An extremely delicate treasure problem! Please help!

[Dr TPK]

I'm having a pretty sensitive situation in my campaign at the moment and I'd like to hear some advice.

I'm running a very long and gruesome adventure, where two PCs have already died. The adventure happens mostly in the jungle and they fight beasts that have 'Treasure: None' texts in the MM descriptions. They have killed lots of high-CR monsters and received very, very little treasure. The idea is to have a massive treasure in the end.

The final phases of the campaign are these:
1. Receive a mission from a powerful golden dragon to find her missing daughter.
2. Fight through a bunch of high-CR dinosaurs.
3. Meet the daughter and find out that her ring has been stolen by a powerful wizard.
Optional: Get rewarded for finding the daughter, get financed by the daughter to get the ring back.
4. Defeat the wizard.
5. Return the ring back to the daughter.

Basically I have three options and both are complicated:
1. The PCs receive nothing until they defeat the wizard. They have already fallen back in WBL so facing the BBEG at this point is risky. When they defeat him, they will get the wizard's gear and it will be really powerful and get them back on track with WBL.
2. The PCs get rewarded/financed by the golden dragon and her daughter, then beat the wizard but for some reason they receive almost no loot from the wizard. I don't know why.
3. The PCs get rewarded/financed by the golden dragon and her daughter, beat the wizard, get his loot and have too much stuff for their level. In the future, they will receive little treasure as I try to balance the WBL.

[Melcar]

I'm having a pretty sensitive situation in my campaign at the moment and I'd like to hear some advice.

I'm running a very long and gruesome adventure, where two PCs have already died. The adventure happens mostly in the jungle and they fight beasts that have 'Treasure: None' texts in the MM descriptions. They have killed lots of high-CR monsters and received very, very little treasure. The idea is to have a massive treasure in the end.

The final phases of the campaign are these:
1. Receive a mission from a powerful golden dragon to find her missing daughter.
2. Fight through a bunch of high-CR dinosaurs.
3. Meet the daughter and find out that her ring has been stolen by a powerful wizard.
Optional: Get rewarded for finding the daughter, get financed by the daughter to get the ring back.
4. Defeat the wizard.
5. Return the ring back to the daughter.

Basically I have three options and both are complicated:
1. The PCs receive nothing until they defeat the wizard. They have already fallen back in WBL so facing the BBEG at this point is risky. When they defeat him, they will get the wizard's gear and it will be really powerful and get them back on track with WBL.
2. The PCs get rewarded/financed by the golden dragon and her daughter, then beat the wizard but for some reason they receive almost no loot from the wizard. I don't know why.
3. The PCs get rewarded/financed by the golden dragon and her daughter, beat the wizard, get his loot and have too much stuff for their level. In the future, they will receive little treasure as I try to balance the WBL.


One thing came to mind... Have them happen upon a troll hoard, a la "The Hobbit" Sure there could be someone home, but that might just give them some gold, a couple of potions and maybe a good item or two.

When strictly keeping to your above options I would chose number 1. That way the reward will be most satifying. If not, I would go with option 3. Thats easy to balance out... either by stealing or destroying their powerful items if they get too powerful or simply have them fight a CR or two higher.

[Dr TPK]

One thing came to mind... Have them happen upon a troll hoard, a la "The Hobbit" Sure there could be someone home, but that might just give them some gold, a couple of potions and maybe a good item or two.

When strictly keeping to your above options I would chose number 1. That way the reward will be most satifying. If not, I would go with option 3. Thats easy to balance out... either by stealing or destroying their powerful items if they get too powerful or simply have them fight a CR or two higher.

Thank you but I forgot to mention that the three options that I presented are by no means strict! I'm more than willing to hear any creative options!

[Inevitability]

Have the PCs stumble upon a nomadic tribe that gives them a brief (2-3 encounters) sidequest, then rewards them with items they can't make proper use of (for example, a magic staff if the tribe has no wizards, an enchanted greatsword if the tribe only uses spears...).

