TEXT:  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Make treasure a useful and exciting party of the adventure 
  with this supplement for the world’s greatest roleplaying game 
  
   
   
   
  WRAITH WRIGHT’S 
   
  
   
   
  Your Dungeon Master: Randall Right 
  Illustration: Cover by Dean Spencer. Some 
  interior illustrations and chapter heads by 
  Dean Spencer. Black and white interior 
  illustration by David Lewis Johnson. 
  Additional color illustrations courtesy of 
  Wizards of the Coast. 
  Additional Graphic Design: Cole Twogood, 
  Jason Sythe, Randall Right 
  Playtesting and Quality Consultation: Brent 
  Collins, Charles Baker, David Hollingsworth, 
  Matthew Skau, Robert Ochs, Scott Szydlo 
  Version: 5 (January 2021)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, MAGIC THE GATHERING, Wizards of the Coast, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, Eberron, the dragon 
  ampersand, Ravnica and all other Wizards of the Coast product names, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the 
  Coast in the USA and other countries. All characters and their distinctive likenesses are property of Wizards of the Coast. This material 
  is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or 
  artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of Wizards of the Coast. ©2016-2017 Wizards of the 
  Coast LLC, PO Box 707, Renton, WA 98057-0707, USA. Manufactured by Hasbro SA, Rue Emile-Boéchat 31, 2800 Delémont, CH. Represented by Hasbro 
  Europe, 4 The Square, Stockley Park, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB11 1ET, UK. 
   
  The Comprehensive Manual titles, the Wraith Wright anvil, and other related titles and branding are trademarks of Wraith Wright 
  Productions. All other original material in this work is copyright Wraith Wright Productions 2021 and published under the 
  Community Content Agreement for Dungeon Masters Guild. 
   
  ON THE COVER 
  Street Market by Dean Spencer 
   
  Flush with coins from a successful adventure, this party is buying up everything in sight! 
  But what will they do with the rest of the dragon’s hoard once the own the whole town? 
  
   
  4 
   
  CHAPTER 0: INTRODUCTION ................... 6 
  USING THIS PRODUCT ............................................... 6 
  COMPREHENSIVE MANUALS ...................................... 6 
  What’s in This Product? ..................................... 6 
  What’s Not in This Product? .............................. 6 
  CHAPTER 1: WEALTH & ASSETS ............. 8 
  STARTING WEALTH ................................................... 8 
  Existing Systems .................................................. 8 
  Wealth beyond 1st Level ..................................... 8 
  Other Options ..................................................... 9 
  TREASURE DISTRIBUTION ......................................... 10 
  Are Rates Important? .......................................... 11 
  Is there an Official Rate? .................................... 11 
  Treasure Bundles ................................................ 12 
  Awarding Treasure ............................................. 13 
  Story Treasures ................................................... 15 
  NONMATERIAL ASSETS ............................................. 16 
  Letters of Recommendation .............................. 16 
  Other Social Assets ............................................ 17 
  Time as Treasure ................................................ 19 
  MATERIAL ASSETS ................................................... 20 
  Coins ................................................................... 20 
  Alternate Currency ............................................. 21 
  When Metal is Scarce ....................................... 24 
  NEGATIVE ASSETS .................................................... 26 
  The Cost of Adventuring .................................. 26 
  MARKETING ASSETS ................................................. 29 
  Sale Values ......................................................... 29 
  Haggling ..............................................................30 
  Finding Buyers ....................................................30 
  Finding Sellers .................................................... 31 
  CHAPTER 2: LABOR & INVESTMENT ... 34 
  CRAFTING ................................................................. 34 
  Alternate Hours .................................................. 34 
  Making Craft Components ................................ 34 
  Commercial Manufacture .................................36 
  BUSINESS INVESTMENTS ........................................... 37 
  Structural Investments ...................................... 37 
  Simple Investment ............................................. 41 
  Non-Profit Investment ...................................... 41 
  CHAPTER 3: STRUCTURES & VESSELS . 44 
  OWNING LAND ........................................................ 44 
  Starter Kits .......................................................... 45 
  MODIFYING PROPERTY ............................................ 48 
  Components ...................................................... 49 
  Growing Parcels ................................................. 52 
  SHIPS ........................................................................ 53 
  Ship Requirements ............................................. 53 
  Age of Sail ........................................................... 55 
  Fantasy Flight ..................................................... 55 
  Vessel Descriptions ............................................ 56 
  Ship Components ............................................... 58 
  SIEGE ENGINES ........................................................ 60 
  Standard Engines .............................................. 60 
  Siege Guns .......................................................... 63 
  CHAPTER 4: SERVANTS & SOLDIERS ... 67 
  SERVICES .................................................................. 67 
  Regular Services ................................................. 67 
  Spellcasting Services .......................................... 67 
  MILITARY MIGHT .................................................... 69 
  Costs (and Defrayment) ................................... 69 
  Culture-Based Acquisition ................................ 70 
  Ancillary Considerations ................................... 71 
  LEADING TROOPS ..................................................... 71 
  Loyalty Score ...................................................... 71 
  Tracking Loyalty................................................. 71 
  Effects of Loyalty ................................................ 72 
  CLASHING ARMIES .................................................... 72 
  Decide Losers and Losses .................................. 73 
  Casualties ............................................................ 73 
  Player Characters’ Roles .................................... 74 
  After the Fighting ............................................... 77 
   
   
  
   
  5 
   
     
   
  
   
  6 
   
  UCH CAN BE SAID ABOUT THE USE TO 
  which adventurer’s put their 
  treasure. In editions past, most of a 
  party’s coins were spent on magic 
  items, a direct conversion of 
  discovered wealth into enhanced character power. In 
  the fifth edition, the purchase of magic items falls 
  mostly outside the standard setting (and the standard 
  mechanics), leaving players to wonder what use vast 
  sums of gold may be put to. The Expanded Wealth 
  Manual answers these questions. 
  This product is intended for Dungeon Masters. While 
  players may enjoy understanding the many potentials 
  provided in these pages, these systems are the sole 
  province of the Dungeon Master, who alters and 
  administers them to suit the campaign. 
  The purpose of this product is to give ideas to 
  Dungeon Masters, story ideas and system ideas, to 
  better manage campaigns with complex moving parts. 
  If you’ve ever wished you’d given more thought to the 
  balance of treasure in your campaign, or if your 
  players have ever had too much gold to spend, this 
  book is for you! 
  This product contains myriad guidelines for the 
  ways that players acquire and use wealth. It starts 
  with a focus on assets in material and non-material 
  forms, including a system for balancing the starting 
  wealth of characters made beyond 1st level and the 
  rates at which treasure appears during a campaign. Its 
  other chapters describe the investment of wealth into 
  crafts and businesses, land and properties, and the 
  acquisition and maintenance of armies. 
  You are looking at one of Wraith Wright Production’s 
  interrelated products addressing the acquisition and 
  use of wealth, equipment, and magic items.  
  The first book, the Comprehensive Equipment 
  Manual, presents a vast quantity of additional armor, 
  weapons, adventuring gear, and other equipment, as 
  well as new rules related to the use and customization 
  of equipment. 
  The other books in the Comprehensive Equipment 
  line, including this one, the Animal Handler’s 
  Handbook, and Magic Item Management, were once a 
  part of that book, but the content grew too large to 
  contain in a single product. 
  This product includes six chapters, summarized here. 
  This chapter’s first sections are dedicated to 
  moderating the party’s treasure, including nuanced 
  mechanisms for equipping characters created beyond 
  1st level. It continues to catalogue assets in various 
  forms, from tangible wealth like coins and trade goods, 
  to intangible assets like rights, favors, and renown. 
  This chapter also addresses the liquidation of assets of 
  various kinds. 
  This chapter includes alternate and expanded rules for 
  mundane crafting. It also expands the core rules for 
  the construction of buildings, shifting them into rules 
  to cover investments and their financial returns. 
  These rules guide the process of acquiring and 
  improving property, plus the creation, expansion, and 
  maintenance of features on the land. It also covers 
  ships over various kinds and improvements they can 
  undergo, as well as a full range of siege weaponry and 
  engines suitable to defending fortifications and ships. 
  A brief examination of hirelings and specialized 
  services continues into a larger look at the various 
  methods and the (normally prohibitive) costs of 
  raising armies, plus story ideas for participating in 
  clashes between such forces. Additionally, this chapter 
  contains a lightweight system to help measure the 
  outcomes of large-scale battles without resorting to 
  mini-games or complex rules that distract from 
  regular play. 
  Of all the ways to spend gold, this book does not cover 
  the costs of magic item purchasing and creation; those 
  details are left to Wraith Wright’s Expanded Magic 
  Item Management Manual supplement. 
   
  
   
  7 
   
   
   
   
  
   
  8 
   
  HIS CHAPTER ASKS THE QUESTIONS, HOW MUCH 
  gold should characters get when they are 
  created at levels higher than 1st? How 
  much gold should they get as treasure as 
  the campaign progresses? How many magic 
  items? Regardless of edition, these difficulties have 
  long-haunted even experienced Dungeon Masters. 
  Major “errors” in distribution can have far-reaching 
  effects on a campaign, something this section attempts 
  to steer DMs away from. The chapter’s second half 
  presents a variety of forms and uses for wealth. 
  Poling data indicates that more than half of all D&D 
  campaigns start at higher than 1st level. This section 
  addresses starting wealth for characters made at such 
  advanced levels. 
  Naturally, the question of starting equipment is 
  important in such cases. Likewise, when a new player 
  joins an existing campaign, or an old player makes a 
  new character, a rational system of starting wealth is 
  required if these new characters come in at a level 
  higher than 1st. 
  Prior editions had robust systems and uniform charts 
  for starting wealth by level. From this wealth, magic 
  items could be purchased. The fifth edition takes a 
  different approach. The Dungeon Master’s Guide 
  envisions four “tiers” of character power and, for new 
  characters above 1st level, it provides a table that 
  separates wealth and magic items. 
  Because this additional wealth cannot be spent on 
  more magic items, readers are left wondering what 
  else a starting character could buy with such gold. The 
  starting equipment systems in the Player’s Handbook 
  already tend to ensure that characters have enough 
  equipment to use their class features and functions. 
  The table on page 38 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide 
  has problems, but those can be ignored if your whole 
  campaign (every player character) is beginning at the 
  same level. Your characters will be relatively balanced 
  against one another and, if they are too weak to face 
  the challenges of the game, the Dungeon Master can 
  reduce those challenges to suit. 
  Unfortunately, the table fails utterly where new 
  characters enter an existing campaign. Existing 
  characters will likely have wealth and magic items (at 
  least) conforming with the guidelines on page 37. 
  Those treasures will significantly exceed what is held 
  by new characters made with the table on page 38. A 
  new character with this system can feel unfairly 
  underpowered, and it can be a detriment to the party 
  if not suitably equipped to face the same challenges. 
  Moreover, the divisions on the table are 
  problematic. The table makes abrupt jumps at each of 
  the tiers, lacking a smooth and useful level-by-level 
  progression. Imagine a situation where a new 
  character is made at level 10 (+525-750 gp and no 
  magic items). Another player joins the game only one 
  level later and makes a new character at level 11 
  (+5,250-7,500 gp and 2 uncommon magic items). By 
  coming in a level later, the character is many times 
  wealthier and it possesses magic items! 
  For the above reasons, this product does not 
  recommend that DMs use the table on page 38 of the 
  Dungeon Master’s Guide. Instead, this section provides 
  a more-nuanced table for new characters above 1st 
  level. Large jumps still exist between each tier, but 
  these are mitigated somewhat by distributing wealth 
  more evenly across each tier. 
  The following table provides wealth for characters 
  made higher than 1st level. A newly made character 
  adds the gold listed in the table’s Wealth column and 
  may buy mundane or magic items with it to the degree 
  allowed by the Purchasable Magic column. 
  Magic items can be purchased using the prices set by 
  the Dungeon Master, or the prices in Wraith Wright’s 
  Magic Item Management supplement. The Purchasable 
  Magic column shows the maximum number of major 
  magic items by rarity that a character may purchase. 
  This column functionally limits the maximum number 
  of such items that a character may start with. As a 
  default assumption, characters’ magic items must 
  conform to the Magic Item Restrictions sidebar. 
  A character may purchase an item of lower rarity 
  than indicated. For example, a 10th level character is 
  allowed to purchase 1 rare item but may instead elect 
  to purchase an uncommon item with that allowance. 
   
  
   
   
  Minor magic items are not affected by this table and 
  may be purchased without restriction. Minor magic 
  items include all consumables and a handful of 
  permanent items. The latter includes all common-
  rated magic items and any uncommon items found on 
  Magic Item Tables A-E in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. 
  Where campaigns begin with new characters made 
  above 1st level, consider these additional options for 
  generating starting equipment and wealth. 
  Some class features require great wealth expenditures 
  to fully realize their potential, particularly wizards and 
  any character proficient with medium or heavy armor. 
  Spellbooks. To effectuate the intended versatility of 
  a wizard’s spellbook, allow it to include 3 spells per 
  spell level that the character can prepare, instead of 
  the class’s default of 2. This simulates the wizard 
  having had an adventuring career. 
  Additional spells can be purchased as spell scrolls, 
  automatically and freely transcribed into the 
  spellbook. 
  Expensive Armor. To allow classes that need 
  expensive armor to realize the potential of their armor 
  proficiency class features, a character may select a 
  mundane suit of armor from the normal Armor table. 
  This typically means a breastplate or a suit of splint 
  or plate armor. Gaining this suit replaces the 
  character’s ability to purchase a single uncommon 
  magic item, so it should not be given below 4th level. 
  However, it does not reduce the character’s starting 
  wealth. (Wealth can be used for ornamentation or 
  masterwork features, if the suit is to be enhanced by 
  mundane means.) Instead, it creates a debt that the 
  character must repay. 
  At the Dungeon Master’s discretion, this suit might 
  be mechanically identical to a normal suit of armor but 
  come with restrictions. It could be old, battered, or 
  otherwise shabby in appearance such that the 
  character will never cut an imposing figure. It might 
  also be ill-kept armor from an armor-using monster. 
  Alternately, the armor may come with strings 
  attached, like association with a demanding noble 
  patron or membership in a knightly order that 
  imposes strict behavioral standards. The armor might 
  even bear heraldry or religious markings that can 
  cause trouble in some parts of town. 
  These limitations can be overcome by later 
  purchasing a suit with found treasure, allowing the 
  battered or borrowed armor to be discarded or 
  returned. 
  When a completely new campaign begins, with all 
  characters starting together at a level higher than 1st, 
  the Dungeon Master might choose to forego normal 
  starting treasure in favor of this option. 
  The Dungeon Master in this scenario pools all the 
  wealth and starting magic items for all the characters 
  and makes one list of it. The players or their 
  characters then select from the list in turn, or through 
  some other fair system, to divide the pile of treasure. 
  This option is particularly suitable for certain kinds 
  of campaigns. For example, the characters begin as 
  professional gladiators until, one fateful day, they are 
  ordered to go on an important mission in service to 
  the city. The lord mayor escorts the characters to a 
  treasure room where they may outfit themselves as 
  desired before embarking. 
  STARTING TREASURE BY LEVEL 
  Level 
        Wealth 
  Purchasable Magic 
    1st (Tier 1) 
           0 gp 
  — 
    2nd 
           15 gp 
  — 
    3rd 
           45 gp 
  — 
    4th 
         135 gp 
  1 UN 
    5th (Tier 2) 
       325 gp 
  1 UN 
    6th 
      1,265 gp 
  1 UN 
    7th 
      2,390 gp 
  2 UN 
    8th 
      3,765 gp 
  2 UN 
    9th 
      5,515 gp 
  2 UN 
  10th 
      7,765 gp 
  2 UN, 1 RA 
  11th (Tier 3) 
  10,390 gp 
  2 UN, 1 RA 
  12th 
    16,015 gp 
  2 UN, 1 RA 
  13th 
    23,515 gp 
  2 UN, 1 RA 
  14th 
    31,015 gp 
  2 UN, 1 RA, 1 VR 
  15th 
    40,390 gp 
  2 UN, 1 RA, 1 VR 
  16th 
    51,640 gp 
  2 UN, 1 RA, 1 VR 
  17th (Tier 4) 
  62,890 gp 
  2 UN, 1 RA, 1 VR 
  18th 
  162,890 gp 
  2 UN, 1 RA, 1 VR, 1 LE 
  19th 
  262,890 gp 
  2 UN, 1 RA, 1 VR, 1 LE 
  20th 
  387,890 gp 
  2 UN, 1 RA, 1 VR, 1 LE 
   
  
   
  10 
   
  This sort of system avoids many of the pitfalls that 
  come with players choosing their own equipment and 
  magic items for their new high-level characters. 
  New campaigns usually begin with a party-unifying 
  background or piece of property. This often takes the 
  form of some shared thing that might otherwise cost a 
  lot of wealth to obtain. 
  For example, the characters lead a band of merry 
  men in the king’s forest, stealing from the rich to give 
  to the poor. They already have a small band of military 
  hirelings, fully financed, along with some safehouses 
  and a fortification deep in the forest. Similarly, the 
  characters might own a ship from which they operate 
  their privateering enterprise and employ a trained 
  crew. Perhaps the characters begin as powerful 
  merchants and their allies, and they begin the 
  campaign with a large merchant inventory for various 
  story reasons. 
  Whatever the nature of the shared item or items, the 
  Dungeon Master can simply award ownership of it to 
  the group without any cost or can reduce each 
  character’s starting gold to compensate. The method 
  used should probably depend on the nature of the 
  item; the merry men or the privateers have set goals 
  that require them to make use of the items in question. 
  These should not call for starting wealth reductions. 
  On the other hand, with a bit of work, the powerful 
  merchants could fully liquidate their inventory and 
  directly bolster their own wealth. In this case, a shared 
  reduction of starting wealth is appropriate. 
  Having an established rate of distribution can guide 
  Dungeon Masters in the allocation of treasure and 
  rewards. A peek behind the curtain reveals what 
  impacts this can have on a campaign. 
  MAGIC ITEM RESTRICTIONS 
  When players get to select their own starting magic items, problematic combinations often crop up, particularly 
  with any items that provide exploitable numerical bonuses. Exploitation in this sense means gaining an unfair 
  advantage during character creation or stacking bonuses to break out of the balanced ranges intended by the 
  game. Certain nonsensical arrangements result when building a character from the ground up with knowledge of 
  what magic items it will have. Such arrangements should not be allowed. 
  Each of these suggested limitations can be overcome with explicit DM permission. 
  • Characters may not start with an amulet of health, belt of giant strength, gauntlets of ogre power, headband of 
  intellect, or any similar ability-setting items. These are too potent when combined with character-creation 
  decisions because they replace ability scores. A player can create a character with an important ability as a low-
  rated “dump stat,” distributing markedly higher scores into other abilities with the knowledge that a magic item 
  will replace the dumped ability score. 
  • Neither may characters start with more than one item that gives a magical bonus to Armor Class or to all saving 
  throws unless such bonuses are incompatible. The fifth edition of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS utilizes a “bounded” 
  system to balance the chances of success in combat, and too many of these bonuses place characters too far 
  beyond the range the game relies upon. 
  • For spellcasters, items that overcome the game’s inherent spell-balancing mechanisms are also restricted. 
  Characters may not start with more than one item that stores spells or spell slots, or that restores or provides 
  additional spell slots to the user. A spellcaster’s daily slots are intended to balance casting between cantrips and 
  higher-level spells within the span of various rest periods. Selecting too many items of this type negates, rather 
  than mitigates, the intended balance. 
  • Likewise, spellcasters cannot start with a mizzium apparatus if you allow the Multiclassing optional rule. The 
  spell list of a multiclass spellcaster is broader than a single-class spellcasters, balanced by the fact that it does 
  not contain the highest-level spells a single-class caster can achieve. The mizzium apparatus lets characters 
  ignore this limitation, fully exploiting this item when the high-level character can be created from scratch. 
   
  
   
   
  The rate of treasure distribution in your campaign is 
  only important under certain conditions (when the 
  amount becomes far too high or far too low). The fifth 
  edition of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Roleplaying Game 
  reduces the importance of treasure relative to prior 
  editions, revising what “too high” and “too low” mean 
  in this context. 
  The official rules provide little to buy with mundane 
  wealth, such that a few thousand gold pieces is enough 
  for an adventurer to retire on. Gold is no longer a 
  route to power since the ability to purchase magic 
  items is discouraged and hindered by the official rules. 
  Moreover, magic items themselves are greatly reduced 
  in potency, equip-able quantities are reduced, and 
  fewer monsters require magical weapons to harm. 
  This set of new features creates an environment 
  where a much greater range of treasure distribution is 
  “safe.” Characters can only be said to have too little 
  treasure or too much treasure when they are at the 
  extremes of this broad range. 
  Unfortunately, it is still quite easy for a party to 
  reach one of these extremes. Dungeon Masters are 
  prone to pay more attention to the progression of the 
  story rather than the characters. They may become 
  surprised deep into a campaign to discover that the 
  party’s treasure ill-suits its character levels. Either the 
  party is too poor to afford equipment and services 
  appropriate to the challenges it faces, or the party 
  easily overwhelms its foes with wealth and magic 
  items. When the party has too much wealth, it also 
  ceases to find motivational value in reasonable offers 
  of pay or treasure, requiring the DM to tune up such 
  rewards in a dangerously rising spiral of wealth. 
  Somewhere between these extremes, there is a 
  happy medium. Finding that balance can be harder 
  than it appears. The rates of distribution in this section 
  aim to help DMs premeditate their distributions and 
  maintain a healthy balance of party wealth. 
  The official fifth edition rules have a prescribed rate of 
  treasure distribution, both for mundane wealth and 
  for magic items. The official rate is broad, based on the 
  random results of the tables where it is hidden, and 
  official adventures mostly ignore it. 
  Previously, to approximate the official rate, a 
  Dungeon Master would need to perform a rigorous 
  analysis of the three data points in the Dungeon 
  Master’s Guide. These points are (1) the random 
  outcomes of rolling the prescribed number of times on 
  the Treasure Hoard tables, (2) the indefinite 
  references to magic items in the Tiers of Play, and (3) 
  the Starting Equipment table for higher-level play. The 
  official rate exists within the range where all three 
  data points overlap. 
  The later release of Xanathar’s Guide to Everything 
  provided much more certainty in the realm of magic 
  items. It confirmed the standard rate for magic items, 
  but it did so by tier rather than level. It also officially 
  recognized the difference between “minor” (usually 
  consumable) magic items and “major” (permanent) 
  magic items. 
  Ostensibly, the exposure of the official rate in 
  Xanathar’s Guide to Everything was first motivated by 
  a desire to guide adventure-designers in the 
  placement of treasure. However, the official published 
  adventures greatly exceed these numbers. An in-depth 
  analysis of all fifth edition adventures published to-
  date shows a wealth and magic item distribution rate 
  more consistent with prior editions, assuming players 
  are diligent and collecting most of it. Not only are 
  WEALTH CALCULATIONS 
  A character that saved its entire share of treasure 
  for levels 1 through 19 (an impossible task) would 
  have almost 776,000 gp upon achieving level 20. 
  This figure is based on average results of the hoard 
  rolls in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. 
  Each table has an anticipated number of times a 
  party will roll on it (page 133). The average roll for 
  each table was multiplied by its anticipated 
  number of rolls and divided by four, the number of 
  party size probably contemplated by those rules. 
  The result for each tier was distributed across 
  each level within it, using a ratio to match each 
  level’s XP requirement, rounding off to whole-gp 
  figures. The ratio of gp to XP earned is 2:20 in the 
  first tier, 5:20 in the second tier, 15:20 in the third 
  tier, and 100:20 in the fourth tier. 
  The value of treasure bundles in this product 
  was determined by splitting the standard per-level 
  wealth gain for each tier by five, the average 
  number of treasure bundles earned at each level. 
   
  
   
  12 
   
  treasure rates doubled or tripled, but characters often 
  get access to magic items of a too-high rarity either 
  one or two whole tiers early. 
  A Dungeon Master concerned that the party is 
  hovering too close to the upper range of what is safe 
  and balanced in terms of magic items should closely-
  regulate the official adventure books. Once players 
  accept such treasure rates as the norm, rather than 
  expecting the numbers in the Dungeon Master’s Guide 
  and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, they may be 
  disappointed if the normal rate is later adhered to. 
  This system is inspired by a prior edition of DUNGEONS 
  & DRAGONS, but it is designed to overcome some of the 
  important criticisms that system engendered. It 
  mitigates the lack of flexibility and the over-serving of 
  player requests the prior edition suffered from. 
  Treasure bundles are discrete collections of wealth 
  and magic items designed for you to distribute one or 
  two at a time. The Dungeon Master pre-calculates the 
  treasure anticipated at each level and divides that into 
  bundles for ease of distribution. 
  This guidance can be enormously helpful, so long as 
  the Dungeon Master does not feel constrained and 
  knows how to raise or lower treasure values to reward 
  or penalize the party’s actions. Clever and heroic 
  deeds call for greater rewards, while significant 
  bungling means the party overlooks opportunities to 
  find treasure. Tips for flexible implementation are 
  given later in this section. 
  Perhaps the most beneficial result of premeditating 
  the party’s treasure awards is the ability for the 
  Dungeon Master to fully flesh out the treasure, to give 
  rich descriptions to objects of art, vary the type of 
  coins found, carefully integrate special features for 
  magic items, or otherwise make the treasure 
  interesting and unique. Awarding treasure ad hoc, 
  particularly by rolling on the treasure tables during 
  play, does not give the Dungeon Master time to make 
  such rewards as richly detailed as they deserve. 
  To get the true wealth value of each bundle, multiply 
  the gp number in the wealth column by the number of 
  party members (the number of characters that will get 
  an ostensibly fair split of the treasure). 
  For example, five 11th level characters should 
  collect treasure valued at about 11,250 gp in each 
  bundle, doing so about five times before reaching 12th 
  level (a party total of 56,250 gp). 
  If characters in the party are different levels, use the 
  average level for this calculation, rounding up. 
  In addition to five wealth bundles, a magic item or two 
  might be among the treasure. Multiply any indicated 
  “1/4” item values by the number of party members 
  (the number of characters that will get an ostensibly 
  fair split of the treasure). At the level where that value 
  reaches a whole number, one magic item of the 
  indicated rarity will also be among the treasure for 
  that level. Carry forward any remaining item fractions. 
  For example, six 1st level characters should reach a 
  total uncommon magic item value of 1½ during 1st 
  level, meaning one uncommon magic item is among 
  their treasure. The remaining 1/2 uncommon value 
  carries forward. Nothing is added during 2nd level. At 
  3rd level, the six characters accrue another 1½ 
  uncommon magic item value, for a total of exactly 2 
  TREASURE VALUES 
  Party Level 
  Wealth 
  Magic Items 
  1st (Tier 1) 
  x 6 gp 
  x 1/4 UN 
  2nd 
  x 12 gp 
  — 
  3rd 
  x 36 gp 
  x 1/4 UN 
  4th 
  x 76 gp 
  — 
  5th (Tier 2) 
  x 375 gp 
  x 1/4 UN 
  6th 
  x 450 gp 
  x 1/4 RA 
  7th 
  x 550 gp 
  x 1/4 UN 
  8th 
  x 700 gp 
  x 1/4 RA 
  9th 
  x 900 gp 
  x 1/4 UN 
  10th 
  x 1,050 gp 
  x 1/4 RA 
  11th (Tier 3) 
  x 2,250 gp 
  x 1/4 UN, x 1/4 VR 
  12th 
  x 3,000 gp 
  x 1/4 RA 
  13th 
  x 3,000 gp 
  x 1/4 UN, x 1/4 VR 
  14th 
  x 3,750 gp 
  x 1/4 RA 
  15th 
  x 4,500 gp 
  x 1/4 UN, x 1/4 VR 
  16th 
  x 4,500 gp 
  x 1/4 RA, x 1/4 LE 
  17th (Tier 4) 
  x 40,000 gp 
  x 1/4 UN, x 1/4 VR 
  18th 
  x 40,000 gp 
  x 1/4 RA, x 1/4 LE 
  19th 
  x 50,000 gp 
  x 1/4 UN, x 1/4 VR 
  20th (per 30,000 XP) x 30,000 gp 
  x 1/4 UN, x 1/4 LE 
   
  
   
   
  uncommon items, including their prior remainder. The 
  party finds two uncommon magic items during their 
  3rd level and has no remainder value to carry forward. 
  Characters at 20th level continue to earn treasure, 
  doing so at “virtual levels.” A character gains a virtual 
  level for every 30,000 experience points earned above 
  355,000. 
  The party also calculates additional magic items at 
  those intervals. When the party reaches at least 1 
  legendary item per member, exchange future indicated 
  LE fractions (and any remainder) for VR fractions. 
  When the party reaches at least 1 legendary and 2 
  very rare items per member, exchange future-
  indicated VR fractions (and any remainder) for R 
  fractions. 
  This segment talks about awarding treasure and the 
  circumstances that can change the distribution. Over 
  the course of each character level, the party should 
  find four to seven wealth-related bundles and might 
  find a magic item or two. 
  Bundles aren’t divided by encounter; most monsters 
  have no treasure, while other encounters might 
  provide pieces of a single bundle or multiple bundles 
  at once. Bundles might be found in a lair or be given by 
  a noble as a reward for rescuing his grandson, while 
  other challenges do not receive such rewards. 
  The standard number of bundles the party should 
  find is five for each level they gain, but poor or 
  exceptional play should earn fewer or more bundles. 
  For each party level, the Dungeon Master should have 
  five bundles written out ahead of time, and perhaps a 
  couple of spare bundles for exceptional player results. 
  If you already know the number and nature of the 
  encounters a party will face, you can determine how 
  the party will acquire each bundle. Otherwise, you 
  may consult your campaign’s treasure chart and select 
  bundles (or parts of bundles) and magic items ad-hoc 
  as players search monster lairs, execute heists, or get 
  rewards from the king. 
  Characters often meet their experience or milestone 
  requirements after dramatically changing plans or 
  otherwise foiling the DM’s attempt to give out some 
  treasure in a timely, measured manner. The nature of 
  bundles allows you to easily catch up if you forget or 
  are unable to dispense bundles within the applicable 
  level, adding remaining bundles onto those awarded at 
  later levels. (In such instances, the wealth bundle 
  system is invaluable for reminding the DM to keep the 
  party from missing their rewards.) Characters don’t 
  have to get everything on the treasure chart before 
  they go to the next level. 
  The suggested number of treasure bundles per 
  character level is 5 (a “baseline”), but the party should 
  earn up to 1 less or 2 more in any given level, based on 
  their own actions. For particularly notable deeds or 
  failures, the DM can also adjust the number or nature 
  of magic items discovered. 
  For ideal results, the Dungeon Master can make a 
  “treasure chart” of each character level at the start of 
  the campaign, each level having five “bundle” lines, a 
  couple of “magic item” lines, and maybe a couple of 
  spare bundles charted in case of exceptional play. 
  (Keep these latter bundles separate from the others.)  
  For a balance of items, consider making two bundles 
  of coin, one bundle of minor magic items like potions, 
  one bundle containing an object of art, and one bundle 
  of sellable mundane items. Try to make bundles in 
  themes to keep their treasure logical to the setting or 
  the treasure’s previous owner. 
  SAMPLE TREASURE CHART (PARTIAL) 
  Sample for a 1st-level party of five characters: 
  LEVEL ONE (30 gp per bundle): 
  - Coins (34): A sack of 18 gp, a stack of 6 ep, a 
  string of 27 sp, a purse of 30 cp, one azurite 
  (10 gp) 
  - Coins (15): Three 1-lb. silver trade bars (5 gp 
  each) 
  - Magic (50): A potion of healing 
  - Art (25): A gold locket containing the painted 
  portrait of a medusa (25 gp) 
  - Mundane (26): Calligrapher’s tools (5 gp) and 
  three more vials of bright purple ink (5 gp 
  each) in a carved box (5 sp), thirty sheets of 
  clean paper (1 sp each) in a scroll box (25 sp) 
  - Uncommon: A +1 battleaxe, with 1/4 UN 
  remainder 
  
