I've given some thought to the lifestyle rules that I would probably have benefitted from implementing in the current campaign. Alas, I didn't consider these at the time, and won't be adding them now. However, for future reference, here is what I think I should have done:
The purpose of the lifestyle rules is to simplify the tracking of money, particularly as it gets spent on food and lodging, and also on equipment maintenance (which gets overlooked in games, despite the fact that it would probably be quite important to most characters is a 'realistic' game). It also eliminates the problem that the lowest unit of currency in the game is the copper piece, while a common labourer supposedly earns one silver piece per day. As a result of this, a single beer costs a full tenth of the daily earnings of the average worker, which seems excessive.
So, the things that are included in lifestyle:
1) Food and lodging for characters, their companions and cohorts, and stabling and fodder for mounts. Whenever travelling in civilised lands, the party need never fear that they'll run out.
2) Equipment maintenance costs for armour and weapons, and refills of spell component pouches. Basically, all the stuff that never gets mentioned, but really should be going on.
3) At higher levels, some ammunition for missile weapons will be included.
The lifestyle never includes the following:
1) Expensive material components.
2) Money used to use skills, or money used to purchase equipment to use skills. (So, this won't get you access to a forge, for instance)
3) New equipment. Lifestyle would eventually replace a suit of leather armour that has deteriorated to the point of being useless, but would not assist in upgrading the same armour to chain mail.
4) Magical items of any sort.
One other general rule applies to lifestyle: it is not optional, and not transferrable. That is, every character must purchase a lifestyle of at least Squalid quality. There simply is no way to live without spending some money on food and lodging. Similarly, you cannot purchase a Squalid lifestyle and then mooch off your Middle Class friends. If the party hires a room as a whole for the group, the quality of those lodgings is determined by the lowest lifestyle present.
This last is particularly important when considering the higher levels of lifestyle, which include a number of free arrows (or bolts) within the cost. If the party adopts the practice of having the wealthy character draw the full allotment and then passing them to other party members, the DM should cut off the supply. Basically, the party are using the letter of the rule to violate the spirit of the rule, and should not be allowed to do so.
Finally, note that lifestyle applies everywhere. If the party is travelling in a foreign nation, their lifestyle remains intact. It is assumed that the party simply has enough loose cash with them to purchase whatever equivalent to their normal lifestyle exists in the current region. Only when the party leave civilised lands does their lifestyle collapse. In this case, it is generally assumed that a party planning a journey will carry a week's worth of food and water, while a party that was lost suddenly (perhaps an unexpected teleport) carries a single day's supply.
Anyway, there are four lifestyles available. Each costs a certain amount per month, payable at the start of the month. A character lacking sufficient funds to pay for the Squalid lifestyle at the start of the month must sell sufficient equipment to pay this cost. If the character cannot do even that, and will not be loaned the funds by his companions has broken the lifestyle rules; in that case the DM is on his own.
Lifestyle Cost
Squalid 3 gp/month
Poor 5 gp/month
Middle Class 50 gp/level/month
Wealthy 200 gp/level/month
All lifestyles include food and lodging for a single person. Equipment upkeep may require a particular minimum lifestyle, or the quality of the equipment may downgrade. Higher levels of lifestyle include mount stabling costs and food, and lodgings for servants. A character with a mount or servants is required to maintain the indicated minimum lifestyle, or to pay an additional lifestyle cost for each mount or servant. If the latter option is taken, the lifestyle chosen for the mount or servant must be high enough to cater for the mount's or servant's equipment. It must be noted also that some mounts require a minimum lifestyle, or the quality of their performance will also degrade.
Squalid
The lowest lifestyle includes food and lodging for one character. It also includes equipment upkeep costs for Simple Weapons and Light Armour and Light Shields. Finally, it includes the cost of refilling a Spell Component Pouch.
Poor
The poor lifestyle includes food and lodging for one character. It also includes equipment upkeep costs for Simple and Martial Weapons (and Masterwork versions of Simple Weapons), Light and Medium Armour, all Shields, all Armour Accessories, and refilling a Spell Component Pouch.
Middle Class
Middle Class characters are provided with food and lodging for a single person. It includes equipment maintenance costs for Simple, Martial and Exotic Weapons (including Mighty and Masterwork versions of Simple and Martial Weapons), all forms of Armour and Shields, and refilling a Spell Component Pouch. This lifestyle also includes 50 arrows, bolts or sling bullets per month. Finally, the Middle Class lifestyle includes the equivalent of a Poor lifestyle for one other person or mount.
Wealthy
The highest lifestyle provides food and lodging for a single person, and equipment maintenance costs for any sort of mundane equipment. This lifestyle includes 200 arrows, bolts or sling bullets per month, or 20 masterwork versions of the same, and can provide the equivalent of a Middle Class lifestyle for one other person or mount, or the equivalent of a Poor lifestyle for up to 8 such characters or mounts.
Minimum Lifestyle Requirements
As indicated in the descriptions above, certain forms of equipment require certain minimum lifestyles to remain in optimum condition, as follows:
Simple Weapons: Squalid
Masterwork Simple Weapons: Poor
Martial Weapons: Poor
Masterwork Martial Weapons: Middle Class
Mighty Composite Bows: Middle Class
Exotic Weapons: Middle Class
Masterwork Exotic Weapons: Wealthy
Light Armour: Squalid
Medium Armour: Poor
Heavy Armour: Middle Class
Buckler: Poor
Light Shields: Squalid
Heavy Shields: Poor
Tower Shield: Poor
Armour Accessories: Poor
Horse or Pony: Squalid
Warhorse or Warpony: Poor
Griffon, Pegasus or similar: Middle Class
A weapon that is kept at a lifestyle lower than the minimum reduces its critical range or multiplier by 1 for each level of difference (x4 becomes x3, 18-20 becomes 19-20). A weapon that reduces its range below 20, or its multiplier below x2 can no longer cause critical hits. A weapon reduced still further becomes unusable. A weapon that has been degraded by being kept at a lower level of lifestyle is restored to full effectiveness at the end of the first month in which it is properly kept.
