DM that gives TOO MUCH gold? [Archive] - Wizards Community

DM that gives TOO MUCH gold? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Wonton2006
05-07-06, 01:16 PM Have you ever had a DM that gave you TOO MUCH gold? I've heard whining about DMs that don't give enough gold, but have any of you had to endure the pain of too much treasure? I'm being serious here. We're at level 6 and our party recently found a treasure of about 80-100 thousand gp. Of course, it's split four ways, but nevertheless. I think our DM's too easy on us. With our ability scores and gold, we should be fighting CRs up to our level +2.
Pangeon
05-07-06, 01:27 PM One of my DMs is weird about gold. My friend and I joined his campaign a little late, at 4th level, and we started with only 4000 gp. It was lame. Then, later in the campain (still level 4,) I loot a body with a Dagger of Venom (8302 gp.) Sometimes we don't get nearly enough treasure, then sometimes we (or I, more specificaly. Whisper Gnome rouge with invisibility anyone?) get really expensive equipment. I suppose it works out in the end though, although the wealth distribution in the party is a bit off. (Again: Whisper Gnome rogue got in good with the sorcerer. Invisibility 4/day.)

In short, I have too much treasure. Is it possible your DM is generating random treasure and you got insane rolls? Were you fighting a monster (say, a dragon,) with like, triple standard treasure? That could amount for a couple of huge hoards, but not continious amounts of mondo treasure.
katarl
05-07-06, 02:47 PM If you have problems, try buying things that have little game impact but cost a lot, like strongholds.

Buy yourself a house! I encourage my players to get a home for themselves, depending on what their income is. Buy cows and start a farm! Invest in a business and get a specialist to run it (DMG2). Build a temple and convert the monsters you capture! Buy out the companies in your local town! Get a hobby, and stuff your kills.

Theres a million ways to waste gold!
Andorxor
05-07-06, 03:29 PM With this much money you should be able to hire someone who does the adventuring for you.
TheChilliGod
05-07-06, 03:54 PM Aye, one of my DM's has been piling on the gold a bit as of late.
At 7th lvl, each of us got one Ability Enhancer +6 as a present for solving a few poorly-thought-out puzzles; the individual item was specifically keyed to each of our most used abilities. Y'know, like a Cloak of Charisma +6 goes to the bard, Mantle of Intelligence +6 goes to the wizard, and so on...
It's a moral dilemma. My Rules Lawyer side says that this is far too much gold, that I should just drop the item onto the floor. But my Powergamer side claims that this item is too freaking good to get rid of. My Roleplayer side, thankfully, couldn't care less, although it would be nice to buy a specific area of a random magic forest for use as a Druid's grove...

Then there was that rogue in another campaign that, at level 5, got a... I think it was a +1 Keen Punchin' Dagger. It was indeed rolled randomly, and we were all quite surprised.

Sometimes, PC's just go out onto the street and initiate a lolly scramble with the spare silver and copper that they accumulate (Sometimes drawing happiness, other times they smash windows and people's heads).
Or they don't bother taking the treasure (especially if they're not liquid assets), and just leave it behind for others to find it.
ressurrector
05-07-06, 04:00 PM My character started off at lvl 1 with the following weapon:
Cudgel/Spear/Gnomish hooked hammer (it could be changed between these) with Ghost striking, Holy burst, and +1
Value would be calculated somewhere over 100k gp
Of course, this game is pretty monty-cookish, and we've had a grand total of 1 combat so far (now 3rd level).
Not to mention that my character is just about the weakest combat character in the group.

In any event, is there a reason that everyone is getting so much stuff? Is the game still challenging? Is everyone at about the same wealth/power level?
Sphyre
05-07-06, 07:11 PM Your party has roughly twice as much wealth for their level than they should have by level. If you were to gain 2 levels, you will be fine.

I am rather generous in my giving out of treasure in my games. When I feel that I have given out too much treasure I simply slow down my rate of giving it out. It will fix itself in time, and I didn't have to "take anything away" from the NPcs.

