Hello, I've not posted on these forums in a LONG time. I have recently picked up the 5e PHB because my children have been itching for me to run a game for them. I can do with the free monsters in the Basic Rules supplement for now, however my question is..... What do I do about treasure?
There is no treasure system in the basic rules, no guide on what to give out to players at all. I think this is a horrible oversight given how much fun it is to "find stuff".
Is there anyone who has suggestions on how to handle this as I wait for the DMG to come out? Needless to say, my kids don't want to wait that long before we begin play.
On a related note, I have a 2nd question. Does the Hoard of the Dragon Queen book contain treasure rewards for encounters?
Thanks in advance for anyone who can assist me.
You can be creative and let your players find a +1 weapon or armor. Give it a cool name and some other minor trait like "sheds light" or "does an extra d4 cold damage" etc. You can use the adventure in the starter set for a few examples too.
Felwyn_Vale wrote:
There are currently no treasure guidelines. It is assumed they'll be in the DMG. As for HotDQ, there are treasures listed and awarded in some encounters. That said, there isn't much, especially in the first five episodes. HotDQ basically doesn't award any treasure till characters are level 5. This is significantly different from the awards in the starter set, which has a simple +1 sword available as early as level 2.
Frankly, at this stage, I'd recommend simply awarding items based on your gut instinct and how you feel that it will make sense for your players / adventure.
Interestingly, as Bumamgar has said,there is no mention of treasure in any of the monsters given thus far, nor does the basic DM guide say anything about rewards past experience points.
The last playtest packet DM guidelines had a rough draft of how they might handle treasure (though seeing the way the monsters are laid out, it looks like they are going to use a different system). It could still be used as a rough guideline.
Is there any actual use for treasure?
Magic items are going to be rare and wonderful ... and not have prices ... so ...
Platemail, Wizard Spellbooks, and Healing Potions seem to be the only things that a character might ever spend much money on ...
Uthrac wrote:
Sorxores wrote:
As a long time player and gm (wow, has it really been nearly three and a half decades already?) I've covered the entire range of attitudes on treasure, from penny pinching accountant to blaise about money. Unless one of the players really likes tracking literally tons of loot down to the last copper piece (or you do!), I'd suggest being pretty lax after the first decent sized treasure trove. Any routine expense costing under a gold or so, I just ignore ("At the merchant you replace your arrows, torches and that day of rations you fed to the wardogs. While haggling over the price, the merchant fills you in on some of the local gossip...") I also stop handing out small change ("You loot the orcs and come up with five gold and some small coins of no real worth."), unless you're doing it on purpose. ("In the corner is a barrel with an awful lot of copper and silver coins inside . A good shove and you estimate the weight at about 600 pounds. From what you can see on top, maybe one coin in ten is silver.")
The upside is less book keeping and fewer checks on the equipment list for the prices of cheap items. As for the amounts to give out, players get to live a really nice lifestyle for about 120 gold a month, so you have some idea of what money will be worth to new players. On the other hand, feel free to hand out non-coin or gem treasures too to see what interests them, variety is good. In my current 5e campaign I gave out a small amber carving of a lion and one of the players paid the others to keep it, seeing his interest I threw another animal carving out of jade later and he's already bought an ornate box to house his growing collection. One of my own characters in a 1e campaign made it a point to capture banners and standards from humanoid tribes he fought against. Coins in moderate amounts let you have a few nice things without worrying about the players doing things like trying to hire a mercenary army to clear out their next dungeon. In the beginning, give them enough to live the high life for a month or two at a time, but not so much that they're all running around in plate armor by level three. Money becomes pretty meaningless in the day to day rather quickly, then they start wondering about higher priced things like ships and small castles. Which are also wonderful story hooks.
As for magic items, be more generous with expendable magic, potions and items with a limited number of charges. If you end up giving out too much, it will get used up in due time and the balance will be restored. Permament items are a different matter, don't feel you have to keep one upping your previous rewards. It can lead to players being both too powerful and too complacent ("Another +4 Sword? Throw it in with the others, we can try to sell them when we get back to town.") As another posted noted, variety can really help with this, a special power or two can turn what would otherwise be a ho-hum item into something interesting; especially as a nonstandard item should have it's own name and history. Not to mention that someone or something might be really interesting in the item when it turns up again. Far better to give out too little and make it up to them later than give them too much and come to the realization that you're going to have to take some of it away to restore things to sanity.
Good luck, have fun, the play's the thing!
I'm still just getting started in 5E, like everyone else, but my impression thus far is that treasure is meant to be used primarily on things like a base of operations, staff, bribes, and a limited number of equipment upgrades (basically, buy good armor for everyone and you're set, equipment-wise). In one of the games I play in, my DM has an annoying house rule, where you drop your weapon if you roll a natural 1 on an attack. So, as soon as we hit town, I paid to have a lanyard attached to my sword. I was happy to do it, because there isn't really anything else competing for my wealth.
Magic items are not intended to be bought and sold on an open market, for the first time in D&D history, and they're not assumed in the math for character progression. I just want to take this opportunity to say, "HELLS YEAH!" That's a really good thing, in my opinion.
Thanks everyone for your responses. I will probably just wing it. It's been a LONG time since I have DMed a game (about 15 years) so I'm kind of nervous about screwing things up.
Fortunately (with the exception of my wife) they are all total newbies.
Coming off of a 4e game it seems really weird not to have to worry about magic items as a progression. Gotta dig out my old memories of how excited we were to find that first +1 sword. 
