D&D General Experience Points & Leveling: A Brief Primer on XP in the 1e DMG, and Why It Still Matters

[S'mon]

So how does that work when the party splits up or someone retires or the lineup otherwise turns over between adventures?

IMC that always results in lost loot since it is typically split during session and goes off with the PCs. No PC no loot.

The worst case though is when the party let a Treasurer PC hoard all the loot, then the player drops the campaign. I try to get players to make the treasurer divvy up loot regularly, but many are much too passive & trusting. Some treasurers are fine of course.

 

[Lanefan]

IMC that always results in lost loot since it is typically split during session and goes off with the PCs. No PC no loot.

So if a PC is carrying a party-owned item and wanders off with it the party loses it?

Yeah, that'd never fly round here - they'd move heaven and earth to track that character down and get the item back (and depending on how things shook down in the process, they may or may not pay the character his-her share for it).

The worst case though is when the party let a Treasurer PC hoard all the loot, then the player drops the campaign. I try to get players to make the treasurer divvy up loot regularly, but many are much too passive & trusting. Some treasurers are fine of course.

Something's off there somehow. Are you saying that because the Treasurer records all the loot the Treasurer's PC is the one carrying it? (and how much does it all weigh? )

That's one thing I do enforce now and then as DM: they have to tell me (and note down) who's carrying what from the active treasury. Why? Because then if someone falls down an endless chasm or gets teleported halfway round the world or gets disintegrated to ash it's easy to figure out what just vanished from the treasury without having to random roll for each thing to see whose pack it's in.

In our games treasure's always fully divided after each adventure*, and sometimes mini-divisions are done mid-adventure if the party stops back to town and-or if someone's leaving the party and-or if someone (or the whole party) really needs some money right now. Full division really can't be done in the field as there's often no way of getting things - magical or otherwise - properly evaluated there.

* - with rare exceptions e.g. if one adventure leads straight into another with no intervening downtime.

 

[S'mon]

So if a PC is carrying a party-owned item and wanders off with it the party loses it?

I've not seen a concept of a 'party owned item'.

If an adventure has a CRPG style 'quest item' vital to the adventure I guess I say it stays with the group. That's extremely rare though.

 

[S'mon]

Something's off there somehow. Are you saying that because the Treasurer records all the loot the Treasurer's PC is the one carrying it? (and how much does it all weigh? )

If only the treasurer has the loot record, either they carry all of it (likely in bags of holding at higher level) or it's in their storage. Other PCs aren't carrying stuff they have no record of and don't even know exists!

It's usually not a big issue, but playing 5e in the Pathfinder/Golarion world (high magic, high treasure) there was a break IRL and in-world, and when we resumed the treasurer player didn't rejoin. The other players had just let the treasurer hoard all the loot for umpteen sessions and had no money on their high level PC sheets. I remember I had to just arbitrarily give them 12,000gp each. I justified that on the basis they'd been domain rulers for several years in the break and would surely have some cash on hand.

I try to discourage this kind of player passivity, but some just don't want to have to track treasure - or argue with a domineering treasurer that they'd like some loot now, please.

 

[Lanefan]

@S'mon and everyone else:

I've just started a treasury-specific thread here:

D&D General - Treasure - how much, how often, and how does your group divide it

Two or three threads have recently drifted into covering very similar territory around treasure in the game, so I thought starting one just for this topic might make sense. So, treasure. Lots of questions here just to get things rolling....... How much do you-as-DM tend to give, either...

www.enworld.org

I'll follow up on the above comments in that thread, leaving this one for xp-related stuff.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

So how does that work when the party splits up or someone retires or the lineup otherwise turns over between adventures?

If a character dies the player making a new character has two options.....they can leave all the equipment behind to the party treasure pool, in which case the new character comes into play without anything other than starting equipment regardless of their level. Alternately they can do a "viking funeral" in which case they are buried with their equipment and their share of the party loot, in which case the new character can come into play with equipment appropriate to their level.

A retiring character is treated the same way.

A player leaving the campaign (which is rare we have a steady group of friends who have been playing since 3e was shiney new) puts their character on off-camera hold with their equipment intact. If they can come back for a one off session now and then they play the same character levelled up to where the rest of the party currently is.

The biggest use of party gold is buying spells for the wizards that will help in upcoming missions, getting consumables like potions or healing scrolls, or even party use items like bags of holding and such. In the rare moment a character is 2 or 3 magic items behind everyone else we might go look to get them something appropriate....however all the GMs at my table tend to de out magic items fairly amongst the players to keep everyone even.

