Hey! I'm playing in a homebrew-plot game which has been fairly low-magic so far. We're all at level 5, and the only magic items we have are a couple of +1 enhancement trinkets won way way way back in our first session, and a tool-style item (sends a handwritten message anywhere you have already been or seen instantaneously, if sealed with The Signet of IM).
In terms of weapons, there have only been some flavor-drops... boomerang shuriken for the monk (no ammo required!) and a thorny shield with a +1dmg on bashing. So nothing super fancy there, however useful they are.
Our weapons are all base-level, and after about eight sessions or so in and out of major cities, we have only seen basic armor and weapons for sale... no scrolls, wands, pendants, rings, cloaks, bracers, or potions. At all.
Now, this is not a bad thing. It makes the flavor of the world a lot more visceral and ability-based, and I think we like it how it is. However, we are also now very wealthy. Exceedingly so, especially since we critical-bluffed our way into receiving the heirloom fortune of a dead PC, worth millions of gold in title deeds and bullion.
What to do with all of that MONEY?! There's nothing to buy other than arrows and rations. Any suggestions?
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I think your characters need to ask themselves a simple question...
What is best in life? The answer to that question is what you should buy.
If the answer to that question isn't, "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.", you need to make a Fort save or die and be reincarnated as a barbarian.
Agreed. It sounds like your DM is creating a world where you do not really get to buy magic items. Have an out of character conversation with your DM and confirm this is how the world will be. If it is and everyone agree's you have one or two major options.
If the item crafting feats are allowed... then take them and get to work. :) The fighter may need to pick up the skills Craft Weapon and/or Armor plus the feats Master Craftsman and Craft Magic Arms and Armor. Have the cleric get the feat Brew Potion and Craft Wand and Spellcraft. Then the Mage can grab Craft Wonderous item and any of the ring/rod/staff type things you feel are fun to have... plus Spellcraft skill. (These are suggestions on how you could share the skill and feat cost among the party... feel free to change the classes and who takes what as you go.)
If on the other hand the DM is trying to have a low magic game, and the players agree. Then you get to go "Old School". Save your money for a castle, wizards tower, temple, or thieves guild. These were common items to spend you money on at higher levels "back in the day".
Orphanage. Homeless shelter. College scholarships. Buy a castle. Raise a militia. Start up a merchant empire. Make the largest golden statue of yourself you can.
Love to! Unfortunately we're at the "Race Against Time" stage of the campaign, and there's an extremely hostile (and, right now, unbeatable) invading army on our heels.
The social-welfare institutions are excellent ideas. We helped liberate a town from siege in last week's session, and so put a bunch of money into their broken trade economy by commissioning a complete renovation and re-construction of their drydocks and moorings.
Have an out of character conversation with your DM and confirm this is how the world will be...
Item crafting feats...
"Old School": Save your money for a castle, wizards tower, temple, or thieves guild. These were common items to spend you money on at higher levels "back in the day".
We have a witch who has high 'Craft' skills, but at this point I don't know about Item Creation feats. I'll definitely check with the GM about that.
Lots of cash but no high-level items, eh?
Commission a thousand 1st level NPCs to work on alchemist fires, nonstop.
Get your hands on a bag of holding. Shouldn't be too expensive to get the cheapest.
Cast shrink-item on all the fires. Stuff in the bag.
You now own a nuclear bomb. Toss it, shoot an arrow at it (magic missle if you don't want to miss), bomb expands, deal 1000d4 damage.
Maybe the question I should be asking is; in a low-magic gameworld, what would you spend vast amounts of money on?
LOL of course if it is really a problem you could just go to a major city and spend 1 CP on a wooden sign that reads. "Help, I have too much money... what should I do with it?"
The problem will resolve itself by the end of the day...
Some examples from my games:
Throw the biggest block party the world has ever seen. This spent a couple million all told, and closed off the equivalent of 10 blocks of NYC.
Buy a castle somewhere and hire some mages to make it amasing. Should come in handy against that invading army.
Create an orphanage, and train the orphans to be your loyal spies. Hire them great tutors, and get them placed as valued butlers and maids in opposing noble houses.
Buy the slums. In an alternate demention where time moves faster, build a giant citatdel. Use a massive summoning circle to transport the citadel right on top of the slums, extending far beyond the tallest building in the city.
I think your characters need to ask themselves a simple question...
What is best in life? The answer to that question is what you should buy.
If the answer to that question isn't, "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.", you need to make a Fort save or die and be reincarnated as a barbarian.
