Treasure in a Stand-Alone Adventure

[Greysect]

I am designing an adventure for levels 1-2 in which the players are trapped in the dungeon and leaving is the goal. The dungeon itself is too hazardous to allow shopkeepers (and without law enforcement the players might as well try to kill the merchant anyway) so whatever gold or jewels they find will be useless, as the game is over when they find civilization. From the encounters I've made I already need approximately 8,400 Gp worth in treasure, which is 2,100 for each party member in a party of four, which isn't enough to buy any interesting magic weapons or armor.

Being so self-contained, should I just try to make every gp of treasure something they can use? With no chance to return to the surface, how much of their treasure should I give in potions, which must now provide typical on-the-go healing as well as downtime "visit-the-cleric" healing for a party without a divine caster? Are there any interesting, versatile, or useful alchemical or mundane tools a party might enjoy finding?

[Tvtyrant]

It depends on the type of dungeon really. You could simply make the dungeon accommodating in some places and not in others; have a waterfountain (or trickle of liquid coming out of the wall) of Cure Light Wounds potion that never runs out, but there are not vials. The party gets 1 canteen of the stuff and if they drink it up they have to go back to the waterfountain to fill it, giving them technically infinite healing but altering the mechanics of it.

Also types of loot that would be weird to buy would work here, though your characters are a little low level for it. a single bead necklace of fireball, a robe of useful items, a sustaining spoon, a Wind Fan, the sorts of items that wizards/adventurers would have but wouldn't care all that much about losing since (for them) they are so cheap.

[Greysect]

Murlynd's Spoon is an item they can mug from an NPC, and the dungeon is inside a cave of flesh and organs that was previously being explored by a prestigious Dwarven adventuring guild, so I could afford to scatter some Bottles of Air to clear fumes of stomach acid, or get acid neutralizer to do the same. Just afraid I scatter too many that the environmental hazards are moot. As for the stream of cure light wounds how much would you deduct from gp for that? Sure its not an item per se, but its a large enough benefit that it should count for something.

A bag of holding and a portable hole will be available to the players for a short amount of time. I am afraid they could fill the bag or hole will the water given enough time. I suppose there should be a limit to its uses?

[Anxe]

non-magical loot? Throw in some Fullplate and Masterwork weapons for the fighters. Some scrolls for the wizards and clerics. And the Rogue can get something like a Cloak of Elvenkind and some masterwork lock picks.

Those are just the basic four types, but I'm sure you can come up with something else on your own.

[Tvtyrant]

Well since you aren't continuing the adventure out of the dungeon I wouldn't subtract too much from their WBL. Probably equal to a wand of CLW, which they would get more charges out of at any one time.

As for the environmental hazards, make the items single charge items so they scrimp on using them. Basically you want to make them feel paranoid without totally endangering them. Also the spoon only works for 1 person if I recall, so only handing out 1 actually only reduces the resource problem, not removes it.