Hello. As you likely know, treasure is an extremely important part of a D&D game, as it (along with experience points) are the tangible reward for playing the game. As a Dungeon Master, rewarding treasure in a measured and calculated way is critical to your success at the table. Let’s discuss how to do just that.
Categorizing treasure First, it is important to categorize treasure. The 3 categories are: wealth, consumable magic items, and permanent magic items. Let’s talk about each.
Wealth: wealth treasure is non magical treasure with significant monetary value. This includes
Coinage (and bars) of precious metals: this covers copper, silver, electrum, gold, and platinum. You can also condense roughly 100 coins into a bar of such metal. Also consider that the coins might be ancient coins with historical significance depending on the context, which would tend to increase their value in the campaign setting.
Gems: Gems are valuable because they tend to compact a lot of wealth into a good weight/carry capacity ratio. Rubies, sapphires, diamonds along with lesser gemstones for example. The drawback is they generally have less liquidity than coinage.
Jewelry and art objects: These items such as gold rings, rare books, fancy paintings, slivered urns, etc. compact even more wealth than gems, but are the least liquid and typically require finding a specific interested buyer before they can be sold for coinage.
Trade goods: These include valuable trade goods such as incense, spices, ivory, coal, etc. Pound for pound compared to coinage of the same tier (Salt would be bronze tier, while rare feywild spices would be gold tier for instance) they are somewhat more valuable but less liquid.
Consumable magic items: These magic items are gone after a single use, but generally produce a powerful effect.
Potions: potions can be thought of as either healing potions, specialty potions, or oils. Healing potions obviously heal, while specialty potions provide some other effect, could be a buff, protection, or utility effect. Oils, a type of potion, are meant to be applied to an object or area rather than consumed to apply a temporary magical effect. The most basic oil is the oil of enhancement, making a non magical weapon temporarily magical.
Scrolls: scrolls are additional spell slots in the form of a one time use parchment. A scroll’s value is determined by the level of spell it contains.
Permanent magic items: usually the most valuable treasure, permanent magic items provide a persistent magical effect to their user.
Weapons, arms with offensive enchantments.
Armor and shields with defensive enchantments.
Rings, with utility based enchantments.
Staves, that enhance spellcasting with bonus effects.
Wands, that supplement spellcasting with additional spells.
Rods, serving as hybrids that can be used as weapons and spell casting augments.
Wondrous items, with a variety of unique miscellaneous effects.
So what’s the point of me explaining all this? Well it’s extremely important your dungeon levels have a balanced mix of this treasure. I recommend first deciding how much wealth the dungeon level has in total, then how many consumables and permanent magic items (a 2:1 ratio is a good starting point). Once you have a number to these, break them up into their subcategories and distribute the treasure around the dungeon level.
As the difficulty of the dungeon level increases, you will add more wealth and the rarity (power level) of the magic items will rise.
And that’s how you do it. That’s a good way to handle treasure in your D&D game.
And that’s how you do it. That’s a good way to handle treasure in your D&D game.
The amount of wrong here is so large that it's hard to know where to start. A good place is probably
Players and games vary widely in the degree to which loot plays an important role; some people like counting their coins, others hate the bookkeeping; some people want their character to be a Christmas tree of magic items, others will have trouble remembering more than three magic items. The exact role of loot in the game is an excellent session zero topic.
The amount of wrong here is so large that it's hard to know where to start. A good place is probably
Players and games vary widely in the degree to which loot plays an important role; some people like counting their coins, others hate the bookkeeping; some people want their character to be a Christmas tree of magic items, others will have trouble remembering more than three magic items. The exact role of loot in the game is an excellent session zero topic.
That’s a very interesting and somewhat controversial take Pantagruel, and I must say that I disagree.
The role of loot is something firmly up to the DM. We don’t want to add more to the already massively bloated list of session zero topics of today’s games.
The role of loot is something firmly up to the DM. We don’t want to add more to the already massively bloated list of session zero topics of today’s games.
The point of session zero isn't to say the DM can't make decisions -- it's to make sure everyone has the same understanding of what the game is about, and that it's a game everyone wants to play.
The amount of wrong here is so large that it's hard to know where to start. A good place is probably
Players and games vary widely in the degree to which loot plays an important role; some people like counting their coins, others hate the bookkeeping; some people want their character to be a Christmas tree of magic items, others will have trouble remembering more than three magic items. The exact role of loot in the game is an excellent session zero topic.
That’s a very interesting and somewhat controversial take Pantagruel, and I must say that I disagree.
The role of loot is something firmly up to the DM. We don’t want to add more to the already massively bloated list of session zero topics of today’s games.
While my personal GM style is that I will decide what loot gets handed out, I've had players hand me wishlists of magic items (before the first session I might add) 'because it'll benefit my character build'. There are groups out there who can and do have the players dictating what loot gets given out.
As I say it's not my preferred style because frankly if even I don't know where the game will go, how can the players know? It's why if a player claims they've got their character build from 1-20 mapped out before the first session I'll often tell them that they might not enjoy my tables. I'll try and be responsive to the unpredictable directions my players choose to take. If that means an unexpected trip to the Feywilds, so be it. What that means though is the Rogue who'd planned their entire build around the Thieves guild in an urban environment might turn out to be less suited when the whole group take to the waves on the pirate galleon they've found themselves in 'possession' of.
Likewise, some games might for example run in a world with the 'Gritty Realism', or 'slow natural healing' optional rules. If they do, then healing potions are going to be extremely valuable. They may even be more valuable than that shiny new magic longbow a player's been eyeing up.
