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mooseofshadows
2007-01-27, 08:04 AM
Has anyone ever thought about why on earth these monsters have any treasure at all? I suppose the dragons with treasure idea comes from folklore, but really, why on earth does a dragon, or anything else for that matter, need all that treasure? He can't really buy anything with it, it's not useful to him, so it shouldn't seem to have much value.

I run into this question often and it's part of the reason my games avoid monsters and stick to humanoid characters that might have a reason to have money in hte first place. Still, the players often have less money than might be expected. The most I can remember them getting was around 200 gold for two dire bear pelts that they skinned off the beasts and managed to get in one piece.

How do you guys justify monsters with treasure? I just don't understand why a giant who likes to beat things and throw rocks at them would want a bag of gold over his back.

Matthew
2007-01-27, 08:10 AM
This question is often discussed and has been for many years. Basically, Adventures should always be designed with the how and why in mind. Monsters should only have treasure if they logically would.
This can potentially screw with the Wealth by Level system, but only if you let it. It's not hard to place treasure logically, though the obscene amounts adventurers are expected to encounter can cause suspension of disbelief to snap. Remember that not all treasure has to be currency (indeed little enough of it should be). All items have a value, especially armour.

Zincorium
2007-01-27, 08:40 AM
1. Most monsters seem to feed either on adventurers or other, mobile monsters. Thus, even if they don't intend to collect wealth, it stays where it got left, and the PCs can find it once the area is safe to look through.

2. Many intelligent, social monsters (within reason, I'm thinking orcs and goblins here) have a group treasury for the purposes of collectively holding wealth that they find useful but haven't spent yet.

3. Many dungeons consist of areas that contained a good deal of treasure for reasonable causes, which then fell into disrepair without the enduring things of value moving from that spot, such as temples, tombs, and wizard's towers, which are all staples of D&D adventures.

Thomas
2007-01-27, 10:24 AM
They don't need to have treasure, as long as you use some other method to keep the players up with WBL (or whatever variant thereof you're espousing). Maybe they are employed by a king or lord and get a salary and equipment from the employer. Maybe they have some other way of coming across treasure.

I don't think I've actually given the PCs in my latest campaign any treasure yet. They've robbed one opponent of his expensive enamelled armor, and have ransomed back several hostages after battles. Just last time, though, they decided they want some damn magic items, so they found the closest, most dangerous location likely to hold creatures with magic items (an evil ghoul king and his retinue), and went off to fight and loot.