   
  14 
   
  Charting bundles just a few levels ahead of time is 
  probably a more reliable system; it allows you to 
  calculate bundles in the context of recent events. The 
  DM should make sure not to fall behind in the charting 
  process, lest treasure awards be forgotten. 
  On each bundle line, the DM should write in treasure 
  with a wealth value based on the chart and the 
  number of players. If one bundle goes a bit over, 
  remove the excess value from one of the coin bundles. 
  Likewise, if a bundle is a bit under-valued, add the 
  difference to one of the coin bundles. 
  On the magic item lines, the DM should write in the 
  items to be discovered that level. These results are 
  again based on the chart and the number of players. 
  Sometimes the characters acquire additional bits of 
  treasure, often things not planned by the Dungeon 
  Master and not on the five bundles of the treasure 
  chart. Here are the primary ways treasure gains occur, 
  and the recommended ways to handle them, whether 
  you wish to encourage them or not. 
  Earned Reward. Earned rewards should be the 
  most common deviations from the treasure chart. 
  They occur when characters go above and beyond 
  what is expected, using bravery, cunning, or just 
  excellent dice-rolling, to earn rewards the DM would 
  not normally have provided. Earned rewards (and 
  earned deficits, described in the next section) are 
  critical for tying treasure to player deservedness. 
  Without these, treasure rewards will feel too 
  automatic or predestined; they won’t satisfy the 
  players’ sense challenge and reward. 
  Investment income is one example of earned 
  rewards. Successful business ventures should earn 
  rewards that exceed the treasure chart. Otherwise, 
  why would anyone bother? The various degrees of 
  deviation are discussed more in a later chapter. At the 
  same time, investments should not be allowed to 
  exceed the chart by so much as to unbalance the game. 
  After that point, it’s likely that the focus of the game 
  has shifted into whatever activity is causing the 
  additional gains. For example, if the characters’ 
  investments are so lucrative as to exceed the 
  suggested limitation for bundle gains, the characters 
  have probably stopped adventuring to focus on 
  banking. The DM should therefore strike future 
  rewards from the treasure chart to keep in balance; 
  the characters start getting normal game rewards, 
  doing so by investment instead of adventure. 
  Whatever their form, earned rewards should flow 
  from competence and diligence, heroism and risk. But 
  they should not become commonplace. Even if the 
  players are constantly playing well, you should only 
  reward the very best instances of play. 
  Earned Deficit. Treasure bundles and magic item 
  finds are not guaranteed rewards. The treasure chart 
  exists so the DM doesn’t have to continually calculate 
  the balance of existing treasure in the party each time 
  a treasure hoard is found. Nothing says the characters 
  must accrue everything on the chart. When the 
  characters operate particularly poorly, miss multiple 
  or obvious clues, or simply refuse to correctly perform 
  the tasks that would otherwise be rewarded, the DM 
  should reduce the value of a bundle or strike off a 
  whole bundle instead of distributing it. 
  For example, the characters agree to bust a ring of 
  bandits operating out of the nearby forest. They 
  discover that the mayor has been in on the operation 
  the whole time, tipping off the bandits and collecting 
  half of their take. Fearing political reprisal, the 
  characters decide not to confront the mayor, despite 
  their good alignments. The town is safe again (and 
  experience points or milestones thus earned) but the 
  party does not get the cut of ill-gotten plunder that the 
  mayor stored in his basement. The DM strikes a single 
  bundle of coins from the treasure chart for that level. 
  Importantly, poor results on Wisdom (Perception) 
  check or Dexterity check using thieves’ tools, the 
  failure to decipher a treasure map, or other disasters 
  of the dice might also lead to the reduction of a 
  treasure bundle. It is important to enforce that the 
  characters’ own successes and failures are what drives 
  their rewards, and to let players know that such rolls 
  are not meaningless. However, luck-based results 
  (poor rolling) should not be used too frequently or to 
  reduce treasure too much. It is usually better to 
  reward good rolls than punish bad ones. 
  Chart Balance. The easiest way to rebalance an 
  excess treasure, whether intentional or unintentional 
  on your part, is to simply mark off an equal value from 
  the bundles later on your chart. Did the players get an 
  extra magic item because they let an NPC ally die in 
  battle, hoping to get his enchanted armor off him? 
  Simply mark off the next magic item the party would 
  have found of the equivalent rarity. In this way, 
  
   
   
  keeping a treasure chart is an incredibly useful system, 
  not just to distribute treasure in a balanced way, but to 
  cure naturally occurring imbalances to whatever 
  degree you find useful. 
  Chart balancing is a great way to use published 
  adventure modules designed by others. Instead of 
  changing where magic items are found, or changing 
  the treasure these adventures award, the DM can 
  maintain balance by simply crossing off equivalent 
  wealth and magic items from later on the treasure 
  chart. Only if the chart is fully depleted would the DM 
  need to reign in what the published adventure 
  provides. Likewise, an adventure that gives too little 
  treasure will be evident by the remaining wealth and 
  magic items on the treasure chart. If this is the case, 
  the DM can easily add in some or all the leftovers from 
  the chart to keep things fair. 
  This technique is also appropriate if a player 
  character dies, leaving her equipment to the party. If 
  new characters are made with more than the starting 
  wealth for 1st level, and the party keeps the old 
  character’s items, you can offset the value of those 
  items by striking off equivalent treasure from later in 
  the chart. This prevents a series of replacement 
  characters from being a significant source of 
  additional wealth and magic items for the party. 
  Sometimes you want the party to acquire something 
  costly but story related, like a stronghold, a sailing 
  vessel, or a legendary magic item that will drive the 
  characters into the quest of a lifetime. Story treasures 
  of these types typically fall outside of the regular rates 
  of distribution. With the right approach, providing 
  access to such items should not be a concern.  
  A story treasure should not be the type that magnifies 
  an individual character’s power; it should instead 
  unlock new modes of play or allow access to 
  otherwise-unreachable story features. 
  Where there is crossover, perhaps an intelligent 
  artifact that is also a useful weapon in combat, you can 
  attempt to value-rate just the features that enhance a 
  party member’s personal power. Alternately, you can 
  restrict the item’s features. Perhaps an intelligent 
  artifact weapon only allows its powers to be used 
  when the item so desires, or the item activates its 
  features at inopportune moments. Curses or cultural 
  restrictions can help balance these treasures as well. 
  Finally, make such items have a value limited to 
  their time owned by the party; if the players stop 
  making use of the item for story purposes or try to sell 
  it for additional wealth, have a plan in place to remove 
  the item or mitigate how the sale impacts the party’s 
  treasure rate. Perhaps the item was on loan or only 
  rented to the party; when the players are done or want 
  to move on to other things, the true owner can return 
  for it. Perhaps the intelligent artifact turns against the 
  party for failing to pursue its goals or the queen recalls 
  her grant of title to land. 
  Obtaining story treasures can be as simple as finding a 
  magic item. However, for some acquisitions, official 
  ownership is important to establish. For example, 
  acquiring a stronghold or a pirate ship may require a 
  deed or provenance of some sort. 
  For the buildings and ships described in later 
  portions of this product, the Dungeon Master’s Guide 
  suggests that characters come into such ownership 
  after 11th level, in the Masters of the Realm character 
  tier. Some groups would instead prefer to acquire 
  these items sooner, and there is no reason to use the 
  party’s lack of wealth to prevent such a thing. Indeed, 
  many parties in the Masters of the Realm tier still can’t 
  afford a stronghold. 
  Where a purchase is desirable, and the item also is a 
  story device desired by the Dungeon Master, prices 
  can be adjusted to suit the party’s current level of 
  saved wealth. Perhaps there is a problem; the castle is 
  haunted, the ship needs a full refit, or some other 
  problem exists that reduces the cost. 
  Loans or investment might bridge the gap between 
  the party’s current wealth and the item’s purchase 
  price. A mortgage is a powerful—though banal—
  motivator for adventuring. Alternately, the gap could 
  be paid by a backer or investor who expects a 
  percentage of the party’s treasure going forward. 
  Finally, a governmental authority, like a king, might 
  grant an item. Such grants typically come with strings, 
  like the expectation that the party will swear fealty, 
  direct the productive use of the surrounding land, 
  collect taxes for the crown, and maintain soldiers to 
  help protect the realm. Moreover, a grant of this 
  nature typically reverts to the crown if the party 
  
   
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  abandons it or dies. It cannot be sold because the 
  crown remains the true owner. In this way, the value 
  of the property is not a true gift to the party and does 
  not offend the expected rate of treasure distribution.
  Nonmaterial assets are not physical things, yet they 
  can still be extremely valuable. The Dungeon Master’s 
  Guide calls these “marks of prestige.” These assets are 
  explained and expanded upon as follows. 
  An influential person or organization will often show 
  its favor by granting a letter of introduction (or letter 
  of recommendation). This finely-calligraphed letter is 
  probably offered in an ornate scroll case or leather 
  folio. It is marked with a signature, seal, or coded 
  message that confirms its authenticity. 
  A letter is typically only valuable in a way that 
  reflects the importance of the person who wrote it; a 
  noble’s favor probably has no value in a neighboring 
  kingdom. If a letter is used frivolously, used too often, 
  or otherwise used to the writer’s detriment, a 
  messenger might come to revoke it. 
  A letter of recommendation usually names the 
  intended bearer(s) and provides a brief description of 
  the bearer to prevent the letter from being transferred 
  or stolen. Selling or trading such an item constitutes a 
  fraud, typically with dire results. Likewise, forging 
  such a letter is a risky prospect; while potentially 
  profitable, anyone granting favors to the bearer of a 
  letter of recommendation notes the event with a 
  formal observation or record-keeping, and suspicious 
  uses may get investigated. 
  Letters of recommendation are an appropriate 
  treasure for characters that earn the notice of 
  powerful individuals, prior to the characters 
  themselves becoming well known. They are therefore 
  best suited to the “local heroes” or “heroes of the 
  realm” tier of play, depending on who issues the letter. 
  Here are some common letters and their effects. 
  This letter typically conveys the authority of an 
  important person, instructing and allowing the bearer 
  to function as the issuer’s agent in a limited capacity or 
  for a limited task. 
  For example, the bearer might be empowered to 
  negotiate a certain border dispute on behalf of the 
  duke or settle a trade disagreement on behalf of a 
  guild. Such letters typically come with a mandate to 
  function as well as the authority to do so. They are 
  distinguished from similar letters in that they are very 
  narrow in scope. 
  A particularly gruesome form of this letter, 
  sometimes called a death warrant, comes from a ruler 
  and obliges the bearer to hunt and kill a named 
  person, perhaps a political enemy or a spy in the court. 
  This letter might come from a ruler who wants the 
  target killed. The ruler might also direct the letter to a 
  bearer who wants to kill that target, as a favor to the 
  bearer. Such letters are expected to be shown only if 
  the bearer is caught and has no other option. 
  A letter of hospitality allows the bearer to command 
  room and board at any public inn or eatery within the 
  affected region. The owner may record these expenses 
  and pass them along to the letter’s issuer to receive 
  repayment, but often the cost is not worth the effort. 
  Ingratiating business owners may find it commercially 
  useful to host a famous or well-regarded patron. 
  Repayment is more commonly sought if the bearer is 
  requiring several days of support, and the 
  establishment’s owner may well follow up with a 
  complaint to the issuer if the bearer imposes longer. 
  A religious authority grants this letter, which can be 
  used to demand forgiveness for a religious or moral 
  crime, typically the “victimless” sort, or to demand a 
  favor from a member of the faithful. The letter might 
  specify the exact crime, or it might be open ended. 
  Such letters typically have no influence on civil 
  authorities but carry great weight to the followers of 
  that religion. 
  An indulgence is often used to preemptively protect 
  the faithful from the moral weight of certain duties. 
  When sought out sincerely and issued with the proper 
  authority, such a letter can function as preemptive 
  forgiveness or divine intercession for a cleric or for a 
  paladin belonging to a religious order. For example, a 
  paladin who breaks an important oath to go 
  undercover and rescue a group of innocents may seek 
  out an indulgence from the master of her order to 
  salve her conscience and prevent her being an 
  “oathbreaker” in a mystical sense. A cleric may have to 
  
   
  17 
   
  make a bargain with the clergy of an opposing faith for 
  the good of their congregations, and an indulgence 
  would grant confidence that a higher authority within 
  the religious hierarchy approved of the act. Any divine 
  retribution is likely to fall upon the issuer, rather than 
  the bearer of the indulgence. 
  This letter grants license to the bearer, a private 
  citizen, to function as a military agent of the issuer. 
  The bearer may enter enemy territory, attack military 
  and commercial interests, and personally profit 
  thereby. If captured, the law of nations probably 
  requires that the bearer be treated as a prisoner of 
  war rather than a brigand or pirate. A letter of marque 
  can only be given by a person who governs an area 
  and has the authority to make war. It is 
  only useful during a time of war. 
  This letter explains that the bearer 
  holds the favor of the undersigned 
  noble. The bearer, and any 
  companions, might receive 
  preferential treatment by 
  showing the letter. It can open 
  doors and grant access to parties 
  and people who would otherwise 
  only associate with the nobility. It 
  can also be used to clear up 
  “misunderstandings” with local 
  authorities, excusing minor infractions of law. 
  The value of this letter depends on the importance 
  of the noble who granted it. Some people may react 
  poorly to a letter from a noble based on politics or past 
  grudges; showing a noble’s favor can occasionally get 
  the opposite of the desired reaction! 
  Granted by a trading conglomerate or merchant’s 
  guild, this letter allows the bearer to buy and sell 
  goods at standard rates at the conglomerate’s many 
  shops and trade houses, even when these rates might 
  otherwise be unfavorable due to regional shortages, 
  fluctuations in the market, or the presumed 
  foreignness of the bearer. 
  Another type of trade option allows the bearer to 
  make and sell goods of a particular sort without 
  paying taxes or dues to the guild. 
  A ruler so well trusts the bearer as to grant broad 
  investigative and policing powers. A warrant is proof 
  against retribution or prosecution for any offense 
  given or minor crimes committed in the course of the 
  bearer’s investigations. It requires all citizens to 
  cooperate with the bearer’s inquiries, under penalty of 
  law for failure to do so. The bearer of a warrant may 
  also carry weapons in places where normally 
  disallowed, like in the presence of the issuing monarch 
  or in a city or district where weapons are forbidden. 
  This is an appropriate reward for characters who 
  have repeatedly aided a kingdom by foiling criminal 
  enterprises or intrigues. 
  A “lesser warrant” is a weaker version of this letter 
  that grants only the right to bear weapons where they 
  are otherwise forbidden. 
  These work like letters of 
  recommendation, but they take 
  other forms, often more difficult 
  to counterfeit. 
  Typically fashioned in intricate 
  forms using precious materials, 
  medals are symbols of favor or 
  accomplishment granted by a ruler. 
  They are meant to be worn 
  prominently. 
  A medal can provide the wearer with a 
  certain measure of respect. Members of the realm to 
  which the medal applies are likely to recognize the 
  medal and its meaning. 
  Under the right circumstances, a medal can give 
  social benefits. For example, a member of the royal 
  army who recognizes a military medal may approach 
  the wearer with a better starting attitude in a social 
  interaction. (See “Resolving Interactions” in the 
  Dungeon Master’s Guide.) 
  A medal sometimes comes with a degree of military, 
  religious, or civil authority. A medal in such cases can 
  function as a letter of recommendation. For example, a 
  medal in the shape of a star or shield is commonly 
  associated with the bearer of a warrant, signaling that 
  authority to everyone around without the wearer 
  having to present the paperwork. A special pin 
  
   
  18 
   
  indicating a lesser warrant could serve to notify the 
  city watch that the wearer has the right to carry 
  weapons in public. 
  A medal might be bought or sold for 2-50 gp, at least 
  for its material value, but this is a dubious prospect. 
  Wearing unearned medals is often a crime. 
  Rulers can dispense titles, as can many nobles or 
  lesser authorities within a government. A title usually 
  comes with a grant of land, if it is a noble title in a 
  feudal system, but it can instead convey the mere 
  status and authority of a political or military position. 
  Political and military positions often grant the same 
  benefits as a letter of recommendation, but without 
  having to show the paper. This is because the 
  character’s identity becomes widely known as a 
  function of office. 
  Noble titles come with grants of authority, nobility, 
  lands, strongholds, or royal stipends. They typically 
  come packaged with these and other rights but are 
  subject to removal at the whim of the sovereign. 
  A character can hold multiple titles. Some titles end 
  with the holder’s death, while others pass down to the 
  holder’s primary heir. Some titles come with actual 
  duties; failure to attend these duties—or otherwise 
  acting in a manner not befitting such a title—can 
  result in revocation of the title plus the authority, 
  benefits, or lands that go with it. 
  Rights are typically granted by the maker of the right, 
  or its previous holder, often in written form. A right is 
  indicated by a letter of recommendation, an awarded 
  medal, a possessory interest in certain land, or a title.  
  Rights typically flow from a ruler, but they might 
  simply be granted by the owner of the thing over 
  which the right is granted. For example, a deed is 
  normally the written expression of a right to possess 
  and use land, given by the sovereign. Such writings can 
  describe other rights; a lease is a secondary right to 
  possess and use land, given by a deed-holder. A license 
  is a right to possess and use items, or to operate as a 
  franchise or under the banner of a known entity. 
  Mercantile rights can be extremely important, often 
  acquired as part of a business investment. These might 
  let the bearer move inventory along shipping lanes, 
  trade in select markets, or buy and sell assets 
  regulated by the crown. These rights typically have 
  upkeep costs in the form of annual taxation or dues 
  owed to a trading guild. 
  Feudal rights often come with titles. They allow the 
  grantee to build a stronghold on selected land, raise 
  armies, and tax the peasants living in the bearer’s 
  territory. These rights require payment of taxes to 
  higher-ranked nobles or royals whose larger lands 
  include the character’s smaller property. For example, 
  a duchy contains many counties, and each count pays 
  taxes to the duke. Most require the right-holder to 
  keep knights or soldiers employed that can be called 
  upon for service by those nobles or royals. 
  Rights can also come in the form of allowances, 
  perhaps to break certain laws or even to worship 
  certain gods. They are often campaign specific. 
  Favors are less spendable than rights and their worth 
  is harder to evaluate. Characters themselves often owe 
  favors to others, debts which can be called in at 
  unexpected times or in uncontemplated ways. 
  Players should keep track of favors (due and owed) 
  along two lines: who owes (or is owed) the favor, and 
  what it is owed for.  
  The more important the person who owes the favor, 
  the more valuable it is, but the more mercurial a result 
  you can expect. Very important people often fail to 
  grasp the true value of money and land, their daily 
  attentions being drawn to matters of state or religion. 
  Nobles often return favors in ways that they 
  themselves appreciate, such as the lauding of praises 
  and acknowledgement, grants of privileges related to 
  political power, or bestowal of lofty-sounding titles 
  that otherwise have no associated benefits. While 
  these will not fill an adventurer’s pockets, they might 
  help her renown. 
  Favors held against skilled persons can be valuable 
  to adventurers in the right context. Particularly when 
  such persons cannot afford a monetary repayment, 
  they might craft items for the character (if provided 
  materials), train the characters in skill or weapon 
  proficiencies (given sufficient time), or otherwise use 
  their time on the characters’ behalf without pay. 
  Also important is the nature of the favor. When the 
  king grants a favor for saving his life in a heroic 
  fashion, that is worth quite a bit. Conversely, the favor 
  owed for returning his fifth-favorite horse, found 
  running wild near the castle, is worth much less. Of 
  
   
  19 
   
  course, demanding that the king return (“cash out”) a 
  favor of any magnitude is a politically risky tactic. 
  Renown is interconnected with rights and favors. (See 
  “Renown” in the Dungeon Master’s Guide.) This system 
  abstracts the standing of a character (or a party) with 
  factions like national governments, religious 
  organizations, and similar institutions. 
  Renown often plays a role in the value of favors as 
  they are called in. Having greater renown than 
  someone you owe can provide the social leverage to 
  reclaim favors in unusual or inequitable ways. 
  Renown also limits the use of rights and letters of 
  recommendation. The granter of a right is associating 
  with the receiver of the right, and few important 
  people want to associate with people who have bad 
  reputations. Conversely, having a high applicable 
  renown makes it easy for a right to be granted, such as 
  the right to build a stronghold. 
  Remember that renown is an optional system. It is 
  not necessary to this book’s treatment of rights and 
  favors; the DM can abstract the party’s reputation to 
  determine how effectively rights and favors can be 
  leveraged with various groups. 
  Free time is a nonmaterial asset dissimilar to the 
  marks of prestige described above. It means valuable 
  breathing room for the characters, a few days to 
  pursue their own downtime activities rather than 
  having to chase the story. Along with gold and magic 
  items, an award of “days off” functions like other 
  treasure, except that players get to customize the 
  benefit to suit themselves. 
  Time awards take the form of downtime days, 
  between adventures or during lulls within adventures. 
  Each downtime day represents potential wealth that 
  characters can earn from crafts or professions. 
  For characters who spend the day working (see 
  “Practicing a Profession” in the Player’s Handbook), the 
  income varies. The innate “cost” of other downtime 
  activities, like training a new proficiency or 
  researching a new spell, is relative to what a character 
  could earn with the Practicing a Profession activity. 
  For this activity, unskilled labor is worth 1 gp per 
  day, with an additional amount that the Player’s 
  Handbook assigns to maintain a lifestyle in that period. 
  A general labor earns a further 1 gp (2 gp total each 
  day) because the work affords a “moderate” lifestyle. 
  Members of a temple, guild, or another organization 
  that provides gainful employment can support a 
  “comfortable” lifestyle, earning 3 gp daily. 
  Finally, characters proficient with the Performance 
  skill can maintain a “wealthy” lifestyle, 5 gp daily. 
  Downtime activities must be balanced against a 
  character’s lifestyle expenses, paid out over the same 
  period, changing net income. 
  The Player’s Handbook assumes that characters will 
  elect to enjoy a modest lifestyle. For most characters, 
  this will reduce (to 1 gp) the net income for the 
  Practicing a Profession activity. In this way, players 
  who don’t want to manage downtime can simply 
  ignore it, converting awarded downtime days to gold 
  pieces on a one-for-one basis. 
  In search of greater efficiency, a player will often try 
  to earn the maximum income from this activity and 
  pay only for the cheapest tolerable lifestyle. There is 
  nothing other than unfortunate story events (fostered 
  by the Dungeon Master) to prevent characters from 
  living rough and keeping their entire incomes. But few 
  players want to think of their characters as sleeping in 
  alleys and drinking from ditches or horse troughs. 
  Some lifestyle expense, even a minor one, is typical. 
  Often, the pacing of the story will control whether 
  characters get any downtime or how many days they 
  get when they do. There is no official guideline for how 
  many downtime days a Dungeon Master should award, 
  despite the inherent value of time. The DM must 
  balance the competing needs of the game and the story 
  to determine an appropriate award. 
  Too many downtime days will allow the characters 
  to generate excessive wealth, while too few will 
  prevent them from crafting or accessing various other 
  options available only in downtime. Many characters 
  have tool proficiencies or class features that are 
  invalidated if downtime is not part of your game. 
  Even when downtime is available, some players will 
  have no interest in downtime activities. Downtime 
  rules call for lifestyle expenses and other bookkeeping 
  
   
  20 
   
  that players might not want to deal with. On the other 
  hand, some players might be quite interested in 
  downtime. It is up to the DM to make sure it’s available 
  in reasonable quantities if the players want it, or to 
  dispose of those rules entirely if they don’t. 
  In addition to trading time for things of value, some 
  campaigns may benefit from allowing an exchange in 
  the opposite direction. 
  Player groups that have little interest in downtime, 
  or in campaigns with little room for it because of 
  frenetic activity, travel, and racing against a clock, 
  might benefit from the use of hirelings to accomplish 
  downtime activity. 
  For example, if the players need research done but 
  don’t have time, a paid hireling could do the work and 
  write a report that will catch up to the party later. 
  As this shows, downtime is truly a treasure like any 
  other, one that is convertible to gold and vice versa. 
  If using the rules for rivals and complications from 
  Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, be aware of their effect 
  on the value of the downtime days you award. Value is 
  reduced if the player characters cannot use downtime 
  activities for fear of interference or attack. This 
  reduction can only be calculated ad hoc, but it should 
  consider the number of rivals, as well as the 
  magnitude of those rivals’ assets and activities. For 
  example, if you think the characters can only get value 
  for about half their downtime days, halve the value of 
  days awarded. 
  Material assets are immediately useful, tradable for an 
  adventurer’s present needs of goods and services, or 
  for expenses like bridge tolls and taxation. 
  In contrast to nonmaterial assets, material assets are 
  less portable but much more spendable. Material 
  assets are easy for adventurers to carry, exchange, 
  invest, store, or otherwise reserve for future needs. 
  Currencies in fantasy worlds typically take the form of 
  conveniently sized bits of rare metals, each with 
  distinct weights, sizes, purities, or other factors that 
  make them fungible and interchangeable. 
  In DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, standard coins are called 
  “pieces.” These get value from the rarity of their metal, 
  not from local customs or regulations. A uniform 
  weight (1/50th of a pound each) gives these coins 
  consistent value across political and regional 
  boundaries. A merchant’s scale (see “Adventuring 
  Gear” in the Player’s Handbook) is a common tool used 
  in markets and during other exchanges of piece coins. 
  When tension between regions would incline local 
  markets to devalue foreign currency, pieces resist this 
  devaluation; melting coins into trade bars or into local 
  coins recaptures the inherent value of the metal, 
  cleansing them of the stigma of their foreign origin. 
  Conversion fees may be customary, but fees above 
  10% are unheard of. 
  Where regions differ is in the coins their markets 
  make use of. Gold pieces, silver pieces, and copper 
  pieces are “common” coins, known and used 
  everywhere. Electrum pieces and platinum pieces are 
  “rare,” used only in select markets or major 
  STANDARD EXCHANGE RATES (EXPANDED TABLE) 
  Coin 
  ip 
  cp 
  sp 
  ep 
  gp 
  ap 
  mp 
  pp 
  Iron (ip) 
  1 
  1/5 
  1/50 
  1/250 
  1/500 
  1/1,000 
  1/2,500 
  1/5,000 
  Copper (cp) 
  5 
  1 
  1/10 
  1/50 
  1/100 
  1/200 
  1/500 
  1/1,000 
  Silver (sp) 
  50 
  10 
  1 
  1/5 
  1/10 
  1/20 
  1/50 
  1/100 
  Electrum (ep) 
  250 
  50 
  5 
  1 
  1/2 
  1/4 
  1/10 
  1/20 
  Gold (gp) 
  500 
  100 
  10 
  2 
  1 
  1/2 
  1/5 
  1/10 
  Adamantine (ap) 
  1,000 
  200 
  20 
  4 
  2 
  1 
  2/5 
  1/5 
  Mithral (mp) 
  2,500 
  500 
  50 
  10 
  5 
  5/2 
  1 
  1/2 
  Platinum (pp) 
  5,000 
  1,000 
  100 
  20 
  10 
  5 
  2 
  1 
   
  
   
  21 
   
  metropolitan areas. Adamantine pieces, mithral pieces, 
  and iron pieces are “very rare” coins, new features of 
  this supplement. 
  Although iron is common in trade bars, only poor 
  societies with weak economies mint iron into coins. 
  Adamantine and mithral are more precious than 
  gold, but less valuable than platinum. Coins of this type 
  appear only in closed societies where their metals are 
  relatively accessible, such as dwarven citadels. 
  Most governments, as well as some large institutions 
  and major religions, are powerful enough to issue 
  coins of their own design. These derive their value 
  from the worth of the issuing institution, from the 
  value of the coins’ material, or a combination thereof. 
  The governments, temples, and other powerful 
  factions that issue these coins guarantee an exchange 
  rate, on demand, from their own treasuries. The value 
  of these coins might fluctuate based on the perceived 
  content of that treasury or the distance one must 
  travel to make that guaranteed exchange. 
  For example, the City of Waterdeep mints a large 
  coin of platinum with electrum inlay. This “harbor 
  moon” is valued at 50 gp locally, but only 30 gp away 
  from the city. Similarly, the Temple of Gond issues 
  “Gond bells,” brassy bells with ornamental stone 
  clappers, each worth 10 gp in open trade or 20 gp 
  when traded to the Temple of Gond. 
  Societies that use non-piece currency as their 
  primary tender go to great lengths to discourage 
  forgery. Minting (and printing if the campaign world 
  has such tinkering wonders) often includes subtle or 
  complex features to defeat counterfeiting. Detecting 
  fake money may come down to a skilled (or magical) 
  examination performed by merchants. Because the 
  survival of the whole economy relies upon the 
  currency’s value, along with the survival of the nation 
  and its subjects, societies that use such representative 
  currency tend to punish counterfeiting with death. 
  Regionally, even piece-coins have unique names 
  assigned by the institutions that mint them or by the 
  people that use them. These names remind players 
  that the game world is not generic; that nations of 
  your setting have their own ways of doing things and 
  their own unique modes of commerce. 
  For example, Waterdhavians in the Forgotten 
  Realms, use “dragon” as a term for their gold piece. 
  (Locally minted gold pieces have the image of a gold 
  dragon on one side.) 
  Some game worlds use different basic currencies, 
  things other than coins. Perhaps valuable metals are 
  hard to acquire. Maybe some other convenient things 
  have been used since the beginning of time and no one 
  ever thought to use coins. Or maybe the gods have 
  dictated a type of currency and none can gainsay them. 
  As examples, an undersea kingdom may use rare 
  seashells because it has no mining traditions. A society 
  of necromancers might trade glass beads to which 
  souls are bound; merchants can identify the power of 
  the souls, which correspond to various denominations. 
  On a harsh desert world, wizards might know how to 
  convert water into small, gelatinous blobs of 
  standardized sizes, which can later be turned back into 
  water. 
  Whatever the case, the new currency should be 
  portable, identifiable as roughly equivalent to other 
  alike pieces (interchangeable) and should probably 
  have an innate value based either on material rarity or 
  VALUATION: ADAMANTINE AND MITHRAL 
  Adamantine and mithral values are extrapolations 
  of the official costs for magic items (adamantine 
  armor and mithral armor in the Dungeon Master’s 
  Guide) and from the exact price of an adamantine 
  bar given in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. 
  If you prefer the higher implied value of prior 
  editions, feel free to adjust these numbers to suit. 
  Multiplying their table-listed values by 10 is an 
  easy way to go. However, note that doing so alters 
  the stated costs of other adamantine and mithral 
  equipment in various Wraith Wright supplements 
  (and should affect prices in the Dungeon Master’s 
  Guide and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything). 
  If you want to enhance the rarity of these two 
  metals, it might be enough to simply say they 
  aren’t available as coins, even in their currently 
  restricted regions, or that their coin values reflect 
  the use of alloys or less-refined ore. 
  
