9 Ways to Improve Treasure & Loot in Dungeons & Dragons

Handing out treasure and loot is easy enough in Dungeons & Dragons, right? The core rulebooks surely contain rules for it, so dungeon masters should be squared away...right? I mean, SURELY, there are no classic blunders for doling out rewards, gold, and magic items in D&D, RIGHT? Dream on, baby. We've all been in games where DMs commit the FIRST classic blunder for handing out loot -- giving out too many magic items at low levels -- but do you know the only slightly less well-known classic blunder for handing out loot?

Pay no attention to what follows. The Barbarian went crazy on the keyboard and there was no stopping him. Do YOU want to tell the Barbarian "no"?!?

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[josephmort]

The quest giver has a gold exclamation point. When you accept their quest it turns into a silver question mark. A gold question mark then comes when the quest can be turned in for the reward.

[RobKinneySouthpaw]

3:00 I play a couple different games that are concurrent in the same world. Two of my players missed loot in a cabin because they were scared to go in the basement and in fact bailed out of spending the night there at all. Months later another character spent the night there, investigated the basement, defeated the shadows that had consumed the old trapper, and found the boots of the winterlands in their summer storage spot under the basement stairs. I didn't tell the others what they had missed when they missed it. But I did tell the other player that people had come before and missed that loot. And it was something that he really needed for his upcoming quest, so it blew his mind that it had been there since before his character was ever created.

[PreviouslyDelicious]

I like placing items on my bosses, like a moon touched battle scythe that was wielded by a scarecrow minion my Hags used. My fighter was drooling over it while getting his ass kicked. When he killed it he rolled twice trying to pick it up mid combat. It was so cool seeing the look on his face when I described the weapon he was going to be eviscerated by.

[mwhite]

3:24 Counterpoint. They should occasionally know **that** they missed some loot, but never where or how. And only occasionally because if you overdo it, then it will feel like FOMO punishment. If they have little hints that they missed stuff, then it might encourage more thoroughness.

Your results may vary.

[GEARscience]

Another option to consider: craftsmen. Instead of loot being on or inside monsters, perhaps give the party an item related to that monster's abilities. Maybe they collect the glue from a mimic and then they can bring it to the town's artificer who can use it to create boots of spiderclimb. Or maybe implement some homebrew. I think there's something very rewarding for players to craft the magic items, and I believe it also helps maintain immersion for them to make magic items based on what they defeat as opposed to cutting open a beast and finding loot.

[the_colonelDND]

Wait I thought a classic blunder second only to never start a land war in Asia is never bet against a Sicilian when death is on the line

[billcox]

Here's something for low-level adventurers. They do a quest for a town blacksmith and he promises their weapons in silver so they will be more effective against certain creatures. A little bit of an upgrade without handing out too much magical gear in the early stages of the game.

[ThorneMD]

“Only slightly less known”
I see what you did there. Inconceivable!

I like to write out what I think would be cool, and place it when/where needed
So I can always place it in another location 👍🏻

[anonymusanonymus]

your literaly the bes t DM I've ever seen. I mean, once I watch your videos I get super inspired, and I think you've saved my boring campaign. After I came across your DM advice my friends begun roleplaying and actually having fun. Thx very much
: )

[relicapex]

In one of my earliest 2e games out DM got used to us searching every nook and fanny to find what we could. In a planned encounter in a forest he played the McGuffin on a sorceress’s body. Would you like to guess which was the one time we decided not to loot causing the DM to have to rewrite the rest of the campaign?

[kodiakthebear]

For the merciless algorithm! I like hiding loot in places where an enemy might keep it as an emergency. This means it's found in the room with the enemy, but they might not be able to get to it before the party starts combat. Allows something to be well hidden and some sort of mechanism to keep it safe while being realistic in the narrative.

[thecountrygardener]

Sometimes the old shopkeeper you murder hobo'd just has some snack crackers in his pockets, as well as a locket containing a small painted picture of his daughter, son in law & 10 year old granddaughter, and a letter from them saying they are coming tomorrow to celebrate his birthday with him.

[josephperez]

One thing I like with questgiver rewards is when the amount of reward is variable. Like if there is a bounty on certain monsters or items that can only be found in the dungeon, so you need to actively find said items. Or, if the quest is to defend or protect someone or something (like an important noble or a town under siege), there is a maximum reward offered which gets reduced based off harm that befalls the defended person, object or place.

And a variable on this I found fun was a siruation where players get a large amount of consumable rewards they can use to complete a quest, and at the end they get a monetary reward based on how much of those supplies are left over.

[liznohandle]

Not seen this yet, but make sure to include loot useful to all characters. The worst time this happened to my group was in a game where there were no towns to shop in for many levels. The DM only included martial weapons and armor for 7 levels. The straight spell caster was still in starter gear at level 8, while everyone else had an upgrade to all gear and at least one magic item. The party gave the caster a bigger share of the gold, but again there were no opportunities to shop.

[davidanddragons]

Another cool thing to do is to fill the treasure room with large quantities of low value coins, like copper coins. And then tell your players that they can only carry a certain quantity. Now the new challenge is excavating this tomb you've cleared. Great downtime activity

[seanwheeler]

I love getting loot especially magical loot, yet most of us want weapons, armour and items that boost AC, HP's, stats or something that helps in combat. Yet so much really nice magical items are out there that have nothing to do with combat. Great video.

[waffleswafflson]

I tell them I randomize the loot using a table, but I handpick everything :)

[peleg]

After defeating all the bad guys in a room my players run away to take a short rest in the broom closet and never revisited that room during the adventure.

The room had a handful of bad guys all with illusion based magic items. This was a few years ago but the items included rings of disguise self and also rings of mirror image, not to mention like 10 unused invisibility potions.

Long story short the players told the guards who gave them the quest that the dungeon is now clear and they can go make the repairs needed. The guards did loot the bodies that were a few days old and got all the magic items and quite a bit of gold

[jurdgrath]

I have some basic rules for loot:
1) *It must be earned, * either by fighting, or by clever looking, investigation, following clue
2) People don't keep powerful items under their bed. They use them. For the players to win (earn) a magic item, usually it will be used against them.
3) Make it interesting and not just gold coins. Watching PBS' "Antique Roadshows" is great inspiration.
A (breif) history to the item add flavor and player interest. Some players don't want to sell cool items and prefer to wear them, hand on to them.
4) BUT: *Don't make it so complex players need to create spreadsheets to figure out what things are worth*
5) Some thing's value, such as art, a tapestry, a ceremonial horn, a trophy, may not be assessed at the time it is found. Players need to think about what to take, possibly make special rolls. Where is the "Appraise" skill??
This is also good as the DM can adjust the value based on other info, such "they come in pairs and are worth more in pairs."
6) Sometimes, *make treasure relevant later.* That "old pot they found" had a key or map to a later adventure.

[mansubahmed]

Thanks Luke, your videos really help dungeon masters like me.