You don't ask that sort of question of a barbarian. You ask a bard.
Quoth the bard: ""The best things in life are free
But you can keep 'em for the birds and bees
Now give me money, (that's what I want) that's what I want."
You already have the best thing in life that isn't free. Keep it and enjoy it.
Maybe the question I should be asking is; in a low-magic gameworld, what would you spend vast amounts of money on?
Still gotta say the nuke. Alchemist fires can be crafted by 1st level experts, which are dirt cheap. Even a low-magic campaign should have a type-1 bag of holding. Shrink item is a low-level spell, too.
:)
That being said, I would go with a massive well-guarded fortress and hirelings to man it.
Ale and whores.
Hey, someone had to say it!
Dangit, that was what I was going to say!
I remember that the Conan RPG had a set % by which your riches would disappear each day you weren't adventuring to cover that. Combine that with the "down a container of booze @0 HP to regain HP" rule and you have two of the best rules evar and know you why I am fond of the Conan d20 system.
Maybe the question I should be asking is; in a low-magic gameworld, what would you spend vast amounts of money on?
Guns, guns, and more guns? ;-)
Alchemical items and poison?
Guns, guns, and more guns? ;-)Alchemical items and poison?
We are seriously considering hiring a bunch of dwarves to make firearms for our use, but the meta-knowledge of that is astoundingly awful.
Lots of the plot right now prevents us from buying land, properties, or hiring people to help us.
We also found some 'submarines' that the invading armies used to get across the sea, and they're powered by some sort of Chaos-reactor. The wizard in our party is thinking of perhaps hiring dwarves and men to pull it out and install it in a skyship for us.
Love to! Unfortunately we're at the "Race Against Time" stage of the campaign, and there's an extremely hostile (and, right now, unbeatable) invading army on our heels.
Soooo....
How much would it cost to bribe large chunks of the invading army to turn coat at a critical point?
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Give it to a dragon (the older the better) in exchange for him tipping the scales in your favor in the approaching conflict. Maybe multiple dragons, if you have enough money.
EDIT: Oh, and make sure the dragon's metallic (so that he's less likely to take your money and eat you. He still might, but it's not a certain as a chromatic dragon) and has a cone-shaped breath weapon (all the better to cut a swathe through the enemy ranks).
Lots of cash but no high-level items, eh?
Commission a thousand 1st level NPCs to work on alchemist fires, nonstop.Get your hands on a bag of holding. Shouldn't be too expensive to get the cheapest.
Cast shrink-item on all the fires. Stuff in the bag.
You now own a nuclear bomb. Toss it, shoot an arrow at it (magic missle if you don't want to miss), bomb expands, deal 1000d4 damage.
Sadly, this wont work. If a bag of holding is pierced it's ruined and all contents are lost.
Ah! I have news! My GM has just told me that based on the amount of money we poured into that town's economy, our credit is based off of their economic buying power! So now we own a town. Which is nice. It's the second of two major shipping ports on the western shore of the continent.
Ok, so now we have a town. What would you do if you had a town and ridiculous amounts of money?
Use it to fund the BATCAVE/ base of operations, some henchmen, patch of land, steady revenue and source of adventure.
buy some stakes in local politics, exotic mounts/barding, build a church, a homeless shelter, win the adoration of the masses, masterwork equipment or equipment from exotic materials, (sleeping)poison, henchmen, cohorts. economical warfare or maybe TriOmegaZero had it right the first time..
"Ale and whores."
Ah! I have news! My GM has just told me that based on the amount of money we poured into that town's economy, our credit is based off of their economic buying power! So now we own a town. Which is nice. It's the second of two major shipping ports on the western shore of the continent.
Ok, so now we have a town. What would you do if you had a town and ridiculous amounts of money?
hire a bunch of gnomes and build an attractionpark on your property and invite kids from nearby villages
the bag of holding trick might not work, but still...get the commoners going on the alchemist's fire production. Just pump out as many as you can. Cast Enlarge Person, Fly and Gtr Invisibility on the least battle-savvy PC.
Loop as many jugs of fire as you can through a coil of rope (Enlarge Person means double the weight you can carry).
Fly over the invading force. Let go of one end of the rope. Laugh maniacally at the napalm.
Rinse and Repeat.
Also, get the church's Clerics to start scribing scrolls. Any Dwarves in town? Build a moat. Druids or Wizards? Shape the terrain. Get moats and trenches going. Given a week of preparations and they're toast, just make it a community affair.