   
  22 
   
  a value based on a useful function of the item other 
  than commerce. 
  These bars are short, thin bricks of precious metals. 
  They appear in standardized, whole-pound weights. 
  One-pound, five-pound, and ten-pound trade bars are 
  common, but most trade bars appear in the two-pound 
  “commercial” variety, equivalent to 100 “piece” coins 
  of the same metal. This might be why merchant’s 
  scales top out at exactly two pounds in their 
  measuring capacity. (See “Adventuring Gear” in the 
  Player’s Handbook.)  
  Even more than piece coins, trade bars hold their 
  value across vast political and geographical expanses. 
  Trade bars are important to regular high-
  level commerce because they exist 
  without the political implications 
  carried by minting; there are 
  usually no marks of origin to 
  offend the peoples of one 
  nation or another, letting 
  commerce pass 
  unhindered. 
  Gems are sometimes used 
  in place of coins, often by 
  the very wealthy. They can 
  appear in any size and quality 
  (any gp value), but the Dungeon 
  Master’s Guide standardizes gems to 
  list them at consistent values, shown in 
  the table here. 
  Halve the value of a “small” version of any gem and 
  double the value of a “large” version. A “giant” version 
  will fetch ten times the listed value. If a gemstone is 
  raw (uncut, not polished or otherwise treated to 
  enhance its luster by a skilled user of jeweler’s tools) 
  halve its value. 
   Loose gemstones should not have appreciable 
  weight unless carried in bulk. When it does matter, 
  weights can be difficult to calculate; the Dungeon 
  Master’s Guide does not provide official weights for 
  gems, nor would a standard gemstone of one type be 
  equivalent in weight to another type. As an abstract 
  system, simply assume that 200 “standard” gemstones 
  weigh 1 pound, as do 100 “large” versions or 20 
  “giant” versions. 
  Coins are only used by those of middling wealth. The 
  very poor and the very rich exchange trade goods 
  instead. When there is no coin to be had, or when 
  barter is simply more convenient, people commit 
  commerce by exchanging items with static, widely 
  accepted and understood values. 
  For an urchin on the street, trade goods might 
  consist of captured rats or collected scrap iron, the key 
  to acquiring a hot bowl of soup. For a poor farmer, this 
  might mean trading wheat and livestock for a few 
  luxury items. On the other end of the spectrum, a 
  guild-sanctioned master merchant’s trade goods might 
  include huge shipments of raw textiles exchanged for 
  platinum trade bars. For the nobility, trading hunting 
  birds or exotic beasts is a matter of fashion as well 
  as expedience. 
  Dry Goods. These common 
  household items are in demand 
  everywhere; moving large 
  quantities of them is what 
  keeps many merchants in 
  business. 
  Creatures. Of all the 
  trade goods, beasts have 
  the greatest variance in 
  value. From the common 
  and domestic, to the wild and 
  exotic, the market for animals 
  varies greatly based on the 
  accepted purpose of each creature 
  and its geographical rarity.  
  Comprehensive tables of animal prices, for trained 
  and untrained species, can be found in Wraith 
  Wright’s Animal Handler’s Manual. 
  Slaves. Slavery is a commercial trade appearing only 
  in evil societies. Slaves are intelligent creatures 
  “owned” for labor, status, consumption, ritual 
  sacrifices, and other vile purposes. Most slavers prefer 
  to own members of their own race, but some trade in a 
  variety of races and creature types they deem less 
  civilized or less technologically developed. 
  Where slavery is a feature of a campaign, it must not 
  be reduced to a mere commercial enterprise that 
  player characters engage in. This type of real-world 
  evil is something that a game would struggle to reflect 
  with accuracy and sensitivity. Too often it merely 
  
   
  23 
   
  reinforces real-world notions of racism, colonialism, 
  and other evils that people play games to escape. 
  This category of wealth covers unfinished materials 
  suitable for crafting specific items. 
  Craft components are materials like trade goods, but 
  they do not hold the same value. Craft components sell 
  for half the amount they would be purchased for; it is 
  more cost-effective to craft from found craft 
  components and sell the resulting products. 
  For example, raiding an abandoned alchemy lab 
  reveals ingredients to craft one flask of alchemical fire. 
  The craft component substitutes for having to pay 25 
  gp in material to make a dose of alchemical fire, an 
  item with a market of 50 gp when finished. If the 
  components are sold as-is, without turning them into a 
  finished product, they fetch a mere 12 gp and 5 sp, half 
  their value as crafting materials. 
  Craft components typically weigh the same as the 
  products they can be made into. Otherwise, the 
  weights and composition of various craft components 
  are determined ad-hoc by the Dungeon Master. 
  Craft Usage. A craft component is a material 
  resource used to make a specific sort of item. The 
  material cannot be used for other crafting purposes, 
  except that the Dungeon Master may allow a 
  component to qualify for several very-similar crafts. 
  Raw herbs are the quintessential example of craft 
  components. For example, spectral lotus petals found 
  in the wild are craft components usable only for a 
  spectral lotus infusion, with no other crafting purpose. 
  For a broader example, the DM might determine that 
  the unfinished blade “blanks” in a treasure pile are 
  craft components that can be made into any type of 
  one-handed sword. 
  Variant: Universal Components. This option gives 
  effect to the Alchemical Crafting mechanism in 
  Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and expands its 
  application to include other areas of artistry. 
  With this variant rule, a crafting component can 
  apply universally to any byproduct of a particular set 
  of artisan’s tools. For example, an adventurer might 
  purchase raw alchemical ingredients to stock a set of 
  alchemist’s supplies before leaving on a quest. These 
  components are good for anything that alchemist’s 
  supplies can create. 
  TRADE BARS (1-POUND) 
  Value 
  Goods 
   
  Value 
  Goods 
  1 sp 
  Iron 
   
  50 gp 
  Gold 
  5 sp 
  Copper 
   
  100 gp 
  Adamantine 
  5 gp 
  Silver 
   
  150 gp 
  Mithral 
  25 gp 
  Electrum 
   
  500 gp 
  Platinum 
  GEMSTONES (“STANDARD” SIZE) 
  Value Goods 
  10 gp Azurite, banded agate, blue quartz, eye agate, 
  hematite, lapis lazuli, malachite, moss 
  agate, obsidian, rhodochrosite, tiger eye, 
  turquoise 
  50 gp Bloodstone, carnelian, chalcedony, 
  chrysoprase, citrine, jasper, moonstone, 
  onyx, quartz, sardonyx, star rose quartz, 
  zircon 
  100 gp Amber, amethyst, chrysoberyl, coral, garnet, 
  jade, jet, pearl, spinel, tourmaline 
  500 gp Alexandrite, aquamarine, black pearl, blue 
  spinel, peridot, topaz 
  1,000 gp Black opal, blue sapphire, emerald, fire opal, 
  opal, star ruby, star sapphire, yellow 
  sapphire 
  5,000 gp Black sapphire, diamond, jacinth, ruby 
  DRY GOODS 
  Value Goods 
  1 cp 1 lb. of wheat 
  2 cp 1 lb. of beans, cheese, flour, potatoes, or 
  turnips; per board ft. of unusual lumber 
  5 cp 1 lb. of coffee, salt, or sugar 
  1 sp 1 sq. yd. of canvas or per board ft. of rare 
  lumber 
  5 sp 1 lb. of cooking herbs or tobacco or 1 sq. yd. 
  of cotton cloth 
  1 gp 1 lb. of cooking spices, ginger, or honey 
  2 gp 1 lb. of cinnamon, pepper, wool, or per board 
  ft. of exotic lumber, or 1 common pelt 
  (beaver or wolf) 
  3 gp 1 lb. of cloves or 1 uncommon pelt (fox or 
  mink) 
  5 gp 1 sq. yd. of linen or 1 rare pelt (ermine or seal) 
  10 gp 1 sq. yd. of silk 
  15 gp 1 lb. of chocolate or saffron 
   
   
  
   
  24 
   
  Some universal components might apply to multiple 
  crafting methods. For example, iron ingots can be 
  useful with smith’s tools and tinker’s tools. Universal 
  components are uncommon, and those useable with 
  multiple types of tool sets are somewhat rare. 
  Universal components are considered trade goods, 
  but their values are not halved when sold in raw form 
  because of their additional usefulness. 
  The weights and divisible increments of these 
  components are harder for a Dungeon Master to judge 
  since the same materials can create products of 
  different weights and sizes. (For alchemy and 
  herbalism, use the guideline of 1 pound per 50 gp.) 
  The flexibility of this variant rule can suit a 
  campaign that prefers to abstract the crafting process, 
  but it can be unexpectedly problematic in the context 
  of certain types of crafting. 
  Some published, official campaign settings make metal 
  a rarity in their worlds, like iron in Krynn and, most 
  famously, the missing metals of Athas. However, 
  scarcity alone does not account for all metal-poor 
  settings. The worlds you create, or areas within them, 
  may simply have differences in the rarities of metal, 
  turning the value of piece coins on their head. 
  When metals have nonstandard rarities, it may be 
  enough to adjust the value of piece coins in your 
  campaign. However, when iron becomes rare, it affects 
  the value and availability of most tools, turning the 
  regular notion of adventuring equipment on its head. 
  Iron might be rare in “primitive” cultures that have 
  not invented or adopted advanced mining and metal 
  shaping techniques, regardless of those societies’ 
  other technologies, arts, or urbanization. Similarly, 
  wholly aquatic races are unable to heat-shape iron in 
  their underwater industries. While an aquatic race 
  might be technologically sophisticated, some crafts are 
  utterly impossible given the environment. 
  A world without much metal isn’t likely to use metal 
  coins since the value of rare metals becomes too high 
  to justify their use as common currency. A metal-poor 
  world values metals at 100 times their standard 
  worth. (This assumes a world where all metals are 
  equally rarer than they are in the standard game.) 
  Trade instead relies on trade goods and alternate 
  forms of currency. 
  Gemstone Example. In a world where metals are 
  rare, other minerals can substitute for coinage. A 
  currency system of this sort might use low-value 
  crystalline gemstones like zircon, which comes in a 
  dozen different colors. Instead of cutting them into 
  shapes useful for jewelry, these stones are made into 
  tiny “commercial cuts,” the size and color of which 
  correspond to different denominations. 
  This currency model probably relies upon 
  government-trained gem cutters that work in facilities 
  like mints. Counterfeiting might be deterred by the 
  rarity of this specialized training, or by a system of 
  magical imprinting that marks each cut gem. 
  An underwater variation of this coinage might 
  employ rare molluscan seashells from creatures that 
  only inhabit dangerous regions or that must be 
  cultivated in government-controlled facilities. 
  Ceramic Coin Example. Ceramic is a functional 
  alternative when it comes to minting coins, one used 
  in the Dark Sun setting. In this metal-poor apocalypse, 
  the standard coin is the ceramic piece (cr). Its spoked-
  wheel imprint allows the coin to be broken into 10 
  pie-shaped wedges called “bits” (bt), each valued at 
  one-tenth of a ceramic piece. An even smaller unit, a 
  tiny ceramic-glazed lead bead (bd), often with a 
  central hole for threading, is valued at one-hundredth 
  of a ceramic piece. 
  This formulation allows you to easily convert 
  standard item costs from their listed gp/sp/cp prices 
  to equivalent cr/bt/bd prices. 
  Other Examples. For additional ideas on how to 
  replace metal coins, see the Material Assets 
  suggestions earlier in this chapter. 
  Metal is a major component of armor, weapons, and 
  other gear useful for survival in a dangerous, magical 
  world. Those who adventure without it, because they 
  lack the industry to shape metal or because metal is a 
  rare and precious commodity, do so at a tremendous 
  disadvantage. 
  If you impose this set of limitations on the campaign, 
  the available equipment is limited as described here, 
  both during character creation and later during play. 
  Metal items are available, but usually only those with 
  small amounts of metal, and usually at an inflated cost. 
  
   
  25 
   
  In the following subsections, a “restricted” item is 
  hard to find for sale and its price is inflated as 
  described. Any available restricted items cost an 
  additional amount equal to 50 gp per pound of the 
  item. Restricted armor and weapons are also available 
  in an ersatz alternative. (See Wraith Wright’s 
  Expanded Armor Manual, Expanded Weapon Manual, 
  and Expanded Tool & Gear Manual.) Some of the items 
  in these subsections are new ones found only in those 
  supplements or in Wraith Wright’s Comprehensive 
  Equipment Manual. 
  Any standard items not mentioned in these 
  subsections have replaced their metal components 
  with non-metal ones. Alternately, they use only small 
  amounts of low-quality metal such that their costs and 
  rarities are unaffected. 
  Armor. All medium and heavy armors are restricted, 
  except hide, layered hides, and layered furs. 
  Weapons. The following simple weapons are 
  restricted: Crossbow (all types), dagger (all types), 
  dart, hammer, handaxe, hatchet, hook, javelin, mace 
  (all types), pick (all types), scythe, sickle, spear (all 
  types), and stiletto. 
  Additionally, all martial weapons are restricted 
  except blowgun (all types), bolas, boomerang, 
  longbow (all types), and net (all types). 
  Tools. The following are restricted: Carpenter’s 
  tools, glassblower’s tools, jeweler’s tools, smith’s tools, 
  tinker’s tools, thieves’ tools, and woodcarver’s tools. 
  Gear. The following adventuring gear is restricted: 
  Arrows (all except alchemical), ascender, ashiaro, bell, 
  block and tackle, blowgun needles (all), caltrops (any), 
  chain, climber’s kit, coin grinder, crampons, crossbow 
  bolts (all), crowbar, diver’s kit, glass breaker’s kit, 
  grappling hook, hacksaw, hammer (any), holy symbol 
  (amulet, ornamental amulet), hunting trap, lantern 
  (any), lock (any), lockbox, manacles (any), mirror, 
  pick, piton, pole (collapsible), pot, ritual sickle, saw, 
  shikaro, shovel, signet ring, sling bullets (dimpled, 
  leaden), spikes, sprayer, and winch. 
  These adjustments change the availability and use of 
  metal equipment. Consider the following methods of 
  compensation to keep some classes from being 
  disproportionately affected. 
  Starting Equipment. When characters receive 
  restricted equipment from the class-and-background 
  method for starting gear, replace the armor and 
  weapons with ersatz versions and omit any other 
  items. They also acquire a bonus of wealth in the 
  amount of the difference between standard versions 
  and the ersatz versions. 
  For example, a cleric that would acquire scale mail 
  armor at character creation instead gets ersatz scale 
  mail, perhaps made from the treated scales of a wild 
  inix. Because ersatz armor is valued at only one-
  quarter of standard armor, the cleric receives 37 gp 
  and 5 sp with this armor (or whatever wealth 
  equivalent is used in the setting), the missing three 
  quarters of the normal value of a suit of scale mail. 
  Refunding the price difference is important for 
  wealth balancing because ersatz armament users must 
  occasionally pay for repairs or must carry multiple 
  weapons to replace items that break. The refund also 
  helps to maintain parity with characters whose 
  starting wealth is rolled for, since those characters can 
  purchase their ersatz equipment at the reduced price. 
  The Need for Ersatz Armor. It might be tempting 
  for a Dungeon Master to simplify the armor selection 
  in metal-poor settings, allowing only the armor suits 
  made with non-metal materials. This approach is 
  discouraged because it has a few drawbacks related to 
  game balance.  
  First, the bounded accuracy model of the fifth 
  edition of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS expects that Armor 
  Classes for player characters will exist within a set 
  range. Reducing some characters’ Armor Classes this 
  
   
  26 
   
  way changes the balance of the challenge rating 
  system, requiring the DM to put additional attention 
  into re-tuning encounters to compensate. 
  Second, allowing only the armors that are already 
  non-metal weakens every class whose balance of 
  features includes proficiency in medium or heavy 
  armor. Warrior-type characters are already 
  disadvantaged by the drawbacks of ersatz-quality 
  weapons—the main tools of those classes—which can 
  break at inconvenient times. 
  Relatedly, because that approach would omit heavy 
  and medium armor from normal use, the game’s 
  balance of the Dexterity and Strength abilities changes 
  significantly. In the standard game, Strength-based 
  characters can achieve the highest Armor Classes 
  through their armor. Removing those armor types 
  would instead relegate Strength characters to the 
  lowest Armor Classes. 
  This section covers negative assets, the party’s debts 
  and future costs that weigh against their net wealth. 
  All characters have expenses in one form or another. 
  However, players are not often excited to engage with 
  such costs. What could be less entertaining than 
  charting downtime expenses? For this reason, such 
  costs appear in this supplement for Dungeon Masters, 
  rather than one of the related products designated as 
  “Player Tools.” 
  These rules cover food, lodging, and various services 
  like getting equipment repaired. With the right 
  approach and forethought, these costs can be managed 
  without reducing the enjoyment of your game. 
  Many of these expenses are tied to the economy of 
  downtime days, the time that (in some campaigns) 
  takes place between adventures. They exist in part to 
  balance the income of characters practicing a trade; 
  their function is not simply to add accounting. Many 
  campaigns either don’t use downtime (their 
  adventures tend to run back-to-back) or won’t want to 
  keep track of petty incomes and outlays. This is fine, 
  but if your campaign does have downtime, and it does 
  add income for regular artisanal or professional 
  activities during downtime days, remember to balance 
  that income against lifestyle expenses. 
  The official rules provide seven levels of lifestyle 
  quality, each with an associated daily cost. 
  To use these rules, choose a lifestyle to live at and 
  pay in advance to cover it. Lifestyle costs can be paid 
  daily, or they can be paid a week or a month in 
  advance. Ideally, the DM predetermines how many 
  downtime days will pass until the next adventure and 
  calls for expense payments based on that number. 
  A character proficient in the Survival skill or 
  possessing the Wanderer background feature can live 
  in the wilderness, sustaining a “poor” lifestyle without 
  paying for it, so long as the land offers berries, small 
  game, water, and so forth. 
  Lifestyle choices have no set mechanics that affect 
  the game. But the DM may create consequences in the 
  form of downtime encounters or plot twists related to 
  lifestyles. The lower the cost of your accommodations, 
  the greater your risk of interacting with people who 
  are poor, covetous, diseased, exiled, or otherwise 
  dangerous to you. Similarly, the higher your cost of 
  living, the greater your chance of interacting with the 
  cream of society, the movers-and-shakers who might 
  try to enmesh you in their political intrigues. 
  The following descriptions also apply to the 
  individual components of lifestyles, priced in the 
  sections below. The nature of meals, boarding, and 
  stabling are the same, even acquired piecemeal. 
  Aristocratic. Living among the well-to-do allows 
  you to rub elbows with the elites of society. Your food 
  and lodging are top-notch. Servants are available to 
  attend your every need, and your clothing is 
  fashionable. This lifestyle is appropriate for politicians, 
  guild leaders, high priests, and nobles. 
  Comfortable. Your accommodations allow you to 
  easily maintain your clothing and equipment, keeping 
  LIFESTYLE EXPENSES 
  Lifestyle 
  Price per Day 
  Wretched 
  — 
  Squalid 
  1 sp 
  Poor 
  2 sp 
  Modest 
  1 gp 
  Comfortable 
  2 gp 
  Wealthy 
  4 gp 
  Aristocratic 
  10 gp minimum 
   
  
   
  27 
   
  them in good repair and proper appearance. You 
  might rent your own cottage or other living area. This 
  lifestyle is appropriate for merchants, skilled 
  tradespeople, and military officers. 
  Modest. You can afford to live in a part of town 
  where violence is not common. Your living conditions 
  are clean, but simple. This lifestyle is appropriate for 
  soldiers with families, laborers, students, priests, and 
  hedge wizards. 
  Poor. A stable option, this lifestyle provides the bare 
  necessities for civilized society. Your threadbare 
  clothing still betrays your status as one of the poor 
  inhabitants of the area, but you are not kicked out of 
  shops or denied the protection of the law. This lifestyle 
  is appropriate for unskilled laborers, street peddlers, 
  thieves, and mercenaries. 
  Squalid. This lifestyle provides the basic forms of 
  shelter, a hut, a boarding closet, or a temporary shelter 
  run by a local temple. The food is barely palatable and 
  hardly nutritious. This lifestyle is appropriate for 
  successful street gangs and other unfortunates. 
  Wealthy. This lifestyle includes spacious 
  accommodations in a good part of town, with a healthy 
  (or even excessive) diet. It includes the security and 
  comforts available only to those with significant 
  wealth. This lifestyle is appropriate for successful 
  merchants, favored servants of nobles, or the owners 
  of successful businesses. 
  Wretched. A wretched lifestyle has no associated 
  cost. The character must beg, scavenge garbage, or 
  otherwise scrounge food from among anything freely 
  available. Without a home, the character is exposed to 
  myriad dangers associated with the poorest elements 
  of society. This lifestyle is appropriate for beggars. 
  Characters already paying for days of lifestyle have 
  food, drink, and lodging included. The itemized costs 
  on these tables are for characters not paying for a 
  lifestyle or those wishing to supplement their 
  “wretched” lifestyles, which are devoid of these things. 
  Ale. A sweet, full-bodied beer balanced with 
  fermented gruit or hops. 
  Banquet. A bountiful, multi-course meal suitable for a 
  noble’s table. 
   Bread. A baked mix of flour and water. Bread is a 
  nearly universal food staple. 
  Cheese. A congealed byproduct of milkfat. 
  Coach Cab. A coach is a passenger cart with flexible 
  suspension, designed to provide a smooth, comfortable 
  ride for passengers. A “coach-and-four” or a “coach-and-
  six” are descriptions that include the number of horses 
  (or similar animals) that pull the vehicle. 
  Meat. Meat cooked and ready for eating. 
  A chunk is a cut of meat suitable for a single meal, 
  while a flank is a portion of the animal equivalent to 
  12 cuts. 
  Messenger. Messengers are familiar with the area 
  they work in and pride themselves on being able to 
  deliver messages quickly and to the right recipients. 
  They are suitably dressed to avoid trouble and to get 
  into places where the rabble are excluded. 
  
   
  28 
   
  Pastry (any). Pastries are flaky, baked bread pieces 
  containing cheese, fruit, or meat. 
  Ship’s Passage, Ferry Crossing. Ferries can be 
  private or government-run. For government ferries, the 
  fee is typically in the nature of a toll, making some 
  classes of people exempt. 
  Ship’s Passage, Passenger Vessel. On large rivers or 
  the open sea, passenger vessels follow set routes 
  between cities or other well-inhabited points. Passenger 
  vessels provide a slim measure of comfort for travelers, 
  including food. 
  Ship’s Passage, Shipping Vessel. Shipping vessels 
  often ply routes that passenger vessels do not. Passenger 
  fare can be had for a much lower cost, which includes 
  the understanding that a passenger will work side-by-
  side with the crew. The accommodations aboard a 
  shipping vessel are often cramped and miserable. 
  Spirits. An alcoholic beverage created by distillation 
  and fermentation, usually followed by a set period of 
  aging. The removal of diluting components like water 
  gives spirits a high alcoholic content by volume. 
  Stew. This is a watery meal of stewed meat and 
  vegetables, served out of a common pot or cauldron, 
  typically one that simmers over a fire all day (or all 
  week, depending on the quality). 
  Toll, Road or Gate. A common taxation system for 
  civilized societies includes tolls for people passing 
  through confined access ways like gates, bridges, and 
  the like. Loaded wagons are typically charged an 
  additional toll. 
  Government employees like soldiers and tax 
  collectors are typically exempt from tolls, as are 
  members of the nobility and royalty. 
  Wine. A common alcohol made of grapes with few 
  additives. The better the production and the longer the 
  FOOD AND DRINK 
  Item 
  Cost 
  Ale 
   
     Mug 
  4 cp 
     Gallon 
  2 sp 
     Keg 
  2 gp 
  Banquet (per person) 
  10 gp 
  Bread, half loaf 
  1 cp 
  Bread, loaf 
  2 cp 
  Cheese, hunk 
  1 sp 
  Cheese, wheel 
  1 gp 
  Meat, chunk 
  3 sp 
  Meat, flank 
  3 gp 
  Pastry, fruit of cheese 
  2 sp 
  Pastry, meat 
  4 sp 
  Spirits 
   
     Common (flask) 
  1 gp 
     Aged (flask) 
  10 gp 
     Premium (flask) 
  50 gp 
  Stew, bowl 
  2 cp 
  Wine 
   
     Common (pitcher) 
  2 sp 
     Fine (bottle) 
  10 gp 
     Exceptional (bottle) 
  100 gp 
   
  ROOM AND BOARD 
  Item 
  Cost 
  Inn stay (per day) 
   
     Squalid 
  7 cp 
     Poor 
  1 sp 
     Modest 
  5 sp 
     Comfortable 
  8 sp 
     Wealthy 
  2 gp 
     Aristocratic 
  4 gp 
  Meals (per day) 
   
     Squalid 
  3 cp 
     Poor 
  6 cp 
     Modest 
  3 sp 
     Comfortable 
  5 sp 
     Wealthy 
  8 sp 
     Aristocratic 
  2 gp 
  Stabling (per day) 
   
     Poor 
  5 cp 
     Comfortable 
  5 sp 
     Aristocratic 
  2 gp 
   
  SERVICES 
  Service 
  Pay 
  Coach cab 
   
     Between towns 
  3 cp per mile 
     Within a city 
  1 cp 
  Messenger 
  2 cp per mile 
  Ship’s passage 
   
     Ferry crossing 
  4 cp 
     Passenger vessel 
  1 sp per mile 
     Shipping vessel 
  1 cp per mile 
  Toll bridge, road, or gate 
  1 cp 
   
  
   
  29 
   
  aging, the more expensive a bottle of wine will be. Wine 
  is sometimes made from fruits, rice, or other sources. 
  Maintenance costs for real property, vessels, and 
  investments are covered in a later chapter. 
  When players acquire things of value, they usually 
  want to liquidate them as soon as possible, turning 
  them into spendable coin.  
  This section limits itself to the sale of material 
  assets. Nonmaterial assets can be traded, 
  but their values vary wildly, and 
  are often based on the holder’s 
  imagination and skill at 
  ingratiation. Where 
  possible, the 
  mechanisms to 
  liquidate nonmaterial 
  assets are given in their 
  descriptions. More 
  often, a 
  nonmaterial asset 
  is exchanged for 
  another 
  nonmaterial 
  asset, a process 
  that does not lend 
  itself to easy 
  quantification. 
  Selling treasure is 
  an abstract process 
  in the fifth edition of 
  DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. 
  The Player’s Handbook now 
  provides four easy categories of sale value. 
  Weapons and armor pieces used by monsters are 
  rarely good enough to sell. This prevents parties from 
  “scraping,” looting absolutely everything not nailed 
  down, regardless of how small its value. It also relieves 
  the DM from having to contemplate mundane monster 
  equipment values when building encounters and 
  balancing treasure. Monster equipment has no resale 
  value. 
  Undamaged weapons, armor, and other equipment 
  fetch half their sale prices when sold at market. DMs 
  balancing treasure can consider mundane items, 
  particularly found in bulk, as “loot” valued at half the 
  items’ standard cost. This applies to equipment the 
  players have previously purchased, as well as good-
  quality gear taken from civilized foes. 
  Art objects, jewelry, and trade goods are fungible, they 
  sell for their full noted values. Such items are already 
  listed at their salable (or tradable) 
  values. So static are the prices for 
  these items that they are often 
  used in the place of currency. 
  Magic items are 
  valuable assets. 
  Although the 
  Player’s 
  Handbook 
  maintains that 
  their value is “far 
  beyond simple 
  gold,” the 
  guidelines of the 
  Dungeon Master’s 
  Guide suggest 
  that they are 
  readily ratable in 
  gold pieces, and 
  that some of them 
  are relatively 
  cheap. 
  Magic items normally 
  sell for half their purchase 
  costs. (The standard rules for finding a buyer suggest 
  that this value may fluctuate, going as high as one and 
  one-half times the value, or as low as one-tenth of the 
  value.) Alternately, because they are the type of things 
  that interest the very wealthy or important in society, 
  magic items can sometimes be traded for rights or 
  favors, or they can be gifted to organizations in the 
  hopes of gaining renown. 
  Standardized, individual prices for magic items can 
  be found in Wraith Wright’s Magic Item Management, 
  along with rules for converting party wealth into 
  
   
  30 
   
  magic items and vice versa. For the process of finding 
  buyers and sellers, see below. 
  Players love to haggle when buying and selling. They 
  see it as a chance to earn additional treasure, or 
  rather, to stretch their treasure further. Haggling also 
  provides the exciting element of gambling. However, 
  there are reasons that Dungeon Masters should be 
  wary of allowing it. 
  First, treasure values have their best impact when 
  revealed as the treasure is acquired. This temporal 
  connection between finding the treasure and knowing 
  its value strongly reinforces feelings of success in 
  whatever process resulted in the finding. If the results 
  of haggling later increase or decrease that value, 
  nearly nothing is added to the game in terms of your 
  players’ feelings about achieving rewards. 
  Second, once you allow characters to haggle, 
  particularly if you predicate results upon die rolls like 
  Charisma checks, your players will want to haggle over 
  everything they buy or sell, regardless of its 
  significance. If you tell the players that “better prices” 
  can be achieved this way, “better prices” become a 
  feature of Charisma-based characters, one that players 
  will want to implement for every exchange of goods. 
  Allowing rolls rather than using standard pricing will 
  drag your game into a mire of boring negotiations 
  every time the party passes a market.  
  Third, there are no standard mechanisms for 
  varying prices due to haggling. Unfortunately, to make 
  player efforts feel rewarding, Dungeon Masters are too 
  willing to fill this void with significant price 
  fluctuations based on die rolls. These are typically too 
  generous. In addition to being unrealistic, the 
  additional wealth quickly adds up until it is impacting 
  the Dungeon Master’s intended rate of treasure 
  distribution.  
  As a counterpoint, a rare haggling scene can be 
  interesting to your game. Keep these infrequent and 
  make clear to your players that this is not normally 
  how for-coin exchanges work. 
  To distinguish such scenes, only provide them when 
  the players are attempting to buy or sell something 
  that defies easy or standardized pricing. This 
  particularly applies in the case of something worth 
  more than its material composition, a value that 
  greatly transcends the materials and labor used to 
  create it. 
  For example, selling the duke’s signet on the black 
  market may be good fodder for a haggling scene since 
  the value is unrelated to the metal or craftsmanship of 
  the item. That which is haggled over is the potential to 
  cause mayhem once the ring is acquired, not the 
  inherent value of a normal signet ring. 
  Like haggling, appraising is a process that can vary the 
  value of treasure. The Player’s Handbook suggests an 
  Intelligence check unrelated to any skill to “estimate 
  the value of a precious item.” 
  Unlike haggling, the value-randomization of 
  appraisal checks almost never goes in the players’ 
  favor. An adventurer who underestimates the value of 
  an item will not sell it for its true worth. Conversely, 
  even if the character overestimates the value, 
  merchants are usually more careful at their pre-
  purchase investigations, particularly when buying loot 
  off adventurers. At best, an appraiser can only hope to 
  find an item’s true value and hold out for a merchant 
  who will pay it. 
  Although the rules provide standard mechanisms for 
  appraisal, such rolls should be rare. For the same 
  reasons that haggling should be minimal, appraisal 
  should be limited to scenes where an item’s value is 
  truly obscure, and the story will benefit from the 
  price’s uncertainty. Pedestrian treasure like 
  gemstones and objects of art should particularly not 
  be subject to price variance through appraisal.  
  The only obstacle the fifth edition provides for selling 
  treasure is the availability of a buyer. The Player’s 
  Handbook repeatedly emphasizes this need but gives 
  no guidance on the process. 
  For ease of play, assume that buyers are present in 
  communities of certain sizes. This system is a 
  particularly good option for campaigns that don’t use 
  downtime actions or where downtime rarely applies. 
  The Buying Power by Population table suggests the 
  maximum value of an item that can be sold or traded 
  in variously sized population centers. This table does 
  not distinguish items sold, only their ultimate value. 
  
   
  31 
   
   
  BUYING POWER BY POPULATION 
  Type 
  Population 
  Max Value 
  Small village 
  Up to 300 
  150 gp 
  Village 
  Up to 1,000 
  500 gp 
  Town 
  Up to 6,000 
  3,000 gp 
  Large town 
  Up to 12,000 
  6,000 gp 
  City 
  Up to 25,000 
  12,500 gp 
  Major city 
  Beyond 25,000 
  Any value 
   
  While some sales might be possible in smaller 
  locations, they might wipe out the buyer’s life savings. 
  This type of exchange can be harmful; if the buyer 
  manages to resell the goods at a great profit, the local 
  economy may become unhinged by that wealth. 
  This system relies upon the concept of downtime, 
  making it unsuitable for games that don’t regularly 
  make use of the downtime rules. Its official version 
  comes from the “Selling Magic Items” section of the 
  Dungeon Master’s Guide, but these rules have greater 
  potential when applied more broadly, when used for 
  selling other valuable assets like exotic poisons or 
  deeds to land. 
  This process treats downtime days as a commodity; 
  someone seeking a buyer must “pay” varied amounts 
  of days for each search conducted. This can get 
  cumbersome, but it is rare that players need to find a 
  buyer for something so valuable as a magic ring or a 
  certificate granting the right to take lumber in the 
  king’s woods. 
   
