STAR TREK 2d20
  1. #1

    Player Loot in 5e Published Adventures

    How are the dms here awarding treasure and loot in published d&d 5e adventures? I always assumed the published adventures had treasure identified in the encounters and I have not been rolling random treasure unless a random encounter was triggered. The treasure does seem a little on the lighter side IMO with this approach. Do you handle differently? FYI, I'm running Dragon Heist and the pcs are currently 4th level. They only recently got their inn up and running so the business profit will impact that going further, but my question still stands.

  2. #2
    LordEntrails's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Location
    -7 UTC
    Posts
    17,148
    Blog Entries
    9
    I give the treasure listed in the adventures with the exception of when players loot a humanoid body, then I will randomly roll 1d10 silver pieces. But other wise, no, I don't roll on the random tables. Yes, during Dragon Heist the treasure the PCs find is small, until they end when/if they get al or part of the hoard. Then if makes u for anything else they have not been getting.

    I find most of the published adventures end up giving less gold and more magic items than I feel is "standard" for 5th edition. But in general I'm good with that because their is little to spend gold on, and I don't allow magic item shops so finding magic items is o

    Problems? See; How to Report Issues, Bugs & Problems
    On Licensing & Distributing Community Content
    Community Contributions: Gemstones, 5E Quick Ref Decal, Adventure Module Creation, Dungeon Trinkets, Balance Disturbed, Dungeon Room Descriptions
    Note, I am not a SmiteWorks employee or representative, I'm just a user like you.

  3. #3
    I don't have a huge history to pull from as I have only run Curse of Strahd, but it felt fairly conservative with magic items. You get some in the beginning, a few in the middle, and a good amount near the end. I won't specify where, but there is some locations that have considerably more things to find than others. I have read online that CoS is actually one of the more generous modules for giving out items. I am a player in Tomb of Annihilation and so far it hasn't given much and the party is at level 7.

    In general I have been doing two major changes for items: First, changing/reflavoring any treasure the module explicitly gives to be useful to someone in the party. If the module gives you a magic rapier, but there is no rouge in the party to use it, then it falls very flat. Second, I have been using the Vault of Magic to generate random loot for my psuedo random encounters. I keep most of that loot at uncommon level or below, reserving rare and better stuff for more specific plot point stuff.

    The challenge though is the module doesn't assume you give them more magic items than the book does, so you will have to keep that in mind for encounter balance. I am going to have to give my Strahd a Rocky training montage now before he can be a meaningful BBEG for the party more decorated in items.

  4. #4
    Either a manual process for loot or you can opt to get some of the 3rd part loot options published on the DM's Guild. This lack of content is WotC not really supplying any loot data in the official products. Check out the Monster loot series if you do not want to make your own. You are not the only one that has noticed this fact.
    Here is a community response to that issue. this is the whole collection, but one can buy them optionally.
    Bundle: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/315...iate_id=353357
    Individual Loot FG Module: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/318...iate_id=353357
    FGA Founder
    FGU teacher and student!
    Ultimate License Holder
    Discord Alias: Laerun#6969

    https://www.fantasygroundsacademy.com

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Dudin View Post
    I don't have a huge history to pull from as I have only run Curse of Strahd, but it felt fairly conservative with magic items. You get some in the beginning, a few in the middle, and a good amount near the end. I won't specify where, but there is some locations that have considerably more things to find than others. I have read online that CoS is actually one of the more generous modules for giving out items. I am a player in Tomb of Annihilation and so far it hasn't given much and the party is at level 7.

    In general I have been doing two major changes for items: First, changing/reflavoring any treasure the module explicitly gives to be useful to someone in the party. If the module gives you a magic rapier, but there is no rouge in the party to use it, then it falls very flat. Second, I have been using the Vault of Magic to generate random loot for my psuedo random encounters. I keep most of that loot at uncommon level or below, reserving rare and better stuff for more specific plot point stuff.

    The challenge though is the module doesn't assume you give them more magic items than the book does, so you will have to keep that in mind for encounter balance. I am going to have to give my Strahd a Rocky training montage now before he can be a meaningful BBEG for the party more decorated in items.
    My players in my COS campaign have been trained when asking if they find anything. I merely say "B-a-a-r-r-o-v-i-a-a"... and they know what they get. And when the odd cheap trinket drops as loot? They are properly amazed with wonder and surprise.
    Free(Forums/Forge) Extension(FGU 5E):
    Paid (Forge) Extension(FGU 5E):

  6. #6
    Yeah, it is hard. On one hand, finding and using interesting magic items is one of the most fun aspects to playing DnD. On the other hand, Barovia is supposed to be a pretty impoverished place so you don't expect to find much. I try and make finding good magic items either require beating a challenging combat or at the end of a story driven bit. I really dislike how the module has soooo many gold/money only parcels. These parcels are useless as written in the module as they have almost no where to spend it for anything meaningful. Sure, if they party survives Barovia and one day escapes all that gold can be great, but if you just end the adventure after defeating Strahd then it feels pretty lame as a reward.

  7. #7
    I use what’s in the module but I’m a bit ridiculous when I prep (I spend a lot of time) as it’s an activity I can focus on that helps me relax and relieve stress from my day. Anyway, I mod the loot as needed. I make my own tables if I feel it’s needed. At the same time I don’t like a lot of loot in the first place especially with “standard” or more common encounters. Also the loot is adjusted by level and the creature(s) that had it. Both need to make sense. You will never get magical items in my game by killing the run of the mill town guard for example. Makes no sense. But if you are invading the throne room of the big bad you strived to get to for 60 play sessions yeah those elite guards might have better gear.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
Starfinder Playlist

Log in

Log in