to spend their shiny gold on something new and exciting – or just plain helpful. 

Magic Items, Rituals, Supplies & Travel

• Enchant Magic Item
• Common Magic Items
• Rituals
• Mundane Gear, Supplies and Items
• Mounts
• Vehicles

The lion’s share of your gold expenditures in 4e today will likely be on the these six things.  Every one of them includes clearly defined rules elements, so there’s real, mechanical impact to your D&D game every time, whether it’s magic item properties, ritual results, skill applications or travel.  They’re more tangible, and in many cases, directly reflect an increase in personal power, both in and out of combat.

So save your gold for further enchanting your favorite and mightiest magic items through Enchant Magic Item – that’s probably the best investment for most of your gold in 4e right now.  After that, there’s always soom cool and useful common magic items – beyond the healing potion chain – to be had for the right price.  Use this handy filterable list to quickly find just the right common magic item.

As for miscellaneous gear and ritual magic, they’re similar in the sense that they have varying degrees of utility depending on you, your playgroup, or your campaign’s style.  Someone usually has a bit of MacGyver in them, and/or simply enjoys finding ways for rituals to help solve some problems and challenges.  Some options and solutions are more obvious, like Trail Rations, an Everburning Torch, a Climber’s Kit, or Cure Disease and Raise Dead ritual scrolls. 

Finally, speaking of style, mounts and vehicles stylishly get you where you need to go faster, and can also make for an exciting feature or location in encounters.  Mounted combat alone adds a great amount of mobility and a few combat options to your arsenal, and there’s nothing quite like fighting pirates off the storm-tossed deck of your own ship!

More Ways to Spend Your Gold

• Arts & Entertainment
• Lifestyle 
• Specialists
• Services
• Property

Who doesn’t love a good party?  Have your character or characters organize and throw a celebration of their own, for someone, or if humility isn’t their thing, even in their own honor!   After all, you are great and glorious adventurers, right?    Aside from that, attending any sort of celebration or event is always a great way to meet some helpful (and sometimes dastardly!) NPCs, as well as perhaps spend some coin on admission, food, drink or souvenirs.

D&D 3.x edition offered simple rules on lifestyle expenses.  Essentially, you’d pick whether you wanted to live a poor, average, or rich and extravagant lifestyle and simply deducted a monthly gp cost as each in-game month went by.  There were several lifestyle levels, each with their own bit of flavor for whatever way you envisioned your character’s approach to day-to-day living expenses.  You could do something similar with 4e if you wanted.  Perhaps 1-10% of monetary wealth per level per month fits.

Previous D&D editions also had plenty of handy charts for specialists and their services, from messengers to bodyguards and sages, and literally dozens – if not hundreds – of others.  Some of these costs are easier to work with than others, and can often be rolled flavorfully and easily into the service or item.  For example, a sage who offers to cast a divination or enchant magic item ritual for the party might require the ritual’s market price as his service fee, replacing the cost of outright buying a ritual scroll.  This way, characters aren’t discouraged from seeking the aid of actual people over grabbing their own ritual scroll – the cost is the same. 

Finally, true property beyond mounts and vehicles includes homes and land: houses, taverns, inns, towers, mansions, strongholds and castles and any associated courtyards or surrounding acres you call your own.  Similar to mounts and vehicles, there’s an element of fun vanity or pride here, and best of all, you also add to the campaign world by creating your very own excellent location for both great parties and dramatic combat encounters! 

Don’t forget all the specialists and services – the people – involved to keep your home safe and functioning, especially the larger and more defensible it is.  You might want and need an army!  Perhaps your presence also means you naturally extend protection to the local farmers, villagers or other groups of people or creatures.  There’s lots of engaging possibilities in owning property – the potential social and political situations, events and encounters alone that come from owning your own fantasy property are boundless.

But Wait, There’s Even More!

Inspired by the things and people above, you might want or need to spend gold on any of the following specific things:

• Antiques
• Army
• Bail
• Bodyguards
• Books
• Bribes
• Business
• Constables
• Festival
• Fines
• Furniture
• Gifts
• Guards
• License
• Membership Fees
• Protection Money
• Safehouse
• Servants
• Smiths
• Tolls
• Trade Goods
• Unique Goods (i.e. stolen, poison, etc.)
• Warehouse

Please feel free to add to this list and the ones above by leaving a money-saving – or rather, money-spending! – comment with your own ideas.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 4th, 2011 at 12:00 am and is filed under Design, Mechanics & Efficiencies, Storytelling & Roleplaying. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.