This excerpt from my article will be helpful for understanding why 5e games typically make gold and wealth irrelevant: "The common adventure modules and homebrew campaigns for D&D 5e are plot-based. They have an overarching plot that is the focus for the better part of the campaign duration. Plot-focused campaigns have a downfall; they don't give players downtime. Downtime is the leisurely duration of time between urgent adventuring. It allows characters to spend their gold and use their property and wealth in meaningful ways. Players love having a home base or a stockpile of magical armaments. D&D 5e was designed to have heaps of downtime. How do I know this? The rules for crafting magical items make this clear. They're supposed to require months or years with mounds of gold to create some magic items. Sure, maybe 5e designers made these rules to merely gatekeep that kind of crafting; maybe they wanted to say "no" without saying "no." I choose to believe that D&D 5e was supposed to still focus on dungeon crawling and classic adventuring styles that older editions of the game focused on, especially prior to 3rd edition. It's clear to me that the main player base of 5e does not focus on this style of play. They focus on storytelling with a fairly linear progression toward the resolution of that story, then they start a new campaign. If you really want to make wealth and downtime part of your game, I highly recommend you embrace a more episodic style of play. That means each session or short series of adventures will wrap up in their own way. Macro story plots shouldn't be so urgent and evident that they interfere with the players' downtime." Full article: www.flutesloot.com/spending-gold-wealth-dnd-5e/
You know what is also a great place for a player to spend their gold - their families. I'm usually a DM but I blew one DM's mind when I played a campaign and not only had I had a family that loved me - I loved them back. I got the potion to heal my dads back ruined by the endless work, paid for my sister's school, refurbished mom's herbal shop - and always bring her new exciting plants and spices from my travels. Oh and I got my brother accepted into a knights order. And when some asshole inevitably tried to hurt my family because... lazy DM's go for the low hanging fruit... I have painted his house red from the inside and committed atrocities the DM himself was not ready for. Not sure if the evil guys got the message or if the DM still gets the shivers when someone mentions a file (tool). Either way, the result was the same - I had a family I could lovingly take care of.
@@Dragon_Fire_2468 Campaign long ago. It ended as they usually do - by the group falling apart, getting lazy with the scheduling until the DM gives up and just stops trying to even schedule a game.
One that Critical Role used that I liked and plan to introduce in the future is the magical tattoos -- not the ones published by WotC, but ones that have a very high cost and can give you a +1 to a stat.
I like encumbrance rules and rations, if you don’t have food you’ll get fatigued. I like strongholds too. Crafting items and buying magic items is a great idea too
Hey dude, this is one of the best D&D videos that I’ve seen in several months. I randomly found you in my feed, and I am happy that I clicked on you. I can’t wait to explore the rest of y’all’s videos. They are incredibly high quality. Please keep up the amazing work.
Thank you so much! We've tried to improve our video quality over the 2+ years we've been on YT, so I'm glad it connected for you! :) Our content is varied with what we cover regarding D&D. I hope you find plenty of content that is helpful for you.
I actually found the channel because I basically hate the Assassin Rogue Subclass (from levels 4-16, at least, the level 3 ability is pretty good and the 17th level one isn’t awful from what I remember, but not really powerful enough)… and this was like one of two channels that attempted to fix the subclass lol. Still don’t think it was enough of a buff… but better than the official subclass, at least. Definitely some interesting stuff on here. And I generally try not to promote other channels too much in the comments of one channel, but this channel often promotes others so I feel like it’s a lot less rude here lol. I think Dungeon Coach is great if you like Homebrewing.
A 14th level Transmutation wizard can permanently change silver into mithral for weapons or platinum into adamantium for armor with a transmutation stone. The weapons and armor can be uncommon magic item gifts.
@@josephperez2004 The value to volume does not specify a solid object for the end product. So you could have a 1k gold piece solid block of ore to start and transmute it into a hollow balloon of mithril or adamantium that had the same volume. Then just Fabricate it into solid bars of ore.
@@archlittle6067 There is certainly that possibility and the idea of making the item hollow adresses the size requirement between the start and end product. There is still the concern of similar mass though, as it is one of the few things we consistently know above mithral that it is approximately half the weight of steel.
@@archlittle6067 Small addendum, Platinum does seem to be close in it's weight to the heaviest real world metal (osmium) though, so I think the platinum to adamantium transfer could work!
Had a game where the party bought an inn in a town, fixed it up, hired npcs they met in their journeys to work there (some of them being enemies that they brought to the side of good), and used it to store a lot of their trophies to display for the locals. It ended up turning the town into a major adventurers hub, and they put so much love into that place. Honestly, best gold investment is to buy a home base. Nice vid, thanks Flute sLoot
This is possibly the best use of examples given to induce understanding I’ve ever seen. Incredibly well put together and i sincerely appreciate this content. Ended up watching it three times in a row while gaming as well as rewatching a couple segments even more. Spacing out while gaming is how I brainstorm worldbuilding concepts and this gave me a few new branches to venture into. Much respect and a subscription from me awarded.
Great points on the article and the vid. our campaigns are similar to what you mentioned: episodic. we run alot of short campaigns and one/two-shots. we dont run long campaigns anymore. its just that it's more common for our table to go into the next short campaign with new characters in the same world (MCU approach) rather than re-using their older characters who are coming off downtime ready for the next world-ending threat.
Great information. Thank you for sharing. I'm one of the DMs at my FLGS. The party is on the last segment of the Lost Mine of Phandalver and this information will come in handy once they are done.
One of the first things I started working on for my Theros campaign (that I still haven’t started yet) is stuff like wandering merchants, important NPC’s that have strange wares that are either useful or something players might want. Niroy the Scholar- spell component, reliquaries, parchment, books, ludicrously expensive glassware, fancy inks, magical inks, etc. Marcol the Mirthful- sells you items commonly found in the black market. Poison, street drugs, magical items with slight curses (like a bag of holding that has 100 insults), thieves tools, etc. Becca the blackened- sells most standard weapons and a couple of metal items like caltrops. (Her and Niroy are the most likely to have discounts) Timbre the hunter- pelts, hunting tools, spell focuses that double as weapons, animal based totems etc. he would pay a hefty price for the skin of a monstrosity. Calliope the herbalist- more Druidic wares, recreational/beneficial drugs, goody baskets, mistletoe components, and wooden weapons/slings.
It really is! Opal has commented about the useless nature of gold to a certain point in some campaigns. I've heard players make comments like this enough to make me want to address it, especially since I believe D&D 5e campaign styles are moving away from making gold worth having.
@@FlutesLoot Opal is definitely right but ideas like these are great to address the issue. I think you are right with 5e moving further away from gold. Cheers
That page at 8:14 (dmg 130) only has rules for selling magic items, not buying. Only 5 pages later, it says explicitly in "Buying and Selling Magic Items": "Unless you decide your campaign works otherwise, most magic items are so rare that they aren't available for purchase."
Played D&D up to 4th edition...where the game went off the tracks..switched to the Hero System... much more complex...but so worth it. Characters develop constantly, always changing depending on what the players want to do. No player character is the same, magic really gets detailed and customized per player, all together the players and I love it.
i have a rogue character who would buy a dagger from every town theyd visit. I also have a cleric in a sailing campaign who has a younger sister back home who i would buy a souvenir for at every port. Lots of great ways to spend money if you think about it!