I suggest showing your DM Page 135 of the DMG, and have him use that as a guide for treasure. Of course I run higher treasure than that list... but I challenge my players a bit more than the average DM, so it's worth it ;)
Wonton2006
05-07-06, 07:12 PM Oh, everyone's powerful. Ridiculously powerful. One of us could probably beat a CR 5, unless of course it's a creature that completely negates the PC's strenghts (golem for rogue, flying for fighter, high SR/golem for druid and sorcerer).
Shaggy_Shaggs
05-07-06, 07:19 PM You'll need a moneychanger for this:

Make an enemy and then completely bury his house in cp. He probably can't even bring suit against you because the value of the coppers will be higher than that of the crushed building. :D
Azezel
05-07-06, 07:32 PM Katarl has the right idera - get a hobby, get a house, get a girl - or all three. Money in DnD very closely controls maximum power, but you need not spend all of your gold on something with '+' and a number in front of its name.

Use the opertunity to flesh out your character in free-rp.
a_psh
05-07-06, 11:49 PM Of course, this game is pretty monty-cookish, and we've had a grand total of 1 combat so far (now 3rd level).Monty-haulish, you mean?

Or are you playing through dungeon after giant city-sized dungeon full of monsters with levels in racial classes and rebalanced versions of the core character classes?
ressurrector
05-08-06, 01:58 AM Monty-haulish, you mean?

Or are you playing through dungeon after giant city-sized dungeon full of monsters with levels in racial classes and rebalanced versions of the core character classes?
Srry, got a little mixed up, since the DM of that campaign just ran some Monty Cook stuff past me to be used for his character in my campaign.

Yes, we have managed to avoid combat in almost every instance, even when the undead came in during the night to say hi, even when we were accidentally transported to hell; when the cockatrices fell on the druids head though, we did have to finally fight.
Vacerious
05-08-06, 02:27 AM I've had an experience w/ a Monty-Haul DM. The rogue wound up coup-de-gracing a sleeping ancient blue dragon w/ a +11 Lonsword, which he named Avalanche. Did I mention that this rogue was only lvl 6?

'Nuff said.
Gauze Fireforge
05-08-06, 04:17 AM I've had an experience w/ a Monty-Haul DM. The rogue wound up coup-de-gracing a sleeping ancient blue dragon w/ a +11 Lonsword, which he named Avalanche. Did I mention that this rogue was only lvl 6?

'Nuff said.

I had a Dm (briefly) that at level 1 gave out uber magic items to each of us. I cant remember what everyone else got but with my staff, I could do a fireburst that did more damage than anyspell I had (even probably up to level 5) and of course, it had like 8 uses per day and after that I could spend a spell slot to give it another use as many times as I wanted.

After two session of not even casting a spell but using this uber staff of doom to outright cripple every encounter, I knew the camapigns wasn't going to last. Of course this doesn't include the other 5 people and their uber items of doom.

This was the DM's first time of Dming but he had played enough to know better.
Travinkel
05-08-06, 04:34 AM I was once DMing a starwars campaign. A player cheated me into doing a gamble game in which he won roughly a million credits. We later stopped the campaign.

Some of the players continually mocked me for handing out too much credits. One of them later DM'ed a dungeons and dragons campaign, in which I roughly had 30 million gp (and probably more, as we owned platinum mines, diamond mines. And we invented the black gun powder, which as far as I recall brought us a considerable amount of money). He started blaming me for buying too much equipment. (I was by then a mighty 17th level paladin. Killing frost giants was a walk in the park, I chopped and stomped them up good)

Me, and another player (my brother in-game), ruled an entire kingdom situated in the high forest.
stranger_654
05-08-06, 05:03 AM When i first Dmed, i was guilty of giving out too much gold, but thats because it didnt click with me. I would roll the treasure randomly for the level, look at it, and just go "But that isnt enough/boring". It wasnt untill i played a few times with a dm who handed out the right amount of treasure that i appreciated how much a small amount of gold can buy.
Maybe your dm is doing something like that? I have always been weird when it comes to things, so it wouldnt surprise me if the dm had a problem nothing like this, But i thought my two cents would applie.
tiercel
05-08-06, 08:54 PM Well there are several things you could do:

1) Abuse it. If everyone is insanely strong anyway, maybe you all are having fun blowing things away and fighting higher-CR or highly-customized monsters. ...of course, this could be killing the challenge and fun, in which case you might want to consider another option.

2) Invest in RP. A number of people have already said this, but you can buy things that don't have a direct game-mechanical advantage, be it land, merchant goods, influence, contacts, a private militia, whatever. Still, you can change the face of the story with it and enjoy it without necessarily overpowering combats of CR anywhere near your party level.

