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

[Xetheral]

At my table, when items are first acquired the party collectively decides who can put the item to best immediate use. If/when there is a chance to sell the item, and the party wants to sell, any PC can opt to pay that price to buy the item from the party. If multiple PCs want it, it goes to the highest bidder. A PC who wants a particular item before the party tries to sell it can always make an offer sooner--it's up to the party if they want to accept.

Whether or not there is an opportunity to sell the item varies a lot from campaign to campaign. There is a major metropolis that has a Great Market where just about anything can be bought or sold, but it can take weeks and there are multiple levels of middlemen and agents involved (all of whom want a percentage or an upfront fee). Still, the very existence of that market helps set prices for unique goods throughout the continent, as skilled appraisers with good connections will likely be able to give reliable ballpark estimates from what any given item would sell for at the Great Market. But some of my campaigns have been set far from enough from civilization that opportunities to sell are fewer.

 

[jgsugden]

My PCs find the amount of items and coin recommended by the DMG, but generally have ways to buy items with coin as well. There are usually some people that can be found that will make magic items if you prepay for them, although it does take time. PCs generally get to 3 attuned items (and a few unattuned items) at around 6th level. That is when the income spikes according to the DMG recommendations, and if you have places where magic can be purchased, they can afford multiple uncommon items.

When they find items, about half come from WotC sources and the other half are homebrew. This applies to spells and potions as well - about half come from WotC sources, the other half are homebrew (or 3rd party).

As for how treasure is divided - it is done in character. It is usually a split of the coin and then dividing up items to put them in the hands where they make the most sense - but sometimes they do things differently. In one recent party, we divided the monetary treasure equally and then put every item we found up for 'auction'... whatever someone paid was split amongst the other PCs. In another group, they kept what they found - which resulted in PCs forgoing attacks during combat so that they could loot a fallen enemy. The scout in the party developed the ability to detect magic quietly so that he could identify the good loot before a battle.

 

[cbwjm]

Friday night, my players reached the city of Trademoot, a central location in the realm that is, not too surprisingly, a centre of trade. I gave them the option of buying any scroll of 1st or 2nd level, beyond that would require a CHA (Investigation) check to hunt down. They were also able to buy potions. A halfling caravan, the same that one of the players is from, offered magical tattoos (I require an actual tattoo artist rather than just applying a needle and getting the tattoo). Not all of them were available, but I gave them a list and a couple gained a tattoo.

While I know that many people hate magical item shops, I can't help but think that there exists at least a limited trade. All items that were bought were paid out of each PC's own store of cash. The more interesting items, however, are likely to be the ones found/given while adventuring and anything more than an uncommon item is probably going to be difficult to sell.

 

[akr71]

Instead of adding that extra step, isn't is easier to just polymorph the monsters into fish or something else that can't breathe air, and kill 'em that way?

So, no cash or other equalization of values?

They have never thought of that. It certainly would be easier (the fish option that is).

Nope, not yet anyway. I suppose that type of negotiation might come up eventually. Since most of them can't be bothered to keep track of loot, they've just accepted it as fact that whoever is keeping track is right and its all communal. There was a point where they assumed that I was keeping track of their treasure and would divvy it up for them (for some of them, its their first time playing). I laughed and said "if you didn't write it down, you didn't take it with you."

 

[Hussar]

We have a much more socialist approach to divvying treasure than what @Lanefan has suggested. But, on the point about disparity, about the only time I see complaints is when someone has items and another character has nothing. So long as everyone has something it seems to be okay. I was just mentioning in another thread that I went three straight campaigns without a single magic weapon - in the first campaign, my fighter only got a magic weapon because another PC died and I inherited the weapon. In the next two campaigns, nada.

So, yeah, there was some grumbling going on from my corner, but, nothing too nasty. More, "Oh, gee, you guys have found another magic sword that my cleric, without martial weapon proficiency, again can't use. " Mostly a bit of passive/agressive kvetching from me.

 

[Rabulias]

They have never thought of that. It certainly would be easier (the fish option that is).

Being polymorphed into a literal fish out of water would not kill the creature. When the creature reaches 0 hit points from suffocation, it reverts back to its normal form and the hit points that it had when it was polymorphed.

Putting it in the bag of holding works because it would revert to its normal form, then suffocate again (I note that this seems a very cruel form of execution... :-/ ). The polymorph just makes it easy to get it in the bag.

So does its normal form's size fit within the bag of holding? Remember it is only 64 cubic feet in size inside. To give you an idea what that is, it is a cube 4 feet to a side (though I rule the exact shape of the interior is amorphous within that volume limit). What would happen if you polymorphed the tarrasque into a mouse and placed it into the bag? When it reverts to its normal size, would the tarrasque be sent to the Astral Plane? Would the bag be rent asunder and destroyed? Or would the tarrasque be violently expelled out of the bag?

