Gnomersy is right. The Kingmaker Adventure Path is a prime example of what can happen in this case.
I have a feeling both the Player and the GM are on this thread...
Either way you can do what my players did and get the Kingdom builder rules and build your own kingdom.
And Ultimate Combat has rules for airships. Combine those with the rules for ship combat from the free Skull & Shackles player's guide/handbook.
And if it is on an outer plane. Maybe build a gate and travel to the material plane to trade and ally with a nation.
And economies are only ruined when the gold is distributed freely such as China and the U.S. if most of it is kept as gold bricks used for large sum trading then the economy is very strong. This can be witnessed in some smaller countries. And Heck a perfect example is Scotland during the days when it was a free country. It had a bar of gold per 100 gold pieces. It had one of the most powerful economy of it's time. Of course they got their gold being Mercenaries but still.
Here is what you need:
Folding Boat
4 Decanters of Endless Water
1 item that you can use to cast Gust of Wind (who knows maybe a permanancy spell of it in the sails)BOOM! Instant travel ANYWHERE!
Hydraulic hoverboat?
Hydraulic hoverboat?Here is what you need:
Folding Boat
4 Decanters of Endless Water
1 item that you can use to cast Gust of Wind (who knows maybe a permanancy spell of it in the sails)BOOM! Instant travel ANYWHERE!
I love it!
Well... yeah, in a civilized world, this would be the case.
In this instance, this is a huge stretch of land in which the only sapients living on it are cranium rats, who have been duly bribed.
I mean, it might be unrealistic and demihuman empires should be more expansionistic than they are? But, hey, in the game, there's literally no one in the area and no governments we've even heard about. :p
Maybe there -is- a king somewhere that considers the whole shebang his property. We don't know about him!
Send out somebody to the nearest town and gather intel it's almost a given that somebody should lay claim to it because even useless territory is claimed by someone(ex. Australia) now whether anyone cares enough to settle there or fight over it is a completely different question but there's probably somebody who owns it at least on a map.
Unless the world in question is laughably underdeveloped I mean like pre-wheel technology level or the place in question is surrounded by natural hazards.
Regardless get the intel(I'm sure the townsfolk know who the nominal king is) and then send him a hefty bribe telling him that you're proud to serve him as Baronette or whatever of _____ and tame the wild lands in his name.
If you make it like a French Barony then you keep all the resources to build up your land. You might pay a small tribute determined through negotiations. But after you build up your land and armed forces you can always betray him through assassination, all out warfare, or even funding/starting a revolution.
Very true although generally speaking you're better off keeping the king around if you're not getting the shaft as a noble. Because a lot of the time those revolutions wind up with the common folk taking power ... And then, well you know how it went in France you just start lopping the heads off of nobles and royalty and random people who you don't like ... it's just all bad.
If you make it like a French Barony then you keep all the resources to build up your land. You might pay a small tribute determined through negotiations. But after you build up your land and armed forces you can always betray him through assassination, all out warfare, or even funding/starting a revolution.
I was using the French barony in reference to them keeping most money.
Also most of the ones that funded an uprising took power do to agreements with the people. Of course this requires them making themselves look better in relation to the king.
Either way I'm just using my Craft(theorycrafting) skill.
You can spend a great deal of money to upgrade your lifestyle to a modern standard.
Hot and cold running water, not counting ALL the plumbing needed, runs just about 60,000 gp (this for endless water creation, heat metal and chill metal effects, built as a Wondrous Item). On the plus side, the installation will serve from a small manor house up to a small keep (or secret vault, etc.), provided pipes.
Likewise, using message effects for an intercom.
Endure elements for central air conditioning.
The list of possible improvements is pretty endless; making it all portable gets REALLY expensive.
For long-term infrastructure investment, well. Windmills for irrigation pumps, network of ditches/canals: if your kobold minions prosper, you'll need to keep up with population in terms of feeding them. If you let them overhunt the area around the mine, there will be famine and gnashing of teeth.
I guess I don't understand why this lucrative gold mine replete with a cowardly work force who would kowtow to the most powerful being around hasn't been attacked by a big dragon looking for a hoard/lair yet.Well, two things.
One, it's a secret gold mine (so far, anyway. We know it won't last forever)
Two, the party's leader is a kobold cleric of Tiamat, so we're actually on really good terms with chromatic dragons in general.
But, yeah, sooner or later something with higher CR than us will move in and take over, we're well aware.
Our goal is to deplete the mineral resources before that happens, and we're investing a fair amount of money into making sure no one finds out about the place.
Just so we're clear; chromatics aren't the only dragons that are subject to gold-lust. Many metallics are prone to avarice as well. It's just icing on the cake that they get rid of a colony of pesky kobolds and their evil masters.
Yep. That's right. We're using masses of kobold minions to mine it, too.
This means the party has a huge wealth income.
Here's the catch, though.
Because we understand how D&D works and we do not want to kill the goose laying the golden eggs, we do -not- want to spend -any- of the gold mine proceeds in items that increase our characters' combat performance.Because, if we do so, then we'll quickly find that the flow of funds dries up and dies. We don't want to give the DM an OOC incentive to take it away.
So, with that in mind.
What suggestions would you have for cool and fun, yet no-impact-on-combat items and investments that a fairly rich low-level party could get? :P
We've discussed stuff like building golems or getting magical traps for our evil lair and such, but no really awesome ideas so far... ^^
I suggest putting that wealth toward the betterment of your people. This usually means a country, town, or something like that but it could mean a race as well. You could also use it to build yourselves a home. Imagine using that money to build yourselves and the Kobolds a fortress where you'll always be safe (except in the case of an enemy army). Alternatively you could form an actual mining town and raise the standards of living within as the PCs act as the city council or some equivalent.