So, in your example of finding a Holy Avenger...in my group it would be blatantly obvious that was seeded in the treasure for the paladin...so nobody would put any claim on it. The one notable example I can think of is my Kensai Monk who has been dedicated in-game to finding one as a life quest. If the HA turned up I would most certainly claim it along side the paladin, but only because ive been heavily roleplaying the hunt for one.

 

[Lanefan]

So, in your example of finding a Holy Avenger...in my group it would be blatantly obvious that was seeded in the treasure for the paladin...so nobody would put any claim on it.

That assumes there's even a Paladin in the party. I make no such party-composition assumptions when coming up with adventures - including treasure - and IMO nor should I.

Sure, if you've a Pally in the group and you find a holy avenger then obviously said Pally is going to bankrupt herself if she has to in order to end up owning it. But for all I know by the time they find it the group could just as easily consist of a non-Good Fighter, a Thief, a MU and a Druid; and then what do they do with it?

The one notable example I can think of is my Kensai Monk who has been dedicated in-game to finding one as a life quest. If the HA turned up I would most certainly claim it along side the paladin, but only because ive been heavily roleplaying the hunt for one.

And that's cool.

Were I you, though, and I ever got the sense that an avenger had been placed specifically by the DM because I'd been looking for one, that would feel cheap somehow. Ditto any other "obvious seeding" situations.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

That assumes there's even a Paladin in the party. I make no such party-composition assumptions when coming up with adventures - including treasure - and IMO nor should I.

Sure, if you've a Pally in the group and you find a holy avenger then obviously said Pally is going to bankrupt herself if she has to in order to end up owning it. But for all I know by the time they find it the group could just as easily consist of a non-Good Fighter, a Thief, a MU and a Druid; and then what do they do with it?

And that's cool.

Were I you, though, and I ever got the sense that an avenger had been placed specifically by the DM because I'd been looking for one, that would feel cheap somehow. Ditto any other "obvious seeding" situations.

There is a vast ocean of fiction in which the objects of desire, or pinnacle or incredibly serendipitous tools find their way into the hero's hands over the course of their hero's journey.

Rey found a conveniently placed lightsaber at just the time she needed one. Funnily enough the same as Luke did. Multiple hobbits ended up with magical weapons that conveniently were sized for them.

It's a common trope, to find the relics that fit your story, so I don't see that doing so in D&D cheapens the aquisition at all.

In a more crunchy vein, if a character devotes resources to be good at some weapon in particular then you are going to have to pick between....

A: Everyone specializes in longswords, which is a statistical choice ending in sameyness.

B: Some character specializes in a kukri and they retire at 20th level never having found a kukri (because it's not native to Fantasy Europe) so they use a longsword anyway because a +3 longsword is better than a plain old kukri.

C: You let the players buy customized weapons.

D: You make an adventure where the bad guy might have a Holy Avenging Kukri I the fiction to throw a bone to the kukri choosing player.

I'm not sure why a GM wouldn't want to include player character stated goals into their story arcs.

 

[Voadam]

There is another option. The player seeks out such specific gear not by going on fortuitous random adventures or to a magic items shop, but by seeking out information on such stuff and then following up on those leads.

So a DM who normally rolls randomly for items in a sandbox world might reasonably assign a random chance a bard/sage/oracle knows about a legendary kukri when asked by the PC, and if the roll hits, the DM then determines some info about where it is and follows through by placing it in the place or with the owner known for it (subject to adventure twists and such).

I don't think either the DM or the player would consider that path to acquisition of such a specialized item as cheapening the game experience.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

There is another option. The player seeks out such specific gear not by going on fortuitous random adventures or to a magic items shop, but by seeking out information on such stuff and then following up on those leads.

So a DM who normally rolls randomly for items in a sandbox world might reasonably assign a random chance a bard/sage/oracle knows about a legendary kukri when asked by the PC, and if the roll hits, the DM then determines some info about where it is and follows through by placing it in the place or with the owner known for it (subject to adventure twists and such).

I don't think either the DM or the player would consider that path to acquisition of such a specialized item as cheapening the game experience.

100% agree. The buildup of who and why someone would be holding a Holy Avenging Kukri should be an adventure or series of encounters tailored to the actions taken by the kukri loving character. Not very believable that you would just so happen to find it randomly hidden in a backpack of some dead adventurer eaten by a bear.