And throw a festival afterwards...for ale and whores ;)
Ah! I have news! My GM has just told me that based on the amount of money we poured into that town's economy, our credit is based off of their economic buying power! So now we own a town. Which is nice. It's the second of two major shipping ports on the western shore of the continent.
Ok, so now we have a town. What would you do if you had a town and ridiculous amounts of money?
I would fortify that town, with defenses and guards. Otherwise, some other group of PCs is going to hear about the vast undefended treasure that's only a short boat ride away.
I'm assuming here, but maybe buy lots of supplies for the town's defenses, considering there's an army after you. Food and weapons as well as supplies like wood and iron to keep the town going in case of a siege. Hiring mercenaries from a neighboring kingdom or surrounding lands would also be a good idea to bolster troops. Or presenting a monetary gift to a neighboring ruler in an offer of alliance.
Buy a title, a castle, start your own mining, minting, and alchemical supply companies. Buy your own army. Hire spies. Invest in a navy. Take over the world.
Then, spend the rest on ale and whores.
Retire in wealth.
Then join as a wizard, or cleric, or druid, because "low magic item" translates into "Hahahaha, the non-casters are so screwed"
Retire in wealth.
Then join as a wizard, or cleric, or druid, because "low magic item" translates into "Hahahaha, the non-casters are so screwed"
I've played in a few low magic games. The non casters did well mainly because the encounters a designed with low magic in consideration. Caster were powerful no doubt about that but not anywhere near what they are like when Magic items are easy to get. No meta magic rods for example. Lacking protections they'd normally have via magic items means more spells spent on protections. So it balance out nicely.
Well, if any of the party has the GP Rain ability, you could kill the army that way. :)
Years of playing and replaying those games, I have only done been able to bring myself to use that attack a handful of times. Tossing away gil, it's just silly. :-/
Love to! Unfortunately we're at the "Race Against Time" stage of the campaign, and there's an extremely hostile (and, right now, unbeatable) invading army on our heels.
Then I would be buying loads of timber, hiring Experts with Knowledge: Engineering and Craft: Siege, Craft: Masonry, and Craft: Carpentry, and be paying these guys to build up the defenses, dig ditches, and build some ballista and catapults (and buy giant things of alchemists' fire to fire from the catapults). Money can get you speedy labor and lots of it, and that sounds like what you need right now.
Maybe the question I should be asking is; in a low-magic gameworld, what would you spend vast amounts of money on?
Outside of a "Race against time" scenario, I'd build a stronghold. Complete with smithy and laboratory so you can make some of your own special equipment should you need it.
Buy a pirate ship. Everything is better with pirate ships.
To Do:
- contact Mayor, commission renovation of city defenses
- buy as many raw materials as possible
- organize funding for skilled labor
- hire that labor
- hire engineers/alchemists
- have those two groups work together appropriately
- buy pirate ship
- buy another fortress stronghold, but in a different place
- whores and ale
- ????
- PROFIT!
To Do:
- contact Mayor, commission renovation of city defenses
- buy as many raw materials as possible
- organize funding for skilled labor
- hire that labor
- hire engineers/alchemists
- have those two groups work together appropriately
- buy pirate ship
- buy another fortress stronghold, but in a different place
- whores and ale
- ????
- PROFIT!
You forgot to add (and I'm REALLY suprised nobody's said this):
Take a CRAFT feat
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Orphanage. Homeless shelter. College scholarships. Buy a castle. Raise a militia. Start up a merchant empire. Make the largest golden statue of yourself you can.Love to! Unfortunately we're at the "Race Against Time" stage of the campaign, and there's an extremely hostile (and, right now, unbeatable) invading army on our heels.
The social-welfare institutions are excellent ideas. We helped liberate a town from siege in last week's session, and so put a bunch of money into their broken trade economy by commissioning a complete renovation and re-construction of their drydocks and moorings.
Invading army...
raise an army and arm them! Time is of the essence, so get all of the blacksmiths, weaponsmiths, armorsmiths working around the clock! Hire some low level mages and clerics... this will soak some cash and work toward the story...
Custom order specialized weapons and armor... will take time to get them but you can have anything made you want. Think of it not like going to Walmart to buy your stuff, but going to a custom order shop instead. The costs might be higher but you just might be able to get that +2 flaming sword afterall... you just won't find it sitting on the shelf waiting to be bought.
Have you read the Belgaraid? There's a wonderful scene where a character makes a persuasive speech about how badly low-level soldiers get screwed by their low wages, then starts dropping money on the field. The soldiers broke ranks and started collecting the gold, then joined the persuasive speaker's army.