  SELLING A PRECIOUS ITEM 
  Sale Total 
  Buyer Result 
  20 or lower 
  1/10 of the base price 
  21–40 
  1/4 of the base price (or a shady 
  buyer offering 1/2) 
  41–80 
  1/2 the base price (or a shady buyer 
  offering full price) 
  81–90 
  Full base price 
  91 or higher 
  A shady buyer offering 1½ the base 
  price, no questions asked 
   
  Step One. For each item to be sold, the seeker 
  attempts a DC 20 Intelligence (Investigation) check. If 
  another seeker is assisting, also spending the same 
  number of downtime days, roll with advantage. 
  Buyers for multiple items can be sought at the same 
  time, their search times running concurrently with no 
  additional cost in downtime days. Roll for each search 
  separately, and track the times spent separately but 
  concurrently. Accurate timekeeping here might 
  require you to keep notes. 
  Failure on a check indicates that no buyer is found 
  and that 10 days are used up in the search. Success 
  indicates that a buyer is found, and a variable number 
  of days were used in the search (1d4 days for a 
  common magic item, 1d6 for an uncommon, 1d8 for a 
  rare, and 1d10 days for a very rare magic item). For 
  the sale of anything that is not a magic item, 
  approximate the value to a magic item to determine 
  the time for a successful search. 
  Step Two. When a buyer is found, the next step is to 
  set the price. Generate a sale total and compare it to 
  the table. A sale total is the sum of three values. These 
  include a Charisma (Persuasion) check result, a 
  percentile dice roll, and an item rarity modifier. 
  Item rarity modifiers are +10 for common items, +0 
  for uncommon items, –10 for rare items, –20 for very 
  rare items, and –30 for legendary items. Again, if the 
  thing being sold is not a magic item, approximate its 
  rarity and value to determine an item rarity modifier. 
  Advice: Use with Care. This mechanism from the 
  Dungeon Master’s Guide has some problems, 
  particularly when the players don’t know how much 
  downtime will be available to them. 
  What if the duke returns in eight days and demands 
  the return of his signet ring? A successful sale will 
  happen before the duke returns, but a failed sale will 
  require a number of downtime days that the selling 
  character is unable to spend based on unforeseen 
  circumstances. 
  Moreover, variable treasure values aren’t good for 
  your game. You can mitigate the drawbacks by limiting 
  this system to unique and important items. If you can’t 
  articulate why you’re rolling for a buyer, switch to the 
  automatic buyer system described above or simply let 
  the players sell the item without interference. 
  Sometimes players need to find a seller instead of a 
  buyer. Maybe they are looking for a rare magic item 
  dealer or a shady purveyor of illegal poisons. 
  To find a seller, use the same system described 
  above for finding a buyer of magic items. If the item is 
  
   
  32 
   
  illegal, the Intelligence (Investigation) check suffers 
  disadvantage unless the seeker has the Thieves’ Cant 
  or Criminal Contact feature. The DM can remove this 
  disadvantage under other miscellaneous 
  circumstances; perhaps if the seeker has accrued 
  sufficient renown with a criminal organization. 
  Again, this system should not be allowed unless the 
  DM is fully comfortable letting the sought item into the 
  campaign. It is also perfectly reasonable to limit this 
  application to various rarities, perhaps only to 
  uncommon magic items, cheap poisons, and the like. 
   
  BUYING A MAGIC ITEM 
  Buy Total 
  Buyer Result 
  20 or lower 
  10 times the base price 
  21–40 
  4 times the base price (or a shady 
  seller offering 2 times) 
  41–80 
  2 times the base price (or a shady 
  seller offering normal price) 
  81–90 
  Normal base price 
  91 or higher 
  A shady seller offering 3/4 of base 
  price, no questions asked 
  These rules provide flavor and expansion for the 
  additional magic-finding options in Xanathar’s Guide to 
  Everything. You can alter the nature of these events or 
  simply ignore this option altogether. 
  A magic selling party is an event where a collection 
  of magic items is for sale by one or more wealthy 
  owners. Magic items are so expensive that these 
  opportunities to buy must be found by ingratiating 
  oneself into the upper crust of society in a place no 
  smaller than a large town. Because these items are 
  held by wealthy socialites, bargains are not subject to 
  as much risk as those made with dealers of less repute. 
  This search requires setting a schedule of important 
  high-society events to attend, requiring 5 downtime 
  days and 100 gp of expenditures. This cost includes a 
  wealthy lifestyle for the affected time. For every 
  additional 5 downtime days and  100 gp spent to 
  enhance and lengthen the seeker’s social calendar, a 
  +1 bonus will apply on the following roll, to a 
  maximum of +10 following a 55-day schedule. 
  Once the seeker has networked with enough high-
  society types (at the end of this social schedule) she 
  can make her bid to get invited to a magic market. The 
  seeker rolls Charisma (Persuasion). In a high-magic 
  campaign, add a +10 bonus to this roll. In a low-magic 
  campaign, instead apply a –10 penalty. If the result is 1 
  or higher, the character is invited to a private social 
  event where magic items are for sale. The higher the 
  roll, the better the party and the rarer the magic items 
  available. 
   
  MAGIC PARTY ITEMS 
  Check 
   
  Available to Buy 
  1–5 
   
  1d6 rolls on Magic Item Table A 
  6–10 
   
  1d4 rolls on Magic Item Table B 
  11–15 
   
  1d4 rolls on Magic Item Table C 
  16–20 
   
  1d4 rolls on Magic Item Table D 
  21–25 
   
  1d4 rolls on Magic Item Table E 
  26–30 
   
  1d4 rolls on Magic Item Table F 
  31–35 
   
  1d4 rolls on Magic Item Table G 
  36–40 
   
  1d4 rolls on Magic Item Table H 
  41+ 
   
  1d4 rolls on Magic Item Table I 
   
  The referred-to Magic Item Tables are found in the 
  Dungeon Master’s Guide. The Dungeon Master should 
  roll secretly and adjust the results prior to revealing 
  what is for sale. 
  A very influential character, one that makes waves 
  in wealthy social circles, can try to arrange for the 
  owner of a specific magic item to be at a party, and be 
  willing to sell the item. If the Dungeon Master 
  determines that the item sought is suitable to the 
  campaign, it will be available if the check result meets 
  the item’s rarity: 10+ for common, 15+ for uncommon, 
  20+ for rare, 25+ for very rare, and 30+ for legendary. 
  Use with Care. This system is not intended to allow 
  players access to anything they want; instead, the DM 
  should specifically decide if a particular item is 
  available before allowing its seller to be sought out. 
  As a general rule, applicable to any part of this 
  section, do not make a magic item available if the 
  rarity would exceed what the party should get access 
  to according to its characters’ levels. 
   
   
  
   
  33 
   
   
   
   
  
   
  34 
   
  NVESTMENT IS THE PROCESS OF PLANTING WEALTH, 
  hoping to grow it like weeds in a garden. With 
  the right approach, and enough time, 
  investment can be a profitable use for extra 
  gold. 
  This chapter first addresses new options for artisan’s 
  tools. The rest covers business investment and similar 
  money-making enterprises. 
  Official crafting rules are found in the Player’s 
  Handbook. They are expanded upon in Xanathar’s 
  Guide to Everything. 
  To summarize, a character proficient with (and 
  possessing) the appropriate tools may craft items with 
  them. The material cost is half the total value of the 
  item, and the project requires a number of eight-hour 
  crafting work days equal to one-fifth of the item’s 
  standard gp value. (Items cheaper than 5 gp can be 
  manufactured in less than a day.) Multiple proficient 
  crafters can contribute to a project, reducing the time 
  requirement proportionally. While crafting, a 
  character maintains a modest lifestyle at no cost or a 
  comfortable lifestyle at a cost of 1 gp daily. 
  The following optional rules allow Dungeon Masters 
  to add variety and alternatives to this crafting process. 
  The creation system assumes that a character uses 
  exactly 8 hours a day for crafting. The Pure Focus and 
  Light Work options on the next page add flexibility, 
  letting characters spend more time or less time on 
  their daily craft projects. 
  Every crafting project requires raw materials that cost 
  half the item’s market value. A character with the right 
  tools, proficiency, and available natural resources can 
  spend additional time to gather and process these raw 
  materials instead of paying for them. 
  Processing craft components typically requires tools 
  or implements, decided by the Dungeon Master. For 
  example, to make the wood components of a weapon, 
  a character must find a large enough tree or branch, 
  cut it to size, plane and smooth it, etc. This requires 
  carpenter’s tools (and proficiency with them). 
  However, some activities, like gathering plants for 
  herbal brews, require no special tools or processing 
  equipment to acquire. 
  Creating a craft component also requires a source 
  for the material, usually a location where it appears 
  naturally. A stand of good timber or a patch of potent 
  wildflowers requires the character to stay nearby to 
  harvest it. As the Dungeon Master, you might require a 
  character to explore before finding an appropriate 
  source location. Once gathered (see “Time to Craft” 
  below), the craft component become portable. 
  A character determines the item a finished craft 
  component will be specific to before gathering and 
  shaping it. Once processed, the materials are unsuited 
  to crafting any other item. At the DM’s discretion, 
  similar items of equal or lesser value could be made 
  from the components; an iron blade blank for a 
  longsword can be fashioned into the blade of almost 
  any one-handed sword. 
  Advice. Xanathar’s Guide to Everything gives a 
  variant rule allowing characters to purchase generic 
  crafting components for alchemist’s supplies. These 
  weigh 1 lb. per 50 gp of value and serve as 
  components for anything one can make with that tool 
  set. If you use this option, you must decide if such 
  rules are specific to alchemy or if other crafts can 
  benefit from “universal components” like these. 
  To create craft components for an item, a character 
  must spend 2 days of downtime per 5 gp of the 
  finished product’s market value. This effectively 
  triples the time it takes to craft an item when doing so 
  from scratch.  
  For example, a dwarven fighter wishes to craft a 
  glaive but she does not wish to buy processed lumber 
  for the haft or a blade blank to shape into the 
  polearm’s head. Because she is proficient with 
  woodcarver’s tools and smith’s tools, and because she 
  lives in a dwarven hall beneath some wooded hills, she 
  has the tools and materials necessary to make the craft 
  components herself. 
  In the dwarven halls, the character mines, smelts, 
  and shapes the ore using a shovel and miner’s pick 
  (adventuring gear), smith’s tools (tools), and her  
   
  
   
  35 
   
   
   
  VARIANT: PURE FOCUS (CRAFTING) 
  With 8 hours used for sleeping, eating, and other personal maintenance, a character still has 8 available hours after 
  a day otherwise filled with crafting. A character that has nothing else to do can choose to craft during this period 
  too, working almost every waking hour. Using pure focus allows a character to complete 10 gp worth of effort 
  toward the completion of the project in a day. However, this intense activity can be fatiguing, mentally and 
  physically. A character that utilizes pure focus gains one level of exhaustion. This exhaustion cannot be removed 
  by non-magical means until the character goes at least one day without using the pure focus crafting option. 
  VARIANT: LIGHT WORK (CRAFTING) 
  A character can perform light work, crafting for 4 hours and completing 2.5 gp of work toward a project in the day. 
  This allows crafters to split effort between two projects in a work day or to work fewer than 8 full hours in a day. 
  Light work also suits traveling characters. Normal travel assumes 8 hours of movement and 8 hours of sleeping, 
  eating, and other personal maintenance. This leaves 8 hours for standing watch, sharpening blades, grazing the 
  horses, greasing wagon wheels, and other activities that adventurers perform daily. Within this non-traveling, 
  non-sleeping time, a character with the right tools and materials can carve out 4 hours to craft with. 
  To perform light work while on the trail, a character must carry the appropriate artisan’s tools and materials. 
  Even before it is complete, the item being created has the same weight as a complete version, making some 
  projects impractical outside of a workshop. While adventuring (not in downtime) it’s easier to track “work days” 
  by counting long rests. Light work on the road is a type of uptime activity, specific to crafting. (See below.) 
  For example, a dwarven fighter wants to craft a glaive during her upcoming adventure. She buys the raw 
  materials needed, spending 10 gp (half the market value of a glaive). These materials already weigh 6 pounds, the 
  full weight of a glaive. In addition, she must carry her smith’s tools with her, requiring another 8 pounds in her 
  pack. Because the market value of a glaive is 20 gp, and each light work day of crafting contributes 2.5 gp toward 
  that total, completion requires 8 days of light work (8 long rests while traveling). 
  Advice. Xanathar’s Guide to Everything provides an optional rule for Dungeon Masters to allow small craft 
  projects to occur during adventures. The book suggests that a single dose of acid, alchemist’s fire, antitoxin, oil, 
  perfume, or soap could be crated with alchemist’s tools as part of a long rest. Likewise, a character proficient with 
  weaver’s tools can craft a whole outfit within a single long rest, and a character proficient with woodcarver’s tools 
  can craft 5 or 20 arrows in a short or long rest, respectively. 
  The timing suggested for such small crafts is completely divorced from the cost of the product, totally upending 
  the crafting system. Use that alternative (with the suggested artisan tool proficiencies) only if you favor 
  abstracting the crafting mechanics selectively. Just be aware that players who have selected unaffected artisan tool 
  proficiencies may want to reduce their crafting times as well. 
  VARIANT: UPTIME (ANY ACTIVITY) 
  The uptime activity variant allows access to the downtime rules, even while adventuring. Downtime is an 
  important part of the game. When stories are too fast paced for breaks, players left with no access to these 
  functions, often invalidating their selection of tool proficiencies. The uptime options seek to cure that ill. 
  Instead of spending downtime days, characters use this system to pursue “uptime” activities. After traveling and 
  adventuring, sleeping and eating, and performing miscellaneous related duties, characters typically have a few 
  hours available during a day, about half the time needed for a normal downtime activity. Uptime activities are 
  therefore half as time efficient as downtime activities, providing about four hours of effective work. 
  For every day of uptime, the character accrues only half a day’s worth of downtime results. (The light activity 
  variant above provides an example related to crafting.) The character must have paid all associated costs and have 
  all necessary tools, materials, research books, trainers, or similar resources with her while attempting uptime. 
  This system applies only to activities that could be performed while on the road, like crafting, researching, 
  training, and gathering craft components, and only so long as conditions are appropriate. 
  Record uptime activities as the party takes a long rest. This is the usual time players record healing, mark off 
  rations, and resolve other incidental bookkeeping. If the party can’t take a long rest on a specific day, it is probably 
  because the characters are too busy, and such distractions tend to get in the way of uptime activity as well. 
   
  
   
  36 
   
  ancestral forge (a workshop, described later in this 
  supplement). Next, she collects lumber with a saw 
  (adventuring gear) and shapes it with woodcarver’s 
  tools (tools). 
  The material cost to craft a glaive is 10 gp, half its 
  market value; 4 days are needed to gather and process 
  the raw material. With these components in hand, our 
  fighter just needs another 2 days of the normal 
  crafting downtime to put the glaive together with 
  smith’s tools. 
  Craft components can be sold for full value (one-half 
  the market value for the finished product). If the craft 
  component requires no special tools or proficiency to 
  gather, and if the raw materials are readily accessible 
  to anyone, the DM can reduce this price. 
  Characters often want to have items manufactured by 
  others, typically when something is needed in a 
  customized form. 
  Commissioning crafts means paying skilled hirelings, 
  costing an additional 2 gp each per day of the crafting 
  process, above and beyond the cost of the materials. 
  (This assumes the availability 
  of skilled hirelings trained in 
  the right artisan’s tools.) 
  Commissioning might also 
  require that the character 
  provide tools and a 
  workspace for the hireling, 
  depending on the 
  circumstances. 
  For example, our 
  dwarven fighter 
  wishes to commission 
  a glaive. She stops at a 
  small town where the 
  local smith owns the 
  town forge and has his 
  own tools. For four 
  days’ hire (8 gp) and 
  the cost of materials 
  (10 gp), this skilled 
  artisan is willing to make 
  the product to order. After a 
  four-day wait, the dwarf has her new glaive. By 
  waiting around, the glaive cost her only 90% of the 
  market value and is shaped particularly to her 
  instructions. 
  Usually, up to two people can use the same set of 
  artisan’s tools at the same time if working on the same 
  project. This allows for skilled characters to employ a 
  skilled hireling to assist and speed up the 
  crafting process. 
  For example, the dwarf 
  wishing to commission a glaive 
  is also proficient with 
  smith’s tools. She stops 
  at the local town and 
  gets the smith to agree 
  that they will both 
  work in his forge to 
  make the item. The 
  dwarf needs only to 
  linger long enough 
  for two days’ hire 
  (4 gp) and provide 
  the cost of 
  materials (10 gp), 
  getting her a new 
  glaive for 70% of the 
  market value. 
  A DIFFERENT SORT OF GAME 
  DUNGEONS & DRAGONS combines a number of 
  possible play types that interest different players 
  to different degrees. Pursuing mass manufacturing 
  will tend to dominate a campaign, but only in a 
  way that interests the type of player who also likes 
  math and resource-gathering games. 
  An operation like this can turn into an enjoyable 
  campaign. The party might grow a small operation 
  into a larger interest. Adventures might find 
  material sources, defeat brigands that impede 
  shipping, and strangle the competition (literally or 
  figuratively). Profits will turn upon successful 
  negotiations over percentages. 
  For groups not interested in these details, such 
  an operation is better handled with the business 
  investment rules, below. 
   
  
   
  37 
   
  Under ideal circumstances, characters should be able 
  to use adventuring profits to employ multiple artisans 
  for mass-manufacturing. 
  A player who carefully tracks all the costs and 
  percentages of mass manufacturing will find that such 
  an operation profits 15 sp per day per artisan 
  employed, after payroll and ingredient costs. This 
  means a basic profit of 30%. Unfortunately, a lot of 
  initial investment goes into this setup, and a lot of 
  factors will reduce that profit. 
  Local Logistics. To pay artisans half cost for being 
  “long term” (by providing room and board), sufficient 
  barracks and cafeteria space for the workers must be 
  provided. Additionally, these hirelings need enough 
  sets of artisan’s tools to work with. Hiring is often 
  more complex than just paying an outlay; finding so 
  many skilled artisans to hire can be a challenge in and 
  of itself, along with bringing them all together under 
  one roof. 
  Adventures relating to this element could include 
  buying or leasing the right property, recruiting skilled 
  or famous artisans, and making deals to get ahold of a 
  large quantity of second-hand tools. 
  Materials. Raw materials must be found to supply 
  the operation. On a single-character scale, finding craft 
  components is a simple matter of paying some gold. 
  But in mass manufacturing, local supplies will be 
  quickly exhausted. This can create its own logistical 
  challenges depending on the size of the operation. 
  Adventures relating to this element could include 
  finding a vast source of raw materials to set up near, 
  after which the party must probably find a way to 
  legally inhabit the space. If the party already has a 
  facility, a business arrangement might instead be 
  made with a materials-importer of some kind. 
  Markets. Items sold off the back of a wagon do not 
  garner a profit; customers will value them as used 
  goods and only pay half their market value. To sell 
  items at full price, those items must be placed into 
  official, customer-trusted markets. Customers will pay 
  full price at established shops. Unfortunately, unless 
  the party also owns those shops, the shops will 
  demand their own profits, keeping about half of the 
  basic 30% profit for themselves. 
  Adventures relating to this element can be as simple 
  as negotiating the percentage, but they might also 
  require “convincing” shop owners to abandoned 
  contracts of exclusivity with the competition, or to 
  make such contracts with the party. 
  Shipping. Materials have to come into the crafting 
  facility and finished goods have to go out. Few markets 
  can handle the number of products contemplated by 
  such an operation, so shipping must disperse goods 
  between multiple towns and cities. The presence of 
  rivers and well-kept roads can help to facilitate the 
  additional overhead of getting goods to market. 
  However, shippers need to be paid and import taxes 
  may also apply. 
  Adventures relating to this element might include 
  clearing threats or obstructions to land, protecting a 
  bridge-building crew working in dangerous environs, 
  or winning rights to import goods without local 
  taxation. 
  This section includes an expansion of the normal rules 
  for investing wealth, along with a tune-up of those 
  rules designed to simplify running their use. 
  Many business operations are tied to their premises, 
  the structure that houses the enterprise. Each of the 
  properties on the Buildings and Maintenance Costs 
  table can form the basis of a business. 
  While a property is typically directed by a manager, 
  steward, or castellan, thus allowing the owning 
  character to go out on adventures, the profits and 
  losses are better managed if the character sticks 
  around to direct things. 
  Where a structure includes or implies additional 
  buildings, like the area around a palace or the 
  boarding house for a shop’s workers, these are 
  included in the building’s construction and 
  maintenance cost. 
  Note that the Building and Maintenance Costs table 
  has two columns used in a later chapter, its Garrison 
  Strength and Skilled Hirelings columns 
  Private land to build costs between 100 gp and 5,000 
  gp, and in some cases even higher. Once land is 
  acquired, a property needs significant wealth and time 
  to develop. Construction may continue without direct 
  oversight by the owner, but each “day” of construction 
  with the owner absent requires the passage of 4 actual 
  
   
  38 
   
  days. [This is a correction of the DMG’s time-bending 
  math error.] 
  If the opportunity presents itself, an available 
  property can be purchased for an amount equal to its 
  construction cost. If a property is in a run-down state, 
  the DM will assign a percentage of ruin, usually 25%, 
  50%, or 75%. Repairing the property requires the 
  equivalent percentage of the property’s construction 
  cost and construction time. A property purchased in a 
  run-down state will have its priced reduced by the 
  same percentage to compensate. 
  Each property is staffed by a number of hirelings, 
  including a steward who can take charge of almost 
  everything. Hirelings’ wages are included in the 
  property’s maintenance cost. Garrison members are 
  skilled hirelings trained and equipped to fight; they 
  use the guard statistics in the Monster Manual. For 
  every full 10 members of a garrison, replace one guard 
  with a veteran. 
  Sometimes property is acquired as part of a feudal 
  system. Examples include a noble estate, fortified 
  tower, outpost, fort, keep, small castle, large castle, or 
  palace. While these enterprises can be private, they 
  more often represent a grant of land and title from a 
  powerful sovereign. 
  Grants of this nature typically come with a noble 
  title. Sometimes the grant is for land and permission to 
  build on it, but more often it includes lordship over an 
  existing estate or fortification. In the latter case, no 
  construction costs or times are required for the owner 
  to take up residence, but some spring cleaning might 
  be in order. Sometimes a sovereign will assign title to 
  a property that has been overrun by orcs or trolls, on 
  condition that the new lord or lady of the land can 
  secure it successfully. 
  Although these properties use the standard rules for 
  businesses, they are non-commercial in nature. They 
  earn income in the form of taxes collected from the 
  surrounding peasantry and merchant class. They pay 
  expenses in the form of upkeep for soldiers, 
  maintenance and security for the surrounding land, 
  and taxes tendered to higher-ranked nobles or royalty. 
  In the case of a failed “business” for unpaid debts in 
  the feudal system, where there has been no up-front 
  purchase of the property by the “owner,” the whole 
  enterprise simply reverts to the possession of the 
  sovereign. The original grantor will pay the 
  outstanding debts and then assign a worthier trustee 
  to manage things in the future. If the owner has 
  invested construction costs, these might be lost or 
  reimbursed on the whim of the sovereign, or other 
  things of value might be given instead. Losing a 
  business like this almost always means the character 
  is stripped of any accompanying noble title. 
  Every month, a business checks for losses or profits 
  and pays its expenses, referring to the two tables in 
  this section. To check for losses and profits, roll d100 
  and add the number of downtime days the owning 
  character or characters have contributed to the hands-
  on running of the business (maximum of 30 days total 
  among all contributors). Compare this result to the 
  Losses and Profits table. 
   
  LOSSES AND PROFITS 
  d100 days 
  Result 
  01-20 
  You must pay one and a half times the 
  business’ maintenance cost for the 
  month. 
  21-30 
  You must pay the business’ full 
  maintenance cost for the month. 
  31-40 
  You must pay half the business’ 
  maintenance cost for the month. Profits 
  cover the rest. 
  41-60 
  The business covers its own maintenance 
  cost for the month. 
  61-80 
  The business covers its own maintenance 
  cost for the month. It earns a profit of 
  one-quarter the maintenance cost. 
  81-90 
  The business covers its own maintenance 
  cost for the month. It earns a profit of 
  one-half the maintenance cost. 
  91+ 
  The business covers its own maintenance 
  cost for the month. It earns a profit of 
  three-quarters the maintenance cost. 
   
  If the roll result generates a maintenance cost (half, 
  full, or one-and-a-half), this must be paid out of the 
  owners’ pocket. Failure to pay immediately creates a 
  “debt” for the unpaid portion. Debts not paid right 
  away can sometimes be wiped out or reduced by 
  exchanging favors or services to whatever source or 
  
   
  39 
   
  supplier owns the debt, perhaps as part of an 
  adventure.  
  Each debt still existing at the time of the next 
  month’s losses and profits roll imposes a -10 penalty 
  to the roll. Failure to pay off a specific debt within 12 
  months typically ends the business; properties and 
  inventories are seized and sold at auction (at half the 
  value of the original investment), debts are paid from 
  that amount, and the remainder reverts to the owner. 
  If the roll generates a profit, this accrues 
  immediately to the owner(s), although characters 
  would be wise to keep enough of the profits on hand to 
  cover losses made in future months. 
  Calendaring Time. The investment systems in this 
  chapter assumes a 30-day month and a 12-month 
  year. If your campaign uses a calendar of a different 
  scale, you may want to adjust these figures 
  accordingly. 
  If the Dungeon Master employs the wealth bundles 
  system from chapter 1, any business profits or losses 
  made within a character level should be limited to 
  about + or - a single level-appropriate bundle, give or 
  take a bit, calculated as an addition or subtraction 
  from the treasure chart. 
  If the Dungeon Master wishes to further simplify 
  things, she can peg the property’s maintenance cost to 
  half the value of a level-appropriate bundle for the 
  party. As the characters grow, the business grows and 
  expands, thus the losses and profits automatically 
  adjust accordingly. This is an excellent way to abstract 
  the process of developing and diversifying an existing 
  business. A fortified tower might grow into a keep and 
  then into a large castle. A small temple might become a 
  large one, and eventually grow into the regional hub 
  for administrators and pilgrims of that religion. A 
  roadside inn might grow in popularity, with a small 
  town springing up around it, becoming a town inn. 
  Pegging maintenance to wealth bundle values also 
  lets the Dungeon Master keep profits and losses 
  reasonable if the characters somehow acquire a 
  property that is not “level appropriate.” A party of 4th-
  level characters might normally have no business 
  BUILDING AND MAINTENANCE COSTS 
  Property Type 
  Construction 
  Cost 
  Construction 
  Time 
  Maintenance 
  Cost / Month 
  Garrison 
  Strength 
  Skilled 
  Hirelings 
  Untrained  
  Hirelings 
  Abbey 
  50,000 gp 
  400 days 
  600 gp 
  — 
  5 
  25 
  Cottage 
  50 gp 
  10 days 
  2 gp 
  — 
  — 
  — 
  Factory, large 
  3,500 gp 
  65 days 
  275 gp 
  — 
  2 
  — 
  Factory, small 
  1,000 gp 
  40 days 
  100 gp 
  8 
  10 
  — 
  Farm 
  100 gp 
  30 days 
  15 gp 
  — 
  1 
  2 
  Guildhall, town or city 
  5,000 gp 
  60 days 
  150 gp 
  — 
  5 
  3 
  Inn, rural roadside 
  400 gp 
  30 days 
  300 gp 
  4 
  5 
  10 
  Inn, town or city 
  800 gp 
  40 days 
  150 gp 
  — 
  1 
  5 
  Keep or small castle 
  50,000 gp 
  400 days 
  3,000 gp 
  45 
  50 
  50 
  Lodge, hunting 
  500 gp 
  20 days 
  15 gp 
  — 
  1 
  — 
  Noble estate with manor 
  25,000 gp 
  150 days 
  300 gp 
  2 
  3 
  15 
  Outpost or fort 
  15,000 gp 
  100 days 
  1,500 gp 
  18 
  20 
  40 
  Palace or large castle 
  500,000 gp 
  1,200 days 
  12,000 gp 
  180 
  200 
  100 
  Shack 
  10 gp 
  3 days 
  0 gp 
  — 
  — 
  — 
  Shop 
  2,000 gp 
  25 days 
  60 gp 
  — 
  1 
  — 
  Temple, large 
  50,000 gp 
  400 days 
  750 gp 
  4 
  10 
  10 
  Temple, small 
  1,000 gp 
  25 days 
  30 gp 
  — 
  2 
  — 
  Tower, fortified 
  15,000 gp 
  100 days 
  750 gp 
  8 
  2 
  — 
  Trading post 
  5,000 gp 
  60 days 
  300 gp 
  — 
  4 
  2 
   
  
   
  40 
   
  trying to run a small castle, for which the losses and 
  profits would otherwise seem staggering to them. 
  Buildings and fortifications are described below. 
  Abbey. This building complex houses members of a 
  religious order. It typically exists in a remote setting 
  and has barracks, gardens, and other facilities 
  sufficient to support several dozen monks, mystics, or 
  other residents. 
  Cottage. This building resembles a large family 
  dwelling. It has two floors and about seven separate 
  rooms. It can house a family of up to 10, or some other 
  close-knit group of people, so long as bedrooms are 
  shared. 
  Farm. A farm includes a farmhouse, like a cottage, 
  and several fields to cultivate. It also has a barn, 
  warehouse, or grain silo for housing livestock or 
  storing crops. 
  Guildhall, Town or City. This building is several 
  stories tall. It contains offices, operational facilities 
  (like an adjacent warehouse or workhouse), 
  accounting facilities, a secure vault for wealth and 
  business records, small-but-comfortable rooms for 
  visiting guildmembers, and a variety of other things. 
  The ornamentation of a guildhall particularly reflects 
  the success and prosperity of the guild. 
  Inn, Rural Roadside. A roadside inn is an all-
  encompassing stop-off point for travelers. It includes a 
  stable for horses, a bevy of cheap rooms, a kitchen that 
  serves hot meals, and a small assortment of drinks 
  available at the bar. 
  Inn, Town or City. This inn serves a higher fare than 
  a roadside inn. It offers no stabling but does provide a 
  wide array of food and beverage qualities, as well as 
  rooms in various sizes. Services and accommodations 
  are more expensive not just for their quality, but also 
  because of their proximity to a population center. 
  Keep or Castle. This stone building or set of 
  buildings is constructed for security and to project 
  military power over the surrounding countryside. It is 
  probably built in a strategic location, perhaps with 
  natural barriers protecting it, and commonly boasts a 
  high curtain wall capable of repelling a siege. 
  Lodge, Hunting. This building is strategically 
  located in useful hunting grounds. It has bare 
  accommodations for a half-dozen hunters, including 
  living facilities. It also provides the tools and room 
  necessary to butcher and preserve meat, process 
  hides, and perform other tasks common to hunting. 
  Noble Estate with Manor. A noble estate serves 
  much of the same function as a keep or castle, but 
  without the military fortification. In unsettled, frontier 
  lands, a noble estate is likely to have some soldiers and 
  an outer wall. 
  Outpost or Fort. This construction resembles a 
  primitive castle, built mostly of wood with walls made 
  of log palisades. It otherwise includes military 
  lodgings and other logistical facilities to serve the 
  same functions. A fort or outpost is often a precursor 
  to a castle, built to be operational while a real castle is 
  constructed nearby, or simply upgraded bit-by-bit 
  until it turns into a castle. 
  Palace or Large Castle. This is a larger version of a 
  normal keep or castle. The term “palace” generally 
  denotes a lower level of military security, as a place 
  situated deep in the heart of a kingdom or an empire, 
  but it also implies a great deal more luxury. 
  Shack. The simplest of buildings, this wooden one-
  room construction provides bare shelter from the 
  elements, a few sticks of furniture, and a single 
  fireplace or cookstove. 
  Shop. This facility is an attractive building arranged 
  to welcome customers, display wares, and store excess 
  inventory. Most shops have a small living facility 
  above them or in the back. 
  Temple, Large. A large temple is suited to the size of 
  a congregation one might find in a large city. There are 
  offices for clergy, a large worshiping room or hall, 
  nooks and alcoves for quiet meditation, and 
  decorations appropriate to the deity or pantheons 
  patronized. 
  Temple, Small. A smaller version of the temple, this 
  building usually has living facilities for a single priest 
  and a congregating area for a couple of dozen 
  worshipers at most. 
  Tower, Fortified. This tower is a small facility, often 
  used to project military might into distant areas like 
  mountain passes, places where conflicts are unlikely, 
  but a military force or set of watchful eyes are 
  important. Fortified towers are also a favorite with 
  reclusive wizards and the like. 
  Trading Post. A trading post is a collection of shops, 
  usually of basic construction, often erected near 
  frontier areas. These facilities have some measure of 
  security like a log palisade or they exist in proximity to 
  