Happy gaming everyone…
I personally don't plan on awarding non-consumable magical items until a good 1/3 way through the level range. I've instead created a 'Masterwork Gear' writeup so my players can buy items that give a benefit, generally one that isn't directly involved in combat, by paying a greater and greater amount. I'll award enough money so that they have ~2000 gp each by around level 5, so they can live a modest life style and afford Platemail or a masterwork weapon or armor. By level 7 or 8 they'll get their first +1 magical weapon/implement with things like magical jewelry, belts and wonderous items kicking in around the early teens. I'll cap the magical benefit at +3 with availability in the later teens.
For those interested, here are my Masterwork Gear basics;
All Masterwork Weapons & Armor have 20% reduced weight.
Weapons
Material/added cost/benefit
Adamantine 500gp +1 damage on melee weapons.
Darkwood 500gp +1 damage to ranged weapons.
Ebonite 500gp +1 damage from Implements & Holy Symbols
Mithril 350gp 1d4 bonus damage on opportunity attacks
Cold Iron 200gp Highly effective against Fey and Find creatures (all Fiends weak now, not just Devils)
Silvered 200gp Highly effective against most Undead and Lycanthropes
Light Armor
Drowmesh (leather), 350 gp +1 to saving throws to resist Exhaustion.
Starleather (studded leather) 1'000 gp Speed increased by 5 ft. while worn.
Medium Armor
Dragon Scale (scale) 500 gp Resistance to natural fire/cold/etc (not magical effects)
Mithril Shirt (chain shirt) 1'200gp No disadvantage on stealth checks due to armor when worn.
Heavy Armor
Braidmail (chainmail) 750gp Strength requirement reduced to 12
Adamantine Plate (platemail) 3'000gp Encumbrance occurs at 7 times strength instead of 5.
Obviously at higher levels magical items can be found with these masterwork materials.
I'm going to necro this thread to just take a moment and talk about my thoughts regarding 5E treasure, you know, test the waters and see the reaction.
So I've been a DM for a very long time, I'd like to think I'm pretty good. I'm truly excited about 5E, and after playing it for the past few weeks it's been fantastic. We can only play for 3 hours Tuesday nights due to scheduling, but even then we get out about 3 encounters and lots of story development due to combat not being bogged down.
. . . I digress though . . . (Always wanted to say that relevantly!)
Every RPG I've ever GM'd or even played in has always had a gold sink of some kind. It's necessary. Something to aspire to, look forward to. 3.5 / Pathfinder has available magic items. 4E has the magic items you need to buy via the precise gold you get each level as part of the math. Edge of the Empire has the perfect modified weapon / armor / ship that is a HUGE credit sink (For anyone who's played it, FANTASTIC). Gold, credits, whatever always has a value because there is something you aspire to.
Enter 5E. No magic items to be bought, because you can't put a price on something like that. You can go from Level 1 - 20 without ever touching a magic item and be just fine. That's fine, that's great, I LOVE that idea and am completely okay with it. But, as this topic is about, it's always bothered me -- Where does your money go now?
Now, barring anything like Roleplaying events, or even characters going out and "buying" a kingdom or starting a small town (Let's be honest, not everybody wants to do that), there has to be somewhere where your money goes. And yes, I fully understand that by barring the above, I am cutting off a lot of options. We're just going for basics at this time, generalities that can be used across any 5E game played.
That's when I realized -- Because magic items are non-existant in the market, the game really pushed people relying to scrolls and potions. The market for them is gigantic. Delving further into the rules, the combat for 5E is amazing; highly unbalanced balance. A CR 2 of one enemy is vastly different than a CR 2 of another enemy -- but they are both CR 2 even though one is "clearly" more powerful. Put these two things together?
5E combat is fantastic, it's almost balanced, in a sense, around the idea of freely using potions and scrolls. That's fine that your Level 2 Cleric can Bless the party three times before combat, or even during . . . but you know what's better? Stocking up on a few Bless Scrolls and keeping that Clerics spell slots free for something else. DM describes to you a gigantic beast no less than 20 feet tall? Yeah, I certainly won't mind gulping down that potion of Bull's Strength and Bear's Endurance ASAP.
I really feel the "gold sink" in 5E is really going to town on consumables. Don't be stingy when it comes to how many healing potions you have on you -- your health can go down fast. Prepare some spells as a Wizard, but really you're going to need a full arsenal ready on call.
That is my two thoughts on 5E Treasure. Magic items players obtain should be a BIG deal. I will never give out a +1 Longsword alone. It will be a +1 Longsword with some awesome side effect attached to it. Amulets and Rings will be a grandeur item. Gold will be obtained via gems and other oddities they sell in town -- or trade for the wildly popular scrolls and potions.
To me D&D is about *finding* things rather than buying or making things.
And it's also very much down to the gaming group as to how much they should have, what's a good amount of treasure for one group might be viewed as a farcical monty haul by another.
Basically wealth isn't used for obtaining direct power. Beyond Plate armour and Silvered weapons,
It's more for buying Castles! and Horses!
Or lots and lots of consumables... but I'm not sure how much these are really required. Find out via playing I suppose.
As for magic items being more interesting and special:
The playtest had 4 fun tables to roll on to give "standard" magic items more flavour. (Creator, Nature, Minor Quirks, Minor properties)
The idea being you never have to have just a +1 sword.
e.g
Abyssal: The item is made of black metal or horn, and any cloth or leather components are crafted from the tanned hide of demons. Runes appear on its surface here and there, spelling out nonsense words. The owner of this item suffers nightmares, the substance of which he or she forgets immediately upon awakening.
I strongly suspect these charts will end up in DMG.
Did they? I havnt looked through the DMG yet. This time around im just a player so far.