Have you ever gone all-in on an expensive non-combat purchase?

[DRD1812]

What is the most extravagant, expensive, and not-very-useful-in-combat purchase you've character has ever made? Was it a permanent spell effect? Funding for a new orphanage? A partial stake in a small business?

(Comic for illustrative purposes.)

[Sysryke]

Off the top of my head, it's probably my current character's outfit. I took the trait rich parents. I then used most of my starting gold to buy a slew of masterwork tools and kits. The single biggest ticket item(s) though, are my clothes, which had to total either 150 or 250 gp. I have to keep this outfit pristine, and it affords me some bonuses on diplomacy, and two other skills. Can't find my sheet at the moment. The important bit isn't the mechanical advantage though. I'm a wealthy merchant prince, with a strong obsession for keeping things clean. I must present the proper image. Every combat ends in a prestidigitation cleaning frenzy on my part :p

I'll have to scrounge through old sheets to see if I've ever made a mega purchase. Usually my characters don't see high level wealth.

[Diego Rossi]

I love anything that makes my character live more comfortably. If they are available routinely I buy things like campfire beads, Travel cloaks(a 3.5 item even if they use slots normally used by the big five.
If we have a fixed area of operation I like to buy a nice house too.

This kind of purchase works better in a long campaign where you have the time to expand your background, less in the typical AP, as those are more "fast and furious".

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

A single item or donation? Can't remember. Things like orphanages are continual expenses rather than one-time purchases, ime. I'm pretty sure my tinker gnome in Dragonlance spent a lot of money trying to develop something but I can't remember what that was or how much I spent on it.

My players on the other hand, have spent quite lot of money on non-combat stuff. Orphanages, new cities complete with castles, giant cathedrals, 100 foot tall statues of themselves, etc.
The greatest expense of these is probably going to be Arly's, who is on the Path of the Paragon and as part of this needs to transform the land around her in a significant way.
Previous Immortals have done things like stoeln the rain from another country to make a giant forest, caused all mountains in the country to fly, and make a giant rainbow that reaches to the edge of the atmosphere.
She will do something similar, and to get it done will use the Staff of Wishes she is making which has a cost of 1,3 million gp (+ tons of roleplaying costs).

[Mark Hoover 330]

I'm old. I don't say this in a self-deprecating way (at least not MOSTLY), but rather that when I have GP leftover from buying my must-have Big 6 item my first instinct is mundane purchases.

I started gaming back in 1e D&D in the World of Greyhawk setting. Back then you didn't really buy magic items too often so instead your money went to your PC's clothing, armor and gear for your horse, building a stronghold and populating your retinue with hirelings, henchpeople, troops and such.

I bring up Greyhawk b/c that setting had some areas that get very concerned over nobility, titles, deeds and what not. Another thing you spent your money on was paying for the privilege of being a member of the gentry. This wasn't ALWAYS necessary; sometimes you just founded your stronghold in an area of total wilderness, but it was good to have money to buy off your neighboring lords and ladies to avoid the hassle of wars.

Last but not least, you had to have defenses around your remaining loot and putting in permanent Glyph of Warding spells and other magic defenses was difficult and expensive. Often in our home games we used mundane methods to defend our hoards: our characters built our own dungeons below our strongholds. There were rates for miners in the DMG so you hired human, or non-human "troops" to do the digging and the party Magic User would cast a few Stone Shape or Wall of Stone spells here and there to construct multi-level dungeons that your PC would then populate with monsters you tricked into living there, or non-human troops you paid or whatever.

Now, 40 years later these are still things I aspire to when I make characters in PF1. Sure, I maintain my Big 6 items, but with the money leftover I build businesses, develop organizations, bling out my character's clothes and gear, customize my magic items, and at higher levels use money and spells to construct bases in the wilderness.

[Kasoh]

In Carrion Crown, my character ended up donating 5,000 gp to a church for the purpose of buying back the Monestary of St. Lymeran. Of course, it wasn't really a hardship since we were moving into book six and there wasn't likely to be any place to sell/buy for the rest of the campaign, so that was what I had left over.

