Treasure Placement


Lost Omens Campaign Setting General Discussion


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Here's a question for the designers:

When creating the encounters for Pathfinder, do you include all intended treasure or are individual DMs assumed to be placing additional treasure for each non-unique creature?

For example, in Burnt Offerings, do you intend for DMs to roll random treasure for each generic goblin warrior that attacks Sandpoint? I'm not talking about the fully stated out goblins like the warchanter, just the ones that are taken straight from the Monster Manual.

I've always assumed that the treasure given out in the adventure was all that was intended, but my players are ready to invade Thistletop, and even though they haven't missed any encounters so far they seem under-equipped for a third level party.

Any help would be appreciated!

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Every GM has different tastes when it comes to how much treasure to give out. For all of our adventures, we try to include all of that information in the text, and try to keep the amount of treasure to something close to the guidelines in the DMG. Actually, we generally aim for about 125% to 150% of that total, since it's my opinion that the DMG totals are too low, and they don't properly take into account the fact that a lot of loot gets sold, or used to recover from adventures, or used to repair or replace lost stuff. Needless to say that it's not feasible to assume that every group will find every bit of treasure.

In any case, we include all intended treasure in the adventures. If you feel that your PCs need more or less, you should absolutely adjust the amounts to something you're more comfortable with.

OH! We also assume four PCs. If you have less in your group, they'll obviously end up with more treasure apiece. Likewise, if you have more than four, they'll get less treasure. Keep that in mind when you're adjusting treasure volumes for your group.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Thank you for the quick answer Mr. Jacobs!

I've DMed since 2nd Edition but have mainly been creating my own adventures and giving out whatever amount of loot seemed appropriate. And while I've used Dungeon magazine adventures in the past (and robbed NPCs and locations many more times), I've never seriously used a pre-made adventure path before Rise of the Runelords.

It's good to know that I wasn't missing anything, as I don't want my players to be severely hampered later on by a lack of resources. Now, my group does have 5 players, so I suspect that they are a bit under-equipped individually, but the extra character will make up for that.

Great job on Pathfinder #1 by the way! My players and I are loving every minute of it. Heck, just making Goblins interesting again deserves a great big 'Kudos' to you all!

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