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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Paxanadu" data-source="post: 7063808" data-attributes="member: 55358">Totally agree here. If anything, the loot tables for early levels are ridiculously low.Let's put it into perspective:Food & Board for 1 day for 5 PCs = 4 gp. Cue in typical unoriginal low-level mission:Rich lord/noble/city official/merchant of the week comes see PCs to hire them:They need to go: RISK THEIR LIVESIn: filthy lair/dark forest/shadowy ruins/remote manor/other side of the streetIn order to save BELOVED DAUGHTER/SON/BROTHER/WIFE/MAGGUFFIN(TM)From: goblins/bandits/cultists/evil twin/whatever monster of the weekBefore: they eat her/they rape her/they sacrifice her/he marries her/she is sent to another plane to be married raped sacrificed and eaten by a demon.DM wants to give "per rules" rewards, so he rewards them... a "whopping" 300 gp reward !Wow, that's, like, only 2 months of basic living expenses. Food and lodging only, only for the 5 PCs themselves, and with absolutely zero extras.Also, while they are in town, they must live at the inn, paying their own food. He's so busy, ya know!Being a sword for hire sucks big time heh ? That kind of adventure just makes me wants to kill off that selfish lord right there and there and loot his house instead.Just when is the paladin expected to actually be able to finally buy his plate mail? Level 6 ?IMHO early on the best loot is the very mundane stuff in the dungeons themselves that the enemies use. It's *often* worth a lot more than whatever the usual reward are. A small family of evil nobles playing cultists under their manor just out of town ? HUGE mistake at level 1: think about all the valuable loot in there. Even a simple chest is itself worth 5 gp ! A good DM always think about how "rich" the dungeon furniture itself, not just the typical rewards, should be, and how "easy" it would be for players to grab some wagon and then sell everything not nailed down. Similarly, if a DM wants to make the armor and weapons that the orcs used in battle worth peanuts because they are "old decrepit and filthy and full of holes and rust and bumps and have orc butt smell and orc armpit grubs and other vermins", then he should make these orcs LOOK super poor right at the onset of battle AND give them actual combat penalties. In a though sellsword world, people don't care as much about how their equipment looks, they care about functionality. If it works without penalty, then it works and is worth almost the same value. Washing off an armor of vermin and smell isn't rocket science, and repairing holes is minor repairs that the PCs already do on their own equipment or that is relatively cheap to make in town, to get back a good chunk of value. So if the items are" super" bad then give them something bad in battle. Longswords that deal only 1d6 instead of 1d8 and break on a natural 1 OR if a PC scores a crit on the monster. Armor that might fall off, restraining the monster. Just add a couple more monsters to compensate for the power level. After all, the DM is gimping the loot. A lot.Trying to make sense of D&D 5e's economy is like saying you love having headaches of something. I suggest just not trying and go with the flow and not try to gimp player loot.Don't make the mistake of thinking "Total_Loot = Reward + Treasure", always assume the formula is instead: "Total_Loot = Reward + Treasure + Everything Not Nailed Down", and then design the adventure accordingly and LET players get what they want.In any case, trying to follow the actual DMG treasure tables too closely just suck egg big time lol. I consider that section rushed/unfinished. Also, for DMs that worry a lot about PCs having too much cash on their hand, VERY good rewards are getting Extended Hospitality aka that famous "room and food" thing, which early on, can represent a huge expense for the PCs. Having a friendly lord hosting them for free and with a real smile for months on end, offering them the full services of his domain from repairing their armors at the smithy, consulting an old sage for free, giving them their choice of jobs for extra offtime gold such as say a ranger having free access to a lord's hunting grounds, etc., then giving them free rations and fresh mounts right before they leave, is a priceless way to "reward" PCs and make them become attached to the game world. It's way better to have the lord give a mere 100 gp reward but then flood them with mundane services freebies and treated like royalty, than giving them a whopping 1000 gp filled chest then throw them out like filthy mercenaries and the DM then expect them to pay for EVERYTHING, every little stupid detail. It's also much less micromanaging and less game session time wasted on mundane stuff. A lord giving the PCs a mule "packed with supplies" then, when the adventure calls for it, a monster pops out and grabs the mule, even then, the players can be happy that it's the mule that went down the ravine with the monster, instead of one of them. "Easy come, easy go", is a much better attitude, it encourages PCs to not care too much about gold and quickly spend whatever they have on frivolities, for pure fun, than a "we must keep a super tight grip on every little tiny bit of riches we make and strongly deal for everything as if the entire world is always against us", which merely fosters a DM-is-against-players attitude. Give them smaller gold rewards but shower them with services and friendly NPCs. ESPECIALLY when they are in trouble. When one of those NPCs later come see them for actual monetary help, they'll be much more willing to part with their cash.Try to make it like this instead:By level 3 or 4, every PC chooses his "class path" and should be be considered equipped with all of the mundane stuff they need.ALL of it. for example, the fighter should have his plate mail. Party should have EVERY possible mundane thing they could need.Several one-shot items such as Potions, couple scrolls. These items should be WAY more commonly found than permanent ones.And still enough cash to left over to pay for a couple raise dead.</blockquote>

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