3) Wacky magic. There are a lot of magic items even just in the DMG that don't get a lot of usage because they are not a good investment (not much bang for your buck). If you are dripping in money take a second look at some of those wacky, situational items, or things you always thought were cool but you were too busy saving up for your next stat-boosting equipment to buy.

4) Talk to your DM. Seemingly over-obvious answer, but it is amazing how often this can work. It is embarrassing potentially to go and say "please stop giving us so much gold" but you might just point out that if you min-max your purchases with the wealth he is giving you, you will be (at least temporarily) a lot more powerful. See whether he is interested in giving you stronger, poorer fights for a while to make up for this, or whether he would be interested in running an RP-investment campaign, or support having weird and wacky items available to buy (and integrate them into the storyline).
Wonton2006
05-09-06, 07:33 AM Well, when I asked my DM why we got so much gold from that encounter, he said that he has a plan in mind. He also hinted that "you know, some filthy rich guys are walking down a road, a buncha bandits see you, realise that there's only four of you..."
Ut-Napishtim
05-09-06, 09:12 AM Yeah, I've had a few DM's that try to buy the players' approval with wealth and trinkets for their characters. It just gets so stale. The best thing would be to talk to him about it in a polite manner, pointing out the implications on the group's CR and suggesting he up the challenges or down the loot.

I actually use the random treasure tables and have found more often than not the players come up short on wealth using them. I monitor wealth/level and track what I'm giving out to make sure the PC's get the loot they should. I like to fill in the gaps with unique magic items that while not really expensive for the most part feel like artifacts to the party because they're not listed in the DMG, and have a little backstory behind where they came from/why they were made.
:twocents:
MongooseWarrior
05-09-06, 11:45 AM I refuse to read any of these posts cuz if you think you can have to much gold you have to be mentaly ill.
Simply put YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TO MUCH GOLD!!
:D
hmmmm
05-09-06, 12:33 PM I have had a DM that gave us to much "Treasure" once but after realizing what he had done he set it straight (this was where you kill an orc and get 1200 gold). The money thing only bothers me when there is too much as it sometime interferes with the role-playing parts, but having a bit to little money isn't a problem normally we just steal it or get some one to hire us.

I refuse to read any of these posts cuz if you think you can have to much gold you have to be mentaly ill.
Simply put YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TO MUCH GOLD!!

You can have to much gold as there becomes a point when the conversation comes to "What do we do now?" and it becomes Dungeons and Dragons: Business edition where you can have talks like, "Whoa the new janitor class is sweet and I can't wait to take over that company in a hostile take over, that will teach them to oppose our product."
Morrowner
05-09-06, 02:09 PM This is one of the worst things a DM can do. In fact, I find it to be even worse than following treasure charts very strict or being on the stingy side. I like things HARD. I don't like to walk all over things. I like the sense of danger knowing I don't have a +80 bajillion Greatsword of Redunkulous to save me when the going gets rough. I 'd rather have every encounter be a near TPK than that.
Asking for harder encounters doesn't work in a jam like this unless you very explicitly say you want standard gold or you blow your gold on a lot of ridiculous things.
Wonton2006
05-09-06, 03:45 PM I agree. I'd rather have a really good encounter and feel really good about my awesome tactics afterwards than one where it's just too easy. And it was EASY. VERY easy. Here's how easy it was:

We were ambushed by two lone rangers in a row, both of whom were level 7. In teh first instance, two level 6s were fighting, in the second, three. It might have actually been difficult if not for the fact that the intelligent magical dagger flared as it struck them, doing a bonus d12. Pretty good. In the first fight, the sorcerer was struck down, and became -5. The rogue then proceeded two keep missing two attacks per round (TWF) due to unlucky rolls, and on round 4, when the sorcerer had, luckily, JUST stabilized (at -9), the rogue got a confirmed critical with the dagger. The DM then proceeded to roll 4d12, with me going "It's a x4 ability??? :eek:" Needless to say, he died.

The second was easier.

Both were short and pointless fights, and for them we got magic items worth about 60,000 gp, enough scrolls to fill a chest (mostly levels 1,2,3, and 4), enough MW weapons to be worth almost 15,000, and a chest full of full spellbooks (5,000 gp each, according to PHB)!!!

