D&D 5E Looting Monsters?

Horwath · Jul 17, 2019

We sell it from 1/4 to 1/2 price.

In 3rd edition component cost was 1/3 of the complete item.

So any metal weapon could be sold to a blacksmith as a simple iron raw material if end product is of poor quality.
That is why we recycle today. Iron in unwanted item is like 20x cheaper than mining it out of the ground as raw ore.

You just need to threw it in a forge, melt it and cast it as a new ingot ready to be forged into a new weapon/armor.

Poor bows/crossbows/wooden shields are another matter as they can be used only as firewood.

Sacrosanct · Jul 17, 2019

My players really don't have that issue or desire to loot regular items like that for a couple reasons:

1. encumbrance. That stuff adds up quickly, and it's not very easy to move and explore a dungeon when you're trying to carry all those weapons and armor
2. Market. even if they do get out with all of that gear, there isn't a real market for it. They'd have to go into a city which may or may not be pretty far away to find anyone who would be willing to buy that stuff, and have the coin to do so. Regular Joe in the town or village doesn't have the money for goblin or orc weapons and equipment. He barely has a few spare coppers to get supplies to continue his existence.

ad_hoc · Jul 17, 2019

nobody69.420 said:
That's not a problem with one of my players. His character is a Rogue Thief, and he doesn't believe in heroism, so he would like to steal all the useless junk he can get his hands on.

I mean heroic more broadly.

Is he a thief or a scavenger?

When I think of a Rogue I don't imagine a character who carries around scrap metal in a cart.

I think of an infamous cat burglar who is known kingdom wide and makes people lock up their valuables tight.

This sort of thing is in character in a post-apocalyptic game. To me, not so much in heroic fantasy. I think that is why the default in 5e is to do away with such looting.

If that is what excites you though then by all means.

SovietDM · Jul 17, 2019

ad_hoc said:
I think of an infamous cat burglar who is known kingdom wide and makes people lock up their valuables tight.

Well, no matter what I say to him, he doesn't see his character that way.

jasper · Jul 17, 2019

Random replies to the thread.

Ccs …merchants give you the grand run around…about 65% of the value the junk would've cost if it weren't junk. Oh, and it gets confiscated…. KISSY KISSSY (in Ms Piggy’s voice) an nicely evil dm.
Other have brought encumbrance use it. It becomes a quick issue no matter which rules you use.
Ad_hoc .. infamous cat burglar…. Pussy Galore who would steal shiny cheap trinkets and blank spell scrolls. She Never knew why all the rest of the rogues would never let her play rogue games.

hriston...“foul orc-make... HMM EVIL DM THOUGHT. Orc merchants will not buy pc's loot. WHAT. You trying to sell my that "city folk sword. Get out my tent!"
Since I DM Adventure League You can loot and keep for the session only.

iserith · Jul 17, 2019

nobody69.420 said:
I did one adventure, as a beginner DM, where I let my players loot monsters that they kill of their weapons and armor, but they can only sell it for 1/4 of the original price. They still ended up getting too much money, so I stopped doing that, but I want know how other people do looting monsters, or if you do at all?

What Hriston said - most monsters' stuff is just junk. There are some exceptions that I will make an effort to describe, such as a hobgoblin in plate armor or the like. Sometimes I'll describe something resplendent a monster wears that would be damaged in combat and made less valuable in order to set up a challenge for the players to take out the monster without damaging their loot. It makes them switch up their tactics which is fun from time to time.

But generally speaking, my monsters do not have anything of value on them. I award XP for combat challenges and social interaction. I award treasure for exploration challenges. So if you want to get rich in my game, you have to poke around and look for it, not kill things and take it.

Bitbrain · Jul 17, 2019

Yes, in my campaigns the PCs can loot the corpses of those they defeated in battle. I encourage it. That’s how the two fighters obtained their magic weapons last session.

The halfling Champion Fighter in particular takes it a step further, and will tear off chunks of flesh from the fallen if they were particular difficult to take down (the whole “consume the flesh of your enemies to get stronger” trope) . . .

as far as selling used items, I just have the merchants offer to buy it from you for half the original price seen in the PHB.
Resources are scarce in my setting, so the merchants aren’t going to turn down an offer to buy something if they know for a fact that they can just turn around and sell that same item for twice what they originally paid for it.
because resources are scarce and someone is definitely gonna want to buy it from them sometime in the next hour.

Tonguez · Jul 17, 2019

IMC the fine motor skills of Orcs is only quarter that of humans and as such their weapons and armour tend to be crude and ill formed. An Orc cleaver will certainly hurt when they're hacking in to your flesh, but theyre too cumbersome and rough for other races to use or want to purchase.

Ralif Redhammer · Jul 17, 2019

That sort of scrounging play style is like nails on a chalkboard for me. That’s one of the reasons I almost never dispense bags of holding. I might let them snag some arrows or bolts for their own usage, but anything not already covered as treasure by me is generally too junked up by the time combat is over.

Blue · Jul 17, 2019

nobody69.420 said:
I did one adventure, as a beginner DM, where I let my players loot monsters that they kill of their weapons and armor, but they can only sell it for 1/4 of the original price. They still ended up getting too much money, so I stopped doing that, but I want know how other people do looting monsters, or if you do at all?

I let them look monsters just fine. I don't play with strict encumbrance, but a common sense approach if they are trying to carry too much like several sets of armor.

Using them yourself - go for it. Giving them to villagers to help protect themselves against the raiding hobgoblins - sure! Selling on the other hand isn't always as easy. In smaller settlements there is limited call for weapons and limited funds. A blacksmith might not even have enough ready coin to by them for bulk metal prices to melt down into plowshares and need to give half now and half at the end of the season.

Also, if money gets to be a problem either way - too much or too little - I control all of the loot and can have periods of plenty or famine to balance it out.

I find that the "loot all" tends towards one of three things.

1. Players trained by video games. Loot everything, sell the grey vendor trash. A quick talk can let them know there is a different baseline in D&D and a single gem can be worth more then all of that looted mundane junk and to spend their efforts accordingly.

2. Players trying to "maximize" play. For some acomment that it's not needed will do, others a reminder that I control all loot and adjust is enough to stop it, for others it's just an instinct and I do adjust.

3. A character who is particularly interested in money and is being played that way. Go for it. You are taking on extra bookkeeping and selling duties to be true to your character that will have little effect on total gold once the level gets up some.