In Mummy's Mask the PCs attend an auction at the start of Book 2. My PC there bought way too many art objects to put in their home.

That's all that comes to mind right now. Might be more.

[Diego Rossi]

Not a purchase, but in one campaign one of the other characters was a changeling.
She was played as aware of what she was and shamed by having replaced the true child of her parents. She felt very ashamed of her claws that did show her nature.
The character left the group after we reached level 4 or so (the player replaced the character, as she wanted to try something different), but the now NPC was still our friend, even if she didn't appear again in the adventure.
After she left my character made a pair of enchanted gloves that did change her hands, making the claw disappear, and gifted them to her.
As they had a limited but constant alter self effect the gloves were relatively pricey at level 5, a few thousand gp. But it was worth it.

[VoodistMonk]

Traveler's Pocket Watch is something all my characters almost always have. At the very least they all have a pocket watch... which can be expensive at the early level(s) I generally am trying to pick it up.

And self-only spells being made permenant can certainly add up fast.

[Heather 540]

One of my groups has downtime rules that let you purchase or build rooms. My alchemist owns a bar and gameroom. My warpriest owns a weapons shop.

[Mark Hoover 330]

One of the best examples of this I remember was a guy running a paladin in a PF1 game several years back. It was a megadungeon game and early on just after hitting L2 the party ran into some bad luck and nova'd away their best resources while still trapped deep underground. They were being actively hunted by kobolds at the time and the paladin was fireman carrying the wizard stabilized at 0 hp.

I roll a random encounter from a custom chart; a kobold Adept 3. Honestly this would've been curtains for the whole party. Instead, I make her a female kobold with a LN alignment instead, on the fly. The paladin spots her with a decent Perception check as she's hiding around a corner and against all odds he asks if he can use Diplomacy, try to talk to her.

Long story boring, this Kobold Adept 3 strikes a deal with the party. She wants out of the dungeon, wants to start a new life on her own in the city nearby (some dungeon humanoids were allowed to become lower-class citizens) so she'll heal the party and get them back on their feet if they will help her through the city walls.

This paladin takes it a step further. See, the kobold developed her Adept powers as part of her larger training with Profession (Courtesan), modeled after the professional in the ship in Firefly, except for kobolds. So once she makes it to the city she occupies a shack in the slums, trying to get established in her profession there.

The paladin buys himself a new shield but has hundreds of GP left over. He tracks down the kobold NPC in the slums, uses the Downtime rules and gifts her with an "Office" (a secure room with a locking door) and a Bath room for ritual bating and comfort to clients. He also helped the kobold hire a Team of Laborers to get her started.

Over time between the NPC and the paladin she made a high-class establishment. Soon after the grand opening, the paladin PC died in the dungeon. Said paladin had also established a training hall, kind of like a YMCA, for displaced youth in the slums to learn a trade and have a safe place to be.

After the PC passed, the kobold NPC became the matron mother of the training hall, training kids to be healers, herbalists and showing them how to use Simple weapons. If I ever go back to the setting, Ylvanya's Velvet Room and the paladin's training hall will be key features of the city.

[Mightypion]

I had a character end up multiplies of 100K in debt to none other the Nocticula, because he epically lost a bet to her (on wether the Parties Paladin keeps his virginity on Alyushinnara or not during WOTR Act 4, my char did not know he was betting against Nocticula, and saw making a public bet on that, without the Paladins knowledge, a good way to gain notoriety, while also keeping more encounters diplomatic/civil. Also totally in line with being a CN prankster).

She has some creative errands to run in order to get rid of that debt.

One involved claiming the bounty on Baphomet that Asmodeus put out at some point, the problem was that Asmodeus opten to pay the 666.666K gold price on Baphoment in...
Copper coins.
Seeking to crush my PC with the accumulated weight.

