How fast can you grab loot?

[tim01300]

So long story short I have a group of 4 lvl 6 PC killing a dragon, and because of the artifact they use the cavern is going to collapse and begin filling with water.

So after a set amount of time falling debri will damage them and water begins filling in at 1 foot per min. I want to have a massive pile of loot with this dragon but the PCs will have to pick what they can grab in time. So how quickly can they collect coins and items?

Its a 3.5E game, core books only. One fighter, druid, barbarian, Cleric. Their equipment is nothing to extraordinary but they haven't gotten much loot the last level so this is the place to pay them off with gold and items.

I want the situation to seem urgent but not short change them.

[The Glyphstone]

Literally at the speed of plot, there's not real guidelines for this. I'd suggest just enough time to grab enough stuff to bring them up to the recommended WBL, once they sit down to count it, or slightly above.

Remember to have the cavern collapse completely after they escape in addition to being filled with water. Otherwise the Cleric can cast Water Breathing/ the Druid can Wild shape into a swimming form, and they can go back and loot all the other stuff too.

[Story]

With Prestidigitation, they can theoretically collect an unlimited number of coins. I guess that's up to DM adjudication.



Remember to have the cavern collapse completely after they escape in addition to being filled with water. Otherwise the Cleric can cast Water Breathing/ the Druid can Wild shape into a swimming form, and they can go back and loot all the other stuff too.

Or the Wizard could cast Heart of Water.

Although if they have a smart level 6 Druid, they can just summon Thoqquas to dig it all up even if it does collapse.

[Slipperychicken]

Picking up an item is a Move action. So they can pick up roughly 1 object per 2 rounds each, if they have to move from one object to the next. Sheathing a weapon is also a Move action. So they can squirrel away one item per 3 Move actions.

I would just get a Lyre of Building and get Water Breathing cast on us, then come back for the rest of the loot.

[Hand_of_Vecna]

I'd recommend something a little more exotic than falling rocks. Lesser Planar Binding for a burrowing creature laughs at a pile of rocks between you and treasure at level 7.

Lava perhaps or the artifact could be pulling the room into the elemental plane of pure dookie.

As for the shoveling of loot, I'd say give them X rounds and give a flat value to each round of shoveling stuff into bags then assign a spot check to things like "I look for a weapon" with a success giving them a roll on the level appropriate table and a failure costing them a round of gold shoveling. You could also allow appraise to get them a better result from gold shoveling, since I assume "gold shoveling" includes gems, jewelery and small works of art appropriate to the horde in question and giving them the amount of treasure you want to give them in X rounds.

[Pickford]

So long story short I have a group of 4 lvl 6 PC killing a dragon, and because of the artifact they use the cavern is going to collapse and begin filling with water.

So after a set amount of time falling debri will damage them and water begins filling in at 1 foot per min. I want to have a massive pile of loot with this dragon but the PCs will have to pick what they can grab in time. So how quickly can they collect coins and items?

Its a 3.5E game, core books only. One fighter, druid, barbarian, Cleric. Their equipment is nothing to extraordinary but they haven't gotten much loot the last level so this is the place to pay them off with gold and items.

I want the situation to seem urgent but not short change them.

Do they have bag(s) of holding or something like that?

If not, you may want to look at their encumberance and max carry weights.

Assuming they're just looting each PC gets 2 move actions per round. 10 rounds per minute. (i.e. 20 actions per minute x 4 characters = 80 items stowed each minute (excluding the need to use a move action to...move))

Bear in mind gold and platinum have fairly substantial weights, so a dragon hoard is probably more than even all four players can carry.

Check PHB pg. 112 for the weight on piles of gold/platinum.

If they 'do' have bag(s) of holding available, they might be able to loot the entire hoard if the water is only rising at a foot a minute sometime after disaster starts.

A level 6 druid does not have enough level 3 spells, so I wouldn't bet the farm on her/him having water breathing memorized for both.