Monsters using treasure

[Nyeshet]

like walking into a 20x50 room and *rolling dice* encountering 1d4 demogorgons.

I roll to disbelieve.

I also tend to roll the treasure first, although sometimes I'll have the treasure all together elsewhere. That is, if a small tribe of evil goblins were raiding a town, the best the party may get out of defeating a few scouts or sentries is their small sized weapons / armor, their rations, perhaps a whetstone and oil, etc. But once they defeated them main bandit / goblin encampment they would likely find several nice (albeit small) chests inside the headman's tent - with money, potions, perhaps a few minor magic items, etc - in worth equal to the majority of treasure for all the goblin encounters experienced since the quest began.

If the encounter is small and not part of a greater whole I would roll treasure first. Otherwise, I would determine the likely treasure of the entire group and divy it out a small part of it amongst the various ones likely to have it - generally the higher ranking ones, and they will make use of it if allowed the chance.

 

[Warehouse23]

For high INT monsters/adversaries, my rule is "smoke 'em if ya got 'em." Anything else doesn't make sense.

Also makes the PCs thing twice about sundering those weapons....

 

[Sejs]

For high INT monsters/adversaries, my rule is "smoke 'em if ya got 'em." Anything else doesn't make sense.

Also makes the PCs thing twice about sundering those weapons....

I occasionally get PCs that whinge at the thought of sundering an opponent's weapon. "Oh, we'll be reducing our own treasure take if you do that."

Maybe I'm a bad DM, but when one of them goes on a tear like that I get a vengeful urge that wells up in me and a sudden desire to sunder their weapons.

 

[kenobi65]

In the adventures I write, I always pregenerate the treasure, and I usually equip the monsters with it, if it makes sense to do so.

I also rarely randomly generate treasure. I figure out the approximate GP value of the treasure I want the adventure to contain, then equip the NPCs / monsters appropriately to account for that GP value (though, the treasure almost always is a mix of equipment and "cash").