I'm an amateur GM and I needed some enemies fast, so I went to Paizo's PRD and checked out the NPC Gallery for some bandits. Each NPC has gear listed. Does that gear count as the treasure the PCs should receive when defeating an enemy? Is it enough treasure, according to the table for treasures in the Core Rulebook, or should I add more treasure?
The gear an NPC has is usually less than what a similar PC has. You can get in a lot of trouble trying to stay with the Wealth By Level chart by matching the NPC's gear against what the gear resells for. By trouble I mean you can end up giving your players' more gear than they should have at a particular level. The Wealth By Level chart is a guideline to show you an estimate of how much the players' should have.
Yes, the NPC's gear counts as treasure. Adding more treasure is entirely up to you. There is a term for high treasure games, they are called Monty Hall games. You can look at what the NPC has and adjust their gear to reflect what you think your players' should have for the upcoming encounters.
I hope this helps.
Just my 2 cp.
Does that gear count as the treasure the PCs should receive when defeating an enemy?
Yes, all the gear that survives the battle becomes loot for the PCs.
Is it enough treasure, according to the table for treasures in the Core Rulebook, or should I add more treasure?
The table says approximately how much total wealth the PCs should wield at a certain point in their careers. It has very little impact on how much loot should be given out in a particular fight.
My suggestion is that, before you do anything else, determine about how much wealth your PCs have currently. Then, if it's low, give them more treasure; if it's high, hold back on the treasure for a while.
Since I don't know the level of your party or your encounter, I can't begin to tell you how much loot to give them, but here are the guidelines for placing treasure, and the table for Treasure Value per Encounter.
Ah, sorry for the confusion. I was referring to Table 12-5: Treasure Vales Per Encounter. It lists an amount of treasure a group of PCs should receive, based on the average party level. The table says a group with an APL of 2 should receive 800 gp, if on a fast progrssion. Looking at the bandits' gear again, it doesn't look like nearly that much. I'd probably need to add some loot, or have another NPC give them a reward for taking them down, to even it out.
And NPC gear should be counted as treasured? That's what I thought, but I wanted to make sure. Thanks for the help!
As far as I know, Paizo adventure paths and NPCs are made based on medium exp progression. If you use fast progression then yes, you will have to add some loot.