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Message: <blockquote data-quote="phloog" data-source="post: 4647674" data-attributes="member: 59219">I guess I'm not 100% clear on your intent.... Do you want to find a way to 'gift' them with magic items without a seemingly appropriate challenge, or are you looking for ways to 'overstock' encounters so they get more than they deserve? I'm not saying that well...I guess the question is "how much do you want them to EARN the items?"...obviously you're trying to bring the balance of wealth to level back to the normal expectation of published adventures. Are you worried that if you make them EARN the items the encounter will give them experience points, and you won't catch up?  It just feels like "Hey, look under this toadstool...it's the Apparatus of Kwalish!!" is a bit much. I like the earlier suggestion of a slain party, which could be integrated into an adventure without pumping them too full of XPs...dragons are good for this. Hiding things in undead crypts is easy -  Bob was buried in his stuff...fight Bob who is buffed by his stuff, then stuff his stuff in with your stuff.  Nuff said. Side note: I NEVER add RANDOM gear in things...not since that rare alignment of planets that gave me Unkillable Karl.  Particularly if you're trying to make the group able to survive more 'level appropriate' encounters, I would definitely inventory what they have, identify obvious gaps, and use that in the encounter.  Frankly, that could be the basis for an adventure ("we don't have any magical weapons, but I've heard that...") I have a hard time believing that someone would abandon their house, leaving behind a few boxes of old clothes and a Robe of Blending.   But if you must put something in the basement of an abandoned house, make a cool REASON why it's in the basement...maybe it's locked in a chest with a magical puzzle lock...at least then you're rewarding them for solving a puzzle and not just letting them find stuff. If it's only about coins and you allow BUYING magical items in the campaign, you could get away with this ONCE:  The sewers run under a fountain that people throw coins into for wishes..there is a small crack in the basin, and coins and other valuables thrown into the fountain have fallen through and are in the sewers.  If you do this, I would suggest having them meet and befriend a deformed brute, and foil some bank robbers. And of course, there is always the slightly obvious, but highly efficient method known as the Lucre Golem.  I can stat one up if you'd like.</blockquote>

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