Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 SillyMind Feb 20, 2015 9:22:03	Hi all! I'm planning for my next session. My 6th level PCs are on the upper level of an abandonned temple that they must investigate for plot reason. The temple has 3 lower levels and many encounters to go through (approximatly 60 rooms and 15 encounters) - its a classic dungeon-crawl of sort that should take them 2-3 sessions.   Since the start of the campaign I didn't give a lot of treasure because we started playing before the release of the DMG and now I want to use the various random treasure tables to award them shiny new things. I don't want to tailor the treasures to the party because I like to give out magic items randomly and see what the party will do with them.   My question is, do you think it's best to roll 1-2 hoards for the entire complex or a hoard for each level? How do you generally place treasure in your campaign? If we go with the guidelines (which are just that - guidelines) in the DMG the party should find 18 hoard of CR 5-10 in their leveling to 11th level and that seems a lot if you give only 1 hoard per adventure/location.   I know I can do whatever I want because 5e isn't magic item dependant but I was looking to see if there is a conscensus in the community.
#2 CCS Feb 20, 2015 10:34:54	If the encounters are more individual in nature I'd roll on the appropriate hoard table for each. If there were a series of related encounters? Then I'd roll on the hoard table & split the loot up amongst the related sections.
#3 AaronOfBarbaria Feb 20, 2015 10:55:51	I don't quite have a "typical" process for 5th edition treasure yet, since I've been trying out a few different approaches in my various campaigns up to this point.   Some aren't random, so I'll leave those out for now since you want random, which means there are two ideas to discuss:   Randomly roll all the treasure hoards that the party is going to find over the entire campaign, making a list of each. Place them with or "behind" the tougher encounters in your dungeon, having about 1 in 4 encounters have some treasure (so 3 or 4 locations in your case), with 1 of those consisting of 2 or 3 hoard rolls and being with or "behind" the toughest encounter in the area. Season to taste.   The other method I use in only one campaign right now, and it is entirely randomly generated - because of the circumstances of the campaign (unknown force has abducted adventurers and left them in a sprawing, maze-like dungeon with very little supplies for unknown reasons) this makes sense even though the players and their characters are unaware of how/why it makes sense at this point - so random treasure hoards are already placed around the dungeon area randomly as both hidden treasures (a chest behind a secret door here, a hidden compartment in the floor full of loot there) and guarded by monsters (sometimes because the monster found the treasure and wants to keep it, but usually as coincidence that the monster is in that room in particular when the party comes along).   In that method, about 1 in every 8 rooms has some treasure in it, by it is more like 1 in 3 that have monsters, and there are traps on about 1 in 10 doors and 1 in 6 hallways (it's a very dangerous place).   I do have to say, though, that my current prefered method is to generate all the treasure that the party is going to encounter along the normal course of their campaign (i.e. the stuff that will show up during the players playing out whatever plot hooks I toss them and they bite on - but they party could still decide to go looking for a specific thing and I would make a side-adventure on the fly that ended with getting that item) and then deliberately distribute it alongside encounters and circumstances that serve to answer questions like "what was a flametongue greatsword doing here?"
#4 Kayal Feb 20, 2015 13:52:25	I've done a mix. I've divvied the hoard between locations and I've also piled it all up in one spot. I've even had NPCs hand some of it out before the adventure, because those NPCs wanted to help. I've been stingy in some adventures and generous in others.
#5 Kayal Feb 20, 2015 13:54:47	AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
#6 Barky Feb 20, 2015 15:54:37	I try to do hordes two ways:       1) monster lairs will have treasure per description BUT they will actually wield any magic items against the party during the encounter. Rarely will an item sit in a chest. This is how I reward most magic.   2) plot-relevant treasure -- "only Belkram's Battleaxe can defeat the Vermillion Wight!" -- will be very carefully guarded OR very well hidden.   I have a hard time believing there are temples full of loot hanging about. They would have been looted years ago. Any loot that remains will be used by denizens or very well hidden/guarded.
#7 BRJN Feb 20, 2015 19:03:43	Barky wrote:
#8 Barky Feb 20, 2015 19:59:49	BRJN wrote:
#9 ivstin Feb 20, 2015 23:09:44	My favorite treasure hoard was a Hobgoblin camp that had taken over a dwarven trading post. The leader was a zealot who had been redeemed by the Book of Exalted Deeds and went crazy attempting to redeem his clan members. Players killed him.   Didn't realize it was the BoED.   Now they're convinced they have to destroy this terrible artifact... ... I love my life.
#10 Goon-for-Hire Feb 21, 2015 11:48:06	I have found that a really helpful guideline for choosing treasures is as follows:   Easy Encounters = no treasure Medium Encounters = tndividual treasure. Hard Encounters = 60% individual treasure, 40% hoard Dealy Encounters = hoard Multi-Part Encounter = 40% individual treasures, 60% hoard Hitting a milestone = hoard If the PCs are hurting for treasure, I generally will trade two to three individual treasures for a hoard.    For encounters that would not logically have a treasure (oozes, animals), I either move the treasure to an easy encounter that plausibly could have the treasure, or I place it seperately (possibly with a trap).   I also generally plan my encounters with a pretty basic recipe: 2 parts easy, 3 parts medium, 2 parts hard, 1 part deadly, add in 3 traps and milestones to taste.  So that generally means my PCs will score 5 individual treasures  and 2 hoards per "serving" - with an adventure being 2-3 servings.   Back in 3.5e I got an idea while working with the Magic Item Compendium - I planned two level appropriate magic items per PC per level of the course of the campaign, sometimes replacing one item with two weaker ones.  I used the PCs class, race, and character concept to help me choose appropriate items, then seeded these across treasure hoards, adding in only a few randm items here and there to make things a little more interesting.   I found that sometimes themes emerged in choosing magic items that helped me plan the adventures later on. (i.e.: "Gee, I am giving out four magic items made of leather.  This might be a good adventure to involve druids or a tannery." "Hmm, I am planning on giving two water-themed items out this time - time for a flooded dungeon.")
#11 Goon-for-Hire Feb 21, 2015 11:53:32	Barky wrote:
#12 Barky Feb 21, 2015 13:46:33	ivstin wrote:
#13 Kayal Feb 21, 2015 20:11:31	Barky wrote:
#14 SillyMind Feb 22, 2015 15:05:58	Thank you for all your answers! I think rolling all the hoards in advance and giving them out on the fly is a great way to go and it let you handling them out ''organicly''.