I usually sit in the DM’s chair, but IMO the most efficent way to spend gold early on is just to buy Bags of Holdings, you can never have enough. Especially true if the party has a wizard (preferably a necromancer) and downtime. A throwable bag of zombies for a few hundred gold and a few 3rd lvl slots is probably the best Batman style smoke bomb for getaways, or combat initiator moves.
hmm, my soulknife rogue recently came into some money, not sure how to spend it since the campaign is a homebrew adventure where the whole party is facing a bunch of vampires and other nasties, there is only one technically "free" human city (and a temple that the party had to help re-consecrate) but it's in state of "survival only" so there isn't much.
Have you asked your DM if the temple could offer holy magic services for coin? It was common in previous editions to take cursed, harmed, or dead party members to temples to pay for help. Level Drain isn't a thing in 5e, or that temple would become essential, haha.
Agreed! Great reward to be deployed mindfully. I have a video/article about them for anyone considering enhanced spell components: ruclips.net/video/H2K3uNaGgrA/видео.html
I feel like if your Wizard doesn't know how to spend their gold, you have a VERY disengaged Wizard who would rather be playing an archery style Fighter, Eldritch Blast warlock or something so they can just point at things and roll for damage. lol
On the note of leveling slower it sucks to be half the level of the rest the party as a barbarian because of experience table and the team hiding all the destroyable magic items
My homebrew continent has a secret island, the players finally found it. Its a lost flourishing land untouched by any civilization. Their NPC's who they save and need a new home can move there. They can meet traders and companies in other cities, they can hire to buy supplies, workers and everything else required to build a town / city / country. My players have loved pouring their extra funds into building their very own civilization. Each time they return with a new NPC or tool / weapons for their favorite already there NPC's they get to see how their money has improved it and what's new there. Since its exploding in growth, its also starting to become known by other civilizations and BBEG's. So now their own place and NPC's home is becoming a part of the story and a place for them to defend or build an army from.
I love that idea! It gets me thinking about different mystical methods to conceal an island, like meeting an NPC from the island on the mainland who offers to help them find it as a reward. The players will need to wonder if they're walking into an ambush, dealing with a fish tale, or a genuine opportunity.
I spent my gold to buy and subsequently free some slaves and now they are my most loyal allies and they along with one other NPC know that I'm actually a warforged and not a drow.
@Flutes Loot thanks. There wasn't much else I could think to do with the 6.5k gold I won off of betting on a fight. A word to DMs don't let your players bet on NPC fights when you are using random chance to determine the outcome. Combined the party has close to half a million in gold.
My last character was a war forged that I basically just kept naked until we got a quest that required us to go to a type of ball, I ended up picking out a nice simple tux shirt and a baller top hat that he cherished for a few more seasons till it got destroyed in a fight and needless to say he was devastated
In a completely custom game and world I play with my friends, we have a system whereby any item can be enchanted through a ritual procedure. The player must spill their blood on an object, immediately before travelling to "the Plane" by use of psychoactive substances. The object will travel with them into "the Plane", which is a realm of existence formed from the memories and emotions of beings in the physical world. In the Plane, you must seek an Aspect (which is a godlike manifestation of an aspect of reality), who can bestow an enchantment upon your object. One reason this system is good is that it requires some hands on gameplay from the player seeking enchantments, who must think about what kind of object they will bring, which aspect they will seek and how they will travel to the Plane. The DM has to come up with an enchantment which makes sense for both the object and aspect the player chose. This means that the player gets the ability to choose the approximate genre of enchantment, whilst the DM gets to decide on the exact details. For example, I recently chose to do this procedure with a key and the Worm Aspect. (Worm aspect has association with tunneling, hidden pathways, navigating darkness etc) After a significant psychic journey, seeking the Worm, whilst witnessing the distorted memories of distant times and places, I eventually achieved my goal and so my regular key became Pathfinder. Pathfinder is a magical key which can turn any lockable door into a portal to distant places. Effectively portal travel. However my character cannot currently control the portals' destinations at all. In our Gameworld enchanted objects are like super-attuned items, they cannot be used by anybody but the owner and will even sometimes completely disappear to avoid being taken. In our world any magical item which can be used by any wielder, would be inherently powerful in nature. The skill and knowledge to produce objects of magical strength, independent of wielders, is high level stuff. After all, an enchanted item merely channels magical energies from the plane, through the soul of the wielder bound to it. An independently magical item must be imbued with a soul or other equivalent magical conduit, in order to channel the energies of the plane into itself. This is a much more complex process.
That's so unique and inventive! I've never heard of a system like that. I especially like the idea of a magical item that is only useful to its creator.
Hey Flutes, do you have recommendations for adapting Steongholds and Followers for the two Waterdeep campaigns published for 5e? We have Trollskull Manor and I was thinking about buying S&F, but I wasn’t sure if it would unbalance things since the Matt Colville supplement gives some pretty powerful benefits. I’m not sure how domain effects and such would interact with a major city.
I do have an opinion on that! I've found that 5e modules from WotC don't provide enough downtime to utilize S&F. In fact, even a lot of homebrew campaigns I've heard about are more focused on the urgency of the main plot, so they can't afford lots of downtime. For this reason, I recommend making stronghold questlines to IMMEDIATELY acquire and gain benefits from a stronghold. I'm thinking of Baldur's Gate 2 where you could interact with a group/location that had a quest tied to it, and if you completed it, you could become the leader or whatever of that location. This came with perks and decision-making as time progressed. The Waterdeep campaigns have a tavern (or something I forget) that the players can acquire and run as a home base. You could allow little things to be added to it. I'm thinking of Skyrim where you could get an enchantment table in your home. You might also make a central hub that appeals to all your players regardless of class. Home bases are great for players to enjoy, even without structured perks. Most of all, I'd make sure players are interested in the concept, and you make clear the types of perks they can gain. I bet your Wizard would feel hyped to know they could research a new spell, for example. As for the mechanics in S&F, I honestly don't recall in detail all the perks that the strongholds can yield, but those are probably the easiest part of the concept to adapt. I believe the real trick is to encourage downtime without deflating the campaign's urgency. I believe S&F is better suited to classic campaign styles. Lastly, maybe speed things up from prescribed time requirements. Let me know if I missed anything.
@@FlutesLoot I’m home brewing but my teen son wanted to build a castle. He managed to luck out and win a Royal joust over the local prince and asked for land for a stronghold. He was given 6 weeks to come up with 10,000 gold. They did it in 3 weeks but it was extremely dangerous and provoked a couple dungeon delves. And they still haven’t taken the cash to the capital city yet. Trying to figure out who will try to make their lives miserable for that particular trip… But yeah. Strongholds should be a major plot line and is realistically a lifelong pursuit, just like a real castle. Things go wrong and new towers need building to expand what you have. Then the wars, etc etc. might be time to ignore the modules for a while if you want castles since Hasbro is not as motivated as you are. (Does MCDM have modules to guide you into their rule set? This sounds like Birthright from 2e all over again l)
Mages have both the best and worst method for making insane bank. Scribing Scrolls, whether referencing the DMG's crafting magic items table or including Xanthar's Guide to Everything's scroll scribe rules you can allow casters to scribe Cantrips and Level 1 spells within a day of work during down time or greater time skips with higher level scrolls to make insane bank. It also adds roleplay due to finding either a seller or clients who would want such one-off spells which could be anyone the DM feels like adding to the world: BBEG, thieves guild, bodyguards, adventurers, city guard personal requests, etc. I say "Mages" because the flavor of the spell scrolls sorcery can be unique to the player so it's not just the same circle magic: Runic Geometry for the Wizard, Eldritch Markings from the Warlock, Oracle Bone Script for the Sorcerer, you really can use anything for the visual description of your spell scrolls.
I completely agree that the description of a spell scroll can be tailored to the character. I have a video all about spell scrolls to help with FAQs. They're a great way to spend gold.
