D&D General Treasure - how much, how often, and how does your group divide it

[Lanefan]

Two or three threads have recently drifted into covering very similar territory around treasure in the game, so I thought starting one just for this topic might make sense.

So, treasure. Lots of questions here just to get things rolling.......

How much do you-as-DM tend to give, either overall or relative to guidelines? Flip side: how much do you-as-player like to get?

How much of your treasure is magic items vs non-magic?

How do you "place" it in adventures? By this I mean is it sitting there easy to find, is it hidden, is it always guarded, is your expectation that the PCs will find all of it or miss some, etc.

How does your group divide treasure and who decides the method used? Also, how often (if ever) does your group divide treasure?

Who owns the treasure before division? After division?

How easy is it in your game for treasure and-or PC-carried possessions to be destroyed, stolen, or lost? Are your players cool with possession loss and if not, why not?

Can magic items be bought, sold, or traded; and if not, why not?

There. That ought'a get us going.

 

[Lanefan]

From another thread:

I've not seen a concept of a 'party owned item'.

Everything has an owner. Either a PC owns it, or several PCs share ownership of it, or the party as a whole owns it.

Any item found while adventuring but in an as-yet-undivided treasury belongs to the whole party that found it. Doesn't matter who happens to be carrying it around; and if someone walks off with it that's flat-out theft from the party.

After division, items claimed by a PC as part of a share then belong to that PC. Unclaimed items are sold, with rare exceptions: sometimes nobody can afford to claim something really useful and really expensive, so it gets carried forward into the next treasury as a party-owned item.

 

[S'mon]

Two or three threads have recently drifted into covering very similar territory around treasure in the game, so I thought starting one just for this topic might make sense.

So, treasure. Lots of questions here just to get things rolling.......

How much do you-as-DM tend to give, either overall or relative to guidelines? Flip side: how much do you-as-player like to get?

How much of your treasure is magic items vs non-magic?

How do you "place" it in adventures? By this I mean is it sitting there easy to find, is it hidden, is it always guarded, is your expectation that the PCs will find all of it or miss some, etc.

How does your group divide treasure and who decides the method used? Also, how often (if ever) does your group divide treasure?

Who owns the treasure before division? After division?

How easy is it in your game for treasure and-or PC-carried possessions to be destroyed, stolen, or lost? Are your players cool with possession loss and if not, why not?

Can magic items be bought, sold, or traded; and if not, why not?

There. That ought'a get us going.

So, it varies hugely by campaign, and until recently I was normally using published material. My current game is probably over half home-made. For current 5e game:

Placing - about 1/5 of encounters will have a Hoard. About half of these are hidden I think, or otherwise hard to get. Treasure without monsters is basically always hidden, otherwise someone else would have got it.
I use the 5e Hoard tables, sometimes tweaking the result, usually to give more permanent stuff like a +1 weapon instead of two Rare potions.
Typically the party either divides loot at end of session, or there is a treasurer who tracks all the loot, and hopefully divvies it up now and then. Loot division is for the players to sort out IMO. But I have taken to warning passive players of the risks from never asking for a loot division.
After division loot belongs to the PC holding it. Before division it is in a quantum state.
Permanent magic items are rarely destroyed, this being 5e. Items leave the campaign with the PC who possesses them.
Items can be crafted and sold. Some items can be bought.

 

[Lanefan]

Again from another thread:

If only the treasurer has the loot record, either they carry all of it (likely in bags of holding at higher level) or it's in their storage. Other PCs aren't carrying stuff they have no record of and don't even know exists!

It's usually not a big issue, but playing 5e in the Pathfinder/Golarion world (high magic, high treasure) there was a break IRL and in-world, and when we resumed the treasurer player didn't rejoin. The other players had just let the treasurer hoard all the loot for umpteen sessions and had no money on their high level PC sheets. I remember I had to just arbitrarily give them 12,000gp each. I justified that on the basis they'd been domain rulers for several years in the break and would surely have some cash on hand.

I try to discourage this kind of player passivity, but some just don't want to have to track treasure - or argue with a domineering treasurer that they'd like some loot now, please.

Your non-Treasurer players have no-one to blame but themselves here. They don't want to track treasure? No skin off my nose if it turns out they don't have any.

