D&D: Five Ways to End Up Richer Than a King
D&D is a game all about treasure and fighting to possess said treasure. So make sure you do exactly that by following these handy tips.
Dungeons & Dragons is a game that satisfies many power fantasies; for one, the idea that you can wake up well rested after eight hours whenever you want, two, the idea that you can see meaningful, measurable progress in your day to day life. But perhaps most of all is the fantasy of accumulating enough wealth to make that stuffy king shut up—after all in Game of Thrones, the throne borrows money from the banks, and the banks it turns out, have a great deal more to do with who sits upon the throne than you realize.
So here’s how to get rich and stay rich in D&D.
Know Where to Look For Treasure
Sometimes you have to be a little proactive about what you want out of your D&D game. And that means telling your DM, by way of the NPCs that you interact with, that your character wants to make a fortune. Yes, this is secretly “the answer to all of D&D’s problems is communication and reading the books,” but by stating your character’s goals out loud and very clearly, the DM has a good idea of how to make you happy.
Don’t Let Merchants Have All the Fun
One of the best times to be had in D&D is the humble shopping episode. But with a little tweaking, a shopping trip can be source of gold pieces. After all, you’ve doubtless picked up all sorts of loot from your latest adventure. Whether a few hoarded away gems in the recesses of a Bugbear’s makeshift throne, or just several dozen goblin scimitars—if your enemies have stuff, someone is going to want it.
If you’ve played Baldur’s Gate 3, you’re familiar with the endless cavalcade of interesting loot and the price it can fetch. With a little bit of a set up, you can basically run your own adventurer’s shop.
Money Talks But It’s Not the Only Thing
Let’s take a page from Acquisitions Incorporated, and consider your brand. Not that you need to go around selling your adventuring party as a brand that people can buy into—but rather, consider the reputation you’ve been building up for yourself. How many families have you saved from marauding goblins? How many princesses slain? Dragons rescued from dank forgotten towers?
You get the idea. Part of the fun of D&D is being a hero—and people love a hero. Even more so if they can pay the hero to keep them safe from whatever happens to be troubling them. So once you have that rep going, put it to work!
Offer to Reinvent the Economy With Magic
Unless they’re Eberron, almost every official D&D setting is just a few enterprising magic-users away from having its economy completely turned upside down and modernized. Are the people starving? A few casters getting out there and casting Plant Growth can turn your subsistence farming medieval pastiche into a bustling just shy of industrial era, only with magic instead of the printing press and robber barons.
But the point is, once your character can make an impact on the world, they can make an impact on the amount of gold pieces flowing into their pockets as well.
Get on Good Terms With a Dragon
A lot of folks will tell you the secret to wealth is just finding a dragon and slaying it. And they’re not wrong. But they rarely ever talk about what it means to have the actual fire (or whatever) breathing creature on your side?
Many dragons won’t willingly part with their horde. But that’s where offering the sort of true friendship that has to be hard to come by on account of the whole “being a massively destructive dragon” comes along. Befriend a dragon and bask in their hoard with them. You can always nick something later, no problems, I’m sure.
How do you make your fortune in D&D?