I tried to make it clear that it wasn't a setting where magic items were common enough to go buy. Players persisted. So one day a shady guy brought them to an ally as he kept looking over his shoulder. He had items that meta-gaming players were all too excited to grab (bracers, necklaces, etc.) They never thought to roll one insight check, completely fixated on shinnies.
One thing I did was reduce the price of consumable items, and add a whole freaking shop specializing in them as a way to incentivize characters to buy them. I also eventually give classes like paladins their oh so coveted plate armor, so they don't feel bad about buying consumables instead of saving it for plate armor though I do also incentivize letting the PC's loot the absolute crap out of everything.
@@FlutesLoot Yeah it also makes combat more interesting when everyone is using scroll, and potions all the time. Have you seen what a Barbarian can do hopped up on potions of speed. Pray to Palor when the fighter uses a scroll of tensers transformation.
@@NobodyDungeons we are between sessions of our final boss fight in our campaign, and our Paladin is hyped up with 29 Strength from a potion :P Making consumable items more accessible adds a lot of variety without creating long-term balance problems (for those concerned with balance).
I don't always enforce encumbrance in general, but I find it really helps to emphasize just how heavy gold (and coin in general) actually is in bulk. That 5,000 gold reward? That's 100 lbs of gold, rules as written. As a fun prop, I filled a leather pouch with 5 lbs of pennies as a good analog for just 250 coins.
I enjoy thinking about details like that. Coins are so heavy! Encumbrance also gives the DM options for other magical rewards, like a Bag of Holding that can only hold gold coins. That's a reward that would hardly matter without encumbrance.
@@FlutesLoot And potential plot hooks. I had a character that would convert all his wealth into gems, partially to save weight. Not only did it lead to some fun RPing when trying to pay for dinner with rubies, it also made getting pickpocketed much more high stakes.
Some perfumes have made some social interactions with lady npcs successful. I try to always have some with me. I always plan for training throughout the game for those occasions my dm decides to do large swathes of downtime
My players have a ship so they have to pool their loot to buy upgrades, ammo, repairs etc. Makes them motivated when I say someone has a bounty for lots of gold lol.
Go for it! If it's very in-depth, we encourage people to join our Patreon and Discord to discuss, but we'll also handle questions here if someone prefers that.
@@richardb2942 Our Discord is Patreon-only, so we don't have a direct link :P (sorry I wasn't clear on that). It's really fine if you want to discuss here, though.
Then there are some players who are rolling in coins and gemstones, and treat them like potions in skyrim. hoard it, never spend them because they might come in use inte the late game. Well they are in the lategame and Last session I asked them what they are spending their money on... and I got no response from most of them, One player got the hint that this is most likely the last time they will be able to spend money before the finale :P
In a space west marches like game I became a billionaire. Started off making space moonshine on my ship, up graded to a factory on the hub space station, made millions. Raised my workers wages to ×3 for no game benefit other than I had it to give. Spent a big chunk to help a party member start their pop star career, which was a smashing success and made her partner to multibillions. With this we rebuilt the hub station after a terrorist attack nearly destroyed it. Upgraded it beyond it's original capabilities, set up adventurer fund where new players could get thousands in free money just for the promise to give up any rare materials or lore they found out in the dark, and finally build a massive dreadnought ship... that was a vacation resort complete with a waterfall and blacksand beach over looking the gravity anchor planet below. So if you ever find a couple of random jars of honey in a flesh cult ship wreckage, make some hooch, you never know.
Thank you for giving an example that isn't limited to classic fantasy! You truly became the boss you'd want to be in real life. And I'll remember the honey jar tip.
@@FlutesLoot if you want one for fantasy, I had a bounty hunter that built a hot springs resort on the boarder of two waring nations where the party previously found volcanic activity. It was used as the sight for negotiations and was actually the inspiration for the space resort because I now had the capital for my wildest dreams.... In the space game... I maaaay have also made universal health care a thing and ran blood drives as a cover to genetically bio engineer a race of space servitor drones to be my own personal army core of engineers and secret army for the space vampire menace sleeping across the galactic frontier. (The space vampires were the terrorists and the first wave of the invasion) My character was a changing that had different personas for each of his activities. The main adventurer persona pretended to be a half elf hired hand and body guard of the business persona so he could come and go as needed. He was a good guy, but was a the ends justify the means type. Yes, he was not well liked among the player base do to his gray morals. No, they didn't turn down any of my help in the major battles as I was probably the biggest financial backer of the free people and keeping them from being cattle. He was not the face though. Another player was the charamatic leader that brought players and NPC factions together. We bumped heads occasionally, but we won decisively. The DM later said he actually expected a massacre, but the group as a whole (12 players in total) surprisingly pulled together better than he thought we would. Was a 2 year campaign.
I love the Idea of crafting Magic Items. I am in a high lvl campaign now and I really want to make or commission a amulet or brooch of True Polymorph I just don't know if I want to suggest a non attunement single use that I recharge with a spell slot, it has a 7 day recharge or an attunement 3 charge recharge at Dawn mechanic. p[ersonally I like the 1 charge and recharge using my own magic. I might even suggest a sorcerer only design and use sorcery points to charge it but I really want true polymorph on my Sorcerer and they are the only arcane class without it so time for problem solving spell amulets that recharge with sorcery points and cast a specific spell non-attunement Collect the entire WotC spell list.
I'd love to see players getting more creative in this way at high levels, so good on ya! High-level play is so much more fun when players step up with ideas and ambitions.
I have never had an issue with spending whatever amount of gold was showered upon a character. My first order of business is equipment, including traveling gear, then magically enhanced gear to the maximum degree possible. But once my gear is maximized, I'll liberally spend it in all directions. Oddly despite my example, other players in the games I play seem to accumulate vast sums rarely spending any of it. I have a 19th level mountain dwarf fighter that just found in a chaos demon's lair, The Axe of the Dwarfish Lords 'and' a Potion of Longevity. I managed to convince the party to not sell the potion and let me give it to my character's father, an ancient dwarven smith of great talent. (I have by far the most developed character background and my family's manorhouse has been the base of our party's operations since the beginning of the game four years ago.) The Axe is rather momentous with regard to political implications in our game, so I am hosting a great gala for the nobility and crafting aristocracy (I'm a dwarf in a family of crafters) where the discovery of the Axe (and the fact that my character now weilds it) can be revealed. The cost of that would beggar a lower level character but is a small thing now for my character. More though, my intent is to present the potion as a gift to my father during this gala. However it is patently evident that if I were to present such a potion of longevity to my father, he would just turn around and give it to my mother. So I spent vast sums to acquire the material components to quickly fabricate a second such potion. (I could have saved a lot of money by adventuring for the components, but there was a time pressure.) Now I can present a pair of such potions to my mother and father, in the presence of every ally or potential ally in the realm. Somehow after all of this, I am once again back down to the kind of gold my character might have had several years back at level three.
I also like playing dress up in d&d it's a vibe and I'm about it. I feel like if Opal and I played in a campaign together our characters would just be trading herbs and accessories all the time.
are you sure the new players would be against separate leveling, especially compared to more experienced players? It's a theory, feel free to correct me, if it works in practice. Experienced players tend to come with a set of expectations from previous campaigns. While a new player has very few expectations unless they watched games before it. That the opposite is true. If you give a reason like the class is overpowered it could convince them. Having the player create a 2nd character as back up (I got that from dungeon craft) It's all about setting expectations.
Yep, expectations. Changes to level progression or otherwise will cause friction with some. I have received comments on the internet when I've asked about having parties with characters at different levels, and a good portion of people 'noped' it while some said they wouldn't play with me if I wanted to play that way. I suspect their responses came with peripheral assumptions about a combative, favoritism DM or something. They probably also imagine the linear campaign with one main plot that is to be resolved.
