However, gems and art objects generally come in packets of seven. A single well-described piece of jewelry or idol, or a fist-sized emerald with a strange flaw, could grab someone’s imagination. You know what? The minor point that I mentioned before, that you can’t roll up a single gem or art object, is actually a big problem for me. On each treasure table, the best gem or art object result occurs about 20-30% of the time, so it’s not particularly unusual and apart from the lowest tier of play, the best possible gems/jewelry roll can increase total treasure value by about 10%, so it can almost be ignored. The only meaningful variation is in whether you get gems or art objects, and how many of each. There’s little roulette-wheel drama in 5e monetary treasure: no sense that you could stumble on a big score (except by DM fiat). There are more interesting variations in the “individual treasure” tables, but unfortunately that’s all pocket change. After the Lady of the Lake raises her arm from the water to give Excalibur to Arthur, she also tosses 42,000 gp and 28,000 pp ashore. Every randomly rolled treasure must contain money. You’ll also never find a cache of gems or a magic item without some attendant cash. There’s a bit of variation when it comes to the gems and art objects rolls, though you will never find a solitary gem or art object (the smallest number of either you can find is 2d4, and the average is 7). For all of CR 0-4, it’s impossible to roll up a treasure hoard containing electrum or platinum, and it’s impossible to roll one WITHOUT about 2000 copper, 1000 SP, and 100 GP. Why venture deeper?)Įvery treasure hoard of a given tier group has exactly the same coinage mix. Level 3 of the dungeon has the same treasure as level 1. (Right now, four bugbears have the same expected treasure trove as four kobolds. If the devs had found a way to divide this increase evenly over every level, then each level could have been worth 50% more than the last: a noticeable increase each level, and one that gives meaning to choices about challenging an easier or harder foe. Each treasure table generates a coin value ten times the last one – a huge jump. You roll on the exact same treasure chart for all encounters from CR 0 to 4, and then graduate to the next chart up, which you use for six more levels, and so on. There are a few main problems with cash rewards in 5e: Maybe 6 or so handful of gems or art objects. When I listed them out like this in my notes, it became clear to me that, apart from magic items, every treasure I found was going to look exactly the same. In the course of a recent dungeon delve down to level 3 of a random dungeon, I’ve written down the treasure hoards we’ve found. But when I stick to the letter of the law, as I’m doing in this playtest, the defects of the 5e treasure tables become apparent. As a DM, I’ve always liked rolling on treasure tables, and as a player I like uncovering exciting caches of gold and jewels. After all, there’s not much to spend money on in non-houseruled 5e, so you can make up literally any amount of money and it makes no difference to game balance.Įven without much to buy, discovering treasure still is (or should be) fun. This problem doesn’t come up much in my regular D&D campaigns, because neither I nor my co-DMs use the loot tables in the 5e DMG. I’m not talking about magic items: sure, I’m a little sick of potions of giant strength, but D&D has a generosity with its magic item list that I very much appreciate (more than 300 items in the DMG!). I’ve been running D&D 5e dungeon crawls lately (testing my Inspiration app) and one thing jumps out: by-the-book treasure isn’t nearly varied enough.
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