229
votes
Accepted
Without a magic item economy, what is gold for?
Gold buys people
Without a readily available source of high-end useful items, you can purchase large quantities of low-end things.
For example, a hundred swords, a hundred kits of armor, a thousand ...
- 6,181
219
votes
What can I do when I accidentally gave out an overpowered item?
Reward the PCs with attention
A group of level 2 PCs with a staff of the magi will soon find that everyone wants it. Many of these will be bad guys, but a few of them will be good guys. The GM can ...
- 184k
168
votes
Without a magic item economy, what is gold for?
This is one of those "Let me tell you a story about how things were pre-third edition" questions. In every D&D edition from the 1970s to the year 2000, you couldn't buy magic items to spec. But ...
- 173k
142
votes
Without a magic item economy, what is gold for?
"There's no magic item economy" does not equal "Magic items are never bought and sold". It's just that there's no set market for them, they're too rare for that. If a character puts word out that ...
- 21.4k
138
votes
What can I do when I accidentally gave out an overpowered item?
While a lot of the other answers are perfectly valid and good ideas, I'd like to offer an alternative solution that hasn't been mentioned yet which can also work in some situations: deal with the ...
- 3,869
115
votes
Accepted
What can I do when I accidentally gave out an overpowered item?
Make it be cursed.
A very powerful item will make many adventuring parties suspicious, but if yours are just happy to go forward using it, they are in for a surprise.
I would pick an "interesting" ...
- 3,599
102
votes
Accepted
How to handle loot disputes as the DM?
“When you agree who gets it they can use it. Meanwhile back in the dungeon ...”
Let the players sort it out however they like away from the table and when they have, the person who gets it can use it.
...
- 191k
94
votes
What can I do when I accidentally gave out an overpowered item?
The Brinks Job, The Italian Job, Willow, or Charlie Varrick?
the players worked their way through a series of fiendish traps into a high security vault, where they recovered a Staff of the Magi.
...
- 139k
82
votes
Accepted
Is it appropriate to punish a PC who snatches things from under the other PCs?
You say "Before he or any of the others had a chance to pick it up, the controlling player snatched it up and refused to give it back (Even though she had no use for it)." I feel like I can identify 2 ...
- 928
76
votes
Without a magic item economy, what is gold for?
I just watched someone buy a painting for $3,500,000. It doesn't come to life, it doesn't tell the future, it doesn't even age while they stay young. They primarily bought it to annoy someone else ...
- 4,789
72
votes
Accepted
What do primitive NPCs do with treasure and gold?
Treasure isn’t just money, it has inherent value on its own. No one will take you seriously as a goblin king without a proper jewel-encrusted crown and an evil-looking magic sword to beat up your foes ...
- 3,527
72
votes
Bounty Boards: How to make them fair and make sense
Don´t make it fair.
No, really. If you balance everything to be fair and equal, you take away the entire challenge of figuring out which contract is most lucrative, or which is the easiest money, or ...
- 77.9k
67
votes
How do I deal with a loot hungry PC?
You're solving the wrong problem
In your question you didn't say what the very problem is. The only details were:
The problem is that he is the barbarian, so when he wakes an enemy by pick ...
- 61.8k
65
votes
Accepted
How can a party move 10,000 pounds of gold?
Assuming casting Dispel Magic on the Alarm is infeasible (perhaps the makers of the Vault were so meticulous that they cast Alarm on each individual piece of gold), this seems like an ideal use case ...
- 856
63
votes
Accepted
How should I deal with a player who wants to dictate loot distribution?
This is evidence of a dysfunctional gaming group, if these actions and arguments are typical.
Hi, Fincam. I recognize you're new here, and I am aiming for 'stringent' rather than 'harsh.' I ...
- 37.9k
59
votes
Accepted
Where do PCs store treasure & gold that they are not carrying with them?
D&D is a rules set, not a setting. Therefore details like this are never RAW, but they may be described in a setting. For example, if you play in the Forgotten Realms, there may be some canon as ...
- 173k
59
votes
How might a character transport hundreds of thousands of gold inconspicuously?
The only way to do this inconspicuously is to convert all that money into gems. A mundane backpack could easily carry 500,000 gp worth of gems with room left over for camping gear. Upon arrival, gems ...
- 27.2k
58
votes
Accepted
How can I take a powerful plot item away from players without frustrating them?
In general, the best way is for greedy PCs not to get the loot in the first place thus side stepping the whole problem.
Despite the terrible pun (or nettle Eggcorn?):
However, in this case, it is a ...
56
votes
How should I deal with a player who wants to dictate loot distribution?
I kind of feel you're in the wrong here.
You've written that your character found a really good magic sword, and you've written that four other members of the party had proficiency in it and your ...
- 78.8k
55
votes
Accepted
How to deal with incredibly rich PCs messing with combat balance
First of all, don't let people turn money into magic items.
If you let people turn gold pieces into planet destroying superweapons, then you get these sorts of problems. This is something 5e ...
- 24k
54
votes
Accepted
Are enemy weapons and armour up for grabs as loot?
They can, sure. But the D&D basic rules (p. 45, under "Selling Treasure") are quite explicit that they typically have no value:
Weapons and armor used by monsters are rarely in good enough ...
- 102k
49
votes
How to handle inventory and story of a player leaving
To me the problem seems to be that the other players think that they gained treasure as a team and divided it up according to some measure of 'fairness' and 'need.' So when one player leaves, they ...
- 1,116
47
votes
Accepted
How might a character transport hundreds of thousands of gold inconspicuously?
A Portable Hole
10,000 lbs of gold is about a 24-inch cube (0.235 m^3) and a Portable Hole doesn't have a weight limit. Since the interior of a portable hole is 6ft by 10ft, it can easily hold 500,...
- 1,409
46
votes
How big is a 50 gp diamond?
Not necessarily any smaller than the 500 GP diamond
In the real world, diamond value has as much to do with cut, clarity, and color as it does about size. So the price difference between a "regular" ...
- 24.6k
45
votes
Without a magic item economy, what is gold for?
You say:
Once you've got the top level mundane gear and a stockpile of potions (which won't take long), doesn't gold become sort of worthless?
equally, in a 3rd edition setting:
Once you've got ...
- 191k
43
votes
Accepted
I created a magic item for one character and another character took it
Your Rogue Has a Case of My Guy Syndrome
Assuming the standard party of good-aligned murderhobos, that is. If you have a bunch of evil backstabbers, everyone should pretty much be expecting this ...
- 883
40
votes
Is it appropriate to punish a PC who snatches things from under the other PCs?
The best solution I think is to talk to the person that is causing the issue. She might not realise that she is causing a problem. She might think that because that is what chaotic character would/...
- 4,789
40
votes
Accepted
Does a wizard need to find and copy spells into spellbook to remain relevant?
The following analysis focuses on spell scrolls in particular, but the same logic applies to spellbooks. In terms of their effect on the number of spells in your spellbook, the two are interchangeable....
- 25.9k
39
votes
How can I move a one-ton gem out of Undermountain?
Break it up.
A gem that large is literally priceless. As in, it's worth so much that no one will be willing to buy it for more than a tiny fraction of its value. Imagine that happened on earth. Its ...
- 27.2k
39
votes
Is it appropriate to punish a PC who snatches things from under the other PCs?
You keep hoping for the players to push back against this behavior in-game, but that's not a fair expectation. The other players may not want to stir things up because, frankly, that's your job. You'...
- 2,356
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