@@FlutesLoot dont make it any less broken. With nothing to spend money on while giving players heaps of gold being just one of the many facets on it's flaws
@@leonelegender I don't consider 5e to be a broken system. I have my frustrations with it, but I've been playing it for a long time and I've had plenty of fun.
@FlutesLoot the thing is that 5e is the only system out there where gms spend half the time patching up the system with homebrews and third party content while hungrily watching youtube content like yours on how to 'fix' the system. If that's not a clear sign of a broken system... Doesn't matter if you had fun with it or not. Heck I had, but it's so horrible on the gm side that at a certain point it's just not worth it.
@@leonelegender I enjoy patching in new things. Most old school gamers say they did that with any system anyway. And I think 5e is so easy for me to run that anything else feels kind of empty or like it is just an improv exercise, which I already have enough of IRL
Ok but how the fuck do you obtain so much gold that you don't know what to do with it? I've been playing a campaign for a year now and I have never been able to afford a fucking half-plate, at what point does one start having this reverse money problem????
That's definitely a question for your DM/group. Every group is different. If you're playing in an official adventure module, for example, you'll probably be either poor or you'll be wealthy with nothing to spend the gold on.
Why are there sooo many commercials? Last video was one per every two minutes the length of what I could stand to wait through. I did another and now there's just as many. RUclips is getting almost "unwatchable"
I've noticed more ads lately when I use RUclips, but I thought it was just me because RUclips knows I use it so much. Maybe it's a trend. I'll have to think about if I want to take back some control of when YT runs ads on my videos.
I like DnD (environment, bestiary, lore, etc) but the core concept of classes is something I despise. Do we need levels/classes? Still have the "classes" but instead of levels dictating proficiency in a class, you need to devote time and wealth/deeds. The arcane is taught in developed colleges, druidic skills are taught by the fey in deep woods, paladins and clerics are blessed by the holy gods by completing pilgrimages or tasks. What if everything was organic and realistic. You want to use arcane magic? Go to school. Cantrips can be taught by the village mage. Level 1-3 can be taught at county universities. Level 4-6 can be taught at the kingdom/imperial capital elite school. Level 7 can be taught only by elder sages. Level 8 can be taught by ancient dragons or pacts with demons etc. Level 9 requires locating the creator/unearthing the tome and studying endlessly to learn that spell. A similar concept but mechanically different for druidic/holy magic. The archfey/gods may have more say in those matters. The Priory Fighters guild Thieves guild Magic academy Rangers alliance Barbarian villages Druid circles Performance hall DnD feels too compartmentalized to me. Be whatever you want. Learn whatever you want. Don't "play a role", BE the character.
There are classless TTRPG systems, and I've played D&D without classes before. It was fun. My wife Opal made a video about it if you're interested: ruclips.net/video/Tqw1Kw28ER4/видео.html
@@FlutesLoot It feels like if you aren’t blowing every penny on spell components and materials for transcribing scrolls & spellbooks, then you’re wizarding wrong. I’m being somewhat sarcastic, but yeah. There’s no shortage of things to buy for wizards.
Encumbrance and tracking rations just make the game worse for everyone. Encumbrance is just really annoying and tedious to track, and if you're high STR or have another way to carry heavy gear your reward is... you don't have to suffer having to engage with the system anymore. Same with tracking rations, either you have to tediously track and restock your supplies, or you have Goodberry, Create Food and Water or the Outlander Background, you just solve the issue and free everyone from having to suffer the obnoxious system. And if you ban *all* the features that instantly solve it, the only thing the players want is to find some magic item that just generates food and removes ration tracking from their lives.
Not everyone hates encumbrance. I track weight on all my characters regardless of whether the DM cares. And I've had Strength-based players express happiness when my spellcaster couldn't carry more and asked them for help.
I also enjoyed tracking resources like rations in my current campaign (Tomb of Annihilation). My dad is my DM and he was really excited about the survivalist side of the campaign.
I also track rations and encumbrance as both players and a GM. My players and Teammates love the RP that these situations create. "Tavra, we are short on rations, go hunt." And "Arva, this treasure is too heavy. Cast Floating disk.". D&D isn't just a combat simulator, it's a life simulator. Adding situations for RP gets good players into the game to provide critical thinking and problem solving.
substituting the encumbrance system for a simple slot system makes tracking things easier, each item occupying a physical space, characters needing food , light and slots make them think and prepare for dungeons and long wild trips differently. Now suddenly spells like floating disc, and buying animals and wagons are a important aspect of the game, and players having to make choices between throwing away food to carry more stuff are interesting stories. Exploration and travel should be a important part of DnD but unfortunately WOTC basically cut off all that .
This excerpt from my article will be helpful for understanding why 5e games typically make gold and wealth irrelevant:
"The common adventure modules and homebrew campaigns for D&D 5e are plot-based. They have an overarching plot that is the focus for the better part of the campaign duration. Plot-focused campaigns have a downfall; they don't give players downtime.
Downtime is the leisurely duration of time between urgent adventuring. It allows characters to spend their gold and use their property and wealth in meaningful ways. Players love having a home base or a stockpile of magical armaments.
D&D 5e was designed to have heaps of downtime. How do I know this? The rules for crafting magical items make this clear. They're supposed to require months or years with mounds of gold to create some magic items. Sure, maybe 5e designers made these rules to merely gatekeep that kind of crafting; maybe they wanted to say "no" without saying "no." I choose to believe that D&D 5e was supposed to still focus on dungeon crawling and classic adventuring styles that older editions of the game focused on, especially prior to 3rd edition.
It's clear to me that the main player base of 5e does not focus on this style of play. They focus on storytelling with a fairly linear progression toward the resolution of that story, then they start a new campaign. If you really want to make wealth and downtime part of your game, I highly recommend you embrace a more episodic style of play. That means each session or short series of adventures will wrap up in their own way. Macro story plots shouldn't be so urgent and evident that they interfere with the players' downtime."
Full article: www.flutesloot.com/spending-gold-wealth-dnd-5e/
You know what is also a great place for a player to spend their gold - their families. I'm usually a DM but I blew one DM's mind when I played a campaign and not only had I had a family that loved me - I loved them back. I got the potion to heal my dads back ruined by the endless work, paid for my sister's school, refurbished mom's herbal shop - and always bring her new exciting plants and spices from my travels. Oh and I got my brother accepted into a knights order.
And when some asshole inevitably tried to hurt my family because... lazy DM's go for the low hanging fruit... I have painted his house red from the inside and committed atrocities the DM himself was not ready for. Not sure if the evil guys got the message or if the DM still gets the shivers when someone mentions a file (tool). Either way, the result was the same - I had a family I could lovingly take care of.
Perfect! Gifting and caring for a family is a great way to use gold.
-h-had...?
@@Dragon_Fire_2468 Campaign long ago. It ended as they usually do - by the group falling apart, getting lazy with the scheduling until the DM gives up and just stops trying to even schedule a game.
One that Critical Role used that I liked and plan to introduce in the future is the magical tattoos -- not the ones published by WotC, but ones that have a very high cost and can give you a +1 to a stat.
Yeah! Clearly, the players loved getting those tattoos (cosmetically and mechanically) and engaging with Orly. Great idea.
I like encumbrance rules and rations, if you don’t have food you’ll get fatigued.
I like strongholds too.
Crafting items and buying magic items is a great idea too
I'm glad they appeal to you, Rivers!
Hey dude, this is one of the best D&D videos that I’ve seen in several months. I randomly found you in my feed, and I am happy that I clicked on you. I can’t wait to explore the rest of y’all’s videos. They are incredibly high quality. Please keep up the amazing work.
