New GM and playgroup - Need help with treasure

[Tohnren]

Hello! I'm not sure if this is the appropriate forum for this question, but I hope it is.

A group of friends and I decided to start playing pathfinder with no background in tabletop RPGs and I am the GM. We're running through Rise of the Runelords and I'm just not sure how I'm supposed to be handling treasure.

A post I read mentioned that all treasure meant for the campaign was included in the book. Does this mean that the table in the core rules for treasure per encounter should or should not be applied to each encounter? And do I do it for each encounter, like the bestiary goblins at the start of burnt offerings?

And, if it is applied, how do I go about it? Does each PC gain 100 gp for a 400 gp encounter (4 PCs), or do I use the 400 gp budget and drop items equivalent to that value? Some combination of the two? Furthermore, what about the NPC gear section in the stat block. Do they drop that gear in addition to the 400 gp encounter number, or do I need to factor that in? Finally, if NPC gear is listed does that make them an NPC and therefore worth triple value according to core rules pg. 400? Do the PCs get the treasure immediately or at the end of the session?

I know this is probably a really basic and silly question, but I couldn't find much clarification to how this worked online or in the rulebooks. Thanks so much to anyone answering.

[Cardinal Chunder]

All treasure to be handed out is pre-written into the encounters in the Adventure Path. There is no need for you as a GM to put in any "extra"

The only thing I would suggest is not to follow it slavishly...If a player has a PC who has taken proficiency in a non-standard weapon then change that +1 Longsword in the description to a +1 Whatever.

Runelords is a great set of challenging adventures and I suggest that you visit the RotRL Adventure Path section of the forums for hints, tips and some great community created bits to enhance your game.

[Rub-Eta]

Don't know anything about that "NPC gear worth triple" thingy you mention. Only thing I know is that you sell your stuff for half it's actual price.

I ran Burnt Offerings about half a year ago, the loot stated in the book is well enough. Do not add extra with table for reward per encounter things. If you decide to do so (if they've missed some loot earlier for some reason) add it as both items and gp. Items should preferbly also be used by the enemies before they're looted (to avoid: "the Bear had a +2 Great Sword in its... pocket?").

Don't give your players gp/encounter. Even if there is a reward in pure coins, don't split it up for them and hand it to them. Let them find the loot and split it up them selves. If they miss loot, don't give it to them at the end of the session, even if they fall behind because of that (add another encounter with the same loot, if possible).
They decide how much they want. They can either skip or strip every goblin of its leather armour for ~5gp each.

Something I noticed with my players was that they didn't really like any of the NPCs, simply because it's a "do this, do that, PLEASE!" without any payment.
That's the player fault btw, if they play a character who dosen't want participate in the adventure without a prommis of a great reward, then the characters lack motivation and shouldn't be played. In Rise of the Runelords, protecting Sandpoint should be good enough of a motivation.

My players missed about ~9000gp worth of loot, it's a bit too much to miss at the early levels, so what I did was that I had Mayor Kendra Deverin give them 8000gp as a gratitude payment, just to stop them from throwing snarky comments every time Hemlock asked for a favour.

[KidDangerous]

As mentioned above, the treasure to be given out to the group is pre-written into the adventure. Most encounters will have a treasure section detailing what (if anything) is the reward for defeating that encounter.

The tables in the Core Rulebook are for generating your own encounters and show how much (roughly) treasure you should be handing out. Bear in mind that if you're making your own encounters, its usually more realistic to add up all the treasure for all the encounters in a particular section (ie a dungeon) then split the treasure in a way that makes sense (so enemies use the treasure etc) as Rub-Eta mentioned. Pre-written encounters (such as in an adventure path) will have this done already.

If you were to go through every encounter in Burnt Offerings for example and add up all the treasure it should roughly match the tables in the Core Rulebook (don't worry about being exact to the last cp though).

PCs acquire the treasure whenever they find it, so if they kill the goblins they get all the gear they were carrying and anything listed in the encounter's 'treasure' section (some may require perception checks or other skills to find if not immediately apparent). If the PCs don't find the treasure they don't get it.

[Tohnren]

Thanks a lot, guys. I sort of figured the tables in the rulebook were for creating my own encounters. That cleared it up really well.

One last question I have though is what about the goblins that have combat gear listed in their stat blocks in the adventure. Can the PCs go and loot them? For instance, the Goblin Warchanter in the second encounter during the initial attack on Sandpoint has a potion of cure light wounds listed in his combat gear. Can the PCs loot that off of him?

Really appreciate it, you guys have been very helpful.

[Lifat]

Yes they can loot the potion from his combat gear. But that asumes he doesn't use it himself before he dies. This means that if that Goblin Warchanter quaffs that potion, then all the group finds is an empty potion bottle.

Also: To KidDangerous suggestion of adding up all the treasure of an entire dungeon and then deal out the treasure in useful equipment to all the encounters is a really good one. As long as you don't stack too much on a single encounter because that will make said encounter potentially much more difficult while leaving the others potentially trivial and boring.

[Rub-Eta]

Yes, yes they can. That's part of the loot stated in the book. If I remeber correctly, several Goblins have a potion of cure light wounds. If the players don't kill them quick enough, have the Goblins drink it as needed. If they kill them in one shot (as they will at the end of the chapter) they should be rewarded with the unspent loot, if they loot that is. My group searches everything, but they barrely pick up anything.

Also, very important: Goblin gear is small sized. Making it worth half its normal price and weapons/ammo/armour not usable (effectivly) by medium characters. Making a 10gp leather armour worth 2.5gp (half for small and half again for selling) for 7.5lbs of carrying. Not.Worth.It. So don't worry about it being too much.

You can use this table here as a referense as to how much they should have each at max according to their level. Personally I think it's a bit too much gp/level.

If you feel like they're having a hard time, throw them some more loot to upgrade. Otherwise I'd say always keep them between halfway to their current and at lowest one level lower when looking at the table. When they finish the chapter (level 4) they should have had at least 3000gp each, probably not more than 5000gp and only 6000gp+ if they are poorly optimised. You don't have to keep them even (between players I mean). Where I'm playing right now: I only have total 7000gp worth of stuff (at level 6) while one other in the party have about EDIT as of our last session 20000gp in magic items alone. That's a bit extreme though.

[Lifat]

Yeah. Most of the groups I play in gather up all the loot and then hand out useable magic items according to who the group thinks will benefit the most from the item(s). It is expected though that you hand back the item when an upgrade is bought and/or found. As soon as an item is no longer an upgrade for anyone in the group the item gets sold and added to the party pool. At certain points the party pool gets divied up and people get to use their gold to buy whatever equipment they want.

I've tried convincing groups to run it the way 3.5 suggested where the group divies up all valuables and any item has a sort of "auction" where group members can bid on the item(s). But people seem to truly dislike the idea because it is a lot more work. It would be the only fair system however for anything where the group isn't together for long periods of time.