Do you make your treasure match your PCs?

[MerakSpielman]

For example, if there is a PC in the party - the primary fighter - and he specializes in Spiked Chain, would you be more likely to put in a magical spiked chain than some other random weapon?

If your party doesn't have a cleric do you have the party find clerical scrolls in the treasure?

Do they ever find magic items they can't use? Or do you sculpt the loot to match what they want/need?

I try to keep it random. The enemies have the magic items they personally could use, and non-intelligent creatures collect things randomly. To do it otherwise would ruin versimilitude to me. What do you think?

 

[Crothian]

I make treasure match where it comes from, not where it goes. My groups tend to find more magical items they they have lkittle use for, then the ones they can use. I've had games were the first ten magical items were all swords and no one used a sword.

I will have rumors and stories on magically items of odd weapons if the player has such an item.

 

[Nifft]

If there's a good excuse, sure.

For example, there was a character who liked longswords. The longsword is IMC the favored weapon of a god, and the group was investigating an old temple of this specific god. So, when the ancient priests' corpses were re-animated into mummy servants of the Current Evil Power, three of them were weilding magic longswords.

This kind of thinking comes after I determine what I'd want (or have access to) if I were playing the NPC in question, though.

-- N

 

[ForceUser]

Depends on the situation. Usually I assign randomly generated loot to monsters, but sometimes I put "special" or "cool" items in that have a story-driven background. I rarely put in random loot specifically for a certain character, though; I find that doing so breaks versimilitude for me.

 

[KnowTheToe]

Yes, yes I do. I try to have the whole campaign center around my PCs. I do not always do it, but I try to put a few special items I think the players will enjoy.

 

[Henry]

75% of treasure found will be consistent with the majority of the populace it came from; masterwork and magic weapons will be swords of all types, spears, and maces. about 25% will be unusual (the mercenary captain with the magic glaive, or the potion of flame breath).

I try to tailor the 25% to the more unusual members of the group, because (A) the players like it, and (2) if you never have ANYONE using the odd treasure, then you stretch credibility: Why does it even exist if you NEVER run across anyone using it??

 

[Tzarevitch]

I make treasure match where it comes from, not where it goes. My groups tend to find more magical items they they have lkittle use for, then the ones they can use. I've had games were the first ten magical items were all swords and no one used a sword.

I will have rumors and stories on magically items of odd weapons if the player has such an item.

I do that as well. If the PCs are fighting members of the Brotherhood of the Spear, they are going to tend to find spears. They get the stuff that their foes had not what they necessarily need. If characters wield exotic weapons they had best be prepared to make the weapons themselves, hire someone to make their weapons of choice, or trust to luck.

Tzarevitch

 

[MerakSpielman]

What made me think of this was the following event:

I was playing a bard who specialized in the castinets. My character was falling behind in the magic item department and there was no convienient way to get to a town and sell the junk to get him something. Lo and behold, though, the next treasure we discover includes Castinets of Panic - and in the bedroom of a Drow High Priest of Lloth who didn't know how to play them!

This seemed mighty unlikely to me, but I didn't want to complain and took them. It did mess up the versimlitude for me though.

 

[KnowTheToe]

I also do more tailoring because I hate the item creation feats.

 

[MerakSpielman]

OT: while I have your ear KnowTheToe, were you going to re-start up that PbP game you paused a few months ago?