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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5628905" data-attributes="member: 4937">As a DM, you are only obligated to provide sufficient resources to handle any obstacle that you have imposed on the PC's.You are under no obligation to give those resources to the PC's unearned.  You are also under no obligation to ensure that the PC's have sufficient resources to handle whatever obstacles that they impose on themselves.You are also under no obligation to ensure that at Nth level, the PC's are capable of facing X encounters of Y encounter level while expending Z% of their resources.  If your party has slightly less than the expected amount of loot for a given level, you just treat them as if they were of slightly lower level.  If your party has slightly more loot than expected, treat them as if they were slightly higher level.  Right now, my current player's have PC's that are about halfway through 4th level.  In the whole party of six players, there are 3 magic weapons (all +1) and little more than six magic items total (not counting minor potions).   And indeed, many of these items are much weaker than normal magic items doing little more than giving a +3 enhancement bonus to a skill check, or allowing you to cast a minor spell once per day.   Additionally, treasure is so rare that a single gold peice would be considered a major find, and even if they had money significant magic items beyond a few weak scrolls or potions wouldn't be available for purchase anyway.  Yet the party has more than sufficient resources for overcoming most challenges, and indeed are well on their way to being a dominating force in the local community.Now granted, my party hasn't yet fully realized the value of the treasure that enters into their hands.  They raided a warehouse controlled by the bad guys, and found a ton of coffee beans and a ton of smoked tea leaves.   This was worth a fantastic amount in an ancient economy where long distance trade is valuable, yet the party ignored the treasure and made no attempt to appraise its worth.  They likewise ignored the fact that they probably could have taken defacto possession of the whole building.As for taking 20 to find things, it requires 2 minutes to take 20 and search a 5'x5' area.   A typical 30'x20' room with 10' high walls, generally requires about 90 minutes to take 20 to search fully - longer if it contains a large amount of stuff.   But as the tea and coffee example indicates, its possible to hide treasure in plain sight so that even if it is found, it may not actually be acquired.  Taking everything out of the dungeon and having it appraised by an expert will take additional time and effort, and may not always be practical given time constraints or even profitable given the effort required.   Besides which, the merchant must be very honest indeed not to profit from the player's ignorance of Appraisal.Additionally, search DC's in some situations may be too high to be practical unless some additional effort beyond the usual task of searching is taken.   For example, searching a mucky pond might be nearly impossible until the water is drained to lower the DC.  Searching a stable to find something might be nearly impossible until it is cleaned.  Finding a trap door in the floor of a room that is filled with a foot thick layer of dirt might be impossible until the dirt is dug up.</blockquote>

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