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Originally Posted by crash_beedo  The other approach (once they get their first 8-10 parcels, no more monsters have treasure) seems heavy handed - but I guess it works if we assume the stragglers are 'wandering monsters'. And maybe no more heavy-handed than fractioning XP. |
This is sort of like one of those mind-bending excercises where I try to convince you to "Think outside the dungeon" :-P
In all seriousness, the idea of the parcel handouts is that even after those 8-10 encounters you continue to hand out treasure. The difference is you are now (or perhaps already were) pulling from items set aside for the 10 level 2 parcels. This is sort of an existential idea, in that as soon as the PCs go up to level 2, they are "on" level 2. The fact that they are choosing to either take on more easy encounters or fewer difficult encounters is irrelevant, what has happened is merely you as the DM have put that choice in the player's hands rather than making a concious decision of "I will give my PCs lots of easy encounters" vs. "I will give my PCs a few difficult encounters".
Eventually though, you'll run out of treasure to give the PCs. A Level 5 item doesn't fit into any level 10 treasure parcel, and therefore probably shouldn't be dropped by an encounter balanced for level 1 (level 2 would be ok, of course). At about the point that you've given out all the treasure from all the parcels, levels 1 2 and 3 for example, that could be given from level 1 monsters, is about the point that treasure SHOULD start drying up completely.
Summary: Whatever level your PCs are, that is what "floor" they are experiencing. The megadungeon merely gives them the choice between taking it easy or making it hard. Whatever they choose, they should still get treasure to keep from being underpowered. However, no encounter should drop an item 5 levels higher than their EL.
I hope this all makes sense, I know it is something of an abstraction of the dungeon.
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