Were we supposed to roll for starting wealth? Because I've just had a look at the other characters and I'm fairly certain I'm the only person who rolled for starting wealth.
I just stuck with the coinage I got from the background. Then again, my guy’s used to being poor, so...yeh. Also, is it good? I don’t want to update it throughout the RP if it’s wrong.
Oh, right. I decided to put Bo’s character sheet on dicecloud, but the way it worked confused me a bit. I put the link to it up on the previous page. I was wondering if anyone was willing to see if I made any mistakes
Were we supposed to roll for starting wealth? Because I've just had a look at the other characters and I'm fairly certain I'm the only person who rolled for starting wealth.
You only roll for starting wealth if you don't accept the standard equipment awarded for your class and background. After rolling you then have to use some of your wealth to purchase weapons, armour and equipment you want to take with you. If you do choose to take the standard equipment then you should only start with the amount of money stated in your background description.
As an example, for Rogues the rules state:
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
(a) a rapier or (b) a shortsword (a) a shortbow and quiver of 20 arrows or (b) a shortsword (a) a burglar's pack, (b) a dungeoneer's pack, or (c) an explorer's pack Leather armor, two daggers, and thieves' tools
Alternatively, you may start with 4d4 x 10 gp to buy your own equipment.
And Entertainers start with:
Equipment: A musical instrument (one of your choice), the favor of an admirer (love letter, lock of hair, or trinket), a costume, and a belt pouch containing 15 gp
This means a Rogue Entertainer could either start with:
2 shortswords, burglar's pack, leather armor, two daggers, thieves' tools, a musical instrument, an admirer's favor, a costume and 15gp
or
4d4x10gp with which to purchase everything.
Also, if you take the standard equipment you may spend some of the money granted by your background to purchase additional gear prior to joining the campaign. The DM might want you to come up with a plausible reason why your character may be carrying some items though, if you choose something unusual or which would conflict with your character's background and class.
@Cu Chulainn It's nice of them to hide that small detail on page 125 of the Player's Handbook, rather than putting it with the rest of the information. Thanks for pointing it out.
It's normally better to go with the standard items rather than rolling for starting wealth, since using the example above (Rogue Entertainer) you can get between 91 and 162gps' worth of items of your choice from the limited selection, rather than making a roll and getting a random amount of gps between 40 and 160 and having a larger selection to choose from.
There's certain tricks you can pull as well, at the DM's discretion. Such as the Rogue choosing to take a shortbow and a rapier from the standard items (both costing 25gp each) and then selling both of them at half their standard value (Player's Handbook, page 144 - Selling Treasures) and then buying two shortswords (10gp each.) This means you end up with an extra 5gp overall at the start of the campaign.
Similarly, an Entertainer can choose a Lute as their starting musical instrument (35gp each) and then sell it and buy a Flute (2gp each) instead, gaining them an additional 15gp.
Well, I did have two guards turn against each other, then force one of them to question their own identity...Oh, and a friend and I had our characters intimidate each other, but we both got natural 1 on our rolls...I'll let you imagine how that turned out.