Thank you so much! We've tried to improve our video quality over the 2+ years we've been on YT, so I'm glad it connected for you! :)
Our content is varied with what we cover regarding D&D. I hope you find plenty of content that is helpful for you.
I actually found the channel because I basically hate the Assassin Rogue Subclass (from levels 4-16, at least, the level 3 ability is pretty good and the 17th level one isn’t awful from what I remember, but not really powerful enough)… and this was like one of two channels that attempted to fix the subclass lol.
Still don’t think it was enough of a buff… but better than the official subclass, at least. Definitely some interesting stuff on here.
And I generally try not to promote other channels too much in the comments of one channel, but this channel often promotes others so I feel like it’s a lot less rude here lol. I think Dungeon Coach is great if you like Homebrewing.
A 14th level Transmutation wizard can permanently change silver into mithral for weapons or platinum into adamantium for armor with a transmutation stone. The weapons and armor can be uncommon magic item gifts.
That's a great idea to utilize the transmuter!
I think that Transmuter ability specifies equal or lesser value. Im not familiar with the value between silver and mithral or adamantium and platinum.
@@josephperez2004 The value to volume does not specify a solid object for the end product. So you could have a 1k gold piece solid block of ore to start and transmute it into a hollow balloon of mithril or adamantium that had the same volume. Then just Fabricate it into solid bars of ore.
@@archlittle6067 There is certainly that possibility and the idea of making the item hollow adresses the size requirement between the start and end product. There is still the concern of similar mass though, as it is one of the few things we consistently know above mithral that it is approximately half the weight of steel.
@@archlittle6067 Small addendum, Platinum does seem to be close in it's weight to the heaviest real world metal (osmium) though, so I think the platinum to adamantium transfer could work!
Had a game where the party bought an inn in a town, fixed it up, hired npcs they met in their journeys to work there (some of them being enemies that they brought to the side of good), and used it to store a lot of their trophies to display for the locals. It ended up turning the town into a major adventurers hub, and they put so much love into that place. Honestly, best gold investment is to buy a home base.
Nice vid, thanks Flute sLoot
That sounds like a happy party and a good game! :)
And thank you ;) lol
This is possibly the best use of examples given to induce understanding I’ve ever seen. Incredibly well put together and i sincerely appreciate this content. Ended up watching it three times in a row while gaming as well as rewatching a couple segments even more. Spacing out while gaming is how I brainstorm worldbuilding concepts and this gave me a few new branches to venture into. Much respect and a subscription from me awarded.
Thank you for the high praise! I really appreciate it.
My players generally always come up with some insanely convoluted plan for the gold which I never see coming. Always keeps me on my feet.
Warms my heart every time.
Great points on the article and the vid. our campaigns are similar to what you mentioned: episodic. we run alot of short campaigns and one/two-shots. we dont run long campaigns anymore. its just that it's more common for our table to go into the next short campaign with new characters in the same world (MCU approach) rather than re-using their older characters who are coming off downtime ready for the next world-ending threat.
It's an underrated way to play.
Great information. Thank you for sharing. I'm one of the DMs at my FLGS. The party is on the last segment of the Lost Mine of Phandalver and this information will come in handy once they are done.
Good luck, and thank you for your comment! :)
I hope those mines are full of wealth that those players can utilize.
One of the first things I started working on for my Theros campaign (that I still haven’t started yet) is stuff like wandering merchants, important NPC’s that have strange wares that are either useful or something players might want.
Niroy the Scholar- spell component, reliquaries, parchment, books, ludicrously expensive glassware, fancy inks, magical inks, etc.
Marcol the Mirthful- sells you items commonly found in the black market. Poison, street drugs, magical items with slight curses (like a bag of holding that has 100 insults), thieves tools, etc.
Becca the blackened- sells most standard weapons and a couple of metal items like caltrops. (Her and Niroy are the most likely to have discounts)
Timbre the hunter- pelts, hunting tools, spell focuses that double as weapons, animal based totems etc. he would pay a hefty price for the skin of a monstrosity.
Calliope the herbalist- more Druidic wares, recreational/beneficial drugs, goody baskets, mistletoe components, and wooden weapons/slings.
Love it!
I clicked on this video despite the thumbnail and title and I'm glad I did. I wouldn't use all the ideas, but it's great stuff.
Good to hear! :)
It’s always a good idea to have plenty of options for your PC’s to spend their hard earned money on.
Nicely done mate
Cheers
It really is! Opal has commented about the useless nature of gold to a certain point in some campaigns. I've heard players make comments like this enough to make me want to address it, especially since I believe D&D 5e campaign styles are moving away from making gold worth having.
@@FlutesLoot
Opal is definitely right but ideas like these are great to address the issue.
I think you are right with 5e moving further away from gold.
Cheers
Let’s goooo! This is a good video my dude
Thank you, senpai Josiah!
Way to go On tabletop Bob, Lutes! I really like your Dusk elf character! I'm kicking around just this idea.
Thank you for watching Bob's stream and for the compliment! :)
A really good job buddy. Very happy to see lots of people watched it.
I'm also pleased with that! Thanks for watching, Fred.
@@FlutesLoot All good.
That page at 8:14 (dmg 130) only has rules for selling magic items, not buying. Only 5 pages later, it says explicitly in "Buying and Selling Magic Items": "Unless you decide your campaign works otherwise, most magic items are so rare that they aren't available for purchase."
Thanks for clarifying!
Super high-quality video. I really enjoyed it, keep up the awesome content!
Thank you!
Played D&D up to 4th edition...where the game went off the tracks..switched to the Hero System... much more complex...but so worth it. Characters develop constantly, always changing depending on what the players want to do. No player character is the same, magic really gets detailed and customized per player, all together the players and I love it.
Awesome!
First video recommendation from you, subscribed, liked and now commenting because it was good. Keep up the good work!
Thank you for the kind words and support :)
Best thumbnail I’ve seen on RUclips in ages
I love this thumbnail. I'm glad it's connecting with people :P
i have a rogue character who would buy a dagger from every town theyd visit. I also have a cleric in a sailing campaign who has a younger sister back home who i would buy a souvenir for at every port. Lots of great ways to spend money if you think about it!
Those are perfect examples! Thank you for sharing your wisdom.
great ideas, I need to figure out a collection or prestige system
I usually sit in the DM’s chair, but IMO the most efficent way to spend gold early on is just to buy Bags of Holdings, you can never have enough.
Especially true if the party has a wizard (preferably a necromancer) and downtime. A throwable bag of zombies for a few hundred gold and a few 3rd lvl slots is probably the best Batman style smoke bomb for getaways, or combat initiator moves.
The Bag of Holding is one of my favorites for a reason!
Thank you for the breakdown. I love the topics from a PC point of view.
You're welcome! :)
hmm, my soulknife rogue recently came into some money, not sure how to spend it since the campaign is a homebrew adventure where the whole party is facing a bunch of vampires and other nasties, there is only one technically "free" human city (and a temple that the party had to help re-consecrate) but it's in state of "survival only" so there isn't much.
Have you asked your DM if the temple could offer holy magic services for coin? It was common in previous editions to take cursed, harmed, or dead party members to temples to pay for help. Level Drain isn't a thing in 5e, or that temple would become essential, haha.
I don't think I've ever seen a bad video on this channel so hopefully commenting will make the videos pop up more.
