Looting

[TheCrowing1432]

Dms: Do you allow your players to strip the mundane weapons and armor from the corpses of your defeated foes and hawk them to the local pawn shop?

Players: Do you take the time to do this?

Just an interesting question.

[dascarletm]

Yes
and
Yes.


:smallbiggrin:

[Alex12]

It's situational. Magic, masterwork, and valuable mundane items, definitely, pretty much always. Ordinary gear...it varies. If there's no time pressure, we've got plenty of extra carrying capacity, and are likely to encounter someplace that we can sell it in a reasonable timeframe, or we're low on funds/low-level, or have alternate uses for them (say the guy with ranks in Craft needs metal for something good) then yeah. And of course, if there's an archer or something in the party, we'll generally loot arrows/bolts/whatever as appropriate because you can't have too many arrows.

[MisterKaws]

Sorry, most of my mooks wear at least Mithril stuff, so I don't exactly have that problem. I should really try some low-level DM-ing again.

On the second: I'd even take the lair itself with me if I had the means to do it.

[Crake]

For both it depends on the campaign level and theme. Depending on where you are in my setting, money can have little use beyond mundane value, as magic items may not be readily bought and sold, and are instead crafted by the players by hunting monsters and rare materials using that as the expensive material components rather than just buying it from a town.

[PallentisLunam]

At low levels: Oh hell yeah, strip em naked!

At higher levels: Leave the gun take the cannoli.

[Kol Korran]

They can do what they want, but my players prefer to avoid the hassle of such minor economics most of the time. We have a small house rule, and some player sensibilities:
- House rule: We don't take into account the price of any item under 20gp, unless you want to acquire a LOT of them (and then we ask why. It's quite rare).
- At levels 1-2 players will usually loot mundane non MW gear, levels 3-6 or so they loot MW gear and armors who's worth is similar or more, beyond that they tend to loot only magic items...
- The party tends to use the money from these "small sales" for a party fund, which usually goes for spell components, various utility options and scrolls, or for minor side flavour acquisitions (Buying a fancy wine/ clothing/ a fancier cabin at along boat ride/ furnish a personal dwelling and such).
- I allow the party to try whatever they want, but they mostly tend to focus on the major/ bigger stuff. We have little game time as is, "squeezing the loot" is usually considered a waste of precious game time.

[Darth Ultron]

Yes. But it's really only a low level thing.

[Coidzor]

We go over what they had on them, since we generally look for things like keys and journals. As long as the setting and in-game timetables allow for it.

If we're low level then we set a bunch of stuff to one side and pack it all into town to sell when we return to town, along with everything we can possibly strip bare from the dungeon that we don't need in order to get around(viz. ropes and ladders and bridges). If we're more mid-level, then we make a note of it for if anyone wants to make a gift of it to any allied NPCs or upgrade our retinues' gear, but if it's not masterwork gear or valuable in some way, then we don't mark it down for liquidation unless there's an awful lot of it. A crate of 1000 daggers is still 1000 gp if you unload it on a caravan.

Having things like portable holes around will make some things be taken around as well or kept around "just in case" we ever want to find a use for it or equip an impromptu army.

[Quertus]

Take everything!

Nothing says character history like... bow carved from the evil treant druid at the heart of the spooky goblin forest we cleared; inlaid into the bow are flecks of gravel from the monastery path we took while investigating the missing children; and dragonhide boots from the dragon that "attacked" us while we were a man down (sorry Bob - how were we supposed to know that the DM was using a custom reincarnation table?).

If you can't use it, eat it, repurpose it, or make something out of it, then, sure, sell it. But, if you can, turn every cool moment into a permanent part of your character's wardrobe / accessories!

Now, when it comes to just looting and selling... if the GM doesn't want the hastle of calculating the value of 117 slightly blood strained robes, have it go both ways, where the players don't have to worry about tracking the cost of room and board at the inn, the cost of mundane supplies, etc.

[unseenmage]

Funny thing about constructs, their corpses are just broken golem bodies waiting to be repaired and re-animated.

Our group prices them accordingly.

[Droopy McCool]

I had a PC decide to become an armor salesman once. He bought a bag of holding (from his armor profit) and collected all he could. Made some decent money and had some laughs.

Also, yes. Gotta get cash somewhere, especially a room full of gold isn't always an adventuring reward.

McCool

[fishyfishyfishy]

Dms: Do you allow your players to strip the mundane weapons and armor from the corpses of your defeated foes and hawk them to the local pawn shop?

Players: Do you take the time to do this?

Just an interesting question.

That's an interesting way to phrase the question. I don't tell my players what actions their characters can and cannot do unless it's breaking the rules somehow. If they want to murder everyone in town, strip them down and try to hawk everything off the next town over they can certainly do that. Their actions will have consequences of course but that's just verisimilitude.

[LTwerewolf]

As a player and DM I always expect players to take everything that's not bolted down, then come back with bolt cutters.

[Bobby Baratheon]

As a player and DM I always expect players to take everything that's not bolted down, then come back with bolt cutters.

That's a very expedient (and reasonable) policy. As DM, I allow them to take everything provided they have the means to do so. If they don't have a bag of holding or carts or anything, then they can only take what they can carry. Hammerspace isn't quite big enough for a player to stash thirty dead soldiers worth of equipment into.

[LTwerewolf]

My party tends to get large pieces of canvas and drag things around (foregoing stealth) until they can stash it all somewhere like a carriage.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

Yes to both. Pitch the miscellaneous loot into the wagon, let our party treasure manager sort it out.

[Cirrylius]

Players: Do you take the time to do this?
Just an interesting question.
At low levels?

O Mai, Yus.

