Let's say you have a 1st level party and a moderate dungeon, say about 12 encounter areas. Do you save up the loot in one big pile or distribute per monster that might have treasure?
What kind of loot do you use? Is it tailored to the party or literally random?
I ask because I put in treasure per monster and my party left each villain where it lay and moved to the next room, missing several loot piles. After all was said and done they got a pittance and the poor wizard ends up getting shafted because the party found (randomly) a few pieces of masterwork ammo, masterwork armor, and some art and coins. Basically he has to go make his OWN consumables since none came up.
Anyway in years past I've always tailored hoards and I've always worked with players that loot the room after each fight. Now I've got 2 wonderfully dedicated roleplayers that don't seem to worry about money and loot. Plus I've started using SRD's randomizer for the first time just as a time saver.
After my group missed a few treasures like this I put a post-it note up that said don't forget to loot the bodies. The only problem now is they strip every body (he he do you see what I did there) down to their skivvies looking for loot.
But to answer your questions
1. I spread it through out the dungeon with about 40% in the last room or encounter area.
2. I tailor some pieces that I know the PC's are looking for or what I think would make their characters more awesome. That being said if I have a pc that is constantly using one type of potion or scroll I don't provide one in every dungeon they should make/buy their own.
And back to the topic, the rest I roll randomly for which is why I can't wait for ultimate equipment
I'm excited to see what they do with a +1 human bane shovel.
Loot goes with the people who can use it. Most intelligent critters will have at least a few coins on them for personal use instead of hoarding it all in a communal stash.
Animals and unintelligent creatures only have loot as left on victims' remains.
If you have a plan to have a PC get a certain item, then I try and put it in the hands of someone capable of using it and they need to pry it from his/her dead fingers.
Large hordes are left for dragons.
I generally treat loot as something my NPCs actually care about and manage for their own purposes. Since most evil NPCs are very selfish, most of them manage to keep their loot to themselves.
However, on occasion a sufficiently powerful and evil NPC might well loot the other NPCs in an area to create one big loot pile, but that would be part of the story of the campaign.
Variety is the spice of life.
Running APs mostly, I haven't had to place treasure much. But if I did, sometimes I would hoard it at the end of the adventure, sometimes I would grant some to NPCs to use (if it made sense), and sometimes I would stash it in secret places that may have nothing to do with the NPCs.
Oh, and finding it in monster bellies is always fun, because that really happens with crocs and the like.
I had a dracolich once that kept part of her hoard inside her chest cavity, and used gentle repose and such like to keep herself in mostly-complete condition (her eyes were gone, and the innards of course, but everything else on the outside was whole and solid and in good, non-rotting condition).
Amused me greatly when the party finally destroyed her body and banished her back to the phylactery, and decided to skin the scales for resources... and gold, gems, and magic items spilled out like a pinata.
It's one of those things you don't want to overdo, but sometimes it's thematically appropriate.
Oh, and finding it in monster bellies is always fun, because that really happens with crocs and the like.I never liked that, back in the Gygax days when it was pretty common.
It makes sense, but either the PCs just always miss it or the aftermath of every fight turns into a butcher session.
It just isn't how I like my heroes to behave.
Yeah, in those days the loot in the belly was usually right there next to the rot grubs.
I do love the game, but the Gygaxian style of play always struck me as borderline anti-player. I know a lot of GMs who demonstrate unmitigated glee when they throw a rust monster or a gelatinous cube at the party. I call them "gotcha!" GMs.
I don't care for that style of play at all.
If players don't think to loot monsters there is likely something wrong. But I notice ap have lots of loot pikes with the assumption players will miss a great deal of it.
If players don't think to loot monsters there is likely something wrong. But I notice ap have lots of loot pikes with the assumption players will miss a great deal of it.
I wouldn't say that, in every case. Some people who play paladins (well) have issues with looting corpses unless the situation calls for it. Other similar situations exist.
As a matter of taste, I tend to avoid penalizing people who feel that their PC simply wouldn't strip-search corpses.
Believe it or not, some of my PCs aren't interested in looting PERIOD. My druid thinks the whole concept is distasteful. She generally lets the party go through the process and if someone finds something that she can use, she will usually grudgingly accept it. But cutting up corpses and searching through their vitals would absolutely disgust her.
In our last major campaign finale we found an entire cavern full of loot. That included artwork, jewelry, gold, magic items... it was an absolute treasure trove. She determined that the loot had mostly come from the nearby town which the denizens of the dungeon had been looting for years and she arranged for a load of wagons from the town to come pick up their stuff.
The town gave the party a reward for the safe return of their stuff. The party rogue was less than thrilled.
My lawful and/or good characters will frequently go to significant effort to find the previous owners of loot found in dungeons. Jewelry especially. They tend to believe that the stuff still actually belongs to someone and the bad guys got the stuff by stealing it in the first place. That's why they are bad guys.
Where it is reasonable and makes sense to be first and foremost. Sometimes this means they go for numerous encounters at a time without finding anything but probably will eventually come across something major later on.
Additionally, I always have personalized loot handed out when it is earned via story from npcs (usually at the end of a long quest or plot-line). This is generally where their best and most useful items come from (and I try to detail them appropriately to be as interesting and memorable as possible).