You da real MVP
Enhanced spell components is a really good idea (to use with caution)
Agreed! Great reward to be deployed mindfully. I have a video/article about them for anyone considering enhanced spell components: ruclips.net/video/H2K3uNaGgrA/видео.html
I feel like if your Wizard doesn't know how to spend their gold, you have a VERY disengaged Wizard who would rather be playing an archery style Fighter, Eldritch Blast warlock or something so they can just point at things and roll for damage. lol
When you say "Wizard doesn't know how to spend their gold," are you meaning they are broke because they spent all their gold to learn spells?
@@FlutesLoot Exactly! And replacement spell books, and material components, and making backup spell scrolls...
On the note of leveling slower it sucks to be half the level of the rest the party as a barbarian because of experience table and the team hiding all the destroyable magic items
What game system are you referring to?
My homebrew continent has a secret island, the players finally found it. Its a lost flourishing land untouched by any civilization. Their NPC's who they save and need a new home can move there. They can meet traders and companies in other cities, they can hire to buy supplies, workers and everything else required to build a town / city / country. My players have loved pouring their extra funds into building their very own civilization. Each time they return with a new NPC or tool / weapons for their favorite already there NPC's they get to see how their money has improved it and what's new there. Since its exploding in growth, its also starting to become known by other civilizations and BBEG's. So now their own place and NPC's home is becoming a part of the story and a place for them to defend or build an army from.
I love that idea! It gets me thinking about different mystical methods to conceal an island, like meeting an NPC from the island on the mainland who offers to help them find it as a reward. The players will need to wonder if they're walking into an ambush, dealing with a fish tale, or a genuine opportunity.
If you want to speed up creation of your stronghold (RAW) earth genie patron can whip it up in a few weeks. (Less than 4 "tendays" in most cases
Tell me more!
I spent my gold to buy and subsequently free some slaves and now they are my most loyal allies and they along with one other NPC know that I'm actually a warforged and not a drow.
Beautiful
@Flutes Loot thanks. There wasn't much else I could think to do with the 6.5k gold I won off of betting on a fight. A word to DMs don't let your players bet on NPC fights when you are using random chance to determine the outcome. Combined the party has close to half a million in gold.
@@spoonyluv19 holy moly, lol
My last character was a war forged that I basically just kept naked until we got a quest that required us to go to a type of ball, I ended up picking out a nice simple tux shirt and a baller top hat that he cherished for a few more seasons till it got destroyed in a fight and needless to say he was devastated
I always enjoy a dress-up party episode. And I can imagine the devastation.
In a completely custom game and world I play with my friends, we have a system whereby any item can be enchanted through a ritual procedure.
The player must spill their blood on an object, immediately before travelling to "the Plane" by use of psychoactive substances.
The object will travel with them into "the Plane", which is a realm of existence formed from the memories and emotions of beings in the physical world.
In the Plane, you must seek an Aspect (which is a godlike manifestation of an aspect of reality), who can bestow an enchantment upon your object.
One reason this system is good is that it requires some hands on gameplay from the player seeking enchantments, who must think about what kind of object they will bring, which aspect they will seek and how they will travel to the Plane.
The DM has to come up with an enchantment which makes sense for both the object and aspect the player chose.
This means that the player gets the ability to choose the approximate genre of enchantment, whilst the DM gets to decide on the exact details.
For example, I recently chose to do this procedure with a key and the Worm Aspect.
(Worm aspect has association with tunneling, hidden pathways, navigating darkness etc)
After a significant psychic journey, seeking the Worm, whilst witnessing the distorted memories of distant times and places, I eventually achieved my goal and so my regular key became Pathfinder.
Pathfinder is a magical key which can turn any lockable door into a portal to distant places. Effectively portal travel.
However my character cannot currently control the portals' destinations at all.
In our Gameworld enchanted objects are like super-attuned items, they cannot be used by anybody but the owner and will even sometimes completely disappear to avoid being taken.
In our world any magical item which can be used by any wielder, would be inherently powerful in nature.
The skill and knowledge to produce objects of magical strength, independent of wielders, is high level stuff.
After all, an enchanted item merely channels magical energies from the plane, through the soul of the wielder bound to it.
An independently magical item must be imbued with a soul or other equivalent magical conduit, in order to channel the energies of the plane into itself.
This is a much more complex process.
That's so unique and inventive! I've never heard of a system like that. I especially like the idea of a magical item that is only useful to its creator.
I've only played DnD briefly, but loved playing. Wish I could imagine what happens though.
I hope you play again!
Hey Flutes, do you have recommendations for adapting Steongholds and Followers for the two Waterdeep campaigns published for 5e? We have Trollskull Manor and I was thinking about buying S&F, but I wasn’t sure if it would unbalance things since the Matt Colville supplement gives some pretty powerful benefits. I’m not sure how domain effects and such would interact with a major city.
I do have an opinion on that! I've found that 5e modules from WotC don't provide enough downtime to utilize S&F. In fact, even a lot of homebrew campaigns I've heard about are more focused on the urgency of the main plot, so they can't afford lots of downtime.
For this reason, I recommend making stronghold questlines to IMMEDIATELY acquire and gain benefits from a stronghold. I'm thinking of Baldur's Gate 2 where you could interact with a group/location that had a quest tied to it, and if you completed it, you could become the leader or whatever of that location. This came with perks and decision-making as time progressed.
The Waterdeep campaigns have a tavern (or something I forget) that the players can acquire and run as a home base. You could allow little things to be added to it. I'm thinking of Skyrim where you could get an enchantment table in your home.
You might also make a central hub that appeals to all your players regardless of class. Home bases are great for players to enjoy, even without structured perks.
Most of all, I'd make sure players are interested in the concept, and you make clear the types of perks they can gain. I bet your Wizard would feel hyped to know they could research a new spell, for example.
As for the mechanics in S&F, I honestly don't recall in detail all the perks that the strongholds can yield, but those are probably the easiest part of the concept to adapt. I believe the real trick is to encourage downtime without deflating the campaign's urgency. I believe S&F is better suited to classic campaign styles.
Lastly, maybe speed things up from prescribed time requirements.
Let me know if I missed anything.
@@FlutesLoot thanks as always, for the in depth reply!
@@FlutesLoot I’m home brewing but my teen son wanted to build a castle. He managed to luck out and win a Royal joust over the local prince and asked for land for a stronghold. He was given 6 weeks to come up with 10,000 gold. They did it in 3 weeks but it was extremely dangerous and provoked a couple dungeon delves. And they still haven’t taken the cash to the capital city yet. Trying to figure out who will try to make their lives miserable for that particular trip…
But yeah. Strongholds should be a major plot line and is realistically a lifelong pursuit, just like a real castle. Things go wrong and new towers need building to expand what you have. Then the wars, etc etc. might be time to ignore the modules for a while if you want castles since Hasbro is not as motivated as you are. (Does MCDM have modules to guide you into their rule set? This sounds like Birthright from 2e all over again l)
@@Xplora213 I've not heard of MCDM providing modules, but I don't know much about their Kingdoms & Warfare book.
Mages have both the best and worst method for making insane bank. Scribing Scrolls, whether referencing the DMG's crafting magic items table or including Xanthar's Guide to Everything's scroll scribe rules you can allow casters to scribe Cantrips and Level 1 spells within a day of work during down time or greater time skips with higher level scrolls to make insane bank. It also adds roleplay due to finding either a seller or clients who would want such one-off spells which could be anyone the DM feels like adding to the world: BBEG, thieves guild, bodyguards, adventurers, city guard personal requests, etc.
I say "Mages" because the flavor of the spell scrolls sorcery can be unique to the player so it's not just the same circle magic: Runic Geometry for the Wizard, Eldritch Markings from the Warlock, Oracle Bone Script for the Sorcerer, you really can use anything for the visual description of your spell scrolls.