   
  41 
   
  a military garrison. Trading at these posts is usually 
  lucrative, often exchanging basic goods for valuable 
  frontier resources, including rare furs or minerals. 
  Simple investment requires no purchases, relying 
  upon intermediaries to handle set-up and 
  maintenance. The investing character simply provides 
  an amount of wealth to assist in the initial enterprise 
  or re-pays a portion of the set-up costs, gaining access 
  to the profits. 
  The Dungeon Master can track outside investments 
  abstractly or can make rolls using the structural 
  investment systems above. In the latter case, the DM 
  should apply a consistent bonus somewhere between 
  1 and 20 to the profits and losses roll. This should 
  reflect the strength of the investment opportunity and 
  it replaces any bonus from the participation of the 
  “owner.” Profits are usually paid out at the end of the 
  year, dispersing percentages of the net gain across the 
  12 prior months. 
  A character that owns a share of a business receives 
  a percentage of the net profits equal to the percentage 
  of the initial set-up costs that were provided. For 
  example, providing half of the set-up costs for an 
  enterprise entitles the character to half of the profits 
  thereafter. This ownership share, or “investment 
  percentage,” is a valuable commodity that can be 
  traded or sold in the future. 
  Savvy investors often buy shares with associated 
  terms. Depending on the exact terms of investment, a 
  character (or coalition of characters) holding shares 
  valued at a certain percentage of the set-up costs 
  (often 51% or more), often have a say in how the 
  business operates, wresting absolute control away 
  from the founder. Such maneuvers can add intrigue to 
  certain types of campaigns. 
  Not all monetary outlays are made intending to gain a 
  profit. Sometimes characters give gifts or attempt to 
  influence others with donations. (This section does not 
  
   
  42 
   
  describe bribing officials for commercial gain—that is 
  considered a normal expense for a business.) 
  Renown with an organization is typically gained or 
  lost based on great deeds. But characters can also gain 
  renown with purposeful strategies designed to raise 
  their profile within the organization. The Dungeon 
  Master’s Guide suggests that incremental gains are 
  possible during downtime activity, when a character 
  “undertakes minor tasks for the organization and 
  socializes with its members.” However, organizations 
  almost universally value strategic donations just as 
  well as donated time. 
  A character (or party) wishing to gain renown may 
  donate wealth in various forms. Temples may notice 
  the giving of alms on a large scale. A small town may 
  appreciate infrastructural investments that will not 
  need to be paid back. And any organization that has 
  the potential for corruption may appreciate bribes 
  given directly to its members. (At least those members 
  will likely appreciate it!) 
  The amount of wealth needed to gain renown within 
  an organization depends on the giver’s current rating. 
  Typically, the cost is 50 gp multiplied by the current 
  renown rating. The Dungeon Master may adjust this 
  requirement up or down, depending on the size of the 
  organization. A small organization with few assets is 
  easier to influence, whereas a large group with 
  plentiful resources might be less impressed by 
  monetary gifts. Moreover, some organizations are 
  particularly resistant to the influence of outside 
  money, depending on political or moral philosophies. 
  While renown does not grant direct monetary 
  rewards, it is sometimes just as good. The perks at low 
  rank often include such things as access to reliable 
  adventure leads, a safe house, or a trader willing to 
  offer a discount on adventuring gear. At mid-rank, 
  adventurers might gain a follower, access to 
  consumable magic items, or military backup for a 
  dangerous mission. At the highest ranks, a renowned 
  party might be able to call upon a small army, take 
  temporary custody of a rare magic item, gain access to 
  high-level spellcasting, or be able to use lower-ranked 
  members as agents to which tasks may be assigned. 
  Favors are more abstract than renown and they can be 
  owed or owned by individuals or groups alike. 
  Exchanging wealth for favors requires a more strategic 
  approach than buying generalized renown. Because 
  the entire renown system constitutes optional rules, a 
  Dungeon Master who does not use them might 
  consider favors to be an easier, more-abstract 
  alternative. 
  Using wealth to get a favor is a tricky endeavor. 
  Randomly gifting wealth usually improves the 
  receiver’s attitude toward the giver and may create a 
  generalized sense of obligation corresponding to the 
  gift’s value. But the sense of obligation is easily cured 
  by a gift of equal measure or simply repaying the gift. 
  The trick to turning wealth into favors is capitalizing 
  on opportunities where an existing need for money 
  plays upon the receiver’s emotions, honor, or even the 
  receiver’s life. 
  For example, a young baronet has just inherited his 
  father’s lands and titles. He quickly discovers that 
  taxes on the familial estate weren’t paid for the last 
  five years. At stake is the young man’s noble title and 
  the dignity of his house. A strategic gift here is a good 
  way to be owed a favor because more than just wealth 
  is at stake. When that favor is called in, the baronet 
  remembers that the payment saved his very identity; 
  he doesn’t just remember the number of gold pieces 
  that were handed to him in a sack. 
  The Dungeon Master must determine ad hoc what 
  degree of favor results from a gift of this nature, 
  performing a case-by-case calculus to weigh the 
  impact of the specific opportunity and the wealth 
  expended. 
  An additional discussion of favors can be found 
  earlier in this book under Nonmaterial Assets. 
   
   
  
   
  43 
   
   
   
  
   
  44 
   
  N LAND OR AT SEA, CONSTRUCTION OF BUILDINGS 
  and ships is an important use for wealth. 
  Construction is often a prerequisite for 
  other uses of wealth, investment and 
  recruiting. Construction in this chapter 
  refers not just to the acquisition of land—the creation, 
  alteration, and maintenance of structures, plus the 
  building of ships and their components—it also covers 
  siege engines, those weapons of war designed to 
  defend both structures and ships. 
  Industrious characters may acquire enough wealth to 
  buy and maintain land, structures, or even sea vessels. 
  These major investments can be managed with very 
  little detail, or they can become the entire focus of a 
  campaign. 
  This section provides details and costs for managing 
  construction. The Dungeon Master can use as much or 
  as little of this information as needed, whatever suits 
  the level of detail desired for the campaign. 
  The Dungeon Master’s Guide suggests that player 
  characters might acquire land and fortresses at 11th 
  level or beyond, while in the “Master of the Realm” 
  character tier. Being landholders helps the characters 
  make their mark on the world, which is an underlying 
  theme to this character tier. 
  Land ownership particularly reflects class features 
  of earlier editions of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. For 
  example, prior to the 2nd Edition, warrior-type classes 
  would acquire title, land, and a following of soldiers 
  upon reaching certain character levels. However, 
  warriors no longer gain such benefits by default. 
  Owning property should not be inherent to warrior 
  classes or character levels, nor should every property 
  be a fortress or military outpost of that type. 
  Additionally, most adventuring parties have no use for 
  property or followers, making these additions specific 
  to the campaigns of parties that want them. 
  The advantages of having a party-owned property are 
  multiple and the benefits are useful at any level. As the 
  characters develop the location and build its facilities 
  or capabilities, the construction becomes something 
  like a character in its own right, one that is shared 
  among all the players. It can serve as a unifying factor 
  for party members that might otherwise have little 
  reason to stick together, particularly after their early 
  quests or storylines have resolved. Having a shared 
  home means characters are less likely to go their own 
  way. 
  The location can also serve as a source of 
  replacement player characters if a party member is 
  lost, killed, or a player simply wants to try something 
  new; the NPCs employed in (or associated with) the 
  fortification might share common interests with the 
  party and some may be suitable to begin adventuring. 
  When a new player’s character (or an old player’s new 
   
  THIRD-PARTY PRODUCT COMPATIBILITY: 
  STRONGHOLDS & FOLLOWERS 
  If you are using Matt Colville’s Strongholds & 
  Followers, by MCDM Productions, you will notice 
  that the prices and stronghold “types” in that book 
  do not align with the standard scale, that which is 
  found in the Dungeon Master’s Guide and in this 
  product. 
  The standard costs assume the party gains land 
  at around 11th level, as suggested by the Dungeon 
  Master’s Guide. Mr. Colville’s product, by putting 
  strongholds foremost in the player’s minds, 
  anticipates land ownership at around 7th level, 
  thus the reduction in pricing to match what is 
  affordable at that level. 
  Neither pricing mechanism is superior. Both 
  assume that land acquisition will reflect what 
  characters can afford when it becomes a factor in 
  the campaign. The Dungeon Master oversees both 
  factors here, the price of any given property as 
  well as the amount of wealth the party has access 
  to pay for it. (See the Wealth chapter for details.) 
  To keep the figures straight, if your players want 
  a stronghold before the Masters of the Realm tier, 
  we suggest adjusting the “buying power” lever 
  rather than lowering the value of strongholds to 
  match Mr. Colville’s product. Alternately, use a fee 
  (or low cost) gain method, as described below. 
  
   
  45 
   
  character) is a known person, that character is easily 
  integrated into the party. 
  Unlike the earlier section that describes abstract rules 
  for fortifications as investments, this section drills 
  down to the minutiae of construction projects. 
  If these rules are to be used, they should apply only 
  to one location in a campaign, a single place to which 
  the party frequently returns and spends their time, 
  perhaps using it as a headquarters. It constitutes too 
  much bookkeeping to be used on any larger scale. It 
  might also fail to capture the interests of the players; a 
  DM should poll the players to see if land ownership 
  suits them, or perhaps introduce one of the starter kits 
  to the characters in the course of play and see if they 
  have any interest in using it and growing it into 
  something better. 
  Starter kits are fleshed-out “introductions” to property 
  ownership, a description of land and how it is 
  acquired. Often, the most difficult hurdle for players to 
  explore this aspect of the game is finding a starting 
  point and determining the nature of initial 
  investments. 
  A starter kit pre-defines three factors to make things 
  easier on the players: 
   
  1. The Gain 
  2. The Land 
  3. The Fixtures 
   
  The Dungeon Master determines the nature of each 
  component in a kit using the following guidelines. 
  This component determines how the players get 
  ownership or use-rights to property. These are just 
  examples; the DM is free to make up other versions of 
  how the characters might acquire ownership. 
  Grant. To begin a property-owning endeavor, the 
  Dungeon Master’s Guide proposes that land might be 
  deeded to the party by a local ruler. This is a classic 
  “medieval fantasy” method to gain property. It usually 
  comes with a knighthood or some noble titles, 
  depending on its value. 
  A grant is appropriate for characters that have 
  performed great deeds and gained recognition from 
  noble or royal benefactors. Significant grants are 
  appropriate for characters in the Masters of the Realm 
  character tier (11th-16th level). Locations given to 
  such characters tend to have strategic significance, the 
  buildings tend to be fortified for military use, and the 
  political nature of the grant tends to embroil the new 
  owners in warfare and court intrigue. These are 
  factors probably not suitable to lower-level campaigns 
  or characters. 
  Inheritance. An inheritance requires no initiation 
  on the part of the player characters. It simply happens 
  to one of the party members; the agent of a banking 
  house, small town, or local lord finds the affected 
  character and presents her with a deed to the 
  property. An inheritance is a good way to move a party 
  to a new area, making them travel to investigate the 
  property and giving them a base to operate from once 
  they arrive. It is also a fine way to start a new 
  campaign. 
  Inheritance is appropriate for any property or 
  character level. A low-level character might inherit a 
  farm or an inn that the party can work in downtime. 
  For a higher-level character, the land might include a 
  noble estate and a title to go with it. Inheritance is also 
  useful in that characters can usually walk away from it 
  if it does not suit the players’ goals or ambitions for 
  the game. There is rarely a strong sense of obligation 
  involved. 
  Seizure. Depending on the nature of local 
  government, or if there is none, land can sometimes be 
  owned by those who move in and build on it. Perhaps 
  free land is being offered to anyone who is willing to 
  settle the wild frontier in the eastern reaches of the 
  kingdom. In some territories, like the Underdark, 
  possession of land is down to pure conquest, but this 
  ownership “right” does not include any protection 
  from others conquering the same territory in return. 
  Taking by right of possession usually means the land 
  is undeveloped. Wilderness must be cleared and 
  tamed for its intended use and construction must 
  begin from scratch. Alternately, ancient ruins may 
  provide a basis for construction. In some cases, hostile 
  natives resent the idea of having new neighbors and 
  work against the party. 
  Purchase. The simplest way to acquire land is to 
  purchase it. Most deeds can be bought for as little as 
  100 gp or as much as 1,000 gp, depending on the 
  location of the property. A very large property might 
  be bought for 5,000 gp or more, if it can be bought at 
  
   
  46 
   
  all. This contemplates open land; the presence of 
  buildings or other fixtures will increase a deed’s cost 
  dramatically. 
  In feudal societies, all land is truly owned by the 
  crown. Land “owners” simply have a right to use the 
  land for their lifetimes, a right which passes down to 
  their heirs. This persists until the sovereign revokes 
  that right or an owner dies without heir. In addition, 
  the crown allows temples and political orders to hold 
  large tracts in various locations suitable for their 
  important works. In such societies, characters may 
  lease property from a landholder such as this if they 
  have no opportunity to earn a grant from the 
  sovereign. Leases are cheaper than deeds; a 20-year 
  right to use land will usually cost only half the value of 
  purchasing it. 
  The next kit component is the nature and location of 
  the land, including any existing occupants. To define 
  this component, the DM should compose a brief 
  description after contemplating the following factors. 
  Size. The first thing to determine is the size of the 
  property. This basically breaks down into one of two 
  categories, “personal parcels” and “landholder 
  parcels.” The nature of this division significantly 
  impacts how the property interacts with the campaign. 
  Personal parcels are suitable for building a single 
  house, fortified tower, shop, temple, or the like. They 
  often include enough land to support the operation of 
  a small business, whether that’s access to a roadway 
  for an inn, proximity to the king’s forest for a 
  leatherworker that has a hunting right there, or a few 
  hills rich in minerals for a mining operation. Personal 
  parcels are often found amid neighboring small 
  parcels, near or within a town, city, or other 
  population center. For logistical reasons, a personal 
  parcel is unlikely to be found in a remote region. 
  In some cases, personal parcels can be expanded to 
  the size of landholder parcels. This growth potential 
  suits the future growth of the characters. It allows 
  them to start with a small piece of land and graduate 
  to a larger piece if they are successful in managing it. 
  Landholder parcels are large enough to allow 
  subordinate residents, members of a town, farming 
  community, or similar enterprise. Landholder parcels 
  are typically the type given to noble title holders. In a 
  feudal system, nobles may tax the income of peasants 
  living on their land but are obliged to see to the 
  peasants’ protection and just rulership, and further 
  obliged to give taxes to the crown and maintain 
  soldiers for the security of the realm. Landholder 
  parcels can also apply to cases of private ownership, 
  perhaps in a wilderness land conquered by new 
  owners and opened for friendly settlement. 
  Landholder parcels take a lot of work and authority 
  to hold. They are usually acquired by a grant but can 
  be taken by right of conquest or similar gain. Holding 
  these properties (or growing a personal property into 
  this size) is something best reserved for characters of 
  11th level or higher. The “Masters of the Realm” tier is 
  when characters are expected to make their mark on 
  the world and receive recognition for their great 
  deeds. See page 37 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. 
  Location. Perhaps the most important factor for a 
  piece of land is its position relative to other important 
  locations. Is the land in the capital city, thus in high 
  demand and with high value? Is it far from any major 
  roads or trade routes, thus low in value but high in 
  positional security? Land particularly rises in value as 
  it approaches population centers, which include the 
  sources of government, commerce, and learning. 
  Unless there is a reason for some other type of 
  property, a kit intended for the player characters to 
  build on should have convenient positioning, if not a 
  valuable location. 
  BUYING POWER 
  Much commotion is made over the cost to 
  purchase expensive properties, but the prices in 
  this (and other third-party books about 
  properties) simply cannot reflect the most 
  important factor in a land-gain: The Dungeon 
  Master explicitly controls the party’s wealth and 
  buying power. 
  Listed prices are immaterial because the 
  Dungeon Master can easily increase the amount of 
  wealth a party has when the players express an 
  earnest interest in land ownership. In addition to 
  subtly reducing a price, players may also call in 
  favors to defray such costs. Taking custody of a 
  stronghold might even be free, except that the 
  Dungeon Master may wish to use this chance to 
  drain off the party’s excessive wealth. 
  
   
  47 
   
  Accessibility. The question of accessibility is ike the 
  question of location. While this has something to do 
  with location, it is more dependent on the presence of 
  roadways, navigable rivers, and passable terrain 
  around the property. A riverside or seaside property is 
  quite high in accessibility, particularly land with its 
  own harbor. 
  A poorly accessible property is good for an owner 
  that values security and solitude. However, it detracts 
  from the owner’s ability to engage in commerce or 
  attract wanted neighbors (or supportive peasants for a 
  feudal property). The land’s natural resources lose 
  value since getting them to market is costly. 
  Natural Resources. This factor indicates the 
  presence of timber, minerals, arable land, fishable 
  rivers or oceanside, or other resources that can be 
  relied upon to aid subsistence or trade. Natural 
  resources are the main source of “profits” from a land 
  investment. A range of craggy mountains above the 
  tree line, with no significant mineral resources, is a 
  desolate and valueless place indeed. 
  Most natural resources are beyond the means for a 
  party alone to access. The skills, tools, and free time 
  needed to harvest lumber, mine minerals, farm the 
  land, or fish the sea are best employed by subordinate 
  occupants. In some cases, this might mean importing 
  hirelings. If the region is also rich in the same 
  resources, such skilled hirelings are likely to be more 
  available. In feudal societies, a large landowner can 
  rely on peasants to render the property’s resources. 
  The presence of natural resources on the land 
  almost always comes with the right to harvest them. 
  Even a leaseholder can typically take timber or game 
  from the land. Particularly when appropriate fixtures 
  are already present, such rights are contemplated as 
  part of the property’s gain. The king would not grant 
  land bearing a hunting lodge without including the 
  right to hunt dear in the nearby forest. 
  Residents. Existing residents generally come in one 
  of two categories, hostile or friendly. 
  Hostile residents can be roving monsters, 
  unwelcoming squatters, or the newly conquered 
  citizens of a rival kingdom. In most gain scenarios, the 
  new owners are expected to clear out or pacify any 
  hostile residents. But it is possible that certain 
  unintelligent monsters could be safely avoided by the 
  new owners who stay behind their high walls, the 
  monsters kept around to discourage trespassing. 
  Smart landowners find a way to turn hostile residents 
  into friendly ones, or at least ones they can coexist 
  with. Killing, exiling, or exploiting the local inhabitants 
  are evil acts that create long-term consequences. Such 
  acts should not be encouraged or unduly rewarded. 
  Friendly residents include families or whole villages 
  that are obliging and useful to the new owners, 
  helping them move in and serving as sources of 
  security and support. These might be intelligent races 
  who can coexist on the land, like fey that hide in the 
  forests or lizardfolk that inhabit the otherwise-
  unusable swamps. Friendly residents can sometimes 
  become hostile, based on the characters’ interactions 
  with them or with the land and its resources. Felling 
  the whole forest or draining the swamp might not be 
  appreciated by those who live there. 
  In a feudal grant, friendly residents are usually the 
  landholder’s subjects, the people who will work the 
  land and provide taxes. These peasants are the source 
  of the landholder’s strength; they are the people that 
  produce taxable farming and crafting, and from whom 
  new soldiers are trained. The number and prosperity 
  of a feudal parcel’s peasantry directly correlates to the 
  landholder’s wealth and power. 
  Degradations. This refers to any problems with the 
  land. Are the cliffsides eroding into the sea? Does the 
  swamp deepen each year, eating away at the arable 
  land? Have wildfires burnt away all the forests? Is the 
  harbor too shallow for significant use? 
  In most cases, degradations simply operate to 
  decrease the value and usefulness of the land and have 
  no other effect. But they can also be opportunities to 
  improve the value of the property. This allows the land 
  to “level up” as the player characters do. Usually, time 
  or effort may remove a degradation; the forests may 
  regrow to harvestable levels, the swamp can be 
  drained, the harbor can be dredged, or the crumbling 
  cliffside can be reinforced with engineering works. 
  In terms of property, a “fixture” usually refers to a 
  building on the property, but could also include such 
  constructions as a dam, watchtower, bridge, wharf, 
  crop fields, or something similar. Pre-existing fixtures 
  go a long way toward defining the character of the 
  land and giving clues as to its best uses. 
  Ideally, for a personal parcel, a fixture is a generic 
  building or the intact foundation of a ruin, upon which 
  
   
  48 
   
  the player characters can impose their own designs for 
  growth and fortification. A fixture like the remains of a 
  sawmill on the river could suggest a relatively 
  successful use for the land. 
  On landholder parcels, fixtures often follow the 
  military or administrative needs of the sovereign. The 
  landholder usually resides in a central fortification. 
  Bridges might have guard houses for the collection of 
  the queen’s tax on travelers. A dam might manage the 
  flow of waterways and need protection and 
  maintenance. While a landholder can ask the 
  sovereign for assistance or can improve these out of 
  pocket, they must not be neglected. 
  The Dungeon Master should include any fixtures in 
  the description of the land after contemplating the 
  following factors. It is entirely possible that a piece of 
  land has absolutely no fixtures, allowing the DM to 
  ignore these things initially. Depending on the nature 
  of the grant, the characters might be obligated to 
  construct or rebuild some fixtures, either from their 
  own resources or using a stipend from the sovereign. 
  The Homestead. Every parcel must, at its outset or 
  after some construction, have a place to house the 
  characters (or from which to run the land’s operations 
  if the characters live elsewhere). This is the parcel’s 
  defining structure. A tall castle defines the parcel as 
  one ruled by a noble, a tyrant, or some other military 
  leader. A farmhouse means the parcel is a farmstead. 
  The Dungeon Master should take some care to make 
  any existing homestead building one that can be 
  modified or expanded to suit the characters’ tastes. 
  This piece is one of the most personal land features for 
  the party and they should be given reign to remodel as 
  desired. It is also the building to which various 
  “property components” will apply. (See the following 
  section for details.) 
  Rights-Fixtures. To prevent land-use rights from 
  becoming too complex, these features, if already 
  existing, include the right to their use. Their costs or 
  the required royal declarations are assumed to be 
  included in the gain. Depending on the nature of the 
  gain, these features might also require use (and 
  maintenance) on behalf of the true landholder. 
  A dam on the river means the property owner has 
  the right to take some significant measure of water 
  from the river, despite the complaints of farmers on 
  the arid land downstream. 
  A bridge, ferry dock, or tollhouse contemplates the 
  right of the landholder to collect taxes from travelers, 
  probably remitting a portion to the sovereign. 
  Warehouses near the waterfront or an inn within 
  the city walls means the landholder has the right to 
  operate those respective business; any mandatory 
  guild dues or operational taxes are included in the cost 
  of maintenance. 
  A sawmill on the river carries with it the right to 
  take timber from nearby land, process it, and sell it. 
  Depending on the grant, a sovereign may demand the 
  right of first purchase, getting the option to buy the 
  lumber before it is offered for sale elsewhere. 
  A fortified structure like a tower or keep means the 
  landholder has the right (and the duty, if in a feudal 
  setting) to house and equip soldiers. 
  Common Lodging. For landholder parcels, those 
  with subordinate residents, “common lodging” is the 
  housing already available. The existence or expansion 
  of housing is critical to maintaining happy residents. 
  Simple forms of common lodging might be as little 
  as a tent camp suitable for the early operation of a 
  mine, which will eventually become a mining town 
  with permanent structures. At the other end of the 
  scale is the vast and interconnected network of 
  buildings within a century-old city, well developed and 
  thickly occupied. 
  Security Features. Security-oriented fixtures 
  include walls that surround a property, watchtowers, 
  fortified military outposts, and similar constructions. 
  They might also include “negative features” that are 
  not buildings at all but are designed to aid security, 
  like the dredging of a deep border river to create a 
  strategic barrier. 
  Security features typically require some effort to 
  garrison and maintain; they are rarely found on 
  properties owned by only an individual or a single 
  adventuring party. 
  Once the nature of the property is determined, and the 
  characters decide they want to keep (and invest in) 
  that parcel of land, these rules allow the players to 
  modify their home environment to suit their tastes 
  and budget. 
  Every homestead should come furnished with 
  enough rooms and accommodations to allow the 
  
   
  49 
   
  party, and perhaps a few additional characters, to live 
  there without having to expand or build new features. 
  This section is only for characters that want to 
  personalize the homestead (or the surrounding 
  buildings on a landowner parcel), typically gaining 
  specific game-related benefits. If an existing building 
  does not seem to have enough free area to add or 
  modify a room, the building can usually be expanded 
  to make space.  
  Many of these components have no effect on the 
  mechanics of the game; they are provided simply to 
  allow characters to fill out their parcel if that suits 
  their interests. In many ways, a land parcel 
  is like an additional character that the 
  players share; the more details it 
  has, the more alive and 
  compelling it will be as a part 
  of the game. 
  Most components are 
  available as either a room in a 
  structure, or as free-standing 
  structures, often with different 
  associated mechanics. A 
  component that can appear 
  as both a room or a structure 
  will list both a Room Cost and a 
  Structure Cost. Components 
  not available in both types will 
  list only one of these costs. 
  Ancillary buildings, like a 
  stable or coach house, can be 
  built on a personal parcel, but 
  most are suitable only for a 
  landholder parcel. Some properties, 
  particularly city-based land parcels, have no room for 
  expansion, preventing the party from adding 
  structure-only components. 
  The costs given here are for “simple” or “frontier” 
  versions of components, those built with processed 
  lumber, some stone and mortar, and various 
  construction techniques that are somewhere between 
  “crude” and “semi-refined.” For a higher quality 
  building, add 50 gp to improve foundations, renovate 
  existing edifices, allow precise stonework, and build 
  with the smooth lines of expert construction. 
  This room holds a wealth of extra simple weapons and 
  light armor. It allows non-garrison hirelings, up to the 
  number of contained armament sets, to deploy as 
  semi-competent soldiers when necessary. For these 
  non-martial hirelings, use the cultist statistics from 
  the Monster Manual (minus the Dark Devotion 
  feature). 
  Room Cost. 50 gp + 10 gp per set 
  Structure Cost. A freestanding armory is situated to 
  arm a number of non-martial residents living in 
  various portions of the parcel. Such a building costs 
  100 gp + 10 additional gp per set of 
  armaments. 
  This small, simple room 
  contains ten bunks, cots, or 
  hammocks, and space for ten 
  personal trunks or chests. 
  Armor stands and weapon 
  racks are typical features as 
  well. A barracks is typically 
  used to house additional 
  soldiers, but player 
  characters used to “living 
  rough” might enjoy making 
  use of barracks too. 
  A barracks adds 10 to the 
  number of soldiers that can 
  comfortably reside in the 
  building. These additional 
  soldiers are not included in the 
  maintenance cost for the 
  property, nor does this room 
  increase a structure’s garrison rating. 
  Room Cost. 25 gp 
  Structure Cost. A “barracks hall” is designed to 
  house a larger number of soldiers. The cost is 50 gp for 
  the first ten soldiers, and 25 gp per additional ten 
  soldiers it can house. A typical barracks hall will house 
  about a hundred. 
  A simple structure for vehicles, suitable for keeping 
  wagons and coaches out of the elements when not in 
  use. A similar construction adjacent to a waterway can 
  create a shelter to cover small watercraft. 
  Structure Cost. 15 gp 
  
   
  50 
   
  This building typically takes the form of a feast hall or 
  drinking establishment. More “refined” versions may 
  include a performance theater, a gallery to display 
  crafts, or a museum of art. 
  Structure Cost. 80 gp 
  Gardens are typically housed in a courtyard, rooftop, 
  or along the perimeter of a building or property. They 
  can be used to grow food or other plants. For 
  adventurers, they are most often used to grow the 
  exotic herbs that are the necessary components of 
  herbalism. A cultivated garden is useful when arable 
  land is not freely available on the land parcel. 
  A garden is particularly useful if the characters find 
  a rare plant that the Dungeon Master determines to be 
  the necessary component for a certain herbal brew. 
  (For further inspiration, see the rules for Concoctions 
  in the Comprehensive Equipment Manual.) Cultivating 
  the plant allows the characters to harvest periodically 
  and craft the brew, though they must return home to 
  the garden each time they do so. The Dungeon Master 
  will dictate the amount of ingredients available in a 
  garden at any given time. At the Dungeon Master’s 
  discretion, maintaining an herb garden may reduce the 
  cost for ingredients to craft a variety of herbal brews. 
  Room Cost. 10 gp 
  This represents good roads, small bridges, docks, or 
  other improvements that allow access throughout the 
  parcel, as well as to and from it. Each instance of good 
  byways supports an area that has up to 50 residents. 
  Structure Cost. 25 gp 
  Cells are made with iron bars, which have 19 Armor 
  Class, 6 hardness, and 27 hit points. They are each 
  made to house four medium creatures or one large 
  creature. Because they are constructed to resist 
  intentional breakage by their contained creatures, cell 
  bars and walls are typically immune to damage from 
  natural and unarmed attacks. Additional information 
  on the health of objects can be found at page 246 of 
  the Dungeon Master’s Guide. The cell’s door comes 
  with a lock, for which a single key is provided. Without 
  the key, a creature can pick this lock with a successful 
  DC 15 Dexterity check using thieves’ tools. 
  Room Cost. 100 gp per cell 
  Structure Cost. A freestanding “jailhouse” can be 
  built for 100 gp plus another 100 gp per contained 
  cell. This building has stout doors and thick walls, and 
  other security features suitable for maintaining 
  prisoners. 
  Happy residents need reliable housing. These 
  expenditures represent a set of common buildings 
  suitable for multiple families, or a collection of 
  cottages. Families need more living space than soldiers 
  and cannot be happy for long if crammed in ear-to-ear 
  somewhere like a simple barracks. 
  Structure Cost. 25 gp per family of five 
  This developed area and its attending buildings are 
  suited to the advancement of a single industry, like 
  mining and smelting ore, logging and processing 
  lumber, or fishing and packing fish. A setup of this type 
  is usually needed to extract natural resources from a 
  parcel. Each such construction supports the efforts of 
  up to 50 workers. 
  Structure Cost. 1,250 gp 
  This room is dedicated to the safe and efficient storage 
  of books. A mere collection of books does not make a 
  library in this sense; a library is a coordinated 
  collection designed to cover a range of topics 
  important to adventurers. 
  A character that researches in the library has 
  advantage on any Intelligence check to discover lore 
  within the range of the arcana, history, nature, or 
  religion skills. If the question of lore does not relate to 
  any specific skill, or it relates to a skill the researcher 
  is not proficient with, the library allows the user to 
  benefit from half her proficiency modifier, rounded 
  down. Advantage does not apply if the DC for the 
  check is higher than 15; higher DCs indicate 
  information that is too rare or esoteric to be found in 
  most reference books. 
  A library can be stocked or expanded to encompass 
  additional, more-specific topics. Examples of such 
  topics include specific trades or skills, a particular 
  deity or religion, plants of a curative variety, the 
  history of a single kingdom, or necromantic lore. The 
  covered topic is typically a small slice of what would 
  
   
  51 
   
  otherwise be covered by the arcana, history, nature, or 
  religion skill. While researching a question of lore 
  within an expansion topic, advantage applies to the 
  Intelligence check for a DC as high as 20. A book or set 
  of books that constitutes an expansion might be found 
  while adventuring or purchased during a trip to a 
  large city. The Dungeon Master should make sure to 
  track any expansion topics added to the library. 
  A short research attempt, about 10 minutes, tends to 
  answer only simple questions, like whether the plant 
  your cattle ate is poisonous or whose noble house that 
  red-and-gold pennant belongs to. More complex 
  questions require about eight hours (or one day of 
  downtime), as the researcher references multiple 
  sources and draws conclusions by cross-referencing. 
  Using a personal library to research in downtime is 
  simpler than doing so in a city, but the questions of 
  lore that might be answered tend to be more limited. 
  Up to two characters can use a library to research at 
  the same time, so long as they are not researching the 
  same question of lore. 
  Room Cost. 250 gp + 50 gp per additional topic 
  Structure Cost. A “library building” costs an 
  additional 100 gp, above what a room version would 
  require. This is about twice what a normal 
  freestanding building would cost; preservation of 
  books requires excellent insulation and environmental 
  control. Up to six characters can use a library building 
  to research at the same time, so long as none of them 
  are researching the same question of lore. 
  This construction includes multiple shop buildings or 
  an array of stalls in the case of an open-air market. 
  This much infrastructure supports a populace of up to 
  200 residents, contributing to their convenience and 
  happiness. A market rarely brings in the type of goods 
  or services that player characters are interested in 
  purchasing.  
  Structure Cost. 60 gp 
  A room can be concealed behind a secret door with 
  some additional expense. Detecting and opening secret 
  doors is something discussed on pages 103-104 of the 
  Dungeon Master’s Guide. The DC for this door is 15. 
  Alternately, the DC can be raised to 20 for double the 
  construction price, or 25 for four times the 
  construction price. Secret doors are often used to hide 
  questionable areas like a necromantic laboratory or a 
  hidden holding cell. 
  A secret passage requires a door at both ends, 
  though only one of them needs to be secret. If both are 
  secret, simply pay the cost for two secret doors. 
  (Passages themselves are too incidental to cost 
  anything under this system.) If the doors at both ends 
  are secret, they need not be of the same quality. Secret 
  passages are sometimes used to create a clandestine 
  entrance to the building, to link rooms, or to provide a 
  hidden escape tunnel that exits a stone’s throw away 
  from the building. 
  Room Cost. 110 gp 
  This expensive upgrade adds a surrounding wall, 
  watchtowers, warning bells, strategic moats, and other 
  security features. This expense is suitable for a parcel 
  containing no more than 25 residents. For every 
  additional 50 residents, or part thereof, you must pay 
  this upgrade cost again or find that there are 
  significant holes in the security. 
  To increase the level of security, perhaps replacing 
  the wooden palisades with stone walls and building 
  the watchtowers with extra height, double the cost of 
  each upgrade. 
  Structure Cost. 200 gp 
  A shrine is a small room with ritual trappings and 
  iconography dedicated to a specific deity, alliance of 
  deities, or pantheon. It has room for a character to 
  worship privately. At double the cost, a shrine can be 
  large enough for religious services to be held involving 
  a dozen participants. 
  Room Cost. 35 gp 
  Structure Cost. A “temple” costs 150 gp to construct 
  properly; the interior and exterior must be sufficiently 
  decorated to honor the deity to whom it is dedicated. 
  The true cost of a temple can be far more extravagant. 
  Depending on the wealth and piety of the builder, a 
  temple might be built and decorated using many 
  thousands of gold pieces. 
  A temple includes room for about 100 worshipers, 
  plus several offices for clergy to operate out of and 
  several utility rooms. 
  
