Filling a Dungeon with Loot

[Chester]

I have a bit of a dungeon crawl coming up when it's my turn to DM. I like a good old fashioned dungeon crawl, but will characters who will be level 12 and have lots of stuff, I'm stuck as to what kinds of cool prizes to stock up the dungeon with!

The premise: they're looking for something very specific (cliche hook, I know) in an old / abandoned Temple of Hades, which in turn was a temple for something much more demonic centuries before that. The dungeon will have plenty of demonic and undead encounters.

Anyway, I'd like to stock the dungeon with a few cool items, and some of them should at least be thematically connected to the place. With the party's overall alignment favoring neutral territory, I was thinking of placing a few "morally questionable" items around, perhaps Demonic Armor and Unholy Arrows. Still, some other items might be less evil-ish. I also want to avoid stocking up on Necromancy-related items, as my PC (who likely won't be involved in the crawl) is already a Dread Necromancer.

tl;dr: Fun items in dungeon for a level 12 party?

Party make-up if it helps inform item selection:

We're 3.5, level 11 (will be 12 by time of encounter), party consists of:
Whisper Gnome Rogue 3 / Bard 2 / Unseen Seer 5 / Arcane Trickster 1
Elf Ranger 6 / Fighter 1 / Scout 5
Human Druid 3 / Sorcerer 4 / Arcane Heirophant 4
Elf Duskblade 11
Human Dread Necromancer 11 (my PC, most likely doing his "own thing" while I DM)

[Kol Korran]

I'm kind of crappy with look, but a few questions might help us:
1) Most importantly, what is the total gp value you assign for the total loot? How much do we have to play with?
2) What are the 2-3 major items of each character? We can try to come up with a cool sword for the duskblade, but if s/he allready has one...
3) Likewise, what sort of areas do the characters, or the party as a whole lack in? I'd assume for example due to the character mix up that ressurection may be problematic? Offense, defense, sneakiness, healing, countering magic, modes of transport, divination and other fields you think the party can benefit fro ma little help?

[BWR]

This (http://donjon.bin.sh/d20/treasure/) site has random treasure generators for numerous D&D variants and most importantly, adds brief descriptions of non-magical non-coin loot you find. It's amazingly useful. Take what's given and build a little on it. IME, players are far more likely to keep a "bronze statue of Zeus hurling lightningbolts at a titan, decked with garnets and topazes" than "statue of a god worth 200 gp". A "set of wrought platinum necklace, bracelets and earrings, set with rubies and emeralds" is a lot more interesting to hold on to than "jewelry worth 15000 gp". Once PCs get a proper home they will often start keeping that sort of loot rather than just selling it for gold.

[Chester]

This (http://donjon.bin.sh/d20/treasure/) site has random treasure generators for numerous D&D variants and most importantly, adds brief descriptions of non-magical non-coin loot you find. It's amazingly useful. Take what's given and build a little on it. IME, players are far more likely to keep a "bronze statue of Zeus hurling lightningbolts at a titan, decked with garnets and topazes" than "statue of a god worth 200 gp". A "set of wrought platinum necklace, bracelets and earrings, set with rubies and emeralds" is a lot more interesting to hold on to than "jewelry worth 15000 gp". Once PCs get a proper home they will often start keeping that sort of loot rather than just selling it for gold.

LOL. Our Ranger is kind of a stickler for selling even the forks and knives ("I assume they're masterwork?"), and divvying up the treasure EXACTLY by total value; we have a keep, and I have to pontificate to convince him to agree to keep books! :smallbiggrin:


I'm kind of crappy with look, but a few questions might help us:
1) Most importantly, what is the total gp value you assign for the total loot? How much do we have to play with?
2) What are the 2-3 major items of each character? We can try to come up with a cool sword for the duskblade, but if s/he allready has one...
3) Likewise, what sort of areas do the characters, or the party as a whole lack in? I'd assume for example due to the character mix up that ressurection may be problematic? Offense, defense, sneakiness, healing, countering magic, modes of transport, divination and other fields you think the party can benefit fro ma little help?

Fair enough. Give me a bit, and I'll answer those questions. :smallcool:

[Lightlawbliss]

Does the party only take everything not nailed down, sell the dungeon after they clear it, or someplace in the middle?

