I am working on converting the adventure "Against the Cult of the Reptile God" (designed for going from level 1-4) to be usable in 5th edition but I haven't been converting coin amount. It seems high from what is typical. Will it break things to leave it as it is? There's also the fact that people don't do as much exploring nowadays so might not matter?

as an example:

  • an iron strongbox in a hidden compartment with a poison needle trap. In the original has 5 gems (500 gp x 2; 450 gp, 300 gp, and 200 gp), 160 pp, and 1,087 gp but seems like a 5th edition amount should be something like 267 GP, 30 PP, 5 gems worth 50 gp. The expected level at this point is 1–2.

Not really looking forward to doing each one. Do I have to, to avoid problems?

Thank you.


You will see players with higher ACs much sooner than usual because they will be able to afford full plate much sooner. Otherwise, you shouldn't have too many issues. Even with full plate, their ACs will cap around 20-22.

I'm not sure what your experience with 5e has been thus far, but I feel like it has taken a more nuanced approach with regards to player wealth. While it's accurate to say that lower-leveled players will have less wealth than higher leveled ones, players are able to break the game a lot less easily with wealth alone in 5e. Much of this stems from the fact that the primary means of power progression in the game stems from class abilities and constraints on magic items upsetting the bounds that a d20 can roll for the players.

Things that could tilt things out of control quickly are magic items given too early. Because players can't just expend wealth to create magic items, the ability for wealth to upset your game's balance is much more subdued.

That said, you may find that your players are purchasing plots of land or buying buildings with that sort of wealth. I'm not sure that's really a downside, it keeps them invested in the world, while letting you decide whether that land ownership does anything with regards to balance.

So to answer your question directly, no I don't think you have to. It will just make the players more wealthy, but not really impact the combat balance of the game. A 22 AC is hittable even at 1st level.

Not exactly a technical answer, but I hope it helps.

Disclaimer: This answer does not account for those players that elect to buy absurd quantities of chickens for some convoluted method of clearing out goblins.

FYI, page 38 provides the sort of wealth by level guidelines for the game, but you'll notice that they are much more vague compared to 3.5 where everything was measured in gold. Can't speak to how AD&D handled wealth.

  • \$\begingroup\$ I think this gave me a good idea on how to proceed. I might then leave some very valuable chests while lowering some of the more mundane pieces. Thank you very much \$\endgroup\$ – Brian Crawford Oct 22 '16 at 0:39
  • \$\begingroup\$ AD&D did not have guidelines or explicit expectations for the amount of wealth characters should have at given levels. The costs for level training could be interpreted as a guideline, but many DMs ignored those costs. Wealth was left to be a property of the campaign, rather than of the game system. \$\endgroup\$ – John Dallman Oct 28 '16 at 6:53

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