It is ridiculous! I'm going to give it to my DM fair, I think, "We're already powerful enough cause of our ability scores. I think it'll be more fun for all of us if you stick at least remotely to the treasure per levels table."
Morrowner
05-09-06, 04:01 PM I didn't play with a group once, I just watched and socialized for a few hours with them because the ability scores were so loose/high. Nothing below a 12, everybody could reroll 1s and 2s. The people were rolling up demigods. Then the amount of gold they were getting for easy encounters due to the fact that the DM wasn't taking into account how powerful the stats were. So they were getting a good 2 to 3 times more gold than they should have received. Oh, and the DM was using the optional pricing charts and let people pull a bunch of cheesy low-level use-activated doodads like Ray of Hope, Elation, Shield, Mage Armor, and Faith Healing without the slightest bit of justification. It was insanity! Everybody loved it and I gave it a shot the next week but it just wasn't my bag.
Lovesmasher
05-09-06, 07:41 PM How do you transport even HALF that amount of coin reliably?
Wonton2006
05-09-06, 09:04 PM We put it into a bank.
hmmmm
05-10-06, 09:07 AM How did you get it there?
Kraleck
05-10-06, 09:25 AM Here's an idea for the L/N/C Good characters (especially paladins and clerics):
Donations to the SAT's (Similarly Aligned Temples).

For most of the others, buy a rival. Pay somebody to be a significant force of opposition to you. Get him equipment on par with yours and pay for his combat/magic training.

Just go nuts with it...unless your DM has something big in store for you, then I suggest spending carefully and wisely.
kgbspy
05-10-06, 10:16 AM Trust me, there is no such thing as too much gold. Just use it to buy equpiment you probably shouldn't have at your level and use said equipment to slaughter the opponents the DM throws at you.
Morrowner
05-10-06, 10:34 AM But what fun is it? Its like playing a game of Monopoly but you never have to pay rent, you start with Boardwalk and Park Place, you can immediately buy Hotels at half price, and rolling doubles means you get to roll another 3 times. Sure, in the end you "win" but what have you done to deserve the "win"?
Millennium
05-10-06, 10:45 AM If you're really having trouble spending all the money your DM throws at you, then buy a stronghold. Getting a stronghold affords all kinds of nifty roleplay opportunities: aside from getting the land in the first place, you probably have to clear it of monsters before you can even start building. Then there's the issue of building it. Aside from the roleplay opportunities, you can sink huge amounts of gold into a stronghold very quickly.

If everyone in the party wants to build their own strongholds but doesn't mind building them close together, you could even found your own city. The workers who build the strongholds would be your first citizens. This opens up completely new directions for where the game could go.
hmmmm
05-10-06, 11:31 AM That would be a good idea.
Koretsu
05-10-06, 04:08 PM Have you ever had a DM that gave you TOO MUCH gold? I've heard whining about DMs that don't give enough gold, but have any of you had to endure the pain of too much treasure? I'm being serious here. We're at level 6 and our party recently found a treasure of about 80-100 thousand gp. Of course, it's split four ways, but nevertheless. I think our DM's too easy on us. With our ability scores and gold, we should be fighting CRs up to our level +2.

I was in a level 15 campaign where we all played as pirates. This was certainly an interesting game, but at one point, the GM gave us something along the lines of 1,000,000 GP each... We were all trying to figure out "What are we supposed to do with this much gold?". In the end, though, it worked out. One of our more eccentric players decided to spend all million of his GP on dynamite. Another player decided to hold on to it for a while. I took some time out of game, and worked with the GM on designing an airship. We did rather well, actually. Because the airship was something that didn't impact the game as much as 1,000,000 GP worth of magic items would, and actually allowed us to take our pirate act to new areas (inland). In the process of gaining the new ship, our old ship was destroyed by a hail of fireballs. This occured before any of us (including the GM) realised that all the dynamite (as well as the player that had yet to spend his gold) was aboard our old ship.