[Senko]

Diego Rossi wrote:

I love anything that makes my character live more comfortably. If they are available routinely I buy things like campfire beads, Travel cloaks(a 3.5 item even if they use slots normally used by the big five.

If we have a fixed area of operation I like to buy a nice house too.

This kind of purchase works better in a long campaign where you have the time to expand your background, less in the typical AP, as those are more "fast and furious".

I like that cloak.

[Diego Rossi]

Mightypion wrote:

I had a character end up multiplies of 100K in debt to none other the Nocticula, because he epically lost a bet to her (on wether the Parties Paladin keeps his virginity on Alyushinnara or not during WOTR Act 4, my char did not know he was betting against Nocticula, and saw making a public bet on that, without the Paladins knowledge, a good way to gain notoriety, while also keeping more encounters diplomatic/civil. Also totally in line with being a CN prankster).

She has some creative errands to run in order to get rid of that debt.

One involved claiming the bounty on Baphomet that Asmodeus put out at some point, the problem was that Asmodeus opten to pay the 666.666K gold price on Baphoment in...
Copper coins.
Seeking to crush my PC with the accumulated weight.

Inquiring minds need to know: he did bet on the paladin keeping or losing his virginity?

[Neriathale]

My character in our Qadiran campaign spent all her money on a Shissah (a rare semi-magical horse). Not an animal companion, just a very special mount for a horse-mad Qadiran nomad.

[Liliyashanina]

Diego Rossi wrote:

Inquiring minds need to know: he did bet on the paladin keeping or losing his virginity?

He bet on him keeping it (increase notoriety, also to make encounters more diplomatic and less hostile, the PCs were on a level of power where they just crushed the encounters as written in a way that made he Paladin question if "are we the baddies?"), but Nocticula herself yoinked it after she saved the party from Baphomets mythic time stop shenangians.

The Paladin short term fell because of this, not because of sleeping with Nocticula, but because he did it to prank my PC back, who had been doing very insane antics for 4 modules, partly at the paladins expense.

[Senko]

Liliyashanina wrote:

Diego Rossi wrote:

Inquiring minds need to know: he did bet on the paladin keeping or losing his virginity?

He bet on him keeping it (increase notoriety, also to make encounters more diplomatic and less hostile, the PCs were on a level of power where they just crushed the encounters as written in a way that made he Paladin question if "are we the baddies?"), but Nocticula herself yoinked it after she saved the party from Baphomets mythic time stop shenangians.

The Paladin short term fell because of this, not because of sleeping with Nocticula, but because he did it to prank my PC back, who had been doing very insane antics for 4 modules, partly at the paladins expense.

I shall lose my virginity to spite thee!?

[Liliyashanina]

It was a complex confluence of emotions clearly, elation of having bested, albeit with assistance, a powerful foe, fear of rejecting Nocticula when the party was out of resources, Lust because oh boy she is quite attractive, "I can fix her"-ism which she knows how to exploit and yes, revenge on the constantly trolling Bloodrager.

Technically, the Paladin afterwards became the mortal with the highest average quality of intimate partners, and got another mythic tier because of that.

[Neferanu]

The most extravagant non-combat purchase I've made in PF1 didn't have a GP cost. My Scarab Sage character in PFS spent 30 Prestige to become a Jeweled Sage. After 10-11 levels of loyal service to his faction, there was no way he was turning down THAT honor!

[Kimera757]

I played Kingmaker a very long time ago, and was a druid.

I cast Awaken on a PC's horse, which didn't really change the campaign, but when I cast Awaken again, the campaign changed. Awaken makes the target "receptive" (essentially charmed) but this drops when you Awaken something else. Suddenly the horse exhibited it's natural personality of being a murderous berserker, and could do that to our kingdom. So he took his herd of horses and started rampaging everywhere.

Quote:

You have no special empathy or connection with a creature you awaken, although it serves you in specific tasks or endeavors if you communicate your desires to it. If you cast awaken again, any previously awakened creatures remain friendly to you, but they no longer undertake tasks for you unless it is in their best interests.

