An adventurer's primary source of income is treasure, and his primary purchases are tools and items he needs to continue adventuring—spell components, weapons, magic items, potions, and the like. Yet what about things like food? Rent? Taxes? Bribes? Idle purchases?
You can certainly handle these minor expenditures in detail during play, but tracking every time a PC pays for a room, buys water, or pays a gate tax can swiftly become obnoxious and tiresome. If you're not really into tracking these minor costs of living, you can choose to simply ignore these small payments. A more realistic and easier-to-use method is to have PCs pay a recurring cost of living tax. At the start of every game month, a PC must pay an amount of gold equal to the lifestyle bracket he wishes to live in—if he can't afford his desired bracket, he drops down to the first one he can afford.
Destitute (0 gp/month): The PC is homeless and lives in the wilderness or on the streets. A destitute character must track every purchase, and may need to resort to Survival checks or theft to feed himself.
Poor (3 gp/month): The PC lives in common rooms of taverns, with his parents, or in some other communal situation—this is the lifestyle of most untrained laborers and commoners. He need not track purchases of meals or taxes that cost 1 sp or less.
Average (10 gp/month): The PC lives in his own apartment, small house, or similar location—this is the lifestyle of most trained or skilled experts or warriors. He can secure any nonmagical item worth 1 gp or less from his home in 1d10 minutes, and need not track purchases of common meals or taxes that cost 1 gp or less.
Wealthy (100 gp/month): The PC has a sizable home or a nice suite of rooms in a fine inn. He can secure any nonmagical item worth 5 gp or less from his belongings in his home in 1d10 minutes, and need only track purchases of meals or taxes in excess of 10 gp.
Extravagant (1,000 gp/month): The PC lives in a mansion, castle, or other extravagant home—he might even own the building in question. This is the lifestyle of most aristocrats. He can secure any nonmagical item worth 25 gp or less from his belongings in his home in 1d10 minutes. He need only track purchases of meals or taxes in excess of 100 gp.
RAW, what is to keep one of my players from paying for the extravagant cost of living, then searching their home for 25gp of diamond dust, or ground black pearls, or other valuable spell components over and over again until they have enough to cast their desired spells?
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Common sense?
RAW, what is to keep one of my players from paying for the extravagant cost of living, then searching their home for 25gp of diamond dust, or ground black pearls, or other valuable spell components over and over again until they have enough to cast their desired spells?
Paying 1000gp for 40 black pearls worth 25gp each is a breakeven. How often do they need 41 black pearls?
Good enough for me. Thanks guys.
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First attempt: you find 25gp of diamond dust in 5 minutes.
Second attempt: you find your 25gp of diamond dust in 0 seconds. It was in your belongings, exactly where you placed it moments ago.
Third attempt: you hand your diamond dust to a servant who hides it. You then find it in 10 minutes.
By RAW there isn't anything stating he can't. There is no limit to the number of times he could secure a non-magical item worth 25 GP from his home. There is never any caveat to when this won't work.
For those that said "well now you have the item, you can't retrieve it again" consider the possibility that I retrieve it, and place it in a chest in a cave outside of town. Or I go sell that item for 25 gp. According to RAW there isn't anything that would prevent me from going back to my house, and choosing to act upon the ability of my character to "secure any nonmagical item worth 25 gp or less from his belongings in his home in 1d10 minutes" any number of additional times.
Also, assuming you could not immediately repeat, there is no defined way to determine when you could search for the same item again (and as such it is unlikely that this was the intent). That leaves 2 possibilities, each item can only be found once, or it can be found a number of times up to the DM's discretion. If we take possibility one, then if I am a spell caster, or someone that uses similar items often, I hope I only intend to have this help me cast my favorite spell, or make my favorite item once, because according to RAW I wouldn't ever be able to do that again, which seems weak for 1000 gp a month.
I'm not trying to say there shouldn't be a limit to abuse of this, because obviously there should, but I cannot find any place in the text that puts a limit on how often one can retrieve an item, or that he/she can only retrieve an item once, and as such it would seem that any limitations would not be strictly RAW.
A simple house rule would be to limit the value a player can find in the mansion per month to some fraction of the total he/she paid to live there.
The easier house rule is "We both know when you're being silly about this. Stop it."
I assume your player has common sense.
However, since this is the rules forum: I don't see anything stopping him from doing this, by RAW.
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The only big consideration is if the PCs are in a setting where obtaining a mansion, or similar accommodation, is not within their grasp, likely for legal reasons. Example, a kingdom where only nobles my a own land. The Extravagant lifestyle does not grant titles, just cost to maintain their existing home.
The DM could also impose an initial fee for construction or purchasing of the home, as I believe the above is only intended to cover maintaining an existing location with such comforts.
The same rule that keep you from locating 25 gp every 1d10 minutes 24/7
Somthing that would net you around 4350gp pr Day (6000 if you have a ring of sustanance)
Some rules only work if a bit of common sense.
If a player cannot handle the cost of living rules. He will have to do it the hard way and must buy every cup and kettle individually.