Every game, every table, every group is subtly different, and so approaches to GMing have to be different to match that.
The point of session zero isn't to say the DM can't make decisions -- it's to make sure everyone has the same understanding of what the game is about, and that it's a game everyone wants to play.
I don’t disagree with this statement in the abstract, Pantagruel, but I’m trying to understand how it makes sense in the context of treasure. You mentioned some players hate “the bookkeeping” of tracking treasure. If you can’t convince a player to bookkeep that of all things, what on earth can you? Certainty not HP, spell slots, or ability/item charges. And also, it’s a good thing that some players can barely track 3 magic items because that’s all you are allowed to attune to in the first place.
I’m just struggling to see where you are coming from.
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Hello. As you likely know, treasure is an extremely important part of a D&D game, as it (along with experience points) are the tangible reward for playing the game. As a Dungeon Master, rewarding treasure in a measured and calculated way is critical to your success at the table. Let’s discuss how to do just that.
Categorizing treasure First, it is important to categorize treasure. The 3 categories are: wealth, consumable magic items, and permanent magic items. Let’s talk about each.
Wealth: wealth treasure is non magical treasure with significant monetary value. This includes
Coinage (and bars) of precious metals: this covers copper, silver, electrum, gold, and platinum. You can also condense roughly 100 coins into a bar of such metal. Also consider that the coins might be ancient coins with historical significance depending on the context, which would tend to increase their value in the campaign setting.
Gems: Gems are valuable because they tend to compact a lot of wealth into a good weight/carry capacity ratio. Rubies, sapphires, diamonds along with lesser gemstones for example. The drawback is they generally have less liquidity than coinage.
Jewelry and art objects: These items such as gold rings, rare books, fancy paintings, slivered urns, etc. compact even more wealth than gems, but are the least liquid and typically require finding a specific interested buyer before they can be sold for coinage.
Trade goods: These include valuable trade goods such as incense, spices, ivory, coal, etc. Pound for pound compared to coinage of the same tier (Salt would be bronze tier, while rare feywild spices would be gold tier for instance) they are somewhat more valuable but less liquid.
Consumable magic items: These magic items are gone after a single use, but generally produce a powerful effect.
Potions: potions can be thought of as either healing potions, specialty potions, or oils. Healing potions obviously heal, while specialty potions provide some other effect, could be a buff, protection, or utility effect. Oils, a type of potion, are meant to be applied to an object or area rather than consumed to apply a temporary magical effect. The most basic oil is the oil of enhancement, making a non magical weapon temporarily magical.
Scrolls: scrolls are additional spell slots in the form of a one time use parchment. A scroll’s value is determined by the level of spell it contains.
Permanent magic items: usually the most valuable treasure, permanent magic items provide a persistent magical effect to their user.
So what’s the point of me explaining all this? Well it’s extremely important your dungeon levels have a balanced mix of this treasure. I recommend first deciding how much wealth the dungeon level has in total, then how many consumables and permanent magic items (a 2:1 ratio is a good starting point). Once you have a number to these, break them up into their subcategories and distribute the treasure around the dungeon level.
As the difficulty of the dungeon level increases, you will add more wealth and the rarity (power level) of the magic items will rise.
And that’s how you do it. That’s a good way to handle treasure in your D&D game.
The amount of wrong here is so large that it's hard to know where to start. A good place is probably
Players and games vary widely in the degree to which loot plays an important role; some people like counting their coins, others hate the bookkeeping; some people want their character to be a Christmas tree of magic items, others will have trouble remembering more than three magic items. The exact role of loot in the game is an excellent session zero topic.
That’s a very interesting and somewhat controversial take Pantagruel, and I must say that I disagree.
The role of loot is something firmly up to the DM. We don’t want to add more to the already massively bloated list of session zero topics of today’s games.
The point of session zero isn't to say the DM can't make decisions -- it's to make sure everyone has the same understanding of what the game is about, and that it's a game everyone wants to play.
While my personal GM style is that I will decide what loot gets handed out, I've had players hand me wishlists of magic items (before the first session I might add) 'because it'll benefit my character build'. There are groups out there who can and do have the players dictating what loot gets given out.
As I say it's not my preferred style because frankly if even I don't know where the game will go, how can the players know? It's why if a player claims they've got their character build from 1-20 mapped out before the first session I'll often tell them that they might not enjoy my tables. I'll try and be responsive to the unpredictable directions my players choose to take. If that means an unexpected trip to the Feywilds, so be it. What that means though is the Rogue who'd planned their entire build around the Thieves guild in an urban environment might turn out to be less suited when the whole group take to the waves on the pirate galleon they've found themselves in 'possession' of.
Likewise, some games might for example run in a world with the 'Gritty Realism', or 'slow natural healing' optional rules. If they do, then healing potions are going to be extremely valuable. They may even be more valuable than that shiny new magic longbow a player's been eyeing up.
Every game, every table, every group is subtly different, and so approaches to GMing have to be different to match that.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
I don’t disagree with this statement in the abstract, Pantagruel, but I’m trying to understand how it makes sense in the context of treasure. You mentioned some players hate “the bookkeeping” of tracking treasure. If you can’t convince a player to bookkeep that of all things, what on earth can you? Certainty not HP, spell slots, or ability/item charges. And also, it’s a good thing that some players can barely track 3 magic items because that’s all you are allowed to attune to in the first place.
I’m just struggling to see where you are coming from.