Expenses
********
When not descending into the depths of the earth,
exploring ruins for lost treasures, or waging war against
the encroaching darkness, adventurers face more
mundane realities. Even in a fantastical world, people
require basic necessities such as shelter, sustenance,
and clothing. These things cost money, although some
lifestyles cost more than others.
Lifestyle Expenses
------------------
Lifestyle expenses provide you with a simple way to
account for the cost of living in a fantasy world. They
cover your accommodations, food and drink, and all
your other necessities. Furthermore, expenses cover the
cost of maintaining your equipment so you can be ready
when adventure next calls.
At the start of each week or month (your choice),
choose a lifestyle from the Expenses table and pay the
price to sustain that lifestyle. The prices listed are per
day, so if you wish to calculate the cost of your chosen
lifestyle over a thirty-day period. multiply the listed price
by 30. Your lifestyle might change from one period to
the next. based on the funds you have at your disposal,
or you might maintain the same lifestyle throughout
your character’s career.
Your lifestyle choice can have consequences.
Maintaining a wealthy lifestyle might help you make
contacts with the rich and powerful, though you run the
risk of attracting thieves. Likewise, living frugally might
help you avoid criminals, but you are unlikely to make
powerful connections.
.. csv-table::
:header: "Lifestyle", "Price/Day"
"Wretched", ""
"Squalid", "1 sp"
"Poor", "2 sp"
"Modest", "1 gp"
"Comfortable", "2 gp"
"Wealthy", "4 gp"
"Aristocratic", "10 gp minimum"
Wretched
^^^^^^^^
You live in inhumane conditions. With
no place to call home, you shelter Wherever you can,
sneaking into barns, huddling in old crates, and relying
on the good graces of people better off than you. A
wretched lifestyle presents abundant dangers. Violence,
disease, and hunger follow you wherever you go. Other
wretched people covet your armor, weapons, and
adventuring gear, which represent a fortune by their
standards. You are beneath the notice of most people.
Squalid
^^^^^^^
You live in a leaky stable, a mud—floored hut
just outside town, or a vermin—infested boarding house
in the worst part of town. You have shelter from the
elements, but you live in a desperate and often violent
environment, in places rife with disease, hunger, and
misfortune. You are beneath the notice of most people,
and you have few legal protections. Most people at
this lifestyle level have suffered some terrible setback.
They might be disturbed, marked as exiles, or suffer
from disease.
Poor
^^^^
A poor lifestyle means going without the
comforts available in a stable community. Simple food
and lodgings, threadbare clothing, and unpredictable
conditions result in a sufficient, though probably
unpleasant, experience. Your accommodations might
be a room in a flophouse or in the common room above
a tavern. You benefit from some legal protections,
but you still have to contend with violence, crime.
and disease. People at this lifestyle level tend to be
unskilled laborers, costermongers, peddlers, thieves,
mercenaries, and other disreputable types.
Modest
^^^^^^
A modest lifestyle keeps you out of the slums
and ensures that you can maintain your equipment.
You live in an older part of town, renting a room in a
boarding house, inn, or temple. You don't go hungry or
thirsty, and your living conditions are clean, if simple.
Ordinary people living modest lifestyles include soldiers
with families, laborers, students, priests, hedge wizards
and the like.
Comfortable
^^^^^^^^^^^
Choosing a comfortable lifestyle
means that you can afford nicer clothing and can easily
maintain your equipment. You live in a small cottage
in a middle-class neighborhood or in a private room
at a fine inn. You associate with merchants, skilled
tradespeople, and military officers.
Wealthy
^^^^^^^
Choosing a wealthy lifestyle means living a
life of luxury, though you might not have achieved the
social status associated with the old money of nobility
or royalty. You live a lifestyle comparable to that of a
highly successful merchant, a favored servant of the
royalty, or the owner of a few small businesses. You
have respectable lodgings, usually a spacious home in
a good part of town or a comfortable suite at a fine inn.
You likely have a small staff of servants.
