Looting dead PCs

[Theron]

What do most DMs allow in regards to the looting of dead (and not going to be raised) party member's possessions? What could I do to allow this (for the sake of realism) without allowing the surviving party to come into possession of a game unbalancing amount of wealth?

[Adoendithas]

How did they die? Why aren't they going to be raised? And what's the dead PC's player planning to do (roll a new character, leave the campaign, take over a companion char, etc.)?

[Theron]

I'm talking hypothetically. I'm going to start running a game and I'm trying to dicide what sort of policy I want to establish for this sort of thing.

[SowZ]

Seeing as I really don't blink two eyelashes at WBL and think that if the party fairly acquires wealth I let them keep it and obtain more of it based on the risks they take, I let them loot it. If the party is stronger because of it, than that means they can take on tougher fights, cool.

[Ashdate]

4e will generally assume the PCs raise the dead party member in question, but even if they don't, the extra "wealth" they gain is not really a big deal. Treasure value is pretty exponential, so lower level treasure loses a lot of its value in a few levels compared to the new stuff you'll be handing out.

Any +X magical weapon/armor/neck slot item is going to be replaced as +(X+1) items come along, and the remaining items are going to range from "I can use this" (i.e. Iron Armbands of Power) to mediocre (Cold Iron Bracers), to worthless except for particular PC classes (Bracelets of Subtle Defense).

If you're really that worried about it (and you really shouldn't be), add up the amount of "treasure" that the party inherited, and stiff them a magic items and treasure roughly equal to the value of magic items they gain. So if say, the PC had 23000gp worth of stuff when he died, withhold the next level 11 (9,000 gold) and 12 (13,000 gold) magic items they get and 1k worth of gold.

[Alejandro]

It helps if you think of the party's treasures as a whole, not a set of treasure for each of the members. Whether or not any one of them is alive, they're still going to get access to it (unless the circumstances of the death, or respecting a will, destroyed or removed said treasures.)

The only time you would have an issue would be if PCs were regularly dying on purpose, so a PC that does not die can keep looting them and grow wealthier and wealthier, while new PCs (with their own treasures) keep being introduced to feed the cycle.