Help with treasure & equipping monsters?

[schnee]

I'm creating an encounter for my group that's a bit more complex than I'm used to and want a double-check on my numbers.

It's a trio of template vampires - 12th lvl Spellstitched (+1CR) Vampires (+2CR), for CR15 each. This equates to an ECL 18 fight. So, according to the chart on DMG p. 51, that should net the characters ~47k gp treasure. Since vampires are 'twice standard' treasure in the MM, this works out to ~94k in total. Right? It works out to less than they'd have if the characters met them individually (15 ECL x3 xdouble standard = 22k x3 x 2 = 132k), which seems odd... so is it 94k or 132k?

So, following the instructions on DMG p. 51, I equip from the NPC charts on p. 127 (~27k each) then fill out the rest appropriately. Since vamps are twice standard, I think I should give 'em a bit more to play with.

Now, here's the funky part. These beasties are evil as hell, and will probably have an Unholy weapon, Venom dagger, or the like. Since these items are quite valuable, but not useable by the players as 'loot', how do people here handle them? Throw 'em in as over and above the treasure amount, and adjust CR accordingly? It's not like the players would sell them (this is a good party).

Any ideas/suggestions? TIA.

 

[the Jester]

Rather than giving them treasure as monsters, I'd equip 'em with double normal gear for 12th level npcs.

 

[dcollins]

Keep in mind that NPC gear is already approximately x3 a "normal" monster treasure by EL. If you go and double that, then your talking a x6 treasure for that EL.

 

[schnee]

I see what you'e saying, but the numbers don't add up exactly that way.

A 12th level NPC has 27k gear. Three of 'em, 81k combined.

An ECL18 drops 47k worth of treasure. If they're vampires, that's 'double standard', which means 94k.

If I use default NPC gear, that's a bit shy of the value a vamp should have... right? Feel free to double-check my numbers (DMG p. 51, 127).

So, I guess default NPC gear is right on target.

 

[Terry Edwards]

If you would like to equip your baddies with tough evil gear over the limits given in the rules yet remain within the guidelines in the DMG it would behoove you to throw treasureless encounters at them prior to the vampires. Take the EL total of the treasureless encounters and add it to the vampire's pocket money. It is perfectly acceptable to include items that the PCs can't/won't use or sell but make sure they get some goods also. On another note, when I have big intelligent evil baddies I usually can't resist throwing in some intelligent weapon or item that can be used as a plot hook or information source once the bad guy is taken out. If I do this I don't count the item as treasure but give XP for destroying the item, extracting information, or following up on the plot hook.

 

[italianranma]

How are the PCs doing otherwise? Are they well equipped? If they are, go ahead and give them stuff they can't use. The can still possibly sell it, although I would allow destroying evil items to give them some extra XP (maybe 1/25 the GP value?). If the PCs are struggling to get by...you should reward them at the end of the encounter with something cool that they can use.