...It did take care of the gold issue....
Wonton2006
05-10-06, 11:14 PM Well, for your information, we got it there in a wagon. Most of it's in magic items, scrolls, and spellbooks. Here's an approximate list of the magic items we got (we're 6th level):

Staff of Fire
Bracers of Armor +1
Elixir of Love
5 Immovable Rods
Rod of Metamagic Silent, Lesser
Wand of Shocking Grasp
3 Wands of Detect Magic
Rhino Hide
4 +1 Longswords
Bracers of Armor +5 ( :eek: )
Amulet of Natural Armor +1

And, I think that's it.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Wonton2006 05-07-06, 01:16 PM	Have you ever had a DM that gave you TOO MUCH gold? I've heard whining about DMs that don't give enough gold, but have any of you had to endure the pain of too much treasure? I'm being serious here. We're at level 6 and our party recently found a treasure of about 80-100 thousand gp. Of course, it's split four ways, but nevertheless. I think our DM's too easy on us. With our ability scores and gold, we should be fighting CRs up to our level +2.
Pangeon 05-07-06, 01:27 PM	One of my DMs is weird about gold. My friend and I joined his campaign a little late, at 4th level, and we started with only 4000 gp. It was lame. Then, later in the campain (still level 4,) I loot a body with a Dagger of Venom (8302 gp.) Sometimes we don't get nearly enough treasure, then sometimes we (or I, more specificaly. Whisper Gnome rouge with invisibility anyone?) get really expensive equipment. I suppose it works out in the end though, although the wealth distribution in the party is a bit off. (Again: Whisper Gnome rogue got in good with the sorcerer. Invisibility 4/day.) In short, I have too much treasure. Is it possible your DM is generating random treasure and you got insane rolls? Were you fighting a monster (say, a dragon,) with like, triple standard treasure? That could amount for a couple of huge hoards, but not continious amounts of mondo treasure.
katarl 05-07-06, 02:47 PM	If you have problems, try buying things that have little game impact but cost a lot, like strongholds. Buy yourself a house! I encourage my players to get a home for themselves, depending on what their income is. Buy cows and start a farm! Invest in a business and get a specialist to run it (DMG2). Build a temple and convert the monsters you capture! Buy out the companies in your local town! Get a hobby, and stuff your kills. Theres a million ways to waste gold!
Andorxor 05-07-06, 03:29 PM	With this much money you should be able to hire someone who does the adventuring for you.
TheChilliGod 05-07-06, 03:54 PM	Aye, one of my DM's has been piling on the gold a bit as of late. At 7th lvl, each of us got one Ability Enhancer +6 as a present for solving a few poorly-thought-out puzzles; the individual item was specifically keyed to each of our most used abilities. Y'know, like a Cloak of Charisma +6 goes to the bard, Mantle of Intelligence +6 goes to the wizard, and so on... It's a moral dilemma. My Rules Lawyer side says that this is far too much gold, that I should just drop the item onto the floor. But my Powergamer side claims that this item is too freaking good to get rid of. My Roleplayer side, thankfully, couldn't care less, although it would be nice to buy a specific area of a random magic forest for use as a Druid's grove... Then there was that rogue in another campaign that, at level 5, got a... I think it was a +1 Keen Punchin' Dagger. It was indeed rolled randomly, and we were all quite surprised. Sometimes, PC's just go out onto the street and initiate a lolly scramble with the spare silver and copper that they accumulate (Sometimes drawing happiness, other times they smash windows and people's heads). Or they don't bother taking the treasure (especially if they're not liquid assets), and just leave it behind for others to find it.
ressurrector 05-07-06, 04:00 PM	My character started off at lvl 1 with the following weapon: Cudgel/Spear/Gnomish hooked hammer (it could be changed between these) with Ghost striking, Holy burst, and +1 Value would be calculated somewhere over 100k gp Of course, this game is pretty monty-cookish, and we've had a grand total of 1 combat so far (now 3rd level). Not to mention that my character is just about the weakest combat character in the group. In any event, is there a reason that everyone is getting so much stuff? Is the game still challenging? Is everyone at about the same wealth/power level?
Sphyre 05-07-06, 07:11 PM	Your party has roughly twice as much wealth for their level than they should have by level. If you were to gain 2 levels, you will be fine. I am rather generous in my giving out of treasure in my games. When I feel that I have given out too much treasure I simply slow down my rate of giving it out. It will fix itself in time, and I didn't have to "take anything away" from the NPcs. I suggest showing your DM Page 135 of the DMG, and have him use that as a guide for treasure. Of course I run higher treasure than that list... but I challenge my players a bit more than the average DM, so it's worth it ;)