[Yahzi]

Give them incompatible loot. An intelligent sword that refuses to function in a party if they keep the armor they just found.

Or expendables. People don't give out enough consumable loot. Give them nothing but consumables; watch as they spend the next few adventures batting far above their level because of the consumables... and then when they run out suddenly they are biting off more than they can chew. Splat!

[Chester]

I'm kind of crappy with look, but a few questions might help us:
1) Most importantly, what is the total gp value you assign for the total loot? How much do we have to play with?
2) What are the 2-3 major items of each character? We can try to come up with a cool sword for the duskblade, but if s/he allready has one...
3) Likewise, what sort of areas do the characters, or the party as a whole lack in? I'd assume for example due to the character mix up that ressurection may be problematic? Offense, defense, sneakiness, healing, countering magic, modes of transport, divination and other fields you think the party can benefit fro ma little help?

1. I'm not really thinking along those lines. We rotate DMs, and some are more generous than others. If one overdoes it, the next one gives out things sparingly.

2. These represent major items, but party members have a lot of other goodies:
Duskblade: Bastard Sword +3 w/ frost, a few other weapons +1, broach of stabilization, lost of AC enhancement items
Ranger: +2 Mithral Breastplate of Nimbleness, Composite Bow +1 w/ construct bane and acid burst, boots of sidestepping
Rogue: Mithral Blueshine Chain Shirt +2, Gloves of Dexterity +4, Dagger +2 of Deadly Precision
Druid: Darkleaf Breastplate +2, Wildling Clasp, Vanisher Cloak
Necromancer: Mithral Breastplate +2, Cloak of Charisma +2 w/ Displacement, Mask of Lies

3. Healing is generally taken care of with potions and random items like healing belts; it's odd that our Duskblade and Ranger are our "tanks." We also seem to have tons of random items we never use (I've had Dice of Possibilities for over a year, never used them once.)


Does the party only take everything not nailed down, sell the dungeon after they clear it, or someplace in the middle?

Sell the dungeon after they clear it.

[Venger]

mythweavers's generator (http://www.myth-weavers.com/generate_treasure.php?do=treasure) is pretty darn good too.

what on earth are the dice of possibilities? I've never heard of them before. what book are they from?

[Chester]

mythweavers's generator (http://www.myth-weavers.com/generate_treasure.php?do=treasure) is pretty darn good too.

what on earth are the dice of possibilities? I've never heard of them before. what book are they from?

They're a minor artifact, I have no idea what book they're from. :smalltongue:

Forgot all about my Dread Necromancer's Intelligent Ring of Wizardry 2! Also, I realized, when looking at what the party has, our Druid really doesn't have much compared to everyone else, and our Duskblade has a bunch of items but nothing that really stands out. I think I might like to give the Duskblade some kind of intelligent sword.....

[Kol Korran]

1. I'm not really thinking along those lines. We rotate DMs, and some are more generous than others. If one overdoes it, the next one gives out things sparingly. Tht will make things more tricky... so you guys just wing it? It can work, but since we don't know what is usual for your group, it's hard for us to give an estimate (Though I will try). The game system uses the Wealth By Level to judge how much treasure a character of a certain level is supposed to have. Without it? Well, we'll just hve to wing it as well.


2. These represent major items, but party members have a lot of other goodies:
Duskblade: Bastard Sword +3 w/ frost, a few other weapons +1, broach of stabilization, lost of AC enhancement items
Ranger: +2 Mithral Breastplate of Nimbleness, Composite Bow +1 w/ construct bane and acid burst, boots of sidestepping
Rogue: Mithral Blueshine Chain Shirt +2, Gloves of Dexterity +4, Dagger +2 of Deadly Precision
Druid: Darkleaf Breastplate +2, Wildling Clasp, Vanisher Cloak
Necromancer: Mithral Breastplate +2, Cloak of Charisma +2 w/ Displacement, Mask of Lies
So... mostly offense and defense, (Other than the druid maybe), And maybe some ability boosting items. Hmmmm...


3. Healing is generally taken care of with potions and random items like healing belts; it's odd that our Duskblade and Ranger are our "tanks." We also seem to have tons of random items we never use (I've had Dice of Possibilities for over a year, never used them once.) I second the question- what are "dice of possibilities"?

