D&D: Five Things You Probably Forget to Spend Money on After Level 3
Food, clothing, and shelter are everyone’s basic needs, but you probably stopped spending money on them past level 3.
There are so many things to spend your hard-won GP on in D&D, and yet, it never seems to fail that past level 3 or so, you stop really spending money on much of anything. Once you have a big enough pile of money everyone just sort of assumes you’re taken care of. Which is how it works in the real world, too. And I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing. Just that it’s kind of funny what seems to matter so much at level 1 and how quickly it falls away.
For instance when was the last time your D&D character (above level 3) spent any gold on things like…
Rations
This is probably the first thing to go at many tables. Rations are meant to be a way to help determine how far you can travel through the wilderness before things get dire. If you don’t have enough of them you risk exhaustion and hunger. But once you get past level 3 (or earlier) you probably stopped buying them.
Partially because the game doesn’t want you to spend money on rations–there are so many ways to replace needing to buy food that you don’t have to actually do it. But, even without those, once you have more than a couple hundred GP, your rations go out the window.
Torches
Torches are another one of those weird expenses that might pile up for the first level or two but then quickly fall off. Part of it is not many people want to bother with all the different lighting rules. And part of it is that there are plenty of free, magical methods for making sure you can see in the dark.
But even in a party of human fighters playing with full survival rules, once you get past level 3, it’s not a question of whether you have torches, it’s just “who is holding it”.
Ammunition
Let’s get controversial. There are some people who insist that you have to buy enough crossbow bolts or arrows to endure your fight. And yet, when was the last time you bought any arrows? Even thoough the game wants you to be stingy with your resources and uses arrows as a limit for ranged combat, do you know how many your character can hold?
And how many they have right now? How many broke in that last fight?
Clothes
I have played at tables where characters have never spent a single piece of gold on buying new outfits. You come up with a look for your character and assume that they’re staying clean. And that’s all well and good—but all those nonmagical tailors are gonna wither as you wander around dressed like a cartoon character.
Lifestyle
And then there’s Lifestyle. This is the ultimate “hey here’s how your character is living” in one easy packet. It’s a single expense that covers many things, including lodging, food, equipment maintenance, and other necessities. And it feels so good the first time you’re able to buy that Aristoratic lifestyle upgrade. Ten gold for a day living in the lap of luxury! And then after a week of that, you almost never spend money on it again. But that’s usually because more important things come up, and then you have enough money that you really only need to see if you’re spending on magic items or whatever.
Happy adventuring!