Wonton2006 05-07-06, 07:12 PM	Oh, everyone's powerful. Ridiculously powerful. One of us could probably beat a CR 5, unless of course it's a creature that completely negates the PC's strenghts (golem for rogue, flying for fighter, high SR/golem for druid and sorcerer).
Shaggy_Shaggs 05-07-06, 07:19 PM	You'll need a moneychanger for this: Make an enemy and then completely bury his house in cp. He probably can't even bring suit against you because the value of the coppers will be higher than that of the crushed building. :D
Azezel 05-07-06, 07:32 PM	Katarl has the right idera - get a hobby, get a house, get a girl - or all three. Money in DnD very closely controls maximum power, but you need not spend all of your gold on something with '+' and a number in front of its name. Use the opertunity to flesh out your character in free-rp.
a_psh 05-07-06, 11:49 PM	Of course, this game is pretty monty-cookish, and we've had a grand total of 1 combat so far (now 3rd level).Monty-haulish, you mean? Or are you playing through dungeon after giant city-sized dungeon full of monsters with levels in racial classes and rebalanced versions of the core character classes?
ressurrector 05-08-06, 01:58 AM	Monty-haulish, you mean? Or are you playing through dungeon after giant city-sized dungeon full of monsters with levels in racial classes and rebalanced versions of the core character classes? Srry, got a little mixed up, since the DM of that campaign just ran some Monty Cook stuff past me to be used for his character in my campaign. Yes, we have managed to avoid combat in almost every instance, even when the undead came in during the night to say hi, even when we were accidentally transported to hell; when the cockatrices fell on the druids head though, we did have to finally fight.
Vacerious 05-08-06, 02:27 AM	I've had an experience w/ a Monty-Haul DM. The rogue wound up coup-de-gracing a sleeping ancient blue dragon w/ a +11 Lonsword, which he named Avalanche. Did I mention that this rogue was only lvl 6? 'Nuff said.
Gauze Fireforge 05-08-06, 04:17 AM	I've had an experience w/ a Monty-Haul DM. The rogue wound up coup-de-gracing a sleeping ancient blue dragon w/ a +11 Lonsword, which he named Avalanche. Did I mention that this rogue was only lvl 6? 'Nuff said. I had a Dm (briefly) that at level 1 gave out uber magic items to each of us. I cant remember what everyone else got but with my staff, I could do a fireburst that did more damage than anyspell I had (even probably up to level 5) and of course, it had like 8 uses per day and after that I could spend a spell slot to give it another use as many times as I wanted. After two session of not even casting a spell but using this uber staff of doom to outright cripple every encounter, I knew the camapigns wasn't going to last. Of course this doesn't include the other 5 people and their uber items of doom. This was the DM's first time of Dming but he had played enough to know better.
Travinkel 05-08-06, 04:34 AM	I was once DMing a starwars campaign. A player cheated me into doing a gamble game in which he won roughly a million credits. We later stopped the campaign. Some of the players continually mocked me for handing out too much credits. One of them later DM'ed a dungeons and dragons campaign, in which I roughly had 30 million gp (and probably more, as we owned platinum mines, diamond mines. And we invented the black gun powder, which as far as I recall brought us a considerable amount of money). He started blaming me for buying too much equipment. (I was by then a mighty 17th level paladin. Killing frost giants was a walk in the park, I chopped and stomped them up good) Me, and another player (my brother in-game), ruled an entire kingdom situated in the high forest.
stranger_654 05-08-06, 05:03 AM	When i first Dmed, i was guilty of giving out too much gold, but thats because it didnt click with me. I would roll the treasure randomly for the level, look at it, and just go "But that isnt enough/boring". It wasnt untill i played a few times with a dm who handed out the right amount of treasure that i appreciated how much a small amount of gold can buy. Maybe your dm is doing something like that? I have always been weird when it comes to things, so it wouldnt surprise me if the dm had a problem nothing like this, But i thought my two cents would applie.