So. You should use the money to buy the unstoppable invading army. Then you go loot some other jerk's kingdom.
Hey, that all kinda sounds like our second edition campaigns used to run, when you couldn't buy magic items [/b]at all[/b]. Normally we used our heaps of gold to build ourselves a stronghold or two.
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Well if you still have an army after you, set up stealthy payoffs, bribes, money funneling across their generals. Seed dissent and backstabbing tendencies, sell out the other generals you're bartering with all from a place of secrecy. If you've got ungodly wealth at this point use it as a tool of destruction. Once the enemy army starts crumbling in on its self and weakens you can probably get a number of raider parties interested in rumors and whispers of large ill gotten caches of coin~
Face it, if you have as much money as I think you do, you don't need weapons...you just gotta let people with weapons at each other's throats.
I think I got ninja'ed here, but hire mercenaries, bribe officials in the invading army, buy catapults and load them up with exotic ammunition like balls of Alchemist Fire and Thunderstones.
Toss a load of that towards the enemy in a bag, with a strong rope tied to a section of the bag you have purposefully weakened. When the rope goes taunt, the bag splits open, spraying thunderstones and bottles of alchemist fire in a 30-foot cone towards the oncoming enemy.
Hilarity and Carnage ensues. Be really evil and command your townsfolk to load the contents of their chamber-pots into barrels filled with rotting fish and whatever-other nasties you can come across and fling that at the enemy. All but the most hardened soldiers will run for cover when week-old sloppy s@%+ starts raining in their direction. Infect their injuries, make the ground they have to cross absolutely revolting and generally ruin their day.
Mercenaries ... any Ogres in your immediate area? Or Minotaurs, or other large+dumb+ferocious giants and/or monsters that are open to outright bribery and you can kit-out in Masterwork Armor and Weapons to help them survive the combat? From the sounds of things, your opposing Army is nigh-on unstoppable to a group of 5th-level low-magic Adventurers, so it's time to call in the Big Muscles and let them start Cleaving to victory.
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I've got to agree with the consensus here in the last few hours...hire and equip yourself an army.
If you're up against an opposing force, why not outfit a massive army with top-tier arms and armor (assuming you have the money). Start the construction of an earthen/wooden fort to house your army and defend your town. Hire assassins to take out the leaders of the opposing army (1,000,000 gold would go a long way to paying off a high-high level hired killer). Basically use that money to prevent the army from invading.
Gotta agree with fortifications. If recruitment is a problem, then craft away. Harbor chains for blocking and locating those subs, ballistas and trebuchets. Alchemical bombs of all sorts. See if thunderstones might wreak havoc against those subs, line the harbor chains with them. Caltrop and alchemist fire mine the roads ahead of the army. Propaganda and bribery campaign against the army. Do an epic party feast to lure potential allies to the city then convince them to join you.
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- Bribes. Bribe some bad guys to desert their army, or to join yours at a critical moment. Of course, don't ever make the mistake of trusting a traitor.
- Armies. Armies suck up a lot of cash, but mercenaries and loyal soldiers are always useful.
- Livestock. Ever notice how easy it is to detect traps when you set five hundred chickens loose ahead of you in a dungeon?
- Siege Weaponry. This kinda goes under 'armies', but you really should get some siege weaponry. They're always good to have around.
- Think BIG. Is alchemist's fire available? Get enough of it to load up a catapult, or fill a pit. You'll need to hire a couple of porters and/or purchase some mules to carry it all, but it's handy stuff.
- Crafting. Even if the DM doesn't allow magic items, a character with sufficient knowledge of engineering should be able to make a primitive flamethrower with alchemist's fire, or a nifty holy water dispenser.
- Training. You don't have to just train yourself. You can train your army. That way, they'll have class levels, and will therefore be more useful. And you can give every single one of them a flask of acid, a flask of alchemist's fire, and a flask of holy water. That 1d6+1 damage doesn't sound like much, but if you get fifty people to throw them in one round? Ouch, man. Ouch.
Yar.
Buy a pirate ship. Everything is better with pirate ships.
Yes. This. +1.
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...but really... buy a pirate ship. Ok, fine: in the situation presented (even though it's probably completely resolved by now, seeing as how old this thread actually is), using the money to build an army and fortify the town you now basically own in order to be able to repel this army that's chasing you is really what you should be investing your money into.
Also, a Pirate Ship. ^_^
~P