Something strange with treasure tables

[Darklone]

Just wanted to ask ... Usually I never care for treasure tables, not even that much for gp / level for PCs nor NPCs.

But lately I had a look at it again and wondered:

Let's say I put two CR7 NPCs against my level 6 average party (8 dudes), the party wins...

The treasure table for this encounter says a lot less loot than the goldcoins table says for the NPCs.

Since I'm using many NPCs with respectively some magic items... I end up with much more loot for the players than should be normal even if I give the NPCs not even half of the cash they should have

Not that it's really a problem to balance for me... but did I do something wrong in these considerations?

 

[Orm]

It will level out after some encounters. Take two CR7 monsters and the party might gain no gold/items at all or take some others with double treasure...
After a while it will get even. Planning the encounters this way, you can keep control how wealthy the party gets.

Orm

 

[Li Shenron]

I am not sure what you mean...

The treasure table in the SRD says EL9 (2xCR7=CR9?) equals 4500gp.

The DMG had tables for NPC equipment. (PC starting wealth table is another thing, and shouldn't be used here) I think you should use the NPC gear table and give no treasure, unless you are fighting an enemy in his lair.

If you give your NPC too many magic items they are more difficult to win and therefore more rewarding.

 

[Darklone]

Ok... Two level 7 NPCs, each of them should have 7200gp worth of stuff... Assuming the PCs only kill one and the other gets away, they would still have 7200 - 4500 = 2700 gp too much?

Even worse if they get both. The NPCs could use quite some of the stuff... but usually not all (except for throwing 3 javelins of Lightning each round )

 

[smetzger]

Thats correct. NPCs have more treasure than monsters. Its up to the DM to make sure the PCs have the appropriate amount of resources at any given level.

 

[drnuncheon]

You'll notice that some creatures are also listed as having no treasure, or limited treasure. The idea is that the creatures without treasure balance out those with double standard or with NPCs. This requires the DM to put a little thought into planning his encounters - if you're running an urban game where your foes are frequently NPCs, you can quickly get into trouble...

 

[Darklone]

The whole campaign is humanocentric... Didn't really matter, I just was surprised to see how much loot my NPCs should have gotten according to that table

 

[the Jester]

You should consider that most npcs have at least some of their wealth tied up in non-adventuring gear (chickens, a house, clothing, investments, traps, a stronghold, etc). So a couple of thousand gp of that npc's wealth might not be treasure per se.

 

[Scion]

and of course one shot/limited use items. Sure they may have started with 7k +, but after downing that potion of cure serious and a potion of blur it is down by a bit. Then another 2k are more potions/scrolls for those 'just in case days' which the npc will apparently no longer have need of

 

[Staffan]

And a lot of the equipment will either be unusable by the PCs (e.g. unholy swords), redundant (longsword +1 and masterwork chain mail when the group's fighter already has flaming longsword +1 and full plate), or otherwise useless. This means that the group will probably sell this gear and only get half value for it. By comparison, "treasure" will have a rather larger portion being cash/gems/art objects and similar things that can be turned directly into money.