tiercel 05-08-06, 08:54 PM	Well there are several things you could do: 1) Abuse it. If everyone is insanely strong anyway, maybe you all are having fun blowing things away and fighting higher-CR or highly-customized monsters. ...of course, this could be killing the challenge and fun, in which case you might want to consider another option. 2) Invest in RP. A number of people have already said this, but you can buy things that don't have a direct game-mechanical advantage, be it land, merchant goods, influence, contacts, a private militia, whatever. Still, you can change the face of the story with it and enjoy it without necessarily overpowering combats of CR anywhere near your party level. 3) Wacky magic. There are a lot of magic items even just in the DMG that don't get a lot of usage because they are not a good investment (not much bang for your buck). If you are dripping in money take a second look at some of those wacky, situational items, or things you always thought were cool but you were too busy saving up for your next stat-boosting equipment to buy. 4) Talk to your DM. Seemingly over-obvious answer, but it is amazing how often this can work. It is embarrassing potentially to go and say "please stop giving us so much gold" but you might just point out that if you min-max your purchases with the wealth he is giving you, you will be (at least temporarily) a lot more powerful. See whether he is interested in giving you stronger, poorer fights for a while to make up for this, or whether he would be interested in running an RP-investment campaign, or support having weird and wacky items available to buy (and integrate them into the storyline).
Wonton2006 05-09-06, 07:33 AM	Well, when I asked my DM why we got so much gold from that encounter, he said that he has a plan in mind. He also hinted that "you know, some filthy rich guys are walking down a road, a buncha bandits see you, realise that there's only four of you..."
Ut-Napishtim 05-09-06, 09:12 AM	Yeah, I've had a few DM's that try to buy the players' approval with wealth and trinkets for their characters. It just gets so stale. The best thing would be to talk to him about it in a polite manner, pointing out the implications on the group's CR and suggesting he up the challenges or down the loot. I actually use the random treasure tables and have found more often than not the players come up short on wealth using them. I monitor wealth/level and track what I'm giving out to make sure the PC's get the loot they should. I like to fill in the gaps with unique magic items that while not really expensive for the most part feel like artifacts to the party because they're not listed in the DMG, and have a little backstory behind where they came from/why they were made. :twocents:
MongooseWarrior 05-09-06, 11:45 AM	I refuse to read any of these posts cuz if you think you can have to much gold you have to be mentaly ill. Simply put YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TO MUCH GOLD!! :D
hmmmm 05-09-06, 12:33 PM	I have had a DM that gave us to much "Treasure" once but after realizing what he had done he set it straight (this was where you kill an orc and get 1200 gold). The money thing only bothers me when there is too much as it sometime interferes with the role-playing parts, but having a bit to little money isn't a problem normally we just steal it or get some one to hire us. I refuse to read any of these posts cuz if you think you can have to much gold you have to be mentaly ill. Simply put YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TO MUCH GOLD!! You can have to much gold as there becomes a point when the conversation comes to "What do we do now?" and it becomes Dungeons and Dragons: Business edition where you can have talks like, "Whoa the new janitor class is sweet and I can't wait to take over that company in a hostile take over, that will teach them to oppose our product."
Morrowner 05-09-06, 02:09 PM	This is one of the worst things a DM can do. In fact, I find it to be even worse than following treasure charts very strict or being on the stingy side. I like things HARD. I don't like to walk all over things. I like the sense of danger knowing I don't have a +80 bajillion Greatsword of Redunkulous to save me when the going gets rough. I 'd rather have every encounter be a near TPK than that. Asking for harder encounters doesn't work in a jam like this unless you very explicitly say you want standard gold or you blow your gold on a lot of ridiculous things.
Wonton2006 05-09-06, 03:45 PM	I agree. I'd rather have a really good encounter and feel really good about my awesome tactics afterwards than one where it's just too easy. And it was EASY. VERY easy. Here's how easy it was: We were ambushed by two lone rangers in a row, both of whom were level 7. In teh first instance, two level 6s were fighting, in the second, three. It might have actually been difficult if not for the fact that the intelligent magical dagger flared as it struck them, doing a bonus d12. Pretty good. In the first fight, the sorcerer was struck down, and became -5. The rogue then proceeded two keep missing two attacks per round (TWF) due to unlucky rolls, and on round 4, when the sorcerer had, luckily, JUST stabilized (at -9), the rogue got a confirmed critical with the dagger. The DM then proceeded to roll 4d12, with me going "It's a x4 ability??? :eek:" Needless to say, he died. The second was easier. Both were short and pointless fights, and for them we got magic items worth about 60,000 gp, enough scrolls to fill a chest (mostly levels 1,2,3, and 4), enough MW weapons to be worth almost 15,000, and a chest full of full spellbooks (5,000 gp each, according to PHB)!!! It is ridiculous! I'm going to give it to my DM fair, I think, "We're already powerful enough cause of our ability scores. I think it'll be more fun for all of us if you stick at least remotely to the treasure per levels table."