I completely agree that the description of a spell scroll can be tailored to the character. I have a video all about spell scrolls to help with FAQs. They're a great way to spend gold.
Thanks for the video.
You're welcome!
I tried to make it clear that it wasn't a setting where magic items were common enough to go buy.
Players persisted. So one day a shady guy brought them to an ally as he kept looking over his shoulder. He had items that meta-gaming players were all too excited to grab (bracers, necklaces, etc.)
They never thought to roll one insight check, completely fixated on shinnies.
Shady deals are a great way to spice up shopping. Do you usually require them to prompt their own Insight checks?
I invest in Gnome and Goblin stocks personally but these suggestions are fine too. We play a very different game..
Smart. Elf stocks are down lately.
One thing I did was reduce the price of consumable items, and add a whole freaking shop specializing in them as a way to incentivize characters to buy them. I also eventually give classes like paladins their oh so coveted plate armor, so they don't feel bad about buying consumables instead of saving it for plate armor though I do also incentivize letting the PC's loot the absolute crap out of everything.
Sounds like a good call!
@@FlutesLoot Yeah it also makes combat more interesting when everyone is using scroll, and potions all the time. Have you seen what a Barbarian can do hopped up on potions of speed. Pray to Palor when the fighter uses a scroll of tensers transformation.
@@NobodyDungeons we are between sessions of our final boss fight in our campaign, and our Paladin is hyped up with 29 Strength from a potion :P
Making consumable items more accessible adds a lot of variety without creating long-term balance problems (for those concerned with balance).
I don't always enforce encumbrance in general, but I find it really helps to emphasize just how heavy gold (and coin in general) actually is in bulk. That 5,000 gold reward? That's 100 lbs of gold, rules as written. As a fun prop, I filled a leather pouch with 5 lbs of pennies as a good analog for just 250 coins.
I enjoy thinking about details like that. Coins are so heavy! Encumbrance also gives the DM options for other magical rewards, like a Bag of Holding that can only hold gold coins. That's a reward that would hardly matter without encumbrance.
@@FlutesLoot And potential plot hooks. I had a character that would convert all his wealth into gems, partially to save weight. Not only did it lead to some fun RPing when trying to pay for dinner with rubies, it also made getting pickpocketed much more high stakes.
@@offcenterideas very true!
Some perfumes have made some social interactions with lady npcs successful. I try to always have some with me.
I always plan for training throughout the game for those occasions my dm decides to do large swathes of downtime
You have good taste! :P
Excellent!!
My players have a ship so they have to pool their loot to buy upgrades, ammo, repairs etc. Makes them motivated when I say someone has a bounty for lots of gold lol.
100% awesome! That's a great way to motivate players.
New to the channel, I got 14 seconds in and heard "Flute Sloot" I have to know if that was intentional xD
Lol it was definitely not, but we figured it out pretty quickly once we started on RUclips.
I'm making a naval cargo fleet one rowboat's barrel load at a time.
Conquer the world for me :P
@@FlutesLoot aye aye cap'n
Yo, I have a very specific concept for a very specific setting and campaign. Is there any way I can bounce some ideas off of one of you two?
Go for it! If it's very in-depth, we encourage people to join our Patreon and Discord to discuss, but we'll also handle questions here if someone prefers that.
@@FlutesLoot I am a tidbit computer illiterate but once I find the link for discord I would probably be willing to join that.
@@richardb2942 Our Discord is Patreon-only, so we don't have a direct link :P (sorry I wasn't clear on that). It's really fine if you want to discuss here, though.
@@FlutesLoot oh, are your sure? It's a bit of a info dump.
@@richardb2942 your call!
Then there are some players who are rolling in coins and gemstones, and treat them like potions in skyrim. hoard it, never spend them because they might come in use inte the late game. Well they are in the lategame and Last session I asked them what they are spending their money on... and I got no response from most of them, One player got the hint that this is most likely the last time they will be able to spend money before the finale :P
I am a recovering hoard-aholic myself haha
Tickling the algorithm
In a space west marches like game I became a billionaire. Started off making space moonshine on my ship, up graded to a factory on the hub space station, made millions. Raised my workers wages to ×3 for no game benefit other than I had it to give. Spent a big chunk to help a party member start their pop star career, which was a smashing success and made her partner to multibillions.
With this we rebuilt the hub station after a terrorist attack nearly destroyed it. Upgraded it beyond it's original capabilities, set up adventurer fund where new players could get thousands in free money just for the promise to give up any rare materials or lore they found out in the dark, and finally build a massive dreadnought ship... that was a vacation resort complete with a waterfall and blacksand beach over looking the gravity anchor planet below.
So if you ever find a couple of random jars of honey in a flesh cult ship wreckage, make some hooch, you never know.
Thank you for giving an example that isn't limited to classic fantasy! You truly became the boss you'd want to be in real life. And I'll remember the honey jar tip.
@@FlutesLoot if you want one for fantasy, I had a bounty hunter that built a hot springs resort on the boarder of two waring nations where the party previously found volcanic activity. It was used as the sight for negotiations and was actually the inspiration for the space resort because I now had the capital for my wildest dreams....
In the space game... I maaaay have also made universal health care a thing and ran blood drives as a cover to genetically bio engineer a race of space servitor drones to be my own personal army core of engineers and secret army for the space vampire menace sleeping across the galactic frontier. (The space vampires were the terrorists and the first wave of the invasion) My character was a changing that had different personas for each of his activities. The main adventurer persona pretended to be a half elf hired hand and body guard of the business persona so he could come and go as needed. He was a good guy, but was a the ends justify the means type. Yes, he was not well liked among the player base do to his gray morals. No, they didn't turn down any of my help in the major battles as I was probably the biggest financial backer of the free people and keeping them from being cattle. He was not the face though. Another player was the charamatic leader that brought players and NPC factions together. We bumped heads occasionally, but we won decisively. The DM later said he actually expected a massacre, but the group as a whole (12 players in total) surprisingly pulled together better than he thought we would. Was a 2 year campaign.
I love the Idea of crafting Magic Items. I am in a high lvl campaign now and I really want to make or commission a amulet or brooch of True Polymorph I just don't know if I want to suggest a non attunement single use that I recharge with a spell slot, it has a 7 day recharge or an attunement 3 charge recharge at Dawn mechanic. p[ersonally I like the 1 charge and recharge using my own magic. I might even suggest a sorcerer only design and use sorcery points to charge it but I really want true polymorph on my Sorcerer and they are the only arcane class without it so time for problem solving spell amulets that recharge with sorcery points and cast a specific spell non-attunement Collect the entire WotC spell list.
I'd love to see players getting more creative in this way at high levels, so good on ya! High-level play is so much more fun when players step up with ideas and ambitions.
I have never had an issue with spending whatever amount of gold was showered upon a character. My first order of business is equipment, including traveling gear, then magically enhanced gear to the maximum degree possible. But once my gear is maximized, I'll liberally spend it in all directions. Oddly despite my example, other players in the games I play seem to accumulate vast sums rarely spending any of it.
I have a 19th level mountain dwarf fighter that just found in a chaos demon's lair, The Axe of the Dwarfish Lords 'and' a Potion of Longevity. I managed to convince the party to not sell the potion and let me give it to my character's father, an ancient dwarven smith of great talent. (I have by far the most developed character background and my family's manorhouse has been the base of our party's operations since the beginning of the game four years ago.) The Axe is rather momentous with regard to political implications in our game, so I am hosting a great gala for the nobility and crafting aristocracy (I'm a dwarf in a family of crafters) where the discovery of the Axe (and the fact that my character now weilds it) can be revealed.