[Firest Kathon]

You could have the Gold Dragon provide some equipment from her hoard. "Rescue my daughter. Take any of that stuff you need, if you return her, you can keep it". Effectively, tell the PCs that they can find any weapon up to +X in the hoard, and that there is a chance to find any magic item of up to Y gp value or something like that (and a guarantee to find any item of up to Z gp value, to make sure they can stock up on potions and low-level wands etc).

[Kol Korran]

I don't see why it has to be 2 or 3...

If you know what value of treasure you want them to have, just split it between getting rewarded by the dragon, and the rest from the wizard. Make the treasures interesting and cool enough in each time, and it could be fine... no? :smallconfused:

I don't quite see the problem. Also, as other have suggested, you can much smaller loots on the way, and you can find ways to justify it, as the "Hobbit's troll cave" suggestion.

[Crake]

You could have the Gold Dragon provide some equipment from her hoard. "Rescue my daughter. Take any of that stuff you need, if you return her, you can keep it". Effectively, tell the PCs that they can find any weapon up to +X in the hoard, and that there is a chance to find any magic item of up to Y gp value or something like that (and a guarantee to find any item of up to Z gp value, to make sure they can stock up on potions and low-level wands etc).

This is what I'd do to be honest. Do you plan to end the campaign with the rescue of the gold dragon's daughter? If so, giving them loot at the end of the game and not giving them a chance to use it is pretty lame :smallfrown:

If the dragon knows anything about the wizard, he would probably equip the players adequately to take him down. Though that then begs the question, why doesn't the gold dragon just go in there and save his daughter himself?

[Honest Tiefling]

If you go with the idea that they get financed, you should probably also keep in mind what happens if the party just skedaddles with the loot. I mean, here they are, in the middle of nowhere, having to fight a dire panther just to get some peace and quiet to get some time to use a bush. And then here's Missus high and mighty, whose only willing to help them avoid certain death or dismemberment if the party go gets her daughter back. Thanks. That's so caring of you, screw this, lets go teach those panthers a lesson for not letting us get some water instead. Why don't you rescue your own dang daughter if you care so much!?

There's also the idea that the wizard doesn't keep all of his loot in one place for some reason. Caches, or near interesting things to research. So while they get one hoard, they need to clear out other looters or protections to get the rest.

[turbo164]

Dragon: "Go find my daughter, here's a +X sword and a bag of potions to help. If you come back with her, I'll give you this +X armor and pile of diamonds."
Daughter: "Go fight the wizard! Here's a wand and ring to help."
Wizard: "Ack, I am slain! I sure hope they don't find the pile of loot in the basement that conveniently holds their approximate WBL possibly missing a sword/wand/ring/potion!"

Divide as needed. If they have been loot-starved a while, don't be afraid to overreward them a bit. Demolishing a few more dinosaurs with their overpowered gear will be a refreshing change after scraping by for so long; having a mix of easy and hard fights is important for pacing :smallsmile:

[Eisfalken]

There's actually no reason they can't just find random loot. Take those dinosaurs, for example. Sure they personally don't have loot. But maybe they ate all the people in a village who did have a small stock of treasure. So on the way to the little dragon, your PCs are already getting back on track with WBL.

Keep in mind, you should definitely scatter potions, scrolls, and wands in there before the wizard, so they'll start having something to hit him with. Make most of the permanent items either in the wizard's loot, or a reward from the dragons. Presuming this is the usual fantasy jungle with fairly simple tribes and such, exchange coins for trade bars, and use more gems and jewelry with lower values, since those cultures put more stock on that appearance thing than a sack of metal disks.

Throw in other great trade goods. Ivory, exotic wood, and the fur and feathers of exotic animals were all historically the foundation of a lot of archaic trade. For a really great source on this, check out Draconomicon, Appendix 1: The Dragon's Hoard, pg. 277. It is a huge, awesome list of the most random stuff you'll ever find, and gives you a great list of things to spice up any treasure hoard, even if it isn't a dragon's.