Income, expenditure, living costs - 5e

An unskilled labourer or standard blade-for-hire can expect to earn the equivalent of at least one silver pattan for a day's work; for a skilled labourer, a student, a soldier, an ordinary priest, or an adventurer kept on retainer by a wealthy patron, this rises to 5 pattans, which could work out at 72 karamins each year; an artisan, tradesperson, merchant or military officer normally earns at least 10 pattans per day, enough to maintain a comfortable lifestyle; and a particularly wealthy merchant, the head of a guild, a major landowner, a significant religious leader or a senior politician might have a daily income of 20 pattans, still less than one karamin per day. However, it is often the case - especially for those in the lower social classes - that most of this payment takes the form of useful goods and services exchanged for labour, rather than metal coinage. Most people live at the highest standard their income will allow, with only a little capacity for savings: for instance, a frugal unskilled labourer might hope to save 18 pattans' worth of coins over the course of a year, whereas wealthy elites might be able to save 15 karamins or more in a year.

An adventurer's lifestyle expenses for six days - equal to one quarter of a lunar month, one fifth of a solar month, or one sixtieth of a year - to maintain different standards of living is as follows: 6 silver pattans for a poor lifestyle; 30 pattans for a modest lifestyle; 60 pattans for a comfortable lifestyle; 120 pattans for a wealthy lifestyle; and 12 golden karamins for a lifestyle fit for a monarch.

Merchants in smaller settlements are likely to have fewer expensive items available for sale, and less money available (either in coins or available credit) to purchase such items from adventurers. Outside of cities, merchants are unlikely to have any single item for sale worth more than 20 kr., or access to more than 10 kr. (in coins or credit) at a time to buy items from adventurers; their total inventory is likely to be worth no more than 100 to 150 kr. This means that more expensive types of armour, for instance, are usually only available for purchase in cities.

Players should use the figures listed here to determine the true value of any bribes they might seek to pay or the cost of any hirelings they might use, and to assess the amount of coin they are offered for any jobs. For instance, if a merchant offers adventurers two karamins each to complete a task, it is useful to know that this equates to 10 days' work for a soldier or an adventurer kept on retainer, or 50 days' work for a common thug hired for intimidation or violence. From another perspective, if your character was a skilled artisan or merchant before becoming an adventurer, they might have expected to earn 144 karamins each year, most of which would go on regular living costs and taxes; so finding or earning 50 karamins in the course of a few days' adventuring would feel like winning the lottery.

[Income appears different in Pathfinder 2e, where it is based on the 'Earn Income' tables: earnings at level 1 are equivalent to a skilled labourer in 5e, and the same as being an unskilled blade-for-hire in Pathfinder 2e (i.e. 5 silver pattans earnings at level 3 are a bit higher than a skilled artisan in 5e, and equivalent to a skilled hireling in Pathfinder 2e (i.e. half an aftab earnings at level 4 are the same as a wealthy merchant in 5e (i.e. 20 silver pattans). Living costs are not made very clear in Pathfinder.]

D&D 5e typically uses a "gold standard", which means that gold coins are used for almost everything, and smaller denominations have so little worth that most adventurers simply ignore them; parallel to this is a tendency to picture gemstones as gigantic, such as diamonds the size of fists. I have attempted to create a more realistic feel by making coins and small gems more valuable, and by moving closer to a "silver standard". I have balanced the desire for realism and originality against the need to preserve some familiarity (for instance, allowing players to use the boxes already designated for coins on their character sheets) and to maintain a consistent currency across a party's travels. I have converted prices from the PHB (and other sources) to match my system, although I have made adjustments in some places. I have also converted the lifestyle costs almost wholesale from PHB 157-158, but I have demoted politicians, guild leaders and high priests to the "wealthy" category, ensuring that the "aristocratic" level is only really fit for a monarch or particularly powerful nobles. I have made the assumption that most people save no more than 5% of their income, unless they are considerably higher in their income bracket than the minimum. Everyday lifestyle costs are likely to be lower for non-adventurers than for adventurers, but are increased by the need to pay taxes (which adventurers can usually avoid).