   
  52 
   
  This structure is large enough to house a dozen horses, 
  mules, or similar creatures. Alternately, this building 
  may be constructed for different types of animals, like 
  a rookery or a goat run. 
  Structure Cost. 30 gp 
  Players may wish to construct traps in their residence. 
  This is a bad idea on several levels; intelligent 
  creatures rarely put traps anywhere they regularly 
  frequent. The chance of accidents is just too high. But 
  the particularly paranoid may throw in a false door 
  with a trap or put extra security around a vault. 
  Example traps are discussed on pages 120-123 of 
  the Dungeon Master’s Guide and on pages 113-123 of 
  Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. 
  Room Cost. Because traps are so varied in size and 
  functionality, the Dungeon Master must determine the 
  cost for each individually. As a very loose guide, traps 
  that can be reset (reused without repairs) cost about 
  30 gp per die of damage they inflict. Traps that must 
  be rebuilt or repaired each time have a per-damage-
  die cost of 20 gp to install and 10 gp to repair. Traps 
  that do no damage count as having 1 damage die for 
  cost purposes. Traps that use poison require doses of 
  the substance to be purchased separately. (For 
  expanded poison rules, see the Comprehensive 
  Equipment Manual, particularly the rules for long-
  lasting Viscids.) 
  Magical traps do not follow these guidelines. 
  This room is designed for crafting in. A workroom is 
  made specifically for the type of crafting to be done 
  within; there is one version for each type of artisan’s 
  tools and certain miscellaneous tools. Crafting in a 
  workroom of the appropriate type allows a character 
  to work on significant projects that are too large to 
  carry around. Up to three crafters can use a workroom 
  at the same time. 
  Room Cost. Alchemy Laboratory (300 gp), Brewery 
  (240 gp), Calligraphy Table (220 gp), Carpentry Shop 
  (216 gp), Cartography Studio (230 gp), Cobblery (210  
  gp), Expanded Pantry (202 gp), Glassblowing Chamber 
  (260 gp), Jeweler’s Vault (250 gp), Leatherworking 
  Shop (210 gp), Mason’s Yard (220 gp), Painting Atelier 
  (220 gp), Pottery Hall (220 gp), Smithy (240 gp), 
  Tattoo Parlor (230 gp), Tinkering Laboratory (300 gp), 
  Weaver’s Shop (204 gp), Woodcarving Shop (202 gp), 
  Forgery Den (230 gp), Herbalism Laboratory (210 gp), 
  Poisoner’s Retreat (300 gp) 
  Structure Cost. For a separate building dedicated to 
  a craft, a workshop with the same name as the room, 
  increase the cost by 200 gp. Up to ten crafters can 
  make use of a freestanding workshop at a time. 
  At the Dungeon Master’s discretion, a workshop also 
  provides the benefits of masterwork tools for one user 
  at a time, something described in the Comprehensive 
  Equipment Manual. 
  A vault is an armored room about the size of a 10-foot 
  cube. It is surrounded by hardened metal, like steel. 
  Steel walls of this thickness have a 19 Armor Class, 54 
  hit points in each 10-foot surface area, and 12 
  hardness. Vaults are often hidden behind secret doors 
  and locked with multiple locks. 
  Room Cost. 550 gp 
  Structure Cost. A “bank” or “freestanding vault” 
  costs 850 gp to construct. The storage area is four 
  times the size of a vault room. 
  A parcel can grow in size and population, depending 
  on the investments of time and wealth provided by the 
  owners. A personal parcel can eventually become a 
  landholder’s parcel. A landholder’s parcel can grow to 
  swallow neighboring territory. 
  Most growth occurs organically over time. Residents 
  have families, outsiders are drawn to the industry and 
  available work, and the potential residents feel that 
  their interests are safe in the care of the land’s owners. 
  Unless the players are actively trying to grow their 
  land, taking substantial steps in that direction, the 
  Dungeon Master should simply have growth occur at 
  whatever pace serves the game’s story. 
  Some forms of growth require additional 
  adjudication, particularly if the land parcel abuts 
  another claimed parcel. This is common in cities, 
  where buildings are built closely to one another. 
  Sometimes neighboring land must be purchased. In a 
  feudal system, two barons might have a land war (or 
  feud) to resettle a boundary line or petition the 
  sovereign to make such a change official. 
  
   
  53 
   
  Ships share many of the features of structures. They 
  can easily serve as headquarters for a band of intrepid 
  adventurers. They can be large or small, in size or in 
  capability. They can be armed with siege weapons and 
  garrisoned with soldiers, or they can be simple 
  mercantile vessels. Depending on the advancement of 
  magic and technology in your campaign, ships can be 
  large, ocean-going vessels, or even take to the air. 
  Advanced rules for ships and for naval combat can 
  be found in Ghosts of Saltmarsh. Some of the 
  mechanisms in this section depend upon the systems 
  found in that book. 
  Ships are built, maintained, and operated mostly with 
  the same materials and methods as one another, just 
  on differing scales. 
  Construction time for a ship made in a shipyard is 1 
  day per 150 gp of its construction cost (half its 
  purchase cost). Similarly, ship upgrades and 
  modifications are pegged to percentage values of the 
  vessel they effect. A ship’s maintenance cost is 1% of 
  its construction cost. 
  Creation of anything larger than a keelboat must be 
  done by a skilled team, not individuals employing the 
  downtime crafting rules. Improvements to a ship 
  (added ship components) must be planned, built, and 
  installed by a group of skilled shipwrights. 
  If you have proficiency with “vehicle (water),” you can 
  add your proficiency bonus to any check you make to 
  control waterborne vehicles in difficult circumstances. 
  The normal operation of waterborne vehicles does 
  not require ability checks, but anything larger than a 
  keelboat also requires a crew of trained sailors. 
  Vessels traveling beyond sight of the land (at sea or 
  above the clouds) also require a driver or a crew 
  member that can read charts and make use of 
  navigator’s tools to avoid getting lost. 
  Large ships need skilled hirelings (crew) to operate. 
  Up to half the crew (round down) can be unskilled, 
  learning as they go. If more than half are unskilled, 
  halve the vehicle’s speed. Only skilled crew can 
  operate ship-mounted siege weapons. 
  During a naval engagement, all crew members are 
  required to operate the ship. Otherwise, the crew can 
  deploy as a semi-professional fighting force of sailors 
  (as bandits; see the Monster Manual). These can be 
  skilled or unskilled hirelings. A military ship may also 
  be garrisoned by marines (as guards) equal to its 
  Passengers rating. For every full 10 marines, replace 
  one with a veteran. As trained soldiers, marines 
  require the pay of skilled hirelings. 
  This number assumes Small and Medium passengers 
  sharing tight quarters. If a ship is outfitted with 
  private cabins, it might accommodate only one-fifth of 
  this number. 
  The ship has immunity to all damage sources unless an 
  attack (or other source) applies an amount equal to or 
  greater than its damage threshold, in which case the 
  vessel takes that full amount of damage. Anything less 
  is merely superficial, not reducing the ship’s hit points. 
  Repairing requires skilled hirelings or crew. For every 
  5 workers, 1 hit point of damage can be repaired each 
  day at a 10 gp cost in materials. (The labor of any non-
  crew members must be paid separately.) Ships not 
  berthed at proper facilities for such work can only be 
  repaired at a maximum rate of 1 hit point per day. 
  Large vessels have room to mount siege weapons. If a 
  vessel has a parenthetical number after its name on 
  the table above, it can mount that number of Large-
  sized siege weapons. A large enough vessel can also 
  mount Huge-sized siege engines, but these each take 
  the space of three Large-sized weapons.  
  If your campaign uses post-Medieval firearms like 
  muskets, siege guns may also be available. Twice as 
  many siege guns can fit on a vessel, due to those 
  weapons’ narrower shapes and areas of operation. 
  When more finite details are called for, including 
  particularized vessel upgrades and features like extra 
  crew quarters, rams, smuggling compartments, and 
  other useful ship features, refer to the Ship 
  Modifications and Siege Engines sections, below. 
   
  
   
  54 
   
  VEHICLES (WATER) 
  Cargo 
   
   
  Damage 
  Item 
  Cost 
  Speed 
  Crew 
  Passengers 
  (tons) 
  AC 
  HP 
  Threshold 
  Canoe 
  50 gp 
  2 mph 
  1 
  6 
  — 
  11 
  50 
  — 
  Galley, palatial (6) 
  350,000 gp 
  3 mph 
  120 
  300 
  30 
  15 
  800 
  20 
  Galley, ironclad (4) 
  50,000 gp 
  3 mph 
  90 
  — 
  120 
  19 
  550 
  20 
  Galley, war (4) 
  30,000 gp 
  4 mph 
  80 
  — 
  150 
  15 
  500 
  20 
  Keelboat, barge 
  3,000 gp 
  1 mph 
  1 
  6 
  1/2 
  15 
  100 
  10 
  Keelboat, cabined 
  4,500 gp 
  1 mph 
  1 
  10 
  1 
  15 
  110 
  10 
  Longship, karvi 
  6,000 gp 
  3 mph 
  16 
  60 
  15 
  15 
  120 
  15 
  Longship, snekkja (2) 
  10,000 gp 
  3 mph 
  40 
  150 
  20 
  15 
  300 
  15 
  Longship, skeid (4) 
  25,000 gp 
  3½ mph 
  60 
  180 
  35 
  15 
  450 
  15 
  Raft 
  5 sp 
  1/2 mph 
  1 
  3 
  — 
  11 
  10 
  — 
  Rowboat 
  50 gp 
  1½ mph 
  1 
  3 
  — 
  11 
  50 
  — 
  Sailing ship, caravel (1) 
  10,000 gp 
  3 mph 
  20 
  20 
  100 
  15 
  300 
  15 
  Sailing ship, cog (1) 
  8,000 gp 
  2 mph 
  15 
  15 
  60 
  15 
  220 
  15 
  Sailing ship, hulk (6) 
  55,000 gp 
  1½ mph 
  55 
  300 
  350 
  15 
  900 
  20 
  Warship, carrack (3) 
  25,000 gp 
  2½ mph 
  60 
  60 
  200 
  15 
  500 
  20 
  Warship, xebec (1) 
  17,000 gp 
  3½ mph 
  30 
  30 
  100 
  15 
  300 
  15 
   
  VEHICLES (WATER) IN THE AGE OF SAIL 
  Cargo 
   
   
  Damage 
  Item 
  Cost 
  Speed 
  Crew 
  Passengers 
  (tons) 
  AC 
  HP 
  Threshold 
  Ship of the line 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
     1st rate man o’ war (45) 
  320,000 gp 
  12 mph 
  400 
  200 
  150 
  15 
  850 
  20 
     2nd rate man o’ war (40) 
  200,000 gp 
  12 mph 
  300 
  150 
  135 
  15 
  750 
  20 
     3rd rate man o’ war (30) 
  125,000 gp 
  13 mph 
  200 
  100 
  120 
  15 
  650 
  20 
  Warship 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
     4th rate frigate (25) 
  65,000 gp 
  13 mph 
  150 
  75 
  80 
  15 
  500 
  15 
     5th rate frigate (20) 
  35,000 gp 
  13 mph 
  120 
  60 
  65 
  15 
  400 
  15 
     6th rate frigate (10) 
  28,000 gp 
  13 mph 
  90 
  45 
  50 
  15 
  300 
  15 
  Unrated ship 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
     Sloop (8) 
  30,000 gp 
  14 mph 
  30 
  65 
  75 
  15 
  120 
  12 
     Brig (7) 
  12,000 gp 
  13 mph 
  40 
  40 
  100 
  15 
  200 
  15 
     Lugger (1) 
  850 gp 
  10 mph 
  3 
  20 
  1/2 
  15 
  110 
  10 
     Launch 
  180 gp 
  3 mph 
  11 
  1 
  1/2 
  12 
  85 
  — 
   
  VEHICLES (AIR) 
  Cargo 
   
   
  Damage 
  Item 
  Cost 
  Speed 
  Crew 
  Passengers 
  (tons) 
  AC 
  HP 
  Threshold 
  Airship (20) 
  20,000 gp 
  8 mph 
  10 
  20 
  1 
  13 
  300 
  — 
  Airship, greater (30) 
  250,000 gp 
  7 mph 
  45 
  100 
  15 
  15 
  550 
  10 
  Flying platform (50) 
  175,000 gp 
  1 mph 
  10 
  350 
  150 
  15 
  600 
  10 
  Glider 
  210 gp 
  3 mph 
  1 
  — 
  — 
  13 
  20 
  — 
  Ornithopter (1) 
  9,500 gp 
  8 mph 
  1 
  — 
  — 
  13 
  50 
  — 
  Ornithopter, twin (1) 
  12,500 gp 
  7 mph 
  1 
  1 
  — 
  13 
  65 
  — 
  Sky barge 
  8,500 gp 
  5 mph 
  1 
  8 
  1 
  11 
  30 
  — 
   
  
   
  55 
   
  This list of water vehicles brings advanced sailing 
  ships into the game, ships suitable for piratical 
  adventures or other maritime campaigns. With their 
  tall masts and voluminous yardage of sails, these ships 
  make sea voyages fast and adventurous. They are 
  suitable for campaigns with some degree of advanced 
  technology, like those with Renaissance-era firearms. 
  Names for ships by size are used quite loosely in this 
  section. The table below is intended to show a 
  progression of ships, from largest to smallest. Vague 
  categories are used, with regimented distinctions 
  between them, but historically these terms referred to 
  many variations and sizes of ship, some of them 
  interchangeably. Because of the variability in ship 
  design within each class, do not rely on this list as a 
  source for historically accurate ship types! 
  These vehicles can escape the confines of the earth, 
  treading the clouds. Some can even escape into the 
  depths of space or across the barriers of the planes. 
  Like land and water vehicles, normal operation of air 
  vehicles does not require ability checks. However, a 
  large airship or flying platform requires a crew of 
  trained aerial “sailors” to manage it. Depending on the 
  nature of the lift and propulsions systems used, the 
  driver or a crew member might also need magical 
  training to direct the magics involved or to control the 
  creature(s) bound to the vehicle. 
  The typical form of an airship is a literal ship, but these 
  vehicles can take other shapes, such as hanging 
  gondolas suspended from balloons. 
  The most influential aspect of an airship’s design is 
  its method of propulsion, both vertical and horizontal. 
  The flying method that an airship utilizes will strongly 
  affect its appearance and features. 
  Every airborne vehicle has some special mechanism 
  or magic that gives it motive power. The possibilities 
  are many; those listed here are just examples. It is not 
  necessary for every airship to use the same modes of 
  propulsion; a campaign’s different air-traveling races 
  and region’s may have their own designs.  
  Clockwork Invention. This broad category covers 
  several types of motive systems. Often, a clockwork 
  vehicle’s horizontal propulsion uses an entirely 
  different mechanism than its vertical propulsion. 
  For a vehicle’s vertical movement, the most common 
  mechanism is attaching it to a mass of lighter-than-air 
  gasses, usually trapped within a single large balloon 
  called a lift rig. This gas is harvested or created by 
  magical or mundane means. Alternately, the balloon 
  contains a vacuum, its shape rigidized by magic. A lift 
  rig is rarely large enough to lift a vehicle but is often 
  sufficient to slow its fall to a safe speed. To effect flight, 
  the lift rig is usually also a magic item that provides 
  the vehicle with supplementary levitation. Even 
  “scientific” systems use magic of some sort. 
  Horizontal movement holds more possibilities, like 
  banks of sails hung on masts that project sideways 
  from the hull, rotating propeller engines, or clockwork 
  wings that oscillate via complex physics. 
  VARIANT: VEHICLE (AIR) PROFICIENCY 
  This variant creates a new type of proficiency. 
  If you have proficiency with air vehicles, you can 
  add your proficiency bonus to any check you make 
  to control flying vessels in difficult circumstances. 
  AIRSHIPS AND SHIP-SHAPES 
  Most airships are constructed in the shape of (or 
  with the hulls of) regular sailing ships. This occurs 
  for several reasons. 
  First, ships are designed to hold together despite 
  the battering of hostile seas, and without 
  consideration of their angles relative to the 
  directional force of gravity. A house, for example, 
  doesn’t hold together when you turn it sideways. 
  Second, having a hull allows airships to make 
  emergency landings on water or to use lakes and 
  rivers for landing zones among otherwise-
  inaccessible terrain. In dangerous lands, such 
  places are also more defensible; only aquatic 
  creatures can easily sneak up on a vessel at sea. 
  Finally, some airships are designed for mixed 
  use, sometimes traveling on air and sometimes on 
  water. In some campaigns, flying may require a 
  scarce fuel. Alternately, there may be risks when 
  flying in different times or places. 
   
  
   
  56 
   
  Magical Means. Other propulsion mechanisms can 
  exist anywhere on a continuum that stretches from 
  purely magical forces to pseudo-scientific principles. 
  For example, airships in your campaign might use 
  magical sails that can interact with invisible ethereal 
  winds, currents which blow in any direction. They 
  might appear as any other sailing ships, perhaps with 
  a few more masts held at odd angles. Alternately, 
  airships might simply look like iron boxes that move 
  through the air. 
  These options give the Dungeon Master the most 
  freedom to invent and to stray from the established 
  tropes of fantasy airships. They are limited only by the 
  imagination. 
  Elemental Power (Eberron). In Eberron, the 
  dragonmarked pilots of House Lyrandar pilot 
  elemental-powered airships. These vehicles require a 
  Khyber dragonshard to bind one of the four cardinal 
  elemental types into the vessel and thus power it. Any 
  vehicle powered by an elemental this way can move at 
  double the standard speed for such a vehicle. 
  (Elemental vehicles are not limited to airships in 
  Eberron.) Each such vehicle bears the distinctive 
  marks of elemental servitude, typically a ring of 
  elemental power that encircles the vehicle or motes of 
  energy attached to its extremities.  
  Spelljamming Helms. These throne-like artifacts 
  are attached to regular ships (and other vehicles of 
  various kinds), transforming them into airships. 
  Transformed vessels are capable of flying through the 
  skies, fueled by the spell energy of a spellcaster seated 
  in the helm (or strapped to it). Some of these devices 
  work only for psionicists or psionic creatures. 
  Attaching a spelljamming helm to a ship also gives it 
  the ability to travel beyond the planet’s atmosphere. A 
  transformed vessel retains its own localized pocket of 
  air for the crew to operate in and, while in space, can 
  travel fast enough to navigate between planets and 
  even between the crystal spheres that encapsulate 
  solar systems. 
  The vessels of this chapter are described below. 
  Airship. This vehicle is the size of a sailing ship. 
  Because aeronautical travel often develops under the 
  influence of marine traditions and with nautical 
  influences, the shapes and features of airships tend to 
  resemble sea vessels. 
  Airship, Greater. A larger version of an airship, this 
  vehicle typically represents refinements in the magical 
  or scientific techniques of air travel. Alternately, a 
  greater airship is simply built for a function that 
  requires greater size. 
  Canoe. A lightweight passenger boat, this vessel is 
  sometimes carved from a single tree trunk. While fast 
  and agile, a canoe’s hull is too narrow to be stable on 
  the open sea in any conditions worse than calm waters. 
  For those occasions when it must be carried, a canoe 
  weighs 50 lbs. 
  Flying Platform. A flying platform uses the same 
  technology or magical forces that hold airships aloft, 
  but it uses dozens of instances of that method. 
  Sometimes called a “flying island,” a flying platform 
  typically stays airborne for extensive periods, providing 
  a base of operations for other flying ships. 
  Galley (any). These long, slender warships are 
  propelled mainly by rowing, but they also have masts 
  and can travel under sail. 
  Galley, Palatial. This grand galley is designed for 
  pleasure cruising. Rather than the tools of war, it 
  contains a host of amenities suitable for noble living. 
  Galley, Ironclad. An ironclad galley is a slower-
  moving war galley that has sheets of metal to protect 
  the hull from attacks. Despite the name, these armored 
  sheets are made of copper alloys or other metals that 
  can survive exposure to the sea, rather than iron. 
  Galley, War. A war galley is designed to carry a ram 
  and has several mounting points for siege engines. 
  Glider. A glider is an unpowered vehicle that relies 
  upon the dynamic interaction of its wing surfaces with 
  the air to support it in flight. 
  Once in flight, a glider can gain altitude by circling an 
  area with updrafts or it can get towed higher by 
  another flying vessel.  
  Keelboat, Barge. A keelboat is a flat-bottomed vessel 
  designed for river work in shallow water. The boat can 
  be propelled by oars but is more often poled. Keelboats 
  typically carry cargo, but they are often used as ferries 
  for short crossings.  
  Keelboat, Cabined. This large keelboat has a single-
  room cabin in its center. The cabin can provide shelter 
  to the crew or to passengers. 
  Longship (any). These vessels are long, low ships 
  used for trade and commerce as well as warfare. Each is 
  propelled by a single, large sail or by oars. When used as 
  warships, the passengers and crew typically mount their 
  
   
  57 
   
  shields along the gunnels of both sides to provide 
  additional protection and to intimidate foes. The tall 
  prows and aft ends of longships are often carved as the 
  heads of dragons or other ferocious beasts. 
  Longship, Karvi. This small, broad longship is 
  typically used within sight of the shore. Its shallow draft 
  makes it ideal for fishing and other in-shore work. 
  Longship, Snekkja. This longship is large enough for 
  significant military operations, yet still small enough 
  that the crew can haul it out of the water, dragging it 
  onto a beach. This makes snekkja ideal for raiding, 
  landing in places without ports and disgorging large 
  numbers of warriors.  
  Longship, Skeid. The skeid is the largest version of 
  the longship, too large for the crew to haul out of 
  water except at gently sloped beaches. Such 
  vessels are used for long-range exploration 
  and large-scale warfare. 
  Ornithopter. An ornithopter is 
  a single-person version of an 
  airship. Sometimes airships 
  (and flying platforms) 
  carry scores of 
  ornithopters, launching 
  them at enemy airships or 
  ground targets to 
  engage before the 
  mothership gets within 
  range. 
  An ornithopter 
  might mount a siege 
  weapon (Large or 
  smaller), like a ballista. 
  Ornithopter, Twin. This 
  ornithopter is slightly larger and sturdier than the 
  normal version. It has the capacity to carry both a 
  driver and one other crewmember: a copilot, navigator, 
  or gunner. 
  Raft. Rafts are flat planes of floating material, square 
  or rectangular in shape. They are typically crafted of 
  logs using primitive construction methods. A raft can be 
  built with a short mast to allow propulsion by sail. 
  Otherwise, rafts are rowed with oars or poled. 
  For those occasions when it must be carried, a raft 
  weighs 200 lbs. 
  Rowboat. A small wooden boat fitted with four oars. 
  Rowboats are used for fishing or utility work, in-shore 
  travel, or as ship’s boats for larger watercraft. 
  For those occasions when it must be carried, a 
  rowboat weighs 100 lbs. 
  Sailing Ship, Caravel. A caravel is a small, highly 
  maneuverable ship. It is ideal for in-shore work or 
  fishing but is also safe traveling away from shore. 
  Sailing Ship, Cog. Cogs are round, single-masted 
  sailing ships. Primitive in design, cogs are used for their 
  reliability and ease of construction. 
  Sailing Ship, Hulk. This massive, slow sailing ship can 
  carry a staggering amount of cargo. Hulks have many 
  uses based on their huge size, including being used as 
  floating prisons during wartime. 
  Sky Barge. A smaller airship used to 
  ferry passengers and cargo 
  around small regions, like within 
  a city or at the city’s sky docks. 
  Ship of the Line (any). These 
  “men o’ war” are large, multi-
  deck ships capable of 
  carrying hundreds of 
  people. They are built to 
  project national power 
  upon the high seas. All 
  ships of the line are 
  built to sling a 
  staggering weight of 
  stone or iron from siege 
  engines, slugging it out 
  with other ships of the 
  line during fleet actions. 
  Unrated Ship (any). 
  Unrated ships are capable vessels 
  but do not have the military designations that 
  describe the roles of naval craft. 
  Unrated Ship, Brig. A brig is a fast, square-sailed 
  ship. It requires a relatively large crew to operate. 
  Unrated Ship, Launch. A launch is a swift boat with 
  ten oars. Larger ships carry launches to ferry 
  passengers and equipment between the ship and the 
  shore. Launches also serve as lifeboats. 
  Unrated Ship, Lugger. A small sailing ship, one that 
  is sometimes carried aboard larger ships and deployed 
  for scouting or actions in shallow waters. 
  Unrated Ship, Sloop. A fast, versatile ship, typically 
  long and low on the water. 
  Warship (any). These frigates are built for war with 
  multiple decks. They are still small enough to be moved 
  by oars, but large enough to find a place in major 
  
   
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  engagements. In fleet actions, frigates serve the role of 
  support ships. 
  Warship, Carrack. An evolution of the cog, this wide, 
  stable warship is very versatile. It is both durable in 
  battle and can carry a large amount of cargo. 
  Warship, Xebec. This small warship is an evolution of 
  the war galley, more dependent on sails than oars, with 
  larger masts and more complex sails. 
  Not all ships are created equal. Players looking for a 
  ship that is faster, tougher, or more agile might 
  consider adding modifications to their vessels. 
  Consider the following mundane improvements, some 
  of which refer to the ship rules in Ghost of Saltmarsh. 
  This translates into more space for a ship’s sailors to 
  sleep and eat. The ship may support more passengers 
  than its base rating, but its cargo capacity is decreased. 
  For each ton of cargo capacity removed, add 2 to the 
  ship’s passenger rating. 
  Cost. 5% of base ship cost 
  The ship has metal plates over its hull to protect it 
  from attacks of all kinds. 
  Increase the damage threshold of the ship’s hull by 5. 
  For every 10 hp of the vessel, remove any 
  combination of 2 from its passenger rating or 1 from 
  its cargo rating. If there is insufficient capacity, this 
  modification cannot be added. 
  Armor plating slows the ship by 1/2 mph. 
  Cost. 30% of base ship cost 
  A wide rudder makes a ship nimbler, granting 
  advantage to some maneuvers. 
  Cost.: 3% of the base ship cost 
  A ramp or set of ramps that can be lowered from a 
  ship to facilitate boarding. A corvus has hooks on its 
  end to secure it fast over the other ship’s rail. 
  The ramp has its own handrails, so sailors can safely 
  rush into a boarding action. No ability checks are 
  required to navigate the crossing, as might be required 
  when leaping the gap or swinging across on a line. 
  These bulky devices reduce a ship’s cargo capacity 
  by 15 tons. If there is insufficient cargo capacity, this 
  modification cannot be added. 
  Cost. 3% of the base ship cost 
  For a ship that has multiple decks, weapon ports may 
  be used to fire siege weapons from the lower decks. 
  These ports are visible from afar unless they are 
  purposefully concealed. 
  Concealed weapon ports can only be recognized on a 
  successful Wisdom (Perception) check made within 
  500 feet. A spyglass extends this check range to 1,000 
  feet, while a compact spyglass extends it to 750 feet 
  (see Wraith Wright’s Expanded Tool & Gear Manual or 
  the Comprehensive Equipment Manual). 
  Cost. 5% of the base ship cost to conceal all ports 
  The ship’s hull has a deep keel that steadies it on the 
  open ocean, but which can inhibit its ability to 
  approach the shore. 
  The additional stability of the keel applies advantage 
  to the crew’s roll for a storm check or a whirlpool 
  check. (Officer checks are unaffected.) 
  For the purpose of getting unstuck from sandbars, 
  this vessel treats deep sandbars as moderate and 
  moderate sandbars as shallow. At the Dungeon 
  Master’s discretion, the ship may not travel into some 
  areas that similar boats can navigate, due to the depth 
  of the keel. 
  This improvement must be installed at the time of 
  the ship’s construction; it cannot be added later. This 
  improvement is incompatible with a shallow keel. 
  Cost. 15% of base ship cost 
  Some ships sport carved bowsprits. Players are 
  encouraged to design their own inspiring figureheads 
  with dolphins, mermaids, or creatures of myth. 
  If the optional loyalty rules are used, a proud 
  figurehead adds 1 to a crew member’s loyalty while 
  aboard (or within sight of) the ship. See the NPC 
  loyalty rules in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. This 
  modification is otherwise cosmetic, although Ghosts of 
  Saltmarsh has magical figureheads in appendix A. 
  A figurehead has an Armor Class of 12, a damage 
  threshold of 5, and 20 hit points. 
  Cost. 3% of the base ship cost 
  