Morrowner 05-09-06, 04:01 PM	I didn't play with a group once, I just watched and socialized for a few hours with them because the ability scores were so loose/high. Nothing below a 12, everybody could reroll 1s and 2s. The people were rolling up demigods. Then the amount of gold they were getting for easy encounters due to the fact that the DM wasn't taking into account how powerful the stats were. So they were getting a good 2 to 3 times more gold than they should have received. Oh, and the DM was using the optional pricing charts and let people pull a bunch of cheesy low-level use-activated doodads like Ray of Hope, Elation, Shield, Mage Armor, and Faith Healing without the slightest bit of justification. It was insanity! Everybody loved it and I gave it a shot the next week but it just wasn't my bag.
Lovesmasher 05-09-06, 07:41 PM	How do you transport even HALF that amount of coin reliably?
Wonton2006 05-09-06, 09:04 PM	We put it into a bank.
hmmmm 05-10-06, 09:07 AM	How did you get it there?
Kraleck 05-10-06, 09:25 AM	Here's an idea for the L/N/C Good characters (especially paladins and clerics): Donations to the SAT's (Similarly Aligned Temples). For most of the others, buy a rival. Pay somebody to be a significant force of opposition to you. Get him equipment on par with yours and pay for his combat/magic training. Just go nuts with it...unless your DM has something big in store for you, then I suggest spending carefully and wisely.
kgbspy 05-10-06, 10:16 AM	Trust me, there is no such thing as too much gold. Just use it to buy equpiment you probably shouldn't have at your level and use said equipment to slaughter the opponents the DM throws at you.
Morrowner 05-10-06, 10:34 AM	But what fun is it? Its like playing a game of Monopoly but you never have to pay rent, you start with Boardwalk and Park Place, you can immediately buy Hotels at half price, and rolling doubles means you get to roll another 3 times. Sure, in the end you "win" but what have you done to deserve the "win"?
Millennium 05-10-06, 10:45 AM	If you're really having trouble spending all the money your DM throws at you, then buy a stronghold. Getting a stronghold affords all kinds of nifty roleplay opportunities: aside from getting the land in the first place, you probably have to clear it of monsters before you can even start building. Then there's the issue of building it. Aside from the roleplay opportunities, you can sink huge amounts of gold into a stronghold very quickly. If everyone in the party wants to build their own strongholds but doesn't mind building them close together, you could even found your own city. The workers who build the strongholds would be your first citizens. This opens up completely new directions for where the game could go.
hmmmm 05-10-06, 11:31 AM	That would be a good idea.
Koretsu 05-10-06, 04:08 PM	Have you ever had a DM that gave you TOO MUCH gold? I've heard whining about DMs that don't give enough gold, but have any of you had to endure the pain of too much treasure? I'm being serious here. We're at level 6 and our party recently found a treasure of about 80-100 thousand gp. Of course, it's split four ways, but nevertheless. I think our DM's too easy on us. With our ability scores and gold, we should be fighting CRs up to our level +2. I was in a level 15 campaign where we all played as pirates. This was certainly an interesting game, but at one point, the GM gave us something along the lines of 1,000,000 GP each... We were all trying to figure out "What are we supposed to do with this much gold?". In the end, though, it worked out. One of our more eccentric players decided to spend all million of his GP on dynamite. Another player decided to hold on to it for a while. I took some time out of game, and worked with the GM on designing an airship. We did rather well, actually. Because the airship was something that didn't impact the game as much as 1,000,000 GP worth of magic items would, and actually allowed us to take our pirate act to new areas (inland). In the process of gaining the new ship, our old ship was destroyed by a hail of fireballs. This occured before any of us (including the GM) realised that all the dynamite (as well as the player that had yet to spend his gold) was aboard our old ship. ...It did take care of the gold issue....
Wonton2006 05-10-06, 11:14 PM	Well, for your information, we got it there in a wagon. Most of it's in magic items, scrolls, and spellbooks. Here's an approximate list of the magic items we got (we're 6th level): Staff of Fire Bracers of Armor +1 Elixir of Love 5 Immovable Rods Rod of Metamagic Silent, Lesser Wand of Shocking Grasp 3 Wands of Detect Magic Rhino Hide 4 +1 Longswords Bracers of Armor +5 ( :eek: ) Amulet of Natural Armor +1 And, I think that's it.