At time of finding you-as-DM tell them what they find as they find it, right; as in "At the back of their cave the Ogres have stashed away 453 g.p., 6 half-decent gems, a nice-looking longsword, and a bundle of ten fancy-looking Elf-made arrows". Which means all the players heard what was found and thus in theory know it exists, as would their PCs. Do they then forget about it?

Further, do the other players not now and then ask what's in the treasury? Further yet, is the treasury never divided and shares handed out?

 

[Lanefan]

So, it varies hugely by campaign, and until recently I was normally using published material. My current game is probably over half home-made. For current 5e game:

Placing - about 1/5 of encounters will have a Hoard. About half of these are hidden I think, or otherwise hard to get. Treasure without monsters is basically always hidden, otherwise someone else would have got it.

I mostly agree here, though one thing I've always liked is the idea of Bilbo stumbling over the most magical item in his world just while walking down a passage.

I use the 5e Hoard tables, sometimes tweaking the result, usually to give more permanent stuff like a +1 weapon instead of two Rare potions.
Typically the party either divides loot at end of session, or there is a treasurer who tracks all the loot, and hopefully divvies it up now and then. Loot division is for the players to sort out IMO. But I have taken to warning passive players of the risks from never asking for a loot division.

Agreed that loot division is the players' purview, and responsibility. As DM I do try to make sure they divide it after each adventure, though, if only to save us all from having to argue with several adventures worth of treasure at once with maybe not all the relevant PCs still even anywhere to be found.

After division loot belongs to the PC holding it. Before division it is in a quantum state.

See above re 'party-owned'.

Permanent magic items are rarely destroyed, this being 5e. Items leave the campaign with the PC who possesses them.

Of course; if you own something it's yours and you're free to take it with you.

Items can be crafted and sold. Some items can be bought.

Do you do random shopping lists, or have only common items be buyable, or ?

 

[S'mon]

Again from another thread:

Your non-Treasurer players have no-one to blame but themselves here. They don't want to track treasure? No skin off my nose if it turns out they don't have any.

At time of finding you-as-DM tell them what they find as they find it, right; as in "At the back of their cave the Ogres have stashed away 453 g.p., 6 half-decent gems, a nice-looking longsword, and a bundle of ten fancy-looking Elf-made arrows". Which means all the players heard what was found and thus in theory know it exists, as would their PCs. Do they then forget about it?

Further, do the other players not now and then ask what's in the treasury? Further yet, is the treasury never divided and shares handed out?

I tell the whole group what the treasure is, of course.
It varies by group whether the other players ask what's in the treasury, or ask for shares to be handed out.
I've been in groups as a player where I feel I've been looked at weirdly when I ask for my treasure share at the end of the session. As if I'm being overly aggressive. But I've seen what happens when no one ever asks. Even if the treasurer stays in the game, it's quite possible for groups to go an entire campaign without a loot divvy up. I've seen 12th level PCs still in their starting AC 16 chainmail! Coming from old school gaming I find it really weird, but there you go.

 

[Horwath]

Do you do random shopping lists, or have only common items be buyable, or ?

For shopping lists, I found that mix between random and players choice is a good compromise.

I.E: if player want's a magic item at a "magic mart", good idea is to ask players to give 4 items of choice(of apropriate level) and then roll 1d4 to see what is available.

 

[S'mon]

See above re 'party-owned'.

Do you do random shopping lists, or have only common items be buyable, or ?

'Party owned' - surely this is up to the PCs. If most of the players aren't tracking an item it's hard to see how they 'own' it.

My current acquisition & sale rules:

>>Shopping in Downtime​

During Long Rests in civilised areas you can assume you can meet with travelling merchants and exchange coinage into gold pieces up to 500gp without penalty. You can also sell treasure of listed values up to 500gp for list value, likewise. Higher value treasures may require a trip to a city like Ravensburg the capital of Camarthan Duchy to sell for value, this can usually be done during a downtime Long Rest likewise but let me know.
Likewise you can normally acquire non-magical equipment of value up to 500gp during the course of a long rest. Some Common magic items like potions of healing may also be available, but in restricted amounts, and may cost more than the list price. Non-magical equipment of value over 500gp (eg full plate armour) can generally be acquired in a city like Ravensburg.

Purchasing Magic Items
Making Magic Items - eg level 1 Scroll 25gp & 1 day, level 2 scroll 250gp & 3 days
Crafting Magic Weapons - eg +1 warhammer 250gp & 2 work weeks
Crafting Magic Armour - eg +1 shield 200gp & 2 work weeks, +1 plate 4000gp & 10 work weeks.