   
  59 
   
  The bottom of the ship is inset with a metal lattice 
  supporting an array of windows. These permit the 
  crew to gaze into the water below and around the 
  vessel. The glass is thick enough and the individual 
  panes small enough that they don’t affect durability or 
  performance. In a world with monstrous and magical 
  perils, these windows help the crew see threats that 
  come from below or identify terrain features 
  immediately under the vessel. The limitation of these 
  windows is the range of the crew’s vision into the 
  water, which is often dark. 
  For attacks that come from below the 
  surface, reduce the damage threshold 
  of the ship’s hull to 5 if it is normally 
  higher. 
  Cost. 25% of base ship cost 
  The ship’s rigging 
  undergoes wholesale 
  changes in configuration 
  and adds redundant 
  cordage. The sails are 
  made from tougher 
  canvas and treated with 
  flame-retarding chemicals. 
  Double the hit points of the 
  ship’s sails. 
  Cost. 6% of base ship cost 
  The ship undergoes an efficient 
  remodeling of its layout to 
  provide more room for the ship’s 
  stores. 
  For every 2 persons that are 
  removed from passenger capacity, 
  add 1 ton to the cargo rating. 
  Cost. 5% of base ship cost 
  This ship’s decks are designed to be moved to disguise 
  the ship as an altogether-different vessel. After pulling 
  up dozens of bracing pins, the crew can slide the stern 
  castle forward on hidden rails, rearrange the position 
  of the masts, extend the gunwales, lower the poop 
  deck, transfer the ship’s wheel, and make other 
  cosmetic changes such as a new figurehead and 
  different-colored sails, all within about an hour. 
  Identifying the ship at a distance based on its profile 
  or appearance is impossible when it is thus modified. 
  A ship with a movable deck reduces its damage 
  threshold by 5 if it is normally higher. 
  A ship not currently in its natural deck formation 
  reduces its speed by 1/2 mph. 
  Cost. 40% of base ship cost 
  The ship has been intentionally designed with a 
  slender hull, enabling it to slip through smaller spaces. 
  This applies a +2 bonus on all opposed checks made 
  for a chase on almost any scale, be those ability checks 
  for navigator’s tools or for water vehicles proficiency. 
  The ship’s beam (width) is decreased by 20%. 
  Because of the reduced space, remove any 
  combination of 2 from its passenger rating or 
  1 from its cargo rating for every 10 hp of 
  the vessel. If there is insufficient capacity, 
  this modification cannot be applied. 
  This improvement must be 
  installed at the time of the ship’s 
  construction; it cannot be 
  added later. 
  Cost. 15% of base ship 
  cost 
  The ship bears a standard 
  ram, usually sheathed in 
  bronze or iron, mounted on 
  its bow, usually at the waterline. 
  With this upgrade, double the ship’s 
  DT for determining its ramming 
  damage. 
  A ram has an Armor Class of 20, a damage 
  threshold of 10, and hit points equal to one-fifth 
  of the hull’s hit points. 
  Cost. 5% of base ship cost 
  This vessel’s hull has a shallow draft that allows it to 
  travel further upriver, use shallower ports, and 
  otherwise navigate submerged hazards better than 
  other ships of its type. 
  For the purpose of getting unstuck from sandbars, 
  this vessel treats shallow sandbars as moderate and 
  
   
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  moderate sandbars as deep. It cannot get stuck on 
  deep sandbars. At the Dungeon Master’s discretion, 
  the ship may travel into some areas that similar boats 
  can’t navigate, due to the reduced depth of the keel. 
  The instability of this keel makes the ship less 
  weatherly on the open sea. Apply disadvantage to the 
  crew’s rolls for a storm check or a whirlpool check. 
  (Officer checks are unaffected.) 
  This modification removes any combination of 2 
  from the passenger rating or 1 from the cargo rating 
  for every 10 hp of the vessel. If there is insufficient 
  capacity, this modification cannot be applied. 
  This improvement must be installed at the time of 
  the ship’s construction; it cannot be added later. This 
  improvement is incompatible with a deep keel. 
  Cost. 10% of base ship cost 
  For protection during naval maneuvers, this ship has a 
  raised “bumper” rail running the length of its keel and 
  around the front and sides of the hull just above the 
  waterline. This protects the ship when it strikes an 
  obstacle like an iceberg, or when it is rammed by 
  another vessel. 
  Skirting has a damage threshold of 10 and hit points 
  equal to one-fifth of the hull’s hit points. When the hull 
  would be damaged by a crash or a ramming action, 
  apply the damage first to the skirting. When the 
  skirting is destroyed, excess damage is applied to the 
  hull if it exceeds the hull’s damage threshold. 
  Cost. 20% of base ship cost 
  The ship is modified so that gaps in its construction 
  can serve as hidden cargo areas. This does not change 
  a ship’s cargo capacity. 
  A smuggling compartment can hold anything that fits 
  within a 5-foot cubic space. A DC 20 Intelligence 
  (Investigation) check is required to locate smuggling 
  compartments in a search of the ship. 
  Cost. 2% of base ship cost 
  The ship’s body has additional supports and layers of 
  wood added to it, making it thicker and more resilient. 
  The hit points of the ship’s hull are increased by 
  10%, but the ship’s speed is reduced by 1/2 mph. 
  Cost. 10% of base ship cost 
  These massive engines of war are designed to protect 
  or assail heavy targets, fortifications, or large groups 
  of enemy soldiers. They are included in this chapter to 
  help arm and fortify ships and structures. 
  Siege engines are moved under the power of groups 
  of soldiers or minders, or they are pulled by teams of 
  animals or domesticated monsters. As part of the 
  variant rule below, each siege engine is also noted 
  with a crew requirement to operate it. 
  Each siege engine’s description includes its size, 
  Armor Class, and hit points, as well as an outline of its 
  functions and attack capabilities. 
  Every siege engine is immune to poison and psychic 
  damage. 
   
   
  VARIANT: CREW ACTIONS 
  Each siege engine requires a number of workers to 
  fire and reload it, noted in its crew entry. When an 
  engine says it requires an action to do something, it 
  requires the actions of all crew operators. 
  Under this rule, an engine can be operated with 
  fewer crew members, but the total number of 
  actions contributed to each activity must equal or 
  exceed the product of the required number of crew 
  members, multiplied by the required number of 
  rounds (loading, aiming, and firing).  
  This rate of firing also assumes that the 
  operators are siege engineers (trained hirelings 
  devoted to this skill). If any of the engine’s crew are 
  not skilled in siege craft, these crew members 
  contribute only half an action to the required totals 
  each round. 
  A siege weapon can be prepared for 
  instantaneous use by accruing the actions of all 
  three phases (the number of rounds for loading, 
  aiming, and firing). It can thereafter be fired by a 
  lone crew member, skilled or unskilled, using that 
  individual’s single action. 
   
  
   
  61 
   
  Large object 
  Armor Class: 15 
  Hit Points: 50 
  Crew: 4 
  Cost: 1,000 gp 
   
  A ballista is a massive crossbow that fires heavy bolts. 
  Before it can be fired, it must be loaded and aimed. It 
  requires one action to load the weapon, one action to 
  aim it, and one action to fire it. 
  Bolt. Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, range 
  120/480 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (3d10) piercing 
  damage. 
  Huge object 
  Armor Class: 15 
  Hit Points: 100 
  Crew: 6 
  Cost: 1,750 gp 
   
  A larger, slower version of the ballista that fires an 
  even more massive crossbow bolt. Before it can be 
  fired, it must be loaded and aimed. It requires two 
  actions to load the weapon, two actions to aim it, and 
  one action to fire it. 
  Heavy Bolt. Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, range 
  150/600 ft., one target. Hit: 22 (4d10) piercing 
  damage. 
  Large object 
  Armor Class: 15 
  Hit Points: 75 
  Crew: 3 
  Cost: 500 gp 
   
  A catapult hurls a heavy projectile in a fast, forward 
  arc. Before the catapult can be fired, it must be loaded 
  and aimed. It takes two actions to load the weapon, 
  two actions to aim it, and one action to fire it. 
  A catapult typically hurls a heavy stone, although it 
  can hurl other kinds of projectiles, with different 
  effects. 
  Catapult Stone. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, 
  range 175/750 ft., one target. Hit: 27 (5d10) 
  bludgeoning damage. 
  Large object 
  Armor Class: 15 
  Hit Points: 100 
  Crew: 3 
  Cost: 1,125 gp 
   
  A mangonel is a type of catapult that hurls heavy 
  projectiles in a high arc. This payload can hit targets 
  behind cover. Before the mangonel can be fired, it 
  must be loaded and aimed. It takes two actions to load 
  the weapon, two actions to aim it, and one action to 
  fire it. 
  A mangonel typically hurls a heavy stone, although it 
  can hurl other kinds of projectiles, with different 
  effects. 
  Mangonel Stone. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, 
  range 200/800 ft. (can’t hit targets within 60 feet of 
  it), one target. Hit: 27 (5d10) bludgeoning damage. 
  Large object 
  Armor Class: 15 
  Hit Points: 50 
  Crew: 2 
  Cost: 200 gp 
   
  An onager is a smaller, short-armed catapult that hurls 
  a heavy projectile in a fast, forward arc at the level of 
  infantry. Before the onager can be fired, it must be 
  loaded and aimed. It takes two actions to load the 
  weapon, one action to aim it, and one action to fire it. 
  An onager is small enough to be carried on the back 
  of a wagon. 
  An onager typically hurls a heavy stone, although it 
  can hurl other kinds of projectiles, with different 
  effects. 
  Onager Stone. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, 
  range 120/480 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (3d10) 
  bludgeoning damage. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  
   
  62 
   
  Huge object 
  Armor Class: 15 
  Hit Points: 150 
  Crew: 5 
  Cost: 2,500 gp 
   
  A trebuchet is a powerful catapult that uses a complex 
  mechanism to throw its payload in a high arc, allowing 
  it to hit targets behind cover. Before the trebuchet can 
  be fired, it must be loaded and aimed. It takes two 
  actions to load the weapon, two actions to aim it, and 
  one action to fire it. 
  A trebuchet typically hurls a heavy stone. However, 
  it can launch other kinds of projectiles, such as barrels 
  of oil or sewage, with different effects. 
  Trebuchet Stone. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, 
  range 300/1,200 ft. (can’t hit targets within 60 feet of 
  it), one target. Hit: 44 (8d10) bludgeoning damage. 
  Large object 
  Armor Class: 19 
  Hit Points: 20 
  Crew: 2 
  Cost: 50 gp 
   
  A cauldron is an iron pot that is suspended so that it 
  can be tipped easily, spilling its contents. Once 
  emptied, a cauldron must be refilled—and its contents 
  must usually be reheated—before it can be used again. 
  It takes three actions to fill a cauldron and one action 
  to tip it. 
  Cauldrons can be filled with other liquids, such as 
  acid or green slime, with different effects. 
  Boiling Oil. The cauldron pours boiling oil onto a 
  10-foot square area directly below it. Any creature in 
  the area must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, 
  taking 10 (3d6) fire damage on a failed save, or half as 
  much damage on a successful one.
  Large object 
  Armor Class: 15 
  Hit Points: 50 
  Crew: 5 
  Cost: 4,500 gp 
   
  This bulky contraption hurls casks of alchemist’s fire 
  that shatter on impact, lighting the target on fire. 
  Cask of Alchemist’s Fire. Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 
  to hit, range 60/240 ft., one target. Hit: 3 (1d6) 
  bludgeoning damage plus 17 (5d6) fire damage, and 
  the target catches fire. While on fire, the target takes 3 
  (1d6) fire damage at the start of each of its turns. A 
  burning creature can end this burning state by 
  immersing itself in water or by using an action to 
  make a DC 10 Dexterity check to extinguish itself. Each 
  cask of alchemist’s fire costs 200 gp. 
  Gargantuan object 
  Armor Class: 15 
  Hit Points: 200 
  Crew: 8 
  Cost: 2,750 gp 
   
  This weapon operates from a fixed point like a castle’s 
  curtain wall. Its long arm extends up to a hundred feet, 
  ending in chain flails or a chain with a large claw. It is 
  used to overturn covered rams, misalign approaching 
  siege towers, or rake away the sails and rigging of 
  ships on adjacent rivers. It can also be swept through 
  the enemy ranks to disrupt approaching formations. 
  A great claw that inflicts cumulative damage on a 
  siege tower or covered ram equal to half its total hit 
  points pulls the engine apart or tips it over, making it 
  useless. The same damage to a ship destroys enough 
  sail and rigging to halve the vessel’s wind-powered 
  speed, but the great claw’s damage to sails and rigging 
  can be repaired at half the normal cost. 
  Claw Arm. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 
  100 ft., one object. Hit: 16 (3d10) bludgeoning. 
  Large object 
  Armor Class: 15 
  Hit Points: 20 
  Crew: 8 
  Cost: 100 gp 
   
  A ram is an iron-shod log with handles, used to batter 
  through doors and barricades. The operators of a ram 
  lack the fortifying gallery of a covered siege ram and 
  are fully exposed when they approach and attack. 
  Ram. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one 
  object. Hit: 16 (3d10) bludgeoning damage. 
  
   
  63 
   
  Large object 
  Armor Class: 15 
  Hit Points: 100 
  Crew: 4 
  Cost: 750 gp 
   
  A covered ram consists of a movable gallery equipped 
  with a heavy log suspended from two roof beams by 
  chains. The log is shod in iron and used to batter 
  through doors and barricades. 
  It takes fewer creatures to operate a covered ram 
  because the operators have a supporting gallery to 
  suspend the weight from. Because of the roof, ram 
  operators have total cover against attacks from above. 
  Covered Ram. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 
  5 ft., one object. Hit: 16 (3d10) bludgeoning damage. 
  Gargantuan object 
  Armor Class: 15 
  Hit Points: 200 
  Crew: Varies 
  Cost: 2,000 gp 
   
  A siege tower is a mobile wooden structure with a 
  beam frame and slats in its walls. Medium or smaller 
  creatures can use the siege tower to reach the top of 
  walls up to 40 feet high. A creature in the tower has 
  total cover from attacks outside the tower. 
  Large wooden wheels or rollers allow the tower to 
  be pushed or pulled by soldiers or beasts of burden. A 
  total combined Strength rating of 100 or more is 
  required to move the tower while empty. Triple that 
  number if the tower is full of soldiers as it advances. 
  Gargantuan object 
  Armor Class: 15 
  Hit Points: 350 
  Crew: Varies 
  Cost: 3,500 gp 
   
  A massive siege tower is a larger wooden structure 
  with a beam frame and slats in its walls. Medium or 
  smaller creatures can use the siege tower to reach the 
  top of walls up to 65 feet high. A creature in the tower 
  has total cover from attacks outside the tower. 
  The massive siege tower is too large for wheels and 
  can only be propelled on rollers. The monstrosity is 
  pushed or pulled by a great many soldiers or beasts of 
  burden. A total combined Strength rating of 200 or 
  more is required to move the massive tower while 
  empty. Triple that number if the massive tower is full 
  of soldiers as it advances. 
  Large object 
  Armor Class: 15 
  Hit Points: 30 
  Crew: 4 
  Cost: 3,500 gp 
   
  This device is designed to pump oil in a high-velocity 
  stream at an enemy. The oil is lit as it leaves the 
  siphon, creating a flaming stream that can ignite 
  flammable objects. 
  Flaming Oil. The siphon projects flaming oil onto a 
  10-foot square area at a point within 60 feet of it. Any 
  creature in the area must make a DC 15 Dexterity 
  saving throw, taking 10 (3d6) fire damage on a failed 
  save, or half as much damage on a successful one. 
  Wooden structures and vessels in the area are likely to 
  catch on fire. Each shot of oil consumes about 80 pints, 
  a quantity that costs 8 gp. 
  This section separates siege guns from other siege 
  engines. Siege guns are not normally available unless 
  the Dungeon Master includes gunpowder (or some 
  magical equivalent) to the game. (Siege guns are 
  normally available when the DM has allowed one of 
  the Firearms “limited lists” from the Comprehensive 
  Equipment Manual.) 
  Like all siege equipment, siege guns are immune to 
  poison and psychic damage. 
  Siege guns are divided into two types based on their 
  mounting. 
  Field guns typically move with an army. Large field 
  guns are mounted on mobile platforms that include 
  two large wheels and a tail-like support leg. Huge 
  versions require a wagon. Each field gun is typically 
  towed by a team of two or four horses. 
  Ship’s guns are less mobile, mounted on a ship or a 
  fortification. Their mountings are squat, heavy frames, 
  
   
  64 
   
  typically equipped with small, sturdy carriage wheels 
  suitable for absorbing recoil. 
  This distinction is mostly traditional since the 
  weapons from either type, with some mounting 
  modifications, can be used in either capacity. Any siege 
  gun can be purchased as a field gun or a ship’s gun. 
  Changing the mounting later requires carpentry work 
  valued at 1% of the weapon’s standard cost. 
  Siege guns have a major advantage over other siege 
  weapons when they are aligned en masse. Their shape 
  is narrower, allowing more of these weapons to be 
  lined up for a ship’s broadside or to volley from atop a 
  castle’s ramparts. 
  When using a battle map marked by a grid, a siege 
  gun does not have a square space. Instead, it has a 
  width that is 5 feet narrower than its normal 
  dimensions. For example, a Large gun occupies a 10-
  by-5-foot space, while a Huge gun occupies a 15-by-
  10-foot space. 
  Unless using the Slow Loading variant rule, a siege gun 
  requires one action to load, one action to aim, and one 
  action to fire, just as with many siege weapons. 
  The ammunition required to fire a siege gun costs 5 
  sp per pound of the shot’s weight, which includes the 
  cost of gunpowder.  
  Large object, ship’s gun 
  Armor Class: 19 
  Hit Points: 75 
  Crew: 5 
  Cost: 6,500 gp 
   
  This massive gun is designed to fire a murderous 
  weight of shot over a short distance. At its longest 
  range, the barrel requires a significant upward tilt and 
  the shot flies in a pronounced arc. 
  A carronade can use indirect fire at targets within its 
  long range increment, shooting over intervening 
  obstacles like other ships. Indirect fire prevents the 
  use of many types of cover. 
  32 lb. Cannonball. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, 
  range 300/1,200 ft., one target. Hit: 55 (10d10) 
  bludgeoning damage. 
  Large object, ship’s gun 
  Armor Class: 19 
  Hit Points: 75 
  Crew: 5 
  Cost: 3,500 gp 
   
  This heavy weapon is typical of cannon craftsmanship. 
  24 lb. Cannonball. Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, 
  range 600/2,400 ft., one target. Hit: 44 (8d10) 
  bludgeoning damage. 
  Small object, ship’s gun 
  Armor Class: 15 
  Hit Points: 15 
  Crew: 1 
  Cost: 600 gp 
   
  This small ship’s gun has no mounting frame. It is 
  attached to a swiveling pintle that rests in any number 
  of prepared positions along the gunwales or on 
  platforms among the masts. A single strong crew 
  VARIANT: SLOW FIRING 
  Using this variant, firing times depend on gun teams 
  working in unison to operate their weapons. This is 
  particularly suited to ponderous siege warfare or 
  ship battles in the age of sail, when minutes would 
  pass between each cannon shot. 
  With this rule, before a siege gun can be fired, it 
  must first be run back, swabbed clean, loaded with 
  powder and shot, packed, run out, and aimed. Siege 
  guns therefore require 250 rounds of labor to 
  prepare and fire. The work can be split among as 
  many as 5 gunners, allowing the gun to fire at a rate 
  of once every 5 minutes (every 50 rounds). 
  This rate contemplates unseasoned crew 
  members performing the operation. Professional, 
  trained gun crews (skilled hirelings) each provide 
  double the labor output. This means a siege gun 
  fully crewed by trained gunners will fire, at fastest, 
  once every 2½ minutes (25 rounds). 
  A siege gun previously prepared can be fired by a 
  lone gunner using a single action. 
  
   
  65 
   
  member can lift the weapon out of its position and 
  carry it to a new one. 
  If using the variant Slow Firing rule, a culverin 
  requires only 50 crew actions to load and fire, but its 
  small size and fixed position make it impossible for 
  more than a single crew member to operate thusly. 
  4 lb. Cannonball. Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, 
  range 50/200 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d10) 
  bludgeoning damage. 
  Large object, field gun 
  Armor Class: 19 
  Hit Points: 60 
  Crew: 5 
  Cost: 2,000 gp 
   
  The most common field piece, this 
  mid-level weapon fires a reliable 
  load using a relatively low quantity 
  of gunpowder. 
  12 lb. Cannonball. Ranged 
  Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, 
  range 350/1,400 ft., one 
  target. Hit: 27 (5d10) 
  bludgeoning damage. 
  Large object, field gun 
  Armor Class: 19 
  Hit Points: 50 
  Crew: 5 
  Cost: 3,000 gp 
   
  Larger than a demi-cannon, this field gun throws a 
  much heavier ball. 
  18 lb. Cannonball. Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, 
  range 500/2,000 ft., one target. Hit: 38 (7d10) 
  bludgeoning damage. 
  Large object, ship’s gun 
  Armor Class: 19 
  Hit Points: 50 
  Crew: 5 
  Cost: 3,000 gp 
   
  This gun is longer and fires a lighter load than 
  weapons of similar weight. The additional range 
  makes long nines well-suited for chase work, mounted 
  at the fore or aft of a ship. 
  9 lb. Cannonball. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, 
  range 750/3,00 ft., one target. Hit: 22 (4d10) 
  bludgeoning damage. 
  Huge object, field gun 
  Armor Class: 19 
  Hit Points: 125 
  Crew: 5 
  Cost: 6,000 gp 
   
  Unlike other field guns, a mortar rides a 
  heavy support frame, much like a ship’s gun. 
  Tiny carriage wheels allow the weapon to 
  be oriented. A mortar is typically 
  transported via wagon. 
  A mortar can use indirect fire, 
  shooting over obstacles like 
  hills and castle walls. Indirect 
  fire prevents the use of many 
  types of cover. 
  42 lb. Cannonball. Ranged 
  Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 
  800/3,200 ft., one target. Hit: 66 
  (12d10) bludgeoning damage. 
  Medium object, field gun 
  Armor Class: 17 
  Hit Points: 25 
  Crew: 5 
  Cost: 1,250 gp 
   
  A single horse can pull this lightweight weapon. The 
  ordinance rifle is highly accurate, with exceptional 
  range, though less powerful than other field guns. 
  6 lb. Cannonball. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, 
  range 75/300 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (3d10) 
  bludgeoning damage. 
   
   
  
   
  66 
   
   
   
  
   
  67 
   
  HIS CHAPTER HELPS TO MANAGE THE CONVERSION 
  of wealth into services. It includes costs for 
  regular hirelings, but it mostly focuses on 
  large groups gathered for war. It includes 
  several aspects of military recruitment: the 
  methods and costs needed to hire and maintain 
  soldiers, rules for leading armies, and a lightweight 
  game system to determine outcomes when pitting 
  military forces against one another. 
  This section covers hirelings and one-off services of 
  specialized function, like spellcasting. 
  The pay shown on the Services table is a minimum 
  cost to employ a hireling; some experts require more. 
  Untrained hirelings perform menial work without 
  specialized skill, those who can begin their work with 
  little or training or education. These include laborers, 
  maids, porters, and similar workers. 
  Untrained hirelings have commoner stat blocks. 
  (See the Monster Manual.) 
  Skilled hirelings have training with weapons or tools, 
  including artisans, mercenaries, scribes, and the like. 
  They typically have proficiency with a type of tool and 
  a score of 14 in the related ability. 
  Skilled hirelings have the stat blocks of commoners. 
  Soldiers instead use the details for bandit, guard, or 
  tribal warrior. (See the Monster Manual.) 
  Long-term hirelings are those you give steady work to, 
  whether skilled or untrained. You take these people 
  into your household or bring them along with you on 
  your adventures, thus paying their room and board. 
  Therefore, long-term hirelings receive less pay in 
  coins. If you do not supply room and board, double the 
  cost of the hireling’s services. 
  Spellcasters are usually not transactional with their 
  magic. Nonetheless, it is possible to hire magical 
  services under the right circumstances. 
  The expected availability of a spellcaster varies based 
  on the local population. See the Buying Power by 
  Population table in an earlier chapter to gauge the size 
  of population centers for these purposes. 
  Cantrips and 1st-level spells are available in most 
  small villages, but a larger village is needed for a 2nd-
  level spell. Towns of various sizes will probably have 
  spellcasters able to manage 3rd-level and 4th-level 
  spells. Anything higher-level almost always requires 
  looking for the service in a city of some size, or 
  perhaps following a lead to an isolated wizard’s tower 
  or druid’s hermitage. 
  Sometimes a spellcaster with greater capabilities 
  chooses to reside in a place with a low population. 
  These anti-social spellcasters tend not to make 
  themselves available for such services but, if you can 
  find one, they might be cajoled into providing a spell. 
   
  SERVICES 
  Service 
  Pay 
  Hireling, long-term 
   
     Skilled (groom, guard) 
  1 gp per day 
     Untrained (porter, valet) 
  1 sp per day 
  Hireling, short-term 
   
     Skilled (physiker, researcher) 
  2 gp per day 
     Untrained (laborer) 
  2 sp per day 
  Spellcaster 
  Varies, see below 
   
  SPELLCASTING SERVICES 
  Spell Slot 
  Pay 
  Multiplier 
  Availability  
  Cantrip 
  2 gp 
  x1 to x2 
  Small village 
  Level 1 
  10 gp 
  x1 to x2 
  Small village 
  Level 2 
  40 gp 
  x1 to x3 
  Village 
  Level 3 
  90 gp 
  x1 to x3 
  Town 
  Level 4 
  160 gp 
  x1 to x4 
  Large town 
  Level 5 
  250 gp 
  x1 to x4 
  City 
  Level 6 
  360 gp 
  x1 to x5 
  City 
  Level 7 
  420 gp 
  x1 to x5 
  Major city 
  Level 8 
  720 gp 
  x1 to x5 
  Major city 
  Level 9 
  810 gp 
  x1 to x6 
  Major city 
   
  
   
  68 
   
  The Pay column on the 
  Spellcasting Services 
  table indicates the 
  minimum price that 
  spellcasters charge for their 
  services. The formula used 
  here, adopted from an old 
  Adventurers League system, 
  is the square of the spell’s 
  level, multiplied by 10. For 
  example, 4 squared is 16, 
  multiplied by 10 is 160. A 
  fourth-level spell thus 
  costs 160 gp to have 
  cast. This value does 
  not contemplate the 
  additional expense of 
  costly material components. 
  The multiplier indicates a general rarity for the 
  spell’s level. If characters don’t have time to seek out 
  the best price, perhaps needing spells cast the same 
  day, the DM will multiply the base cost in the Pay 
  column by a number somewhere in the range shown 
  by the Multiplier column. Spellcasters don’t like to be 
  rushed and are often willing to inflate their costs to 
  whatever the market will bear. 
  This multiplier can also be applied for various other 
  reasons. Perhaps the person seeking 
  spellcasting services 
  annoys the spellcaster, 
  or the spellcaster 
  normally reserves such 
  services for members of 
  a specific race or 
  religion. There are any 
  number of reasons that 
  such a markup could 
  apply; the Pay column 
  simply represents an ideal 
  cost derived from ideal 
  circumstances.  
  It is typical for spellcasters 
  to supply a spell’s material 
  components. This ensures that 
  the components are on hand 
  when needed and are of the right type 
  and quality for the spell to 
  succeed. If a spell 
  requires a costly material 
  component, the person 
  receiving the service must bear 
  the cost. This is additional to 
  the basic price of the 
  spellcasting service. 
  When looking for 
  spellcasting services, it’s no 
  good bringing your own 
  material components; a 
  spellcaster that provides 
  commercially available casting 
  has already invested in the 
  components and won’t look 
  kindly on you trying to reduce 
  these expected fees by offering cheap alternative 
  components from dubious sources. 
  If a costly material component is not consumed when 
  the spell is cast, the customer need only pay one-tenth 
  of the component’s value. For example, the 100 gp 
  pearl required for an identify spell is reusable, so the 
  caster charges only one-tenth (10 gp) of its acquisition 
  price. After a while, the spellcaster may recoup the 
  investment cost of having such a component on hand 
  and might eventually turn a small profit on it. 
  If the material component is one that 
  is consumed in the casting, the 
  customer must normally pay 
  double the component’s 
  value. For example, the 500 
  gp value in diamonds needed 
  for a raise dead spell would 
  require the buyer to lay out 
  double the expense (1,000 
  gp). Casters who market 
  their spells invest serious 
  coin to acquire these 
  components, tying up that 
  wealth until the right 
  customer comes along. 
  The inflated price 
  compensates them for 
  holding onto these expensive 
  inventories, having them ready 
  at a moment’s notice. 
  