So, a squalid character with a masterwork longsword (19-20, minimum middle class) reduces the range first to 20 (poor), and then below that (squalid), and can no longer cause critical hits.
A suit of armour kept below the minimum lifestyle reduces the maximum Dex bonus allowed by 1, and increases the armour check penalty by 1 for every level of difference. If the maximum Dex bonus drops below 0, the AC bonus is reduced instead, on a 1 for 1 basis. Armour maintained below the minimum lifestyle required incurs these penalties every month, until the AC bonus drops to 0, at which point it becomes useless. Every month of correct upkeep removes the equivalent of one month's penalties, at the end of the month.
So, a squalid character with full plate (Middle Class, +8 AC, +1 Max Dex, -6 armour check) suffers a two-stage penalty. The Max Dex drops to 0, the AC bonus to +7, and the armour check increases to -8. The second month, the AC bonus drops to +5, and the armour check penalty increases to -10.
Magical weapons and armour are considered masterwork for the purposes of determining the minimum lifestyle costs. Such equipment becomes useless at the same time as any other equipment. However, magical armour that is maintained at the correct level is restored to full effectiveness at the end of the first month of such treatment.
A mount living a lower lifestyle than required suffers a -4 penalty to Strength and Constitution for each level of difference. Intelligent mounts will refuse to carry their owners while in such conditions.
Example
Now, let's consider a paladin with a masterwork heavy lance, magical bastard sword, full plate mail, heavy shield, heavy warhorse mount with full plate barding, and a squire. The masterwork lance requires a minimum lifestyle of Middle Class, while the bastard sword requires Wealthy. The full plate mail requires a Middle Class lifestyle, while the shield requires only a Poor lifestyle. Finally, the heavy warhorse must be kept at a Poor lifestyle, but its barding requires Middle Class upkeep. The squire can be contented with living a Squalid lifestyle.
Clearly, the paladin must purchase a Wealthy lifestyle for himself. Additionally, he must arrange a Middle Class lifestyle for his mount (due to the barding), and a Squalid lifestyle for his squire. Fortunately, the Wealthy lifestyle can provide a Middle Class lifestyle for the mount free of charge, so the paladin must pay 200 gp/level/month, plus at least 3 gp/level for his squire.
And that, I think, is all that needs to be said about lifestyle. As indicated, these rules are not going to be used in the current campaign, where lifestyle is a purely roleplaying issue.
Archived comment by Mort:
ReplyDeleteGood set of rules, I'm with you on pretty much everything. However, as usual, I have some comments.
Maybe add in another class above poor. Just because the jump from 5 to 50 is rather steep, so there should perhaps be some kind of class in between there. Change the cost of Middle Class to 20gp/month and add in a new class between middle and wealthy. Call it Upper Class or something, and make that 50gp/month.
Then, how would you justify charging per level in the two more expensive classes? Do higher level characters eat more food than lower level characters or something? Obviously higher level characters should have plenty of money to chuck around so they can afford to spend more. But a house is a house and a beer is a beer. I can't see the cost of living in the best room in the inn going from 200gp for a level 1 character to 4000gp for a level 20. Then again, maybe the all innkeepers are greedy bastards.
Or do you include taxes in these lifestyles as well?
Archived comment by me:
ReplyDeleteThe charging by level thing is definately controversial, and I could go either way on it. My assumption is that the equipment costs would go up as the character rises in level - the character is likely to simply have more stuff. However, I can definately see the other side of that argument.
The question of adding another class to the system is just one of deciding how granular you want the system to be. For instance, you could easily split Middle Class into Upper, Lower and 'Middle' Middle Classes, and have any number of 'Wealthy' classes. The four numbers I've used (and the costs per month) come from the 2nd Edition DMG, without modification. I think TSR's thinking at the time was that there was very little real difference between Squalid and Poor lifestyles, but then a huge gap to Middle Class.
Finally, the question on taxation would definately be an issue specific to the setting. If the society has a fixed income tax, or anything close to it, I would definately include taxation in lifestyle (and would charge per level for the upper classes, as their income is just that much higher). In a setting such as the current one, with extremely nasty tax collectors going about their business, I would not include taxes in lifestyle (and would be more sympathetic to the level-based costs thing). This, of course, gives PCs the opportunity to avoid taxes at all (or pay lots of taxes if they play it wrong), which would not be possible if it were included.
Archived comment by Andrew:
ReplyDeleteI definately like the idea of paying a fee for a lifestyle. As a player I find it annoying having to write down the most miniscule piece of equipment (like pots, flint & steel, etc) that one would normally assume an adventurer would have (IMO). I think that you could have "adventurer" and possibly even "merchant" levels of lifestyle. The adventurer would only be a level above poor since they wouldn't carry much with them whereas the merchant would be expensive since they need to run their inn or fund trading/buying goods or whatever they decided to do. I guess this needs to be worked on by the DM for whatever setting is being run.
Archived comment by me:
ReplyDeleteThis is also something that I find rather tedious. I'm definately a big fan of the notion that a character should be able to designate items as part of his "consumables kit". He'd then pay a monthly cost, and be assumed to pick up replacement flint & steel/arrows/caltrops/etc every time he visited a likely village. I just haven't figured out how best to formalise it - some characters are going to go through a lot of arrows, while others might only use the occasional bag of caltrops.
I was considering rolling amany of these items into the higher lifestyles (with squalid giving no benefit, of course), but your suggestion is probably better still.