Mundane Crafting Rates
PB+2: 10gp per work day, 50gp per week
PB+3: ", 20gp per work day for item worth 100gp+, 100gp per week
PB+4: " ", 30gp per work day for item worth 200gp+, 150gp per week
PB+5: " " ", 40gp per work day for item worth 400gp+, 200gp per week
PB+6: " " " ", 50gp per work day for item worth 800gp+, 250gp per week<<

From Purchasing Magic Items

>

Purchasing Magic Items

This can be attempted in Downtime during a 1 week Long Rest, one item per PC. The PC chooses an item to search for, then rolls an Investigation check against the listed DC. NPC assistance may give Advantage on the roll. Acquiring the Formula for an item has the listed Investigation DC+5.

1. Bag of Holding DC 23 - 2000gp
2. Boots of Striding and Springing DC 21 - 1000gp
3. Cloak of Elvenkind DC 22 - 1500gp
4. Gauntlets of Ogre Power DC 25 - 4000gp
5. Gloves of Swimming and Climbing DC 21 - 1000gp
6. Goggles of Night DC 21 - 1000gp
7. Headband of Intellect DC 25 - 4000gp
(etc)<<

 

[tetrasodium]

Two or three threads have recently drifted into covering very similar territory around treasure in the game, so I thought starting one just for this topic might make sense.

So, treasure. Lots of questions here just to get things rolling.......

How much do you-as-DM tend to give, either overall or relative to guidelines? Flip side: how much do you-as-player like to get?

How much of your treasure is magic items vs non-magic?

How do you "place" it in adventures? By this I mean is it sitting there easy to find, is it hidden, is it always guarded, is your expectation that the PCs will find all of it or miss some, etc.

How does your group divide treasure and who decides the method used? Also, how often (if ever) does your group divide treasure?

Who owns the treasure before division? After division?

How easy is it in your game for treasure and-or PC-carried possessions to be destroyed, stolen, or lost? Are your players cool with possession loss and if not, why not?

Can magic items be bought, sold, or traded; and if not, why not?

There. That ought'a get us going.

There's not actually any guidelines in 5e for how much to give out but the 2edmg had a great section about giving out treasure that still holds true. I tried for probably a year or two to push players towards giving treasure distribution, but the magic item budget is so low with 5e designed to assume n feats & no magic items that there is not much room for them to save for anything do I can't really blame them for not caring much if they don't do a split at the end of the session like always seemed to happen when I ran past editions/pf. Eventually I got to the point where I didn't really care & just told them that they could buy reasonable stuff with a bill to their boss if they pretty much ignored it.

I gave out a lot of one time use trinkets that did things like a necrotic fireball or a flaming cloud of daggers plus fun fluff items but they pretty much almost never got used because the risks they face even against "deadly" encounters are so low

I ejoy designing cool magic items for my players that let them do neat stuff but it goes back to the magic item budget so either they are like +4 & +5 equivalent or "meh, guess it's better than this"

Magic items can be bought sold & potentially even custom ordered but it's not much of somethingthat seems to really interest my players much once they realize the way things are structured & have a +1 it's eitherartifact grade or meh

 

[TheSword]

I’ve tried a few different systems. The one I settled on uses this formula.

Character Wealth (Gold) by Level - Dungeon Masters Only - Dungeons & Dragons Discussion - D&D Beyond Forums - D&D Beyond

Note those lists are wealth only, and don’t include magic items.

Yes Magic items can be bought and sold using the downtime rules in Xanathars Guide. This keeps item sale to higher levels.

When it comes to divying up treasure, players take by utility first (and I balance treasure to utility) then they roll off for things that are equally useful to several players. If a player was getting behind in terms of items through bad luck. I’d make sure they get some more suited to them. The group chose that method. Because... well... because they’re rational human beings.

Treasure gets split out when it’s sold. Magic item value isn’t considered at all.

Normal equipment has no value. Finely crafted items become the equivalent of art objects so would be sold for their value and are part of treasure. This lets me give the orc chief a nice weapon and it stand out from the rest of the Orcs, without it being magical.

Stealing treasure is a bit of a douche move. I may use such a plot once every couple of campaigns but I would be very careful. They would probably have chance to get it back.

Magic Items are given as per the Xanathars Guide distribution. With the exception that I give scrolls and potions on top of this. I sometimes combine items effects into a single item for common items.