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Is treasure only given out when it's actually listed down or is the DM supposed to follow the guidelines in the DMG? If an encounter calls for 6 gnolls straight from the Monstrous Manual(EL 5) and states that each gnoll has 20GP, but lacks a list of treasure to be found, is the DM supposed to generate treasure according to the rules in the DM's Guide (1600 GP worth according to DMG51) or do the players only get the 100GP found in the gnolls' pouches? I've always assumed not, since treasure can usually be found elsewhere in the adventure, but I'm not entirely sure. What about when the adventure calls for a random encounter? I'll admit that most adventures lack random encounters, but a few, including the adventure paths, have them still. If the same gnolls as above are a random encounter, should I upgrade their weapons to masterwork to meet up with the expected treasure value? Or are random encounters expected to generate less treasure?
I began wondering when I noticed several encounters that seemed to be well under the recommended treasure level. I was told in the past that most Dungeon adventures include 125% of the gold needed to meet the wealth by level guidelines, but I've been too lazy to actually tally it up and verify this.
When I wrote "Throne of Iuz," which appeared in Dungeon 118, I had to stock a bazillion high-level orcs for combat.
I stuck with the NPC-equipment-value guidelines listed in the DMG as best I could, so there was A LOT of treasure in that adventure. (Note that the NPC-equipment-value guidelines are different from the random treasure generator.) In fact, I read a few complaints that there was too much treasure! I actually tend to agree, but I was just following the rules.
That being said, it's pretty easy for those magic weapons and treasure get lost, destroyed or hidden even within the context of the adventure.
Anyway, I try to provide treasure info for what a creature actually has on him. If the creature is encountered in its lair, then the whole treasure can be found with a reasonable search.
Is treasure only given out when it's actually listed down or is the DM supposed to follow the guidelines in the DMG?
I'm not sure I follow every nuance of your questions, but Dungeon adventures are written to be run "as is".
One possible point of confusion is that the DMG gives out average treasure totals per encounter. However, this is not intended to be a dictum for each encounter. There's nothing wrong, for example, with having lots of low treasure encounters early on and then padding the hoard of the BBG (big bad guy) at the end, but the average should work out about right. There's also nothing wrong with including too much treasure if much of it is low probability to acquire. In other words, the expected value of the treasure recovered in the adventure per encoutner should work out to be roughly the average per encounter suggested by the DMG.
The only counterweight to this is that the usuable "gear" of NPCs should be pretty close to the NPC gear value or you should ajust the CR of the NPC.
Note that the NPC gear value is higher than their commensurate expected treasure for CR, so, if you wrote an adventure consisting only of NPCs, you'd end up with too much treasure. In other words, good adventure design includes a mix of monsters and NPCs.
--Eric
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Honestly, I was unsure how to word my questions. Let's try a different approach:
Say I'm running Hall of Harsh Reflections. The PC's enter a room wherein can be found 3 creatures (which I shall not name). The stats aren't listed for these creatures as their stats can be found in the Monstrous Manual. The description of the room doesn't mention any treasure but the Monstrous Manuaul says that they should have standard treasure. What should I do? Do I just tell my players that their pouches are empty or do I add treasure to the adventure? What if this encounter was a random encounter, such as when the PC's are travelling from one town to another?
Creative Director
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Honestly, I was unsure how to word my questions. Let's try a different approach:
Say I'm running Hall of Harsh Reflections. The PC's enter a room wherein can be found 3 creatures (which I shall not name). The stats aren't listed for these creatures as their stats can be found in the Monstrous Manual. The description of the room doesn't mention any treasure but the Monstrous Manuaul says that they should have standard treasure. What should I do? Do I just tell my players that their pouches are empty or do I add treasure to the adventure? What if this encounter was a random encounter, such as when the PC's are travelling from one town to another?
It's best to assume that those monsters don't have anything of value if the adventure doesn't say they do, even if the Monster Manual entry indicates that they have Standard treasure. Of course, if you want to add treasure, by all means do so, but keep in mind that if you add too much treasure, the PCs will have more resources than they should for their level and the adventures themselves will become easier as they can afford better gear. It's kind of an arms race, and it's easy to get out of control.