Do you want to experience the fullest economic potential that D&D 5e has to offer?

For those few of you who use the 5e’s Lifestyle system, hold unto your butts. An in depth look at personal economics in D&D.

Part 1: Defining Personal Economics

As is, chapter 5 of the Player’s Handbook (PHB) gives you 3 tables for engaging with in-game financing, the first two are overtly tied to each other with the second table referencing the first:

• Lifestyle Expenses (LE)
  • Page. 157
• Food, Drink, & Lodging (FDL)
  • Page. 158

These prices (of the FDB table) are included in your total lifestyle expenses

(P. 158) Under: Food, Drink And Lodging

However, there are some inconsistencies when trying to confirm this inclusion.

Mo Money, Mo Problems

No Money, Even Mo Problems

Part 2: Let’s Get Nuts

What’s the fix? Simple, read Lifestyle Expenses as Income. Now we are cooking with economics!

This is where the 3^rd table, Services, (P. 159) comes in.

For this to work, we have to assume all of these tables are included in each other. We already know LE and FDL are not, so the next assumption is that LE it is tied to the 3^rd table, Sv, which depicts the daily wages (income) of skilled and unskilled workers.
2sp and 2gp (per day) respectively.

We know Poor and Comfortable are associated with Unskilled and Skilled labor respectively thanks to the Lifestyle descriptions. (Page. 158)

So LE table becomes Lifestyle Income LI, and we still know how much a lifestyle costs thanks to the FDL table, so there’s no loss.

Right next to the LE table are descriptions for these lifestyles, where Poor and Comfortable are associated with unskilled and skilled labor respectively.

It is at this point, that I might have despaired, and anyone reading might have regretted investing their precious time in this fruitless endeavor.

All I have is a turd, but I can see kernels of corn in that turd. I just need to figure out how I will salvage them, grow my own crop with them, and sustain myself on them; to take the husk of the corn and make tamales of industry, to collect the silk and… (let me look up what to do with corn silk)… make dolls of capital with them?

I think the analogy has run its course. The point is to get a hold of yourself, make one last redefinition with me, and discover the fruits of your labor on the other side.

Tangent: Unresolved Issues

For the sake of brevity and clarity, this article only addresses the general situation and attempts to fix foundational issues.

There are some problems, however, that still need to be addressed, such as:

• Self-sufficiency to lifestyle: Quality of life by nature’s bounty.
• Practicing a Profession: Quality of life by employment.
• Xanathar’s Irregular wages: Roll well paid well.

I understand that the original purpose of these tables was to provide rules and costs for adventurers between adventuring periods with lots of money to spend, but I think I can squeeze out a system that can also answer the same concerns for non-adventurers.

Not everyone has large payouts that they can subsist off of between gigs.

What dose a world without disposable income look like for someone reliant on wages? how would they afford non-necessitates, like tool repair, clothes, emergencies, etc? If you’re interested in the world-building implications of a system that takes these concerns into account, check out:

“And Alexander Wept, For There Were No More Worlds To Conquer.”

– Plutarch

Part 3: The Final Leap

Read the Food, Drink, & Lodging table as the new Lifestyle Expense Table.

If you have been following along, you would realize we already did this.

“So LE table becomes Lifestyle Income LI, and we still know how much a lifestyle costs thanks to the FDL table, so there’s no loss.”

This “redefinition” is only cosmetic and meant to help clean house, but it may be the most problematic, simply as a source of confusion.

Whether you still call it the FDL or want to call it LE to better compare with the newly named LI (the previous LE table) is up to you.

For your viewing pleasure, I present my Lifestyle expense system. Using all the same math from the old system.

Tables calculated to Copper Piece (cp).
Extrapolated remaining Lifestyle incomes from data of old LE table.