The cost of that would beggar a lower level character but is a small thing now for my character. More though, my intent is to present the potion as a gift to my father during this gala. However it is patently evident that if I were to present such a potion of longevity to my father, he would just turn around and give it to my mother. So I spent vast sums to acquire the material components to quickly fabricate a second such potion. (I could have saved a lot of money by adventuring for the components, but there was a time pressure.) Now I can present a pair of such potions to my mother and father, in the presence of every ally or potential ally in the realm.
Somehow after all of this, I am once again back down to the kind of gold my character might have had several years back at level three.
Great job spending your gold and exploring the implications of your treasure! That sounds like heaps of fun.
How a warhorse cost the same of 2 elephants? I am sure there is some kind of explanation, but I find it very odd. xD
The value of skilled labor, lol xD
That horse served in three goblin wars and is a trained green beret.
Suffering from success.
I also like playing dress up in d&d it's a vibe and I'm about it.
I feel like if Opal and I played in a campaign together our characters would just be trading herbs and accessories all the time.
Yeah, I would need to give you all a robust system for herbs and such. I'd use heavyarms' Alchemy Almanac that I did a video on and build from there.
are you sure the new players would be against separate leveling, especially compared to more experienced players? It's a theory, feel free to correct me, if it works in practice. Experienced players tend to come with a set of expectations from previous campaigns. While a new player has very few expectations unless they watched games before it. That the opposite is true. If you give a reason like the class is overpowered it could convince them. Having the player create a 2nd character as back up (I got that from dungeon craft) It's all about setting expectations.
Yep, expectations. Changes to level progression or otherwise will cause friction with some. I have received comments on the internet when I've asked about having parties with characters at different levels, and a good portion of people 'noped' it while some said they wouldn't play with me if I wanted to play that way. I suspect their responses came with peripheral assumptions about a combative, favoritism DM or something. They probably also imagine the linear campaign with one main plot that is to be resolved.
I have the opposite problem. When we do jobs we never have get gold.
Do you receive other rewards or no rewards?
Maybe you would have things to spend gold on if you played a better system that isn't basically broken
I'm fine with the 5e system
@@FlutesLoot dont make it any less broken. With nothing to spend money on while giving players heaps of gold being just one of the many facets on it's flaws
@@leonelegender I don't consider 5e to be a broken system. I have my frustrations with it, but I've been playing it for a long time and I've had plenty of fun.
@FlutesLoot the thing is that 5e is the only system out there where gms spend half the time patching up the system with homebrews and third party content while hungrily watching youtube content like yours on how to 'fix' the system. If that's not a clear sign of a broken system... Doesn't matter if you had fun with it or not. Heck I had, but it's so horrible on the gm side that at a certain point it's just not worth it.
@@leonelegender I enjoy patching in new things. Most old school gamers say they did that with any system anyway. And I think 5e is so easy for me to run that anything else feels kind of empty or like it is just an improv exercise, which I already have enough of IRL
All what gold?
It depends :P
You should Tax your players.
PCs are only out done in Tx dodging by the church.
The greatest enemy of all and clearly the final boss.
Ok but how the fuck do you obtain so much gold that you don't know what to do with it? I've been playing a campaign for a year now and I have never been able to afford a fucking half-plate, at what point does one start having this reverse money problem????
That's definitely a question for your DM/group. Every group is different. If you're playing in an official adventure module, for example, you'll probably be either poor or you'll be wealthy with nothing to spend the gold on.
@@FlutesLoot thanks for the reply. Sorry about the outburst, I was in really bad mood yesterday. Great video
@@tenisokamuoliukas thank you!
Why are there sooo many commercials? Last video was one per every two minutes the length of what I could stand to wait through. I did another and now there's just as many. RUclips is getting almost "unwatchable"
I've noticed more ads lately when I use RUclips, but I thought it was just me because RUclips knows I use it so much. Maybe it's a trend. I'll have to think about if I want to take back some control of when YT runs ads on my videos.
my artifcer is using her gold to buy secrets from all the street children have overheard in all the big cities plus she dont get pickpocket
Great idea!
gold? Wealth? When you get this? D:
Sticky-fingered Rogue :P
I like DnD (environment, bestiary, lore, etc) but the core concept of classes is something I despise.
Do we need levels/classes?
Still have the "classes" but instead of levels dictating proficiency in a class, you need to devote time and wealth/deeds. The arcane is taught in developed colleges, druidic skills are taught by the fey in deep woods, paladins and clerics are blessed by the holy gods by completing pilgrimages or tasks.
What if everything was organic and realistic.
You want to use arcane magic?
Go to school.
Cantrips can be taught by the village mage.
Level 1-3 can be taught at county universities.
Level 4-6 can be taught at the kingdom/imperial capital elite school.
Level 7 can be taught only by elder sages.
Level 8 can be taught by ancient dragons or pacts with demons etc.
Level 9 requires locating the creator/unearthing the tome and studying endlessly to learn that spell.
A similar concept but mechanically different for druidic/holy magic. The archfey/gods may have more say in those matters.
The Priory
Fighters guild
Thieves guild
Magic academy
Rangers alliance
Barbarian villages
Druid circles
Performance hall
DnD feels too compartmentalized to me.
Be whatever you want.
Learn whatever you want.
Don't "play a role", BE the character.
I feel like I should developed my own homebrew book or something.
There are classless TTRPG systems, and I've played D&D without classes before. It was fun. My wife Opal made a video about it if you're interested: ruclips.net/video/Tqw1Kw28ER4/видео.html
Are you playing a wizard? Great, you don’t need to be creative with how to spend the gold you don’t have.
Have you had problems with gold as a Wizard due to copying spells to your spellbook?
@@FlutesLoot It feels like if you aren’t blowing every penny on spell components and materials for transcribing scrolls & spellbooks, then you’re wizarding wrong.
I’m being somewhat sarcastic, but yeah. There’s no shortage of things to buy for wizards.
@@cfalkner1012 Wizards have plenty of things to spend gold on, very true.
Encumbrance and tracking rations just make the game worse for everyone. Encumbrance is just really annoying and tedious to track, and if you're high STR or have another way to carry heavy gear your reward is... you don't have to suffer having to engage with the system anymore. Same with tracking rations, either you have to tediously track and restock your supplies, or you have Goodberry, Create Food and Water or the Outlander Background, you just solve the issue and free everyone from having to suffer the obnoxious system. And if you ban *all* the features that instantly solve it, the only thing the players want is to find some magic item that just generates food and removes ration tracking from their lives.
Not everyone hates encumbrance. I track weight on all my characters regardless of whether the DM cares. And I've had Strength-based players express happiness when my spellcaster couldn't carry more and asked them for help.
I also enjoyed tracking resources like rations in my current campaign (Tomb of Annihilation). My dad is my DM and he was really excited about the survivalist side of the campaign.
I also track rations and encumbrance as both players and a GM. My players and Teammates love the RP that these situations create. "Tavra, we are short on rations, go hunt." And "Arva, this treasure is too heavy. Cast Floating disk.".
D&D isn't just a combat simulator, it's a life simulator. Adding situations for RP gets good players into the game to provide critical thinking and problem solving.
substituting the encumbrance system for a simple slot system makes tracking things easier, each item occupying a physical space, characters needing food , light and slots make them think and prepare for dungeons and long wild trips differently. Now suddenly spells like floating disc, and buying animals and wagons are a important aspect of the game, and players having to make choices between throwing away food to carry more stuff are interesting stories. Exploration and travel should be a important part of DnD but unfortunately WOTC basically cut off all that .
@@leonelegender agreed! And I was chatting about a slot system just last night! Very interesting.
Pros dont use gold.
nice