   
  69 
   
  Some casters will provide spells without collecting the 
  price on the Pay column. This usually takes the form of 
  a local cleric who uses spells to support and assist a 
  congregation. A member of a faith who finds the right 
  temple can expect to receive low-level assistance for 
  free, the only cost being the basic value of any costly 
  material components consumed in the casting. Many 
  clerics see this sort of thing as their duty and don’t 
  mind supplicants who supply their own material 
  components. Some clerics also see this as a great 
  opportunity to proselytize, not restricting their 
  services to members of their own faith. 
  Another way to get free spellcasting is to perform 
  tasks or quests for a spellcaster. This is a particularly 
  appropriate exchange when the spell needed is high-
  level and the party is too low-level to afford it. For 
  example, if a low-level party needs a member raised 
  from the dead, they might need to go on a quest to 
  repay the cleric who casts the spell. (In this case, the 
  cleric might cast the spell first, on condition that the 
  party complete the quest, taking this “payment” after 
  casting so they have better odds of success.) 
  Because there is a chance that a spellcaster casting 
  wish will never be able to cast the spell again, wish is 
  essentially unavailable for purchase through 
  spellcasting services. This “finality effect” does not 
  apply when duplicating other spells, so a spellcaster 
  might be hired to cast wish with the spell-duplication 
  functionality. This might be useful when only a wizard 
  is available for hire and the party needs a cleric spell 
  cast. Otherwise, the party could simply pay the lower 
  cost to have the lower-level spell cast directly. 
  Although the maintenance costs of a property include 
  the financing of a number of soldiers, these troops 
  alone are not sufficiently to constitute “armies.” 
  Maintaining true military forces, not mere garrisons, 
  represents the pinnacle of outlays; only truly wealthy 
  and successful adventurers will be able to convert 
  their treasure into standing armies. 
  For the rules of this chapter, an army has at least a 
  hundred members; these rules do not pertain to 
  smaller groups of warriors, the personal following of a 
  competent warrior like Robin Hood’s band of Merry 
  Men, nor do these rules address followers and 
  important lieutenants as non-player characters. 
  To acquire an army, characters with sufficient wealth 
  can simply hire soldiers (long-term skilled hirelings), 
  purchase equipment for each, and pay their food and 
  lodging. A tiny army of 1,000 soldiers would require 
  an initial outlay of 60,000 gp to equip. This initial cost 
  is staggering. On top of this, expect to pay an 
  additional 2,000 gp each day to maintain that size of a 
  fighting force. 
  Of course, this assumes a ready source of soldiers in 
  the area to recruit. And this just contemplates 
  infantry; it doesn’t include the weapons, armor, and 
  horses of more specialized soldiers, nor the siege 
  equipment, transportation methods, or supply train 
  needed to maximize the army’s usefulness.  
  Building and supporting an army on nothing but 
  gold is an impractical proposition. Successful armies 
  usually take advantage of various factors to defray 
  these costs. 
  By providing food and lodging, the daily cost of skilled 
  hirelings is cut in half. Economies of scale allow that 
  billeting and provisioning an army are cheaper than 
  paying them to find their own food and lodging, but 
  this requires a place to put the army.  
  Lodging is simple if the recruiter owns a sufficiently 
  large fortification. So long as the army has a base of 
  operations to return to, lodging is not a concern while 
  it is on campaign. A landowner needs only find food 
  for her army, which might be managed by the hirelings 
  included with the property. A fortification can, with 
  cramped conditions, house an army equal to 20 times 
  it’s Garrison Strength rating. If an army encamps 
  around a fortification, instead of just dwelling within 
  it, the infrastructure can support 100 times its 
  Garrison Strength rating for a period of about a month. 
  The Building and Maintenance Costs table in an 
  earlier chapter has a Garrison Strength column 
  showing how many of its skilled hirelings might be 
  soldiers. (These soldiers are not additional to those in 
  the Skilled Hirelings column.) 
  By finding the right recruits, like the members of fierce 
  warrior cultures or the veterans of a recently ended 
  
   
  70 
   
  war, the would-be war leader’s soldiers will already 
  own a fair bit of armaments. Such soldiers require only 
  half the normal cost to equip. In rare cases, some 
  soldiers come fully equipped. 
  Costs can also be reduced by hiring less-skilled 
  soldiers, a peasant army or a force of raw recruits. 
  This halves the maintenance costs for the army (or 
  that portion of it), but using untrained hirelings has 
  obvious drawbacks when it comes to fighting. 
  Soldiers are typically paid only periodically. 
  Sometimes they are paid a signing amount up front 
  and the remainder at the end of the campaign or 
  various periods within the campaign. An army that 
  captures a wealthy objective might suddenly have 
  more money to pay the troops. And if the army is 
  active, the soldiers that die represent outlays that do 
  not have to be paid. (In some societies, fallen soldiers’ 
  wages are paid anyway, going to the families or 
  designated heirs.) 
  Some armies are founded on the notion of pure 
  plunder. Such soldiers receive no pay (see cultural 
  acquisition, below). They expect to loot the wealth of 
  their enemies if successful in battle. In this way, the 
  army leaders pay little or nothing to maintain the 
  soldiers, but the soldiers get rewards anyway. 
  This generally prevents the army from any policies 
  that prohibit pillaging or mistreating civilians, which 
  will very much color the reputation of the army and 
  those involved with it. 
  Culture-based acquisitions occur when members of 
  the army are not motivated by pay. Sometimes this is 
  the result of social pressures, cultural expectations, 
  laws of conscription, slavery, or other methods. 
  Whatever the case, the cost to maintain these 
  soldiers is halved. If the army’s leaders provide the 
  food and lodging, there is no payroll expense for such 
  soldiers. In any culture-based acquisition, the Dungeon 
  Master must determine ad hoc the number of soldiers 
  that can be acquired. It is difficult to mix culturally 
  acquired soldiers with soldiers of regular pay; 
  altruism is fine until someone else starts getting paid 
  for the work you are doing free. 
  Conscription is the tool of civilized societies. When 
  threatened, civilians are legally pressed into the army 
  for a set term of service or the length of a war. Such 
  civilians count as unskilled hirelings. They almost 
  never have their own equipment, but some might 
  bring farm implements or the leftover weapons from 
  their grandparents’ time at war.  
  In war-like or raiding societies, healthy adults are 
  expected to fight to maintain the society’s way of life. 
  To organize an army, the leader must have a certain 
  reputation and a specific goal. Tribes of martial 
  barbarians or goblin-kin might rally to the banner of a 
  strong leader, seeking to take territory from rivals or 
  plunder a nearby city. These soldiers typically come 
  with their own equipment; maintaining gear for war is 
  an expected part of adulthood in warrior societies. 
  Slavery is another approach that armies use to get 
  cheap troops. Unless a society raises its warrior slaves 
  from a young age using exceptional techniques for 
  their control and conditioning, the slave portion of an 
  army is little better than fodder. Slaves must be 
  provided with gear suitable for the campaign, although 
  they usually have the cheapest weapons and armor, 
  denoting their station. Resorting to slave armies 
  creates an historic stain upon any lasting gains its 
  leaders accomplish. Civilized societies consider these 
  efforts unchivalrous and illegitimate. 
  Reputation also serves a role in gaining soldiers. 
  Characters with martial capabilities, and who have 
  accomplished heroic deeds (those around 11th level), 
  often acquire the service of itinerant soldiers. These 
  warriors recognize the cunning or accomplishments of 
  like-minded persons and seek to be a part of their 
  enterprises. Such soldiers fight for honor. They do not 
  require pay nor stipends for equipment, but their 
  leaders must have ways to feed and house them. 
  Characters in feudal systems with high noble titles 
  can call upon the soldiers their subordinate nobles 
  maintain. There is no cost to employ, equip, or 
  maintain these soldiers; that duty falls to the nobles to 
  whom they belong. For example, in addition to her 
  own warriors, a countess going to war may call upon 
  the militaries maintained by each of the barons within 
  her county. In the same way, the duke may call upon 
  the armies of the counts in the duchy, as well as the 
  armies of the barons in each county. 
  
   
  71 
   
  The previous costs only contemplate the investment of 
  simple soldiers. More specialized warriors require 
  significant additional funds to equip initially. 
  Infantry and archers both cost the same to equip, 
  about 60 gp each. Infantry units have cheaper 
  weapons than archers but make up for it with heavier 
  armor and shields. 
  Elite soldiers cost about 250 gp each to equip. These 
  typically wear more-protective chainmail or splint 
  armor. They use professional weaponry like polearms 
  and often have more than one back-up weapon. 
  True knights cost 2,000 gp each to equip. They wear 
  plate armor, carry shields, and ride powerful 
  warhorses. A squire or servant accompanies each, 
  usually with an additional cost. Despite the heavy 
  investment cost, knights typically fight for causes, not 
  gold, so they can be maintained simply by paying room 
  and board. 
  Another consideration for a would-be war leader is 
  the cost of engines. Catapults, siege towers, wagons for 
  the supply trains, professional logisticians to chart and 
  track army movement and supplies, and other costs 
  may also apply. Refer to the earlier chapters in this 
  supplement for the costs of siege engines and ships. 
  In many circumstances, characters cannot freely raise 
  armies. Local leaders get nervous about growing 
  military forces that are not under their own control. 
  The exact point at which a military force becomes 
  too large to tolerate is determined by the Dungeon 
  Master. Of course, what the leader is doing with her 
  army also plays into how tolerant a ruler will be 
  toward it. 
  In addition to local rulers, the nature of the army 
  plays some role in how large it may grow before other 
  forces seek to interfere. A character raising a force of 
  orcs and goblins near to civilized lands may find that 
  their presence alone is enough for neighboring armies 
  to march against it, or adventurers to come and 
  assassinate the leader or otherwise thwart the army’s 
  assumed intentions. 
  Even when militaries are generally approved of, 
  there are often set limitations. If two barons have 
  frequent feuds, the countess is not likely to allow one 
  of them to begin recruiting a massive army, fearing 
  instability in the county. 
  The Dungeon Master’s Guide presents an optional 
  loyalty mechanic on page 93. This is intended for 
  individual nonplayer characters, but with some 
  adaptation, it works as well for a whole army, sub-
  groups within an army, or the officers that control 
  portions of an army. Army loyalty can be roleplayed, 
  or it can be controlled by this rule. 
  Using this system, troops that are poorly paid, are ill-
  equipped, or are made to suffer terrible conditions and 
  humiliating losses, are more likely to abandon their 
  service. Troops that are treated well and paid well are 
  more likely to fight to the death for their cause. 
  The loyalty score of an army (or any sub-division of an 
  army—if the Dungeon Master wishes to distinguish 
  them) is measured on a scale from 0 to 20. Scores can 
  never exceed this range. The starting loyalty score is 
  half the leader’s Charisma score and the maximum 
  effective score is equal to the Charisma score of the 
  leader. If leadership of the army changes hands, adjust 
  the loyalty score accordingly. 
  The Dungeon Master may wish to track loyalty 
  separately for divisions in the army. This is useful in 
  multinational forces or when groups of unified 
  soldiers hail from different societies. In this case, the 
  divisions will have a loyalty score applicable to their 
  officers. This can create scenarios where a harsh and 
  overbearing officer tries to follow the army leader’s 
  orders but the soldiers in that sub-division revolt. 
  The Dungeon Master should track army loyalty 
  secretly so that players won’t be fully conscious of 
  exact numbers. However, an army’s morale is usually 
  notable to astute officers, meaning the leader might 
  have some general notion of the loyalty rating, 
  perhaps within a few points. 
  Increase an army’s loyalty score by 1d4 points each 
  time the leader successfully achieves results favorable 
  to the army. This typically means each success in 
  battle, whether to gain plunder or to defend the 
  homeland. But do not apply this bonus if the army’s 
  battle casualties were greater than 30%. 
  Decrease an army’s loyalty score by 1d4 points each 
  time the leader fails to meet the army’s expectations. 
  
   
  72 
   
  This means each month of failure to pay wages after 
  the point when they are owed, failures in battle, or 
  forcing the army into poor conditions like a grueling 
  desert march or camping in rotting swampland. 
  Decrease the loyalty score by 2d4 if the army has 
  reason to suspect that their hardships are the result of 
  the leader’s selfish desires for personal gain. 
  An army with a loyalty score rated higher than 10 will 
  fight to the death for its leader, fighting through 
  terrible odds to achieve the leader’s goals. 
  An army whose score is within the range of 1-10 is 
  only tenuously loyal and might be willing to leave 
  service and enter another leader’s army (though 
  typically not a rival’s army) or might resist 
  undertaking extreme activities. 
  If the army’s score drops to 0, it is no longer loyal 
  and will soon abandon the leader. Its members might 
  even take service in a rival or hostile leader’s forces. If 
  the army was treated badly enough, it might actively 
  sabotage the leader’s efforts, leaving service as the 
  enemy’s army is forming up to charge. 
  This section presents a method for resolving the clash 
  of armies. The Dungeon Master should check the 
  following factors to determine the outcomes. These 
  results are best decided at the outset, during pre-game 
  preparation, so that the story does not pause while the 
  DM figures things out. The war should be a backdrop 
  for your campaign while the game’s focus remains on 
  the player characters. 
  The important things to decide in a battle are: (1) 
  who wins, (2) which troops are lost by each side, (3) 
  what impact the clash has on the story, and (4) what 
  roles the players get to play in the conflict. 
  These rules understand that the storied scene where 
  a single hero turns the tide of a battle lacks credibility 
  and can rob the conflict of its sense of scale. This is not 
  to say that player characters should play no role in 
  battles, or that they cannot have heroic encounters 
  within them, just that these scenes should not 
  determine the ultimate outcome of a major clash. 
  When warring kingdoms take to the field, the entire 
  fabric of the campaign shifts in ways that should be 
  controlled by the Dungeon Master, not by the presence 
  of a few individuals or the caprice of a few die rolls. 
  WARGAMING SYSTEMS 
  Despite its roots in wargaming, mass-combat 
  systems don’t play well to a D&D audience. The 
  game’s history is littered with the corpses of failed 
  or little-used army subgames, both official and 
  third-party in nature. 
  TSR’s official version, the Battlesystem game 
  (republished for the second edition of D&D), used 
  modifications of normal character-scale rules to 
  dice out the clash of armies. It used figurines and 
  battlefields as an introduction to true wargaming. 
  Battlesystem was a full, standalone game that 
  received great reviews by its owners and creators 
  but suffered a mixed reception from the public. 
  The game never really caught on as a game to play 
  on its own or as a system to use in combination 
  with DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. It has been 
  discontinued for several decades. 
  Later mass-combat rules have tried to be lighter, 
  simpler, and more abstract. They moved away 
  from full-scale miniatures and wargaming, seeking 
  only to address clashes of armies as a “side-game” 
  or “mini-game” within a DUNGEONS & DRAGONS 
  campaign. 
  These wargame-like offerings take a somewhat 
  standardized form. They have units of various 
  sizes with a handful of ratings dissimilar from 
  normal game statistics. Dungeon Masters control 
  their clashes with new roll types, incorporating 
  various modifiers for terrain, tactics, and other 
  factors. To keep things interesting, these systems 
  invariably incorporate (1) random outcomes 
  based on die rolling, and (2) altered outcomes 
  based on player character activities. The 
  drawbacks of these systems are twofold. 
  First, these additional rules are tedious and will 
  swallow a whole game session (or more). Only the 
  Dungeon Master will bother to learn any of those 
  rules to the degree needed to make optimal use of 
  them, and rare will be the player interested in 
  watching the DM play a sub-game with herself. 
  Second, as the size of clashing forces increases 
  toward the scale of true armies, the idea of player 
  characters having a significant effect on the 
  outcome becomes increasingly unbelievable. 
   
  
   
  73 
   
  In any clash of armies, the certain winner will usually 
  be obvious. Two forces meet, one with vastly superior 
  numbers and position. The lesser of these two forces 
  will lose, leaving only the question of how badly.  
  Officially deciding the winner is the first thing for 
  the Dungeon Master to do. This is the opposite 
  approach of most mass-combat systems, those that 
  want you to decide winners only following a series of 
  awkward rolls. While rolling for winners makes for a 
  touch more drama, it more often produces improbable 
  results and takes the focus away from the players. 
  When determining the winner, the DM should 
  consider the numbers on both sides, their training, 
  equipment, quality of tactics, leadership, morale, 
  presence of disease in the camp, use of special warfare 
  equipment, access to combat magic and healing magic, 
  and any other factor that may play a role in the 
  outcome. Look for unique interactions where one side 
  is heavily favored, such as archers showering a slowly 
  approaching army without response; particularly in 
  heroic literature, these can defy the simple calculus of 
  equal attrition. These moments make a great 
  impression when described to the players. 
  A clash of armies is typically a whole battle, from start 
  to finish. It takes place within a single day. If a battle 
  proves indecisive, an additional clash may take place 
  on the following day or the next, with additional 
  clashes continuing until the outcome is certain. The 
  Dungeon Master can decide that a battle of multiple 
  clashes has different winners on different days. This 
  can supply additional nuance to determined outcomes. 
  The winning side of the conflict obtains its nominal 
  goals. It forces the enemy to retreat, takes control of 
  the contested village, or isolates the other army from 
  its reinforcements. Usually, a parlay and peace are 
  worked out following the clash, depending on the 
  larger context of the battle. Whatever the case, the DM 
  should decide the nature of the victory including any 
  shift in army composition, territorial positioning, or 
  political upheaval that results. 
  Each clash produces casualty numbers, as described 
  below. The Dungeon Master can impose these 
  calculations or just decide losses based on what makes 
  the most sense. Losses are important to calculate 
  when you are tracking the costs needed to pay 
  surviving soldiers; otherwise skip these fine details. 
  Both sides suffer casualties in war. These losses are 
  based on two calculations. 
  First, the losing side suffers 20% casualties. From a 
  historical perspective on medieval warfare, this is a 
  staggering percentage. Second, the winning side 
  suffers half of the loser’s number of casualties, to a 
  maximum of half its own army size. 
  For example, two armies clash, one with 100 
  soldiers and one with 250 soldiers. If the larger force 
  loses, it suffers 50 casualties (20% of its fighters). The 
  winning force suffers half that number (25 
  casualties). 
  
   
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  Had the smaller force lost, it would have suffered 
  only 20 casualties (20% of its fighters) before things 
  turned so decisively against it as to require a 
  surrender or retreat. The larger force would only lose 
  10 casualties. 
  If an army has multiple troop types, the Dungeon 
  Master may apply loss percentages unevenly across 
  the types based on tactics, positioning, or special 
  abilities; perhaps the veterans used the recruits as 
  fodder to protect their positions, shifting many of the 
  veterans’ expected losses onto the recruits. 
  Sieges are more drawn out than normal army clashes. 
  In a siege, the defenders are greatly advantaged by 
  their fortifications. Rarely will besiegers clash, 
  preferring to wait out their enemies. Sieges typically 
  resolve when the defenders surrender because of 
  starvation or when allied reinforcements scare off the 
  besieging force. 
  In a siege assault against fortified walls, the 
  besiegers will lose each day’s clash until the Dungeon 
  Master determines that a significant event removes 
  the effectiveness of the fortifications. This might be the 
  failure of a wall after weeks of trebuchet attacks, 
  sapping, or magical weakening. It could be a band of 
  traitors within the fortification opening the gates to 
  the attackers. Or it could simply be that the number of 
  defenders drops to a level below what is necessary to 
  prevent besiegers from climbing over the walls. 
  In losing a clash, the force assaulting the walls 
  suffers 30% casualties, to a maximum of 1 fighter per 
  active defender. (Most civilians within a fortification 
  are not counted as part of the army.) The defenders 
  will suffer 1% casualties, to a minimum of 1 per 50 
  attackers. For fortifications weaker than a full castle 
  with curtain walls, or with run-down defenses, the 
  Dungeon Master can adjust the defenders’ casualties 
  to as high as 5%. 
  For example, a besieging force of 3,000 assaults the 
  walls of a stronghold defended by only 300. The 
  assaulters suffer 300 casualties that day. They could 
  have lost up to 900 (30%), but their losses were 
  reduced to not exceed the size of the defending force. 
  The defenders lose 6 casualties. Normally the loss 
  would have only been 3 (1%), but the minimum loss is 
  one-fiftieth of the attacking number. Had the Dungeon 
  Master determined that the walls were not high or 
  were in severe disrepair, the defenders’ loss 
  percentage could be as high as 5%, in which case the 
  defending force would have suffered 15 casualties. 
  Use field loss rules instead of siege loss rules if a 
  fortification is completely ineffective, as in the case of 
  the entire attacking force flying over the walls. 
  In a fantasy setting, armies may include spellcasters or 
  ferocious monsters with amazing and decisive 
  capabilities. Often, these factors will play into the 
  Dungeon Master’s determination of who wins the 
  conflict. Large-scale spellcasting is particularly 
  decisive when the other force lacks the ability to 
  counter that magic or respond in kind. 
  Exceptional attacks also apply a modifier to the 
  enemy’s casualty count, doubling, tripling, or 
  quadrupling it at the Dungeon Master’s whim, 
  reflecting the nature of those attacks. If both sides 
  possess such means, a single clash can be devastating 
  to both armies. 
  Half of casualty numbers are “final,” representing 
  deaths in the army or injuries that prevent those 
  soldiers from returning to battle. The remainder are 
  “simple” casualties. Simple casualties will recover and 
  be able to fight again in about seven days. 
  At the Dungeon Master’s discretion, the armor or 
  other protections used by an army will modify its 
  casualty numbers. Those with “inferior armor” (AC 12 
  or lower) double their applied casualty percentages. 
  Those with “good armor” (AC 16 through 19) halve 
  their applied casualty percentages. Those with 
  “superior armor” (AC 20 or higher) halve the applied 
  casualty percentages and convert half the final 
  casualties into simple casualties. 
  Magical Recovery. An army with significant magical 
  healing resources can convert half of its daily simple 
  casualties back into viable soldiers, ready to fight in 
  the next day’s clash. 
  Sometimes powerful magic or deific intervention 
  brings the dead back to life or, more disturbingly, 
  raises them as undead to fight the next day. 
  While player characters essentially never turn the tide 
  of large battles while within them, there are certain 
  activities they can do ahead of time to tip the scales. 
  
   
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  In a close scenario, any of the following events may be 
  impactful or decisive. The scenarios here are just 
  examples; the Dungeon Master should alter these or 
  make up new encounters to suit. Remember, these 
  events will only change the ultimate outcome of a 
  clash of armies if the odds are already close. 
  Assassinate the General. This scenario probably 
  plays out at night. The player characters sneak into the 
  enemy camp and assassinate a war leader whose 
  tactical cunning might otherwise be decisive in battle. 
  This conflict emphasizes stealth; if the characters 
  remain hidden, they escape easily. If they are 
  discovered, before or after the assassination, they 
  must fight their way out or otherwise escape. 
  Alternative versions include stealing a war banner 
  or other important icon to affect morale, burning siege 
  engines or poisoning wells during a siege scenario, or 
  sabotaging important works like a floating bridge. 
  Develop a Plan. Smart, tactical characters might be 
  able to turn the tide by formulating an impressive plan 
  to win the battle. The strategy might include deceptive 
  feints or timely maneuvers that contemplate the 
  peculiarities of the terrain. The Dungeon Master can 
  determine the effectiveness of these plans with an 
  Intelligence (History) check against a DC that reflects 
  the difficulty of the upcoming fight. Alternately, the 
  check might be opposed by the same roll from the 
  enemy commander. 
  If the players produce a useful plan, one that is 
  impressive from a tactical or dramatic standpoint, the 
  DM may forego any rolls and simply decide how 
  effective the plan is for the army. 
  Impassioned Speech. The historic significance of 
  inspiring speeches ahead of battle is dubious. A war 
  leader’s words cannot carry beyond a small part of the 
  army. However, raising morale this way is a time-
  honored dramatic device that enhances the story and 
  keeps the focus of the game where it should be, on the 
  players. Therefore, the DM may give one character the 
  opportunity to make an impassioned speech before 
  each day’s clash. If multiple characters are leading 
  multiple groups of soldiers, each such character can 
  attempt to affect its own troops’ morale. 
  The speaking player should take some effort to 
  roleplay the speech, or at least to provide an outline of 
  what is said. The content of the speech is important to 
  the drama of the scene. This event should not be 
  reduced to mere die-rolls, although dice do have a say. 
  An impassioned speech is typically followed by a 
  Charisma (Persuasion) check. Under certain rare 
  circumstances, the Deception or Intimidation skills 
  might substitute. There is no DC for this check; the 
  Dungeon Master determines its general effectiveness 
  for morale based on the height of the result and the 
  details of the speech provided by the player. 
  Certain characteristics can give the speaking 
  character advantage on this roll, reflecting training in 
  oration or leadership. A character may gain advantage 
  by spending a Bardic Inspiration die or, with the Rally 
  Maneuver, a Combat Superiority die. A character with 
  the Inspiring Leader feat automatically claims 
  advantage on this roll. If the characters are leading 
  their own army, one with an established loyalty score, 
  the Dungeon Master may apply advantage if the 
  army’s loyalty score is above 15 (or disadvantage if its 
  score is below 6). The DM may also choose to apply 
  advantage for other characteristics or active spells. 
  Scout for Weaknesses. With the right combination 
  of capabilities, the characters may be able to provide 
  crucial intelligence to one of the armies, information 
  about the opponent’s numbers, defensive works, 
  general health, or likely strategies. While this might 
  mean sneaking into the enemy camp in the dark of 
  night, it could involve infiltration using magical or 
  mundane disguises, or the use of scrying spells. 
  Like the “develop a plan” encounter, an intelligent 
  character might be able to determine weaknesses just 
  from latent clues, performing arithmetic to estimate 
  enemy numbers based on its campfires or determining 
  how long a siege can hold out by correctly estimating 
  the supply reserves. 
  Win New Allies. This sort of encounter is typically 
  performed long before the armies meet, when there is 
  still time for additional forces to take the field. It is 
  also the encounter type where player characters are 
  most likely to change the outcome of the war if the 
  original forces are nearly equivalent. 
  Usually, this encounter requires the characters to 
  treat with some other force, like convincing a 
  neighboring duke to bring his soldiers to their aid. 
  However, this scenario could also be turned on the 
  enemy, attempting to hire away some of their 
  mercenaries or upsetting their vital alliances. This 
  encounter may require roleplaying like the 
  
   
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  “impassioned speech” encounter, as well as require 
  complex diplomacy and bribery. Skill-based ability 
  checks using Charisma and Wisdom are often 
  appropriate. 
  Getting some aid takes effort beyond persuasive 
  talk. Perhaps the Queen of the Elves will not be 
  swayed unless the party can find her missing heir or 
  solve the mystery of her murdered consort. This 
  technique allows the characters to have a profound 
  effect on a battle while invoking the real DUNGEONS & 
  DRAGONS rules instead of the cumbersome army 
  mechanics suggested by many mass-combat systems. 
  Play progresses on a character-scale, keeping the focus 
  of the game on the players, where it should be. 
  Sometimes characters get involved directly in a battle. 
  For better or worse, they must now try to defeat the 
  enemy, achieve military objectives, or just plain 
  survive in their small section of the conflict. 
  A few mid-battle scenes like these can create a sense 
  that the player characters are doing their part as the 
  conflict unfolds. Two or three such battles will give 
  players the right sense of scale, whether fought during 
  a single clash or across multiple days.  
  Alternately, turning one of these encounters into a 
  single, larger-scale conflict might capture that feel in a 
  case where allied soldiers fight alongside 
  the player characters. In that case, 
  give all players control of 
  one to three soldiers 
  each (probably using 
  the guard statistics in 
  the Monster Manual) in 
  addition to their own 
  characters. The players 
  determine the actions 
  for their 
  assigned soldiers and make their various rolls for 
  them. This method can increase the players’ sense of 
  connection with the army, having fought (rolled dice) 
  side by side with them. However, when using this 
  technique, it is best to limit the mid-battle encounters 
  to just one, lest the game bog down. 
  Following are some example encounters. The 
  Dungeon Master can alter these or make up new 
  encounters to suit. 
  Capture the Position. The characters seek to 
  capture a small but important thing. The thing is 
  typically a strategic location, but it could be the 
  pennant of an important enemy, a mobile siege 
  weapon, a cage-wagon full of prisoners, or the like. 
  This event probably gives the characters an 
  opportunity to plan their assault, but they will have to 
  contend with larger forces or overcome the 
  entrenchments and fortifications laid by the enemy. 
  Hold the Position. Opposite of “capture the 
  position,” the characters oversee the holding of 
  something important while enemies try to take it 
  away. The characters probably benefit from various 
  pre-made fortifications to help them control the area. 
  This is a good event to run consecutively with “hold 
  the position,” perhaps a day later, as players take and 
  then try to hold something of importance. 
  Close the Gate. The characters must fight off a mass 
  of charging enemies long enough for the defenders to 
  close the main gain. Perhaps the mechanisms have 
  jammed, by sabotage or simple ill-use, and the 
  engineers need a minute to fix it. The enemies keep 
  coming, but the characters cannot retreat until the 
  mechanism is fixed and the gate closes. (The 
  characters should have some way to retreat 
  when this event concludes, like a hoist ready to lift 
  them swiftly to the crenels at the top of the wall.) 
  Variations of this event include defending an 
  enemy counter charge as sappers position their 
  petards against the castle wall, guarding the wizard 
  from an enemy throng until she can finish casting 
  her spells, or holding the dock until the queen’s 
  ship can push off and carry its royal cargo to 
  safety. 
  Fighting Retreat. The player characters are 
  overwhelmed and must fight their way out of a 
  tight spot. Perhaps their position was isolated by 
  the enemy and overrun, and the characters must 
  escape into the nearby forest or across the river. 
  
   
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  Whatever the case, the characters fight a series of 
  running battles as pockets of enemy forces catch up to 
  them, either on foot or mounted. The characters may 
  have minutes or only a few rounds between waves. 
  This is an excellent event to emphasize the long, 
  slogging nature of a war being lost. The Dungeon 
  Master can throw group after group at the party until, 
  regardless of character level, they are very worn 
  down. Just make sure to vary the groups and not 
  overdo things; this repetition should be draining to the 
  characters, not tedious to the players. 
  Straight Battle. A simple event, the characters go 
  head-to-head with enemy forces for a set period, until 
  the thick of the fighting shifts away from the 
  characters’ position, allowing them a respite. 
  This event lets the characters experience combat 
  with a variety of enemy forces they might not 
  otherwise encounter. Do the foes have manticores? 
  What about organized phalanxes? Whatever unique 
  quality the enemy has, this is a good event to showcase 
  it within. 
  This event is also useful for dramatic clashes 
  between important characters. Does a certain baron 
  on the opposing side have a grudge with the 
  characters? Perhaps the swirl of melee sweeps that 
  baron and his honor guard into direct confrontation 
  with the characters, bringing to a head several years of 
  acrimony and political machinations in one swift, 
  brutal encounter. 
  A clash of armies is a significant event. It involves large 
  numbers of individuals, sweeps up the local peasantry, 
  ruins field drainage and crops, affects politics and 
  commerce for decades to come, and lives in the hearts 
  of the citizenry for generations. A century later, that 
  muddy hill might still be remembered for the battle 
  that took place there on a cold autumn day long ago. 
  Effects on the player characters should be significant 
  and meaningful. 
  If the characters’ side will lose the battle, the Dungeon 
  Master should have a prepared series of ways to 
  demonstrate the importance of the loss. Perhaps allied 
  cities are sacked, their peasants beggared or taken as 
  slaves. Perhaps the borders between kingdoms shift 
  and the new lords impose their culture, religion, or 
  trade practices on their new holdings. 
  If the characters’ side wins, the Dungeon Master 
  should take care to demonstrate how this effects the 
  locals, particularly individual non-player characters 
  that the party is familiar with. In addition to raising 
  national pride, economies are often bolstered by war. 
  The local baker and the innkeeper, both known to the 
  player characters, may have expanded their 
  businesses by preparing food en masse for the army, 
  reaping great profits. 
  Whatever the case, the clashing forces probably 
  consumed every bit of crops and hunted all the game 
  within range of the army, leaving the poor to starve for 
  a year or two after the conflict. Local adults or older 
  children may have been pressed or hired into military 
  service, and never returned. These can have a 
  profound effect on the characters’ world. 
  Win or lose, if the characters distinguish themselves in 
  war, the rewards can be high. Depending on the power 
  and resources of the side to which the characters were 
  aligned, successful actions in the Pre-War and Mid-
  War phases can earn certain recognition. 
  Low-level characters might be granted gentle status, 
  nobility, knighthood or the equivalent. For providing 
  far-reaching assistance, particularly if the characters’ 
  side is victorious, higher titles and grants of land may 
  be appropriate. 
  If the characters were aligned with a region, faction, 
  or government that rates renown, each well-handled 
  encounter in the Pre-Battle and Mid-Battle phases 
  might be worth a whole point of renown. 
  Similarly, if the characters fare poorly in the events 
  leading up to the clash, even if their side won, the 
  characters might suffer some sort of penalty. 
  This could be a stripping or reduction of military 
  rank or noble title. More likely, it simply comes with a 
  long-term reputation as incompetent; it will be a long 
  time before the authorities entrust the player 
  characters with future enterprises or resources. 
  If the characters were aligned with a region, faction, 
  or government that rates renown, each poorly handled 
  encounter in the Pre-Battle and Mid-Battle phases 
  might cost a whole point of renown. 
   
   
  
   
  78 
   
     
  USE WEALTH 
  WITH PURPOSE 
   
   
  The fifth edition of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS 
  gives very few options for characters to 
  spend their large sums of wealth. This 
  comprehensive manual helps Dungeon 
  Masters present an assortment of 
  commercial ventures to their players, 
  providing a wealth of new ideas for using 
  that hard-earned gold. 
   
  This book also gives helpful insight into 
  managing wealth and nonmaterial assets 
  in DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. It talks the 
  Dungeon Master through commercial 
  ventures like making simplified 
  investments, owning land, building 
  structures and ships, and raising armies. 
   
   
   
  For use with the fifth edition 
  Player’s Handbook ®, Monster Manual ®, 
  and Dungeon Master’s Guide ® 
   
  Best when also used alongside 
  Xanathar’s Guide to Everything ® 
   
   
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeons & Dragons [multi]/5th Edition (5e)/3rd Party/Wraith Wright/Wraith Wright - Expanded Wealth Manual v5.pdf