Hello, I am a first-time DM who just ran a session a few days ago. My group are all new to DND and became interested after the first session so I designed a campaign for them. However, I don't know how much money or loot to give them after they killed enemies. I also don't know what type of items should be made available to them in shops and marketplaces and what the prices of the items should be. Any advices?
That is a broad and probably often wondered and debated topic... but in the Dungeon Master's Guide (Chapter 7) it begins the framework of talking about Treasure of all kinds. For some ballpark numbers, here is the Magic Item table:
Rarity
Character Level
Value
Common
1st or higher
50–100 gp
Uncommon
1st or higher
101–500 gp
Rare
5th or higher
501–5,000 gp
Very rare
11th or higher
5,001–50,000 gp
Legendary
17th or higher
50,001+ gp
As you can tell, there is a lot of variance and some of this you will need to make up yourself. Especially once you get into the Rare (blue) magic items and higher they can vary a lot. But this at least gives some levels and some ballpark figures...
So much of what you're asking depends on the kind of setting you want your game to run in.
Do you envision the world to be rich with magic, and items? Do you have monasteries cranking out casks of potions of healing the way some of our own medieval monasteries produced beer? Are there specialized shops when Artificers are crafting magical weapons for sale to wealthy patrons? Or is your world gritty and realistic where Cure Wounds is a miraculous ability, and a Superior Potion of Healing is a gift worthy to be presented to a Baron, or even a Queen?
Do you care whether the treasure that the monsters have in their lair makes sense ( why do Owlbears accumulate gold pieces, again? ), or are you content to just use a treasure horde table, and create video game style loot drops ( nothing wrong with that style, if you like it )? If that's the case, you can always fall back on the DMG's chapter on Treasure ( https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/treasure ) which contains all sorts of loot tables you can roll on, and ideas for specialized items.
Your answers to those kinds of questions will determine a lot of the answer to your question.
As for pricing, a system I use is I try and figure out a) How much buying power coins have in "real world money" - for example, I peg the copper piece at $1, b) What an approximate equivalent "real world item" would be for an "in game world" item would be, c) what the price for that "real world item" is, and covert that to in game currency.
For example, if I figure that 1cp has the buying power of $1, and that a light crossbow is roughly equal to a pump action skeet shooting shotgun, and I can buy one of those at my local sporting goods store foo $380 - $650, then a light crossbow would be ~ 380-650 c.p. , or 4-7gp, depending on the quality.
This is a complete change of the in game economy and pricing however. You would need to change up how much loot you give Characters for defeating monsters, however. Would you expect that Owlbear to have a few $100 worth of coinage and salvageable equipment ( from past victims ) in their lair? Easy enough, put in a few pieces of average gear ( appropriately aged and worn ), and appropriate coinage. How about dragons? $100k worth? $1M worth?
That gives you a base to work with. Then you start adding multipliers and additives for magical bonuses. Maybe that 7gp crossbow is +1, so now it's a 70gp crossbow. How common is such a thing? Can the Players find one for sale in a major city? That's up to you and how you want to set up your world.
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do you have XGE? if so, use those prices, they're a little better balanced than the DMG...why would you ever make a legendary requiring a cost of 500,000 gp when you can buy it for 50,000....all the buy vs make prices are outta wack like that.
but yeah, its all about the size of the city. village = nothing more than a healing potion...waterdeep = pretty much everything until the players figure out the prices still don't make sense and they can arbitrage the snot out of the robe of useful items,,,then you've really got to adjust your prices.
Hello, I am a first-time DM who just ran a session a few days ago. My group are all new to DND and became interested after the first session so I designed a campaign for them. However, I don't know how much money or loot to give them after they killed enemies. I also don't know what type of items should be made available to them in shops and marketplaces and what the prices of the items should be. Any advices?
That is a broad and probably often wondered and debated topic... but in the Dungeon Master's Guide (Chapter 7) it begins the framework of talking about Treasure of all kinds. For some ballpark numbers, here is the Magic Item table:
As you can tell, there is a lot of variance and some of this you will need to make up yourself. Especially once you get into the Rare (blue) magic items and higher they can vary a lot. But this at least gives some levels and some ballpark figures...
So much of what you're asking depends on the kind of setting you want your game to run in.
Do you envision the world to be rich with magic, and items? Do you have monasteries cranking out casks of potions of healing the way some of our own medieval monasteries produced beer? Are there specialized shops when Artificers are crafting magical weapons for sale to wealthy patrons? Or is your world gritty and realistic where Cure Wounds is a miraculous ability, and a Superior Potion of Healing is a gift worthy to be presented to a Baron, or even a Queen?
Do you care whether the treasure that the monsters have in their lair makes sense ( why do Owlbears accumulate gold pieces, again? ), or are you content to just use a treasure horde table, and create video game style loot drops ( nothing wrong with that style, if you like it )? If that's the case, you can always fall back on the DMG's chapter on Treasure ( https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/treasure ) which contains all sorts of loot tables you can roll on, and ideas for specialized items.
Your answers to those kinds of questions will determine a lot of the answer to your question.
As for pricing, a system I use is I try and figure out a) How much buying power coins have in "real world money" - for example, I peg the copper piece at $1, b) What an approximate equivalent "real world item" would be for an "in game world" item would be, c) what the price for that "real world item" is, and covert that to in game currency.
For example, if I figure that 1cp has the buying power of $1, and that a light crossbow is roughly equal to a pump action skeet shooting shotgun, and I can buy one of those at my local sporting goods store foo $380 - $650, then a light crossbow would be ~ 380-650 c.p. , or 4-7gp, depending on the quality.
This is a complete change of the in game economy and pricing however. You would need to change up how much loot you give Characters for defeating monsters, however. Would you expect that Owlbear to have a few $100 worth of coinage and salvageable equipment ( from past victims ) in their lair? Easy enough, put in a few pieces of average gear ( appropriately aged and worn ), and appropriate coinage. How about dragons? $100k worth? $1M worth?
That gives you a base to work with. Then you start adding multipliers and additives for magical bonuses. Maybe that 7gp crossbow is +1, so now it's a 70gp crossbow. How common is such a thing? Can the Players find one for sale in a major city? That's up to you and how you want to set up your world.
Best of luck! :)
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
do you have XGE? if so, use those prices, they're a little better balanced than the DMG...why would you ever make a legendary requiring a cost of 500,000 gp when you can buy it for 50,000....all the buy vs make prices are outta wack like that.
but yeah, its all about the size of the city. village = nothing more than a healing potion...waterdeep = pretty much everything until the players figure out the prices still don't make sense and they can arbitrage the snot out of the robe of useful items,,,then you've really got to adjust your prices.
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