Recurring Expenses
Besides the expenses associated with maintaining a particular lifestyle, adventurers might have additional drains on their adventuring income. Player characters who come into possession of property, own businesses, and employ hirelings must cover the expenses that accompany these ventures.
It’s not unusual for adventurers — especially after 10th level — to gain possession of a castle, a tavern, or another piece of property. They might buy it with their hard-won loot, take it by force, obtain it in a lucky draw from a deck of many things, or acquire it by other means.
The Maintenance Costs table shows the per-day upkeep cost for any such property. (The cost of a normal residence isn’t included here because it falls under lifestyle expenses, as discussed in the Player’s Handbook.) Maintenance expenses need to be paid every 30 days. Given that adventurers spend much of their time adventuring, staff includes a steward who can make payments in the party’s absence.
Total Cost per Day. The cost includes everything it takes to maintain the property and keep things running smoothly, including the salaries of hirelings. If the property earns money that can offset maintenance costs (by charging fees, collecting tithes or donations, or selling goods), that is taken into account in the table.
Skilled and Untrained Hirelings. The Player’s Handbook explains the difference between a skilled hireling and an untrained one.
Maintenance Costs
| Property | Total cost Per Day | Skilled Hirelings | Untrained Hirelings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abbey | 20gp | 5 | 25 |
| Farm | 5sp | 1 | 2 |
| Guildhall, town or city | 5gp | 5 | 3 |
| Inn, rural roadside | 10gp | 5 | 10 |
| Inn, town or city | 5gp | 1 | 5 |
| Keep or small castle | 100gp | 50 | 50 |
| Lodge, hunting | 5sp | 1 | - |
| Noble estate | 10gp | 3 | 15 |
| Outpost or fort | 50gp | 20 | 40 |
| Palace or large castle | 400gp | 200 | 100 |
| Shop | 2gp | 1 | - |
| Temple, large | 25gp | 10 | 10 |
| Temple, small | 1gp | 2 | - |
| Tower, fortified | 25gp | 10 | - |
| Trading post | 10gp | 4 | 2 |
Businesses
An adventurer-owned business can earn enough money to cover its own maintenance costs. However, the owner needs to periodically ensure that everything is running smoothly by tending to the business between adventures. See the information on running a business in “Downtime Activities” in this chapter.
Garrisons
Castles and keeps employ soldiers (use the veteran and guard statistics in the Monster Manual) to defend them. Roadside inns, outposts and forts, palaces, and temples rely on less-experienced defenders (use the guard statistics in the Monster Manual). These armed warriors make up the bulk of a property’s skilled hirelings.
Downtime Activities
The campaign benefits when characters have time between adventures to engage in other activities. Allowing days, weeks, or months to pass between adventures stretches the campaign over a longer period of time and helps to manage the characters’ level progression, preventing them from gaining too much power too quickly.
Allowing characters to pursue side interests between adventures also encourages players to become more invested in the campaign world. When a character owns a tavern in a village or spends time carousing with the locals, that character’s player is more likely to respond to threats to the village and its inhabitants.
As your campaign progresses, your players’ characters will not only become more powerful but also more influential and invested in the world. They might be inclined to undertake projects that require more time between adventures, such as building and maintaining a stronghold. As the party gains levels, you can add more downtime between adventures to give characters the time they need to pursue such interests. Whereas days or weeks might pass between low-level adventures, the amount of downtime between higher-level adventures might be measured in months or years.
More Downtime Activities
Chapter 8, "Adventuring" of the Player’s Handbook describes a few downtime activities to fill the void between adventures. Depending on the style of your campaign and the particular backgrounds and interests of the adventurers, you can make some or all of the following additional activities available as options.
Building a Stronghold
A character can spend time between adventures building a stronghold. Before work can begin, the character must acquire a plot of land. If the estate lies within a kingdom or similar domain, the character will need a royal charter (a legal document granting permission to oversee the estate in the name of the crown), a land grant (a legal document bequeathing custody of the land to the character for as long as he or she remains loyal to the crown), or a deed (a legal document that serves as proof of ownership). Land can also be acquired by inheritance or other means.
Royal charters and land grants are usually given by the crown as a reward for faithful service, although they can also be bought. Deeds can be bought or inherited. A small estate might sell for as little as 100 gp or as much as 1,000 gp. A large estate might cost 5,000 gp or more, if it can be bought at all.
Once the estate is secured, a character needs access to building materials and laborers. The Building a Stronghold table shows the cost of building the stronghold (including materials and labor) and the amount of time it takes, provided that the character is using downtime to oversee construction. Work can continue while the character is away, but each day the character is away adds 3 days to the construction time.
Building a Stronghold
| Stronghold | Construction Cost | Construction Time |
|---|---|---|
| Abbey | 50,000gp | 400 days |
| Guildhall, town or city | 5,000gp | 60 days |
| Keep or small castle | 50,000gp | 400 days |
| Noble estate with manor | 25,000gp | 150 days |
| Outpost or fort | 15,000gp | 100 days |
| Palace or large castle | 500,000gp | 1,200 days |
| Temple | 50,000gp | 400 days |
| Tower, fortified | 15,000gp | 100 days |
| Trading post | 5,000gp | 60 days |
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