Giving out treasure

[Thanee]

I usually do not bother with monsters that don't use most of the stuff or wouldn't know what it is, I then roll up treasure after the encounter (and sometimes change to fit), but if I prepare or there are NPCs who would make use of the treasure, they get items appropriate for their levels (rolled up, thought out or just made up on the fly) and have all means to use them up.

It's always fun to hear the players scream "WHAT!? He used up MY scroll of invisibility?" (exaggerated, of course)

Bye
Thanee

 

[Nifft]

My monsters tend to have a mix of permanent, limited-use and liquid resources. Every PC level or so I try to tally up the total GP value of the PC's stuff, eyeballing it with respect to how many limited-use items they've bought or made themselves.

Another way is to give them the option of undertaking gold-rich quests that tax them in other ways: low XP, moral issues, danger, etc. Thus, you let them manange their own finances.

-- N

 

[Xavim]

In regard to consumeables, if there are too few getting to the PCs all it does is encourage them to make their own. Since monsters tend to like nice shiney spending wealth and tend not to eat it, the players have ample opportunity to amass enough gold/gems/art/weapons/misc goods to raise enough coin to fund their magic Item production IME.

 

[DrSpunj]

** BUMP **

This is something that pretty much every DM has to address in some manner.

Please share your opinions/thoughts!

Thanks.

 

[Kershek]

Personally, I feel that if they use up one-shot magic items during the fight, then they use them up.

However, you could also do it this way - determine the loot the PCs will get after they defeat the creature. Then let the creature use one shot loot items, but don't count it against what they find on the dead body. In other words, whatever they use during the fight, the things you put in his equipment list is always what they have left.

I have done this with charged items and it works pretty well. So they used 5 charges of that wand of magic missile. One way or another it was going to have 28 charges on it by the time the PCs got a hold of it.

 

[The Souljourner]

Here's the thing - average treasure per level is just that... how much treasure, on average, should a player at level X have. This does not include items used up, items destroyed by black oozes, etc. It is simply how much they should have at that point in time.

If your goblins are using a bunch of healing potions, that's fine. If by 2nd level the party doesn't have 900gp per person on average (plus or minus of course), then a little more should be given out.

I assume that anything in a monster's treasure that it could reasonably use, it will. And if the party seems to be low on magic items, then it's up to the DM to fix it.

You can't look at a single case and say "should this goblin's potion count". You have to look at the big picture. Do the characters have enough equipment? That's the important question. Any one fight is meaningless.

-The Souljourner

 

[the Jester]

First- as the Souljourner points out- the average treasure value per level for characters is just an average, not a rule.

Second, you'll note that- assuming all average encounters- pcs will earn more treasure per level than the average suggests. This is because 'expendables' are figured in.

So if your goblin foes drink all 'your' healing potions, you're outta luck, plain and simple.

 

[Spatzimaus]

I forget which Story Hour it was where the player screamed at the potion-guzzling bad guy, "HEY! Stop drinking our loot!". In general, when I give a bad guy "disposable" items, I assume he'll use up half of them. Wands will end up with a random number of charges, and half the potions/scrolls/etc. will be gone by the time the PCs get to them.

The related issue I worry more about is the "tailored loot" problem. That is, let's say the Fighter likes longswords. I mean hey, who doesn't? (Okay, he might prefer sword-chucks, but play along for a minute.) He's spent three or four Feats to increase his longsword ability.
So, does the Big Bad have a +5 adamantine battleaxe of nastiness, or do you switch it to a longsword? If you leave it as a battleaxe, it's just one more item in the "sell this ASAP" pile. Okay, so you can justify making it a longsword if you intend the Fighter to use it; they're common enough, it's reasonable that the baddie would use one. But, what if your Fighter likes less common weapons? Maybe he loves Glaives, or Spiked Chains, or Gnome Hooked Hammers. If you don't tweak the loot a bit, the only ways for that player to upgrade weapons are to buy them or have the party casters spend XP.

 

[Kershek]

Perhaps switch some weapons early on (3rd or 4th level), but once they get creation feats it's up to them to tailor their weapons. If they happen to fight someone with their weapon or not, so be it (I run modules). After all, that's what the feats are for. If the creator gets behind, he'll catch up with more XP once he's a level behind. The wondrous item spellcaster I have charges 3 gold per XP to offset to XP cost, and he makes himself more items with it.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

One thing worth considering: As far as the NPCs know, in general, they have a life after the encounter they die in. So, just like the PC fighters think before blowing an expensive potion of Enlarge in a battle where "they might not need it," NPCs should also sometimes hold out on using their consumables until it becomes clear that they must use the consumables to survive.

If every bad guy the PCs encounter promplty retreats behind a door, locks it and drinks five potions while the PCs break it down, something is wrong with the way the NPCs are acting.