D&D 5E (2014) How to choose one? Treasure Hoard: Challenge

[WilliamCQ]

Hello,

I GM from time to time; I'm not so good at it. I mostly do on-the-fly encounters, often after asking the players for an idea of what kind of quest & location it would be in at the beginning of the session/game. Up to now none of the players that had me as a GM leveled up during a game or the game give their character enough XP to do so. So you can imagine the encounters haven't been that challenging so I just had money & store items as incentives.

I'm hoping things will change so that some player will level during/because of a game I GMed and that the rewards would increase. I've been reading diagonally the DMG (Dungeon Masters Guide; ISBN: 978-0-7869-6562-5) and found something which I think would help for exactly such a situation. In Chapter 7: Treasure > Magic Items there's Treasure Hoard: Challenge 0-4 and other such tables (5-10, 11-16, 17+) but I'm wondering which table to use for which game or a certain game period spread over games. I guess the DMG or PHB mention how to calculate the Challenge referred to in those table names. I'd like to know which table to roll in for which kind of game (or game period spread over more than 1).

Thank you kindly for your help

 

[pming]

Hiya!

(1) Start DM'ing "full time" for a year. You can take a break once or twice and play as a player in someone elses game, or some other system, but generally stick to focusing on being a DM for the year. Pick a world you like, or just dive in and make your own.

(2) Read the DMG, cover to cover.

(3) When in doubt...go low. Meaning, if you think that giving 400gp to the trio of 1st level PC's seems like a bit much...don't do it. What about 200gp? Still feel that little twinge? Drop it to 100gp. Seems a bit cheap now? Ok, say 106gp, 124sp and a huge barrol with 6,500cp and a rotting fish at the bottom. If you find that amount turns out to be too low, you can always give out more coin next encounter or two. But if you "go high", and just give out 400gp, it is VERY hard to suddenly start handing out handfuls of copper to the PC's. The players will feel "cheated".

(4) Immediate solution: I only use a Treasure Hoard for 'major' threats or threats that are the focus of the adventure at hand. So an adventure focused around fighting off a trio of ogres in the hills....in the "main cave" of their lair, a Treasure Hoard. Other than that, each individual Ogre, Orc, Goblin, Wolf or whatever will have Individual Treasure. This isn't their Lair, so no 'hoard'.

A CR 3 monster should garner CR3 individual treasure. If you have 4 of them , do it once for each creature. You use the Treasure Hoard table when, as I said, its the "main lair treasure" of the creature(s). Just because a room has an ogre in it doesn't mean that is the ogres lair...so don't give out Treasure Hoard for them; individual will suffice.

The bottom line is that 5e is very much a "DM's Game" in terms of how it "should" be run. Some DM's like handing out a lot of stuff...others (like me) are a bit on the stingy side of things. There are no real hard and fast rules that must be followed or the game suddenly implodes...5e is very forgiving in this regards. Well, at least up until the number of "optional" rules reaches critical mass. Then... BOOM! Much like 3.x/PF.

So, as an added bonus advice: Try and stick to just the "core rules" initially. No Variant Human rule, no Multiclassing, no Feats, and all the optional stuff you will read about in the DMG. Stick to the "Core" first. Once you learn those, then you'll know how to add in the options you might want and have a good idea on how it will affect your game.

Oh...and don't sweat the small stuff. If a player 'messes up' and has his Elf be proficient in Crossbow and not Bow because he misread it or something...so what. Just go with that. Maybe he grew up around dwarves or gnomes or something. But, as long as you aren't bogged down in a bunch of the OPTIONAL stuff, you should be ok. Think of all the OPTIONAL stuff as a sort of "Advanced 5e Dungeons & Dragons", I guess. If you DO find you allowed something and it's really messing stuff up...just tell your group you messed up and would like to change it. They'll understand (or they should!). Remember what Red Green always says: Keep yer stick on the ice, and remember, we're all in this together!

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[WilliamCQ]

I found the answer, it was in Chapter 7: Treasure > Random Treasure > Using the treasure hoard tables (p. 133). Wouldn't that have been a lot shorter? Perhaps the extra stuff was mentioned because it's the follow-up to my 1st post. Or will I be mentioned to read the whole PHB & DMG each time I ask a question in this forum which hint that I might not have done so?

Thanks for the 1st 2 paragraph of #4, I don't think I would have ended up with that perspective without your intervention. Your advices (all but the 1st 2 paragraph of #4) seem sensible; I'm not sure how much it can be applied to me for reason I'd rather not expose publicly.

 

[Wik]

Way I do it:

1. I roll ten individual treasures for the "tier" my pcs are in, based on the average CR of the monsters they'll be facing. I put this all into one lump sum; all individual monster treasures come from this pool.
2. I roll up one hoard per 6-8 encounters. This hoard gets mixed up in larger pools throughout my dungeon, with the following guidelines:
a. Rewards at the end of a combat make up 50% of this hoard
b. Hidden objects, or those that are found through exploration, make up another 30-40% of the hoard.
c. Rewards that can only be gained through achieving quests or through roleplaying make up the remainder (for example, 50 gp per civilian saved, or a noble who will bribe PCs if they don't mention he was in the dungeon talking to a mind flayer).

It's my general rule of thumb. Sometimes, I'll add a value equal to around 50% of the total hoard value, and put it in one room that is quite well hidden or guarded - if the PCs are able to find or tackle it, they deserve to get a huge score.