Spending Gold (At Higher Levels)

One of the challenges with designing an advanced 5th Edition (A5E) is filling in some of the areas of the original (O5E) game which have room for expansion.

These Are Early Drafts

We’ve got the first half of the book written now, as well as all the spells. The rules on this page are at an earlier stage of development, and the chance of them not changing before their final form is pretty slim.

We’ve looked previously at how we’re expanding the exploration pillar. This article takes a quick peek at ways to spend your gold at higher levels. Of course, at all levels characters can buy magic items and other equipment, but here we’ll explore some other options. Here are some things you can do with your money.

• Spellcasting. Sometimes you’ll need a spell cast, but nobody in your party can cast it. Whether it’s something small like an arcane lock or an augery, or something major like a true resurrection, we have costs for a range of commonly performed spells.

• Donations. For one reason or another an adventurer may be moved to donate to charity or invest to the betterment of a settlement. The projects you can donate to include bridges, orphanages, hospitals, and more. When you donate to a project, your character gains the associated feature.

• Pets. Pets range from 5 gp bats and cats all the way up to a 75,000 gp tyrannosaurus rex. You can even buy dragon eggs — if you can afford them!

• Vehicles. You can buy anything from a cart all the way up to a warship or a cloud galleon.

• Crafting. We are writing rules for crafting magic items and more!

• Renting a Demiplane. On the more fantastical end of things, occasionally you might find an eccentric wizard advertising the rental of a demiplane. These pocket dimensions are incredibly customizable and highly sought after.

Strongholds

Your character works hard to earn gold—plundering tombs, killing things and taking their stuff, accomplishing dangerous feats of derring-do. So why would you spend that money on a building rather than on a shiny new suit of armor or a magical sword?

You choose the type of stronghold, which grants you a feat and bonus followers. For example, if you decide that your stronghold is a temple, you gain this feat:

Temple

You gain +1 to your Wisdom ability score. Additionally, whenever you cast a healing spell, or use a magical item which grants healing, you heal an additional hit point per die rolled.

Best suited for: Cleric, herald
Minimum size: 1,000 square feet

Followers available: Acolyte

The benefits from these feats scale with the size of the stronghold.

You can choose from castles, guild houses, houses, libraries, menageries, groves, shops, taverns, temples, training halls, wizards’ towers, workshops, and more. You can even combine smaller strongholds into bigger ones!

You can spend money to furnish and customize your stronghold, or to add features to it. It’s entirely up to you how involved you want to get in the design side of stronghold ownership — it could be anything from just a feat on your character sheet, to something you have mapped in detail.

Followers

People have been asking about our rules for followers for a while. Like the rules for strongholds, they’re still at an early stage, but the basic concept is that while a stronghold is analogous to a feat, a follower is more like a ‘spell’ you can use, rather than an NPC you need to micromanage.

You can gain followers by acquiring a stronghold, or you can hire them directly. Followers come in three ‘levels’ — inexperienced, seasoned, and expert.

Followers don’t participate directly in encounters. They fade into the background, and come to the fore occasionally when their particular skill is needed. Like strongholds, each follower grants the character a specific ability or benefit.

Cook

Preparing meals over a campfire is an entirely different skillset than cooking in a kitchen. Warm meals are a luxury many adventurers forgo, but consuming only preserved rations can lead to ill health.

Inexperienced. Once per day, you gain one free hit die of healing.

Seasoned. Once per day, you and up to four allies gain one free hit die of healing.

Expert. Whenever you take a long rest you regain an additional hit die.

Followers include acolytes, apothecaries, bodyguards, cooks, footpads, healers, interpreters, minstrels, porters, sages, smiths, squires, and torchbearers. There are tables to give your follower a quick personality and quirk (if you want to!)