Anyway, some ides that might expand the options of the party (I'm using the SRD only since you didn't specify the books you have):
- Deck of illusions: My folks found enough uses for these stuff. If you want to theme them to the dungeon, change the images to those of outsiders.
- Bags of holdings and portable holes if they don't have them yet. Especially since they like haauling loot off.
- Figurines of wonderous power: Just change the animals to demonic statues, and either use the same stats or upgrde a bit (Like giving resistance to fire, or maybe an SLA to the awakened statue)
- Carpet of flying (If the party has no airborn abilities) Could be an opening for another adventure. GIve it afew resistances, maybe greater hardness (Made of fiendish material). Maybe even give it the ability to plane shift 1/ week or so- travel the planes!
- Horn of the heavens: Like horn of Valhala, only it summons 2 archons (Or something similar) Instead. The fiends tried to corrupt it but failed.
- Ever smoking bottle.
- Helm of telepathy: So those not of fiendish origin can talk like "civizlied beings" instead of making all those crude barbaric sounds.
- Ioun stones. People like Ioun stones. Put them amongst other worthless Ioun stones (They just float), and have the party find a treasure or such.
- An Iron flask either with n opposing fiend or a celestial caught in it (Or some other outsider of neutral alignment?) Will the party dare free it? Will they capture another?

You can also have an intelligent item, of quite some power, but with a difficult to deal with personality- either it is some fiend that is captured in the item (I suggest to play it mostly for comedic value, but sometime annoying or dangerous), or it could be some good-doer, who is displeased with how the party act, granting the powers of the itme only if they re "worthy enough" or such. Or you can alternetavely make it mroe moderate in power, but more friendly. Maybe someone from bygone ages, a sort of a grandftherly/ motherly figure helping the "youngsters".

Just some ideas.

[Chester]

Tht will make things more tricky... so you guys just wing it? It can work, but since we don't know what is usual for your group, it's hard for us to give an estimate (Though I will try). The game system uses the Wealth By Level to judge how much treasure a character of a certain level is supposed to have. Without it? Well, we'll just hve to wing it as well.

I think, then, shared items work best.



I second the question- what are "dice of possibilities"?

Yeah, it's probably a home brew. (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Dice_of_Possibilities_%283.5e_Equipment%29)



Anyway, some ides that might expand the options of the party (I'm using the SRD only since you didn't specify the books you have):
- Deck of illusions: My folks found enough uses for these stuff. If you want to theme them to the dungeon, change the images to those of outsiders.
- Bags of holdings and portable holes if they don't have them yet. Especially since they like haauling loot off.
- Figurines of wonderous power: Just change the animals to demonic statues, and either use the same stats or upgrde a bit (Like giving resistance to fire, or maybe an SLA to the awakened statue)
- Carpet of flying (If the party has no airborn abilities) Could be an opening for another adventure. GIve it afew resistances, maybe greater hardness (Made of fiendish material). Maybe even give it the ability to plane shift 1/ week or so- travel the planes!
- Horn of the heavens: Like horn of Valhala, only it summons 2 archons (Or something similar) Instead. The fiends tried to corrupt it but failed.
- Ever smoking bottle.
- Helm of telepathy: So those not of fiendish origin can talk like "civizlied beings" instead of making all those crude barbaric sounds.
- Ioun stones. People like Ioun stones. Put them amongst other worthless Ioun stones (They just float), and have the party find a treasure or such.
- An Iron flask either with n opposing fiend or a celestial caught in it (Or some other outsider of neutral alignment?) Will the party dare free it? Will they capture another?

All splendid ideas. The Flying Carpet is a great one; as it stands, our Druid is the only one who can partake in aerial combat.


You can also have an intelligent item, of quite some power, but with a difficult to deal with personality- either it is some fiend that is captured in the item (I suggest to play it mostly for comedic value, but sometime annoying or dangerous), or it could be some good-doer, who is displeased with how the party act, granting the powers of the itme only if they re "worthy enough" or such. Or you can alternetavely make it mroe moderate in power, but more friendly. Maybe someone from bygone ages, a sort of a grandftherly/ motherly figure helping the "youngsters".

Yeah, a Lawful Neutral sword with some abilities can constantly make sure the bearer participates in a fair fight, or refuse to work. Something like that.