 

[Lanefan]

At my table, when items are first acquired the party collectively decides who can put the item to best immediate use. If/when there is a chance to sell the item, and the party wants to sell, any PC can opt to pay that price to buy the item from the party.

That's about the same as how it goes here.

If multiple PCs want it, it goes to the highest bidder. A PC who wants a particular item before the party tries to sell it can always make an offer sooner--it's up to the party if they want to accept.

This is something else I specifically try to avoid: bidding wars. Why? Because it breaks the single-value mold, and if nothing else makes treasury division an absolute beast in that every time the bid goes up, everyone's share value changes.

Whether or not there is an opportunity to sell the item varies a lot from campaign to campaign. There is a major metropolis that has a Great Market where just about anything can be bought or sold, but it can take weeks and there are multiple levels of middlemen and agents involved (all of whom want a percentage or an upfront fee). Still, the very existence of that market helps set prices for unique goods throughout the continent, as skilled appraisers with good connections will likely be able to give reliable ballpark estimates from what any given item would sell for at the Great Market. But some of my campaigns have been set far from enough from civilization that opportunities to sell are fewer.

I've always kind of seen it that the greatest demand for most magic items is likely to come from adventurers, be they PC or NPC, or nobility; meaning most transactions are likely either going to be a) private deals with contacts you've made during training or through guilds or wherever or b) direct sales to the crown or a temple or some other high mucky-muck. Some class-based guilds (e.g. a mercenaries' guild, or a wizards' guild) might act as clearinghouses and-or contact points, and occasionally buy or sell things as a guild, but that's it.

There's no "magic shop" as such.

 

[Lanefan]

They have never thought of that. It certainly would be easier (the fish option that is).

Nope, not yet anyway. I suppose that type of negotiation might come up eventually. Since most of them can't be bothered to keep track of loot, they've just accepted it as fact that whoever is keeping track is right and its all communal. There was a point where they assumed that I was keeping track of their treasure and would divvy it up for them (for some of them, its their first time playing). I laughed and said "if you didn't write it down, you didn't take it with you."

In fairness, for new players I'd explain that this is something that kinda has to be done and step them through it - maybe even make each of them the party treasurer for an adventure to get a sense of how it works.

 

[Lanefan]

Being polymorphed into a literal fish out of water would not kill the creature. When the creature reaches 0 hit points from suffocation, it reverts back to its normal form and the hit points that it had when it was polymorphed.

Stupid 5e poly-nerfing rules! Grrrrr......

I have it that a polymorphed creature only returns to its normal form on death. Which means you have a dead whatever-it-was instead of a dead fish.

 

[Lanefan]

Treasury recording.

Something that hasn't come up yet is methods of treasury recording, both in-session and afterwards.

What I've used forever (kudos to my original DM for coming up with this) is an item numbering system. Everything found that's either magical or might need later evaluation gets a unique-to-campaign item number, both in my notes and on the player-side treasury record*.

What this looks like in practice:

Player record sample, with current carrier in brackets:

243 6 gems, small (bag)
244 longsword, magic?, glows red when held (Perseus)
245 fine crystal jug (wrapped, in bag)
246 6 pcs assorted jewelry (bag)
247 staff, wooden, carved with runes (Amphion)

DM record for the same series:

243 6 gems, 38 g.p. total
244 Longsword +0 "Artinbras" glows red when held; except +2 and glows green if held by a Ranger
245 Jug of Seeing, (can scry as crystal ball by looking at base through top opening)
246 5 pcs jewelry, 265 g.p. total
246a Ring of Featherfall
247 rune-covered staff, 5 g.p. (not magic)

The key element here is the item number, such that five years later when someone pulls out a note saying they own a magic ring but haven't noted what it is or does I can ask for the item number (246a in this case), look it up, and remind both myself and the player what it is.

Sometimes I'll start a new series of numbers with a letter in front e.g. A-1, A-2 etc., for a different party, this to (in theory) make it easier to tell which party originally found something and thus make the looking-up process easier.

If one wanted to get fancy with this and had more tech know-how than I do, all this info for a campaign could end up in a database of some sort.

I leave it up to the players to record found coin and rarely if ever record it DM-side, unless there's something specific or unusual about some coins (e.g. very foreign, very old, etc.) in which case they get an item number.

* - "player-side treasury record" is fancy words for a blank sheet of paper with treasure notes on it.

Edit to add: each adventure usually gets its own treasury record, with that treasure divided after the adventure. The item numbers continue, though, so if adventure X ended on item 346 then adventure Y will start with 347.