(The last sentence is not in the D&D 3e SRD.)

I also cast Hallow, which is a druid spell, on my grove. Unfortunately we didn't get to use that much.

[Warped Savant]

A player in my Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign spent somewhere around 20,000 gold over the course of the game in order to upgrade the neighbourhood he lived in. (Buying the buildings was the main cost of it, but from levels 1-5 or so he was just paying the rent for the other tenants around him)

[Kurald Galain]

I'm a fan of the Plate of Exquisite Feasting as well as the Traveler's Canopy. Not extravagant enough? I'm currently saving up for a Rod of Splendour.

Because what's the point of being a high-level adventurer if you can't do it in style?

[Gilfalas]

DRD1812 wrote:

What is the most extravagant, expensive, and not-very-useful-in-combat purchase you've character has ever made? Was it a permanent spell effect? Funding for a new orphanage? A partial stake in a small business?

(Comic for illustrative purposes.)

My current warpriest just mortgaged himself to the tune of 200,000 gold for a half ownership of land and bar from our campaigns king of the elves (home brew setting) so that he would be a landowner in the empire.

Owning land is one of the requirements of joining the empires 'House of Lords' which is sort of a martial organization that also has pull with the government but is mostly independent.

I also had a previous cleric fund the building of a cathedral to the tune of 250,000 gold to their deity in a newly discovered land so as to spread their religion.

Yes our GM gives us far, far, far too much loot. But they also tend to rob us semi regularly as well.

[Diego Rossi]

Gilfalas wrote:

Yes our GM gives us far, far, far too much loot. But they also tend to rob us semi regularly as well.

In my current home brew I am giving more money than normal, but magic items cost more and magic shops have a limited variety of magic items on the shelf. You can order stuff or try to buy what other people have found at auction houses. The idea is to have money for mundane things, land and buildings included, of for those low cost, utility items that normally you don't but because you spend your money for the needed items.

Selling loot requires a bit more work if the characters want to get the most from it. They have looted a Pharaon tomb, selling most of the stuff to a merchant would have net them a few copper pieces, they instead sold the items to a collector, after searching for one, and got about 50.000 gp from that part of the loot (and a month of travel from the tomb and a major city).
At level 4 it isn't bad.

[DRD1812]

Sysryke wrote:

Off the top of my head, it's probably my current character's outfit. I took the trait rich parents. I then used most of my starting gold to buy a slew of masterwork tools and kits. The single biggest ticket item(s) though, are my clothes, which had to total either 150 or 250 gp.

Heh. I suppose that counts in the "as a percentage of total wealth" column.

Fun story about the 75 gp noble's outfit. It was a Crimson Throne gestalt campaign, and my two players were excited to play out the "gutter trash to hero" trope. When they got their first big score, they both immediately shelled out for the most ostentatious tailored suits they could afford. They even got their awakened poodle cohort a jeweled collar. They immediately went for a stroll in the city's rich quarter, then lost their shit when I flipped around the laptop to remind them of the clip from Dumb & Dumber.

[Senko]

DRD1812 wrote:

Sysryke wrote:

Off the top of my head, it's probably my current character's outfit. I took the trait rich parents. I then used most of my starting gold to buy a slew of masterwork tools and kits. The single biggest ticket item(s) though, are my clothes, which had to total either 150 or 250 gp.

Heh. I suppose that counts in the "as a percentage of total wealth" column.

Fun story about the 75 gp noble's outfit. It was a Crimson Throne gestalt campaign, and my two players were excited to play out the "gutter trash to hero" trope. When they got their first big score, they both immediately shelled out for the most ostentatious tailored suits they could afford. They even got their awakened poodle cohort a jeweled collar. They immediately went for a stroll in the city's rich quarter, then lost their s*#~ when I flipped around the laptop to remind them of the clip from Dumb & Dumber.

That's mean, I'd like to say I assume they wouldn't be that out of place but I know most people's attitude to "dump stats" and very few need wisdom.