Aristocratic
^^^^^^^^^^^^
You live a life of plenty and comfort. You
move in circles populated by the most powerful people
in the community. You have excellent lodgings, perhaps
a townhouse in the nicest part of town or rooms in the
finest inn. You dine at the best restaurants, retain the
most skilled and fashionable tailor, and have servants
attending to your every need. You receive invitations
to the social gatherings of the rich and powerful, and
spend evenings in the company of politicians, guild
leaders, high priests, and nobility. You must also
contend with the highest levels of deceit and treachery.
The wealthier you are, the greater the chance you will
be drawn into political intrigue as a pawn or participant.
Food, Drink and Lodging
-----------------------
The Food, Drink, and Lodging table gives prices for
individual food items and a single night’s lodging. These
prices are included in your total lifestyle expenses.
Self-Sufficiency
----------------
The expenses and lifestyles described in this chapter assume
that you are spending your time between adventures in town,
availing yourself of whatever services you can afford—paying
for food and shelter, paying townspeople to sharpen your
sword and repair your armor, and so on. Some characters,
though, might prefer to spend their time away from
civilization, sustaining themselves in the wild by hunting,
foraging, and repairing their own gear.
Maintaining this kind of lifestyle doesn’t require you to
spend any coin, but it is time-consuming. If you spend
your time between adventures practicing a profession, as
described in chapter 8, you can eke out the equivalent of a
poor lifestyle. Proficiency in the Survival skill lets you live at
the equivalent of a comfortable lifestyle.
Services
--------
Adventurers can pay nonplayer characters to assist them
or act on their behalf in a variety of circumstances. Most
such hirelings have fairly ordinary skills, while others
are masters of a craft or art. and a few are experts with
specialized adventuring skills.
Some of the most basic types of hirelings appear on
the Services table. Other common hirelings include
any of the wide variety of people who inhabit a typical
town or city, when the adventurers pay them to
perform a specific task. For example, a wizard might
pay a carpenter to construct an elaborate chest (and
its miniature replica) for use in the Leomund’s secret
chest spell. A fighter might commission a blacksmith to
forge a special sword. A bard might pay a tailor to make
exquisite clothing for an upcoming performance in
front of the duke.
Other hirelings provide more expert or dangerous
services. Mercenary soldiers paid to help the
adventurers take on a hobgoblin army are hirelings, as
are sages hired to research ancient or esoteric lore. If a
high-level adventurer establishes a stronghold of some
kind, he or she might hire a whole staff of servants and
agents to run the place, from a castellan or steward
to menial laborers to keep the stables clean. These
hirelings often enjoy a long—term contract that includes
a place to live within the stronghold as part of the
offered compensation.
Skilled hirelings include anyone hired to perform a
service that involves a proficiency (including weapon,
tool, or skill): a mercenary, artisan, scribe, and so on.
The pay shown is a minimum; some expert hirelings
require more pay. Untrained hirelings are hired for
menial work that requires no particular skill and can
include laborers. porters, maids, and similar workers.
.. csv-table::
:header: "Service", "Pay"
"Coach cab between towns", "3 cp per mile"
"Coach cab within a city", "1 cp"
"Hireling, skilled", "2 gp per day"
"Hireling, unskilled", "2 sp per day"
"Messenger", "2 cp per mile"
"Road or gate toll", "1 cp"
"Ship's Passage", "1 sp per mile"
Spellcasting Services
---------------------
People who are able to cast spells don’t fall into the
category of ordinary hirelings. It might be possible to
find someone willing to cast a spell in exchange for coin
or favors, but it is rarely easy and no established pay
rates exist. As a rule, the higher the level of the desired
spell, the harder it is to find someone who can cast it
and the more it costs.
Hiring someone to cast a relatively common spell
of 1st or 2nd level, such as cure wounds or identify, is
easy enough in a city or town. and might cost 10 to 50
gold pieces (plus the cost of any expensive material
components). Finding someone able and willing to
cast a higher—level spell might involve traveling to a
large city, perhaps one with a university or prominent
temple. Once found, the spellcaster might ask for a
service instead of payment, the kind of service that
only adventurers can provide, such as retrieving a rare
item from a dangerous locale or traversing a monster-
infested wilderness to deliver something important to
a distant settlement.