D&D General Time to divide loot, treasure, items….

[Lorithen]

In all my decades of playing, that's only the second ranger/illusionist I've heard of - which is sort of odd, given just how much fun that combo was to play....
(And downright nasty under the right circumstances...)

Mine was a female 1/2 elf named Iris Palebow.

Cool coincidence. Mine was a female half-elf as well (my profile pic is a scan of a pencil-crayon drawing I did of her at the time).

 

[kigmatzomat]

My groups have done it a couple different ways but it is generally along "common good" lines.

The most common is first figuring out if anything is either useless to the party or should obviously go to a specific character. If the latter, does it generate a "hand me down". (I.e. a +3 longsword for the fighter might free up a flaming longsword and now the ranger decides if the higher damage outweighs the lower to-hit of their +1 sword)

When there is some contention, like an item that is a marginal upgrade that is surprisingly valuable (like if a +3 cloak costs 2x of a +2 cloak), it gets to overall impact. Assuming a pair of +2 cloaks are for sale, would giving two characters a decent boost be better than one getting a larger boost? A lot of it comes down to which characters have the least stuff and/or how much the new items would impact effectiveness.

Unused & sold items go into the pot. Cash is also spent communally. There is sometimes a bit of debate about how much to spend on spell components, though usually non-casters are just fine with the caster having materials for 3-4 uses.

As for items, generally there is a standing list of "buy it on sight" items (potions of heroism, scrolls of see invisible, etc) that aren't too pricey. When commissioning items is an option (usually not d&d games) , the gold goes towards upgrading the characters at the low end of the power curve. Sometimes that may mean a character is loaded up with consumables to make up for some items we haven't been able to get. Usually the problem is more in treasure dice than party willingness to spend cash.

Generally items are considered to belong to the character however every so often there is an absurdly powerful/expensive item that should maybe, rationally, be sold but is just too awesome/useful/irreplaceable to NOT keep in the party. Those items are declared explicitly communal, at least until the rest of the party has equivalent loot. Cunning players will be sure to share the kewl toy around, if possible, so that it doesn't excessively hurt their loot awards.

Really, its a lot of socialists.

 

[Lanefan]

In all my decades of playing, that's only the second ranger/illusionist I've heard of - which is sort of odd, given just how much fun that combo was to play....
(And downright nasty under the right circumstances...)

Mine was a female 1/2 elf named Iris Palebow.

Between all our games she's been the only one, out of about 600 PCs.

Which isn't surprising in one way: in 1e you need decent stats to be a Ranger and different decent stats to be an Illusionist, meaning you've got to pull off some mighty fine rolling to even have the option. To start out you'd need at minimum Str 13, Int 15, Wis 14, Dex 16, Con 14 and Cha whatever.

 

[Clint_L]

What system do you use for rolling? We used to use Method 3 (roll 3d6 six times for each stat) even though it felt a bit generous. But no one ever played the ranger/illusionist combo.

 

[corwyn77]

In all my decades of playing, that's only the second ranger/illusionist I've heard of - which is sort of odd, given just how much fun that combo was to play....
(And downright nasty under the right circumstances...)

Mine was a female 1/2 elf named Iris Palebow.

My most memorable dnd character, then ported to gurps and was my most memorable character there, was a gnome Thief/Illusionist. And yeah, he was a blast. His backstab (sorry, sneak attack) was a staff strike between the legs and he spent most of his time invisible (it was easier back then to just stay invisible while scouting). The somatic component was easy to visualize for any grognards out there that have seen the show Soap.

 

[Lanefan]

What system do you use for rolling? We used to use Method 3 (roll 3d6 six times for each stat) even though it felt a bit generous. But no one ever played the ranger/illusionist combo.

We've used 5d6-drop-2 for ages; the game I play in has modified this slightly but it's close enough for rock'n'roll.

And even with that it's still not common to roll good enough numbers to get a R-I; never mind the added challenge of both being slow-advancing classes even if you do get one.

My SO rolled up a new character the other night using 5d6x2 and got 18-13-11-11-11-9; the 18 is great but the rest of those numbers are pretty average. (she then went on to roll abysmally for hit points, so we'll see if this one turns out to be a one-hit wonder)

 

[Lanefan]

My most memorable dnd character, then ported to gurps and was my most memorable character there, was a gnome Thief/Illusionist.

In the game I play in we have one of those in the party right now and yeah, memorable is one word for it.

 

[Plaguescarred]

Our group divides golds and coins as evenly as possible, dumping excess in a party fund to cover for expanses.

For exotic or magic items, we give it to the party member that can use it and if many can, to the longest that did not get one.