Treasure and Rewards

[no good scallywag]

Good afternoon everyone,

I'm looking into computing the total treasure reward for a group of 4 PCs from level 1 to level 2.

I understand the chart provided in the Core book pertaining to wealth by level.

I picked out a few items going by the chart. However, enemies they face also have treasure listed. Is the treasure enemies carry*in addition* to what I've picked out based on the chart?

Wondering what others have done.

Cheers

[Ched Greyfell]

The treasure on the table should be around about what they receive, period, no matter the source.
The cool thing about this in PF2 is since NPCs are built with target numbers instead of hit dice and all that stuff from PF1, it's up to you whether an NPC even has a magic sword to be looted. The attack rating and what not will be the same.

[Mathmuse]

Yes, the items looted from defeated enemies count as treasure for the party.

However, we have caveats. Sometimes the items are not useful to the party and will be sold instead of used. Selling gets half the price of the items. For example, maybe the party defeated a band of bandits and looted four +1 shortswords from them. But everyone already has a +1 weapon of their choice, so the party chooses to sell the four +1 shortswords. Then the shortswords would count as 70 gp cash rather than as four 2nd-level magic items.

Other times, the enemy will use consumables themselves, such as healing potion or alchemist's fire, during combat. They won't be in the party's loot.

Among my players, giving away items is common. When they find the bandits' stolen goods, they try to return the items to the original owners. And they give charitable donations to the needy. This leaves them low on wealth, but I try to compensate by making the townsfolk friendly and helpful to them. The players prefer that alternative.

[HumbleGamer]

I'd say items count, but only if they are useful for the party.
If they are not, they'd be sold to a vendor.

They'd still have half their price in terms of value.

One of the things a DM, as well as a player, is going to be that some items are not intereseting at all, especially if the party is forced to make required upgrades before moving on.

For example, once the party hit lvl 4 they'd be like to improve their weapons with striking runes.

Not doing so will increase any subsequent encounter.

Knowing this, the party will have to expend their resources.

Having X golds or items worth 1/2 ( but there's also the possibility they decide to keep the consumable items, for example, rather than sell them ) would be impactful, requiring the party to make downtime activities to get the golds they need.

If time is not an issue, I say that loot can be not a big issue ( the worse situation sees the players selling the unwanted stuff and work to get golds to make the necessary upgrades ).

Otherwise, if players would be tied to deadlines ( for example, being unable to wait 4 months because the bad guy is about to escape with the princess ), I'd consider giving them the golds required for the upgrades, as well as some extra to get items that would allow them to tweak their characters.

If you don't want to bother with gold and loot stuff, ABP is pretty handy as it gives the most balanced encounters, while giving players more choices in terms of items and equipment.

[Wheldrake]

Also, you're not going to break your game if you go slightly over the listed treasure tables.

Sometimes, players will keep a few lesser magic weapons as backups, or transfer their runes to a bow if they are primarily melee-oriented. Sometimes the DM just feels that it's right to reward a tough fight with a cool item.

The treasure tables are a guideline, so that you know what's expected. They aren't a **rule** as such. The RPG police is not going to raid your gaming venue because you were a little over generous.