I've had too many DM's who had a poor grasp of story dynamics vs WBL not to slurp up some quick supplementary income as either a buffer or a fun-optional-but-economically-impractical-story-expense fund.

I'll strip belongings and worthwhile permanent fixtures, too. I'm not especially proud. There's only so much time I'll spend prying a bronze sconce out of a wall sixty yards below the surface of the earth before my character announces they have more productive things to do, though.

Higher levels, it's more conspicuous to the DM, and bottom-rung magic loot has better uses for your own underlings.

[Necroticplague]

Dms: Do you allow your players to strip the mundane weapons and armor from the corpses of your defeated foes and hawk them to the local pawn shop?

Players: Do you take the time to do this?

Just an interesting question.

When I DM: Yes. Most equipment upgrades are gonna be found being used by someone, not just sitting in a chest. If it's an item that has any plausible value, there will be someone who wants to buy it.

When I play: At low levels, I need money badly enough that I definitely will. Looting is one of those actions that, while it takes a while IC, takes very little time OC. The only problem is that some stuff is really heavy, so I typically ditch stuff in order to improve my weight:value ratio for stuff I won't use.
At high level, still definitely. I can afford Enveloping Pits to store pretty much everything I come across and care to take, and I need to make up for the cost of consumables somehow. Sure, the mundane gear is barely gonna be anything, but every bit helps.

I've also made some characters who would simply take the whole corpse, and chow down later to save on rations. Not all my characters have that little respect for death, though.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Dms: Do you allow your players to strip the mundane weapons and armor from the corpses of your defeated foes and hawk them to the local pawn shop?

Of course. Loot is loot. I'll ask them to tone it down if they take it to the extreme of literally stripping the iron bands off of reinforced doors for scrap metal (waste of valuable sesssion time, ya know) but otherwise it's not only allowed but expected.


Players: Do you take the time to do this?

At lower levels. When you start to get into mid and higher levels mundane gear generally stops being worth the effort unless it's made of aspecial material.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

Masterwork tools are useful as well; a couple will get you an extra wand.

[mastermisha1]

Heavens yes.

I once had a character take the arms of a skeleton at level 2, and kept those arms for a few levels. Nothing beats and impromptu trap tester then a skeleton arm.
Different campaign we stole doors off a castle and used them to haul a more or less unlimited amount of gold, valuables, and Dragon bits out of hell.

[Traitoreous]

Our group of players has by far taken everything from enemies. Skulls, skins, hats... Except for our last session when we found an armory of a goblin army. We could not take it all so we thought neither will the goblins. We started throwing the equipment into a spike trap. Worst part was when the goblins came in. We told them we were their bosses (werewolves) and they believed us. Merrily we threw armour into a pit together. Later the goblins also ended in the pit.

[Azoth]

Most of my characters are the type to strip the enemy naked, skin them, cut the meat from the bone, and pack the bones too. Armor/weapons get sold to the appropriate smiths, clothing to tailors, meat to butchers, skin/hide to tanners, and bones to necromancers. If I am playing a necromancer I will even summon a cacodaemon to eat its soul and take the soul gem it makes from it.

Waste not want not. If we start getting too over burdened, I will use soul gems to animate a few skeletons to carry the rest and then sell control of the skeleton later on to a different necromancer.

As a DM I expect no less of my players themselves. Though they usually play some variety of Good and don't go as far.

[Sliver]

Dms: Do you allow your players to strip the mundane weapons and armor from the corpses of your defeated foes and hawk them to the local pawn shop?

Players: Do you take the time to do this?

Just an interesting question.

I usually only bother at low levels, as a player.

As a DM... What do you mean by allow?

Player: "I take his longsword to sell later."
Me: "Nope."

Perhaps you should clarify, because I am rather confused about what there is to disallow.

[Gruftzwerg]

as a DM:
Keep it situational. On the lower levels, the players are not wealthy. For most characters (roleplaying) it should be ok, to be a bit greedy in the beginning and taking from the dead (maybe not for some kind of code the player is following, but don't choose this by yourself for your player, discuss it with em).
It's always ok to say the weapon/armor (especially armor) has become useless after a lost death-fight. And this chance rises with player lvl/dmg for non-magical items. When a player 1-shots someone (or a few more^^), there shouldn't be much of an argument about whats left of the enemy ('s properties), as long as they are not magically altered.
Keep this in mind especially in the later levels, when the players can kill of hordes of low level armies in an instant. There shouldn't be much of worth left, that would justify the time spend for the players.

as a player:
I play with the same behavior like when I am DMing. I am greedy on most chars (those without RP/code issues) on the early levels, but this gets lesser at some point in the game, where either some of the players (maybe me) starts to loose interest in garbage items, or the DM decides that the power of the group has destroyed most of the garbage items.


on the other side:
if you have a really really... really greedy character background, than why not? If the characters "roleplay ambition" is making the most money, is there any reason to totally deny it? Just keep an eye on it as usual, and maybe make him pay for it from time to time (the richest player always should have to pay some stuff for the party/plot).

[BWR]

Generally yes

and

sometimes.

I will for the most part allow PCs to do whatever they want. Be warned that not all settings or cultures will accept this, nor all situations be appropriate for it.

As a player, it depends on the game, character and situation.

[Coidzor]

As a DM... What do you mean by allow?

Player: "I take his longsword to sell later."
Me: "Nope."

Perhaps you should clarify, because I am rather confused about what there is to disallow.

The only things I can think of is doing things like giving your goblins and such improvised gear or stone tools and weapons that break or have no value on the open market.

Or preventing players from looting in mass by never allowing them the time to do so... somehow.

Or, I guess, something like Rokugan where if people discover you're selling arms and armor stripped from corpses, they force you to either become a renegade NPC or commit seppuku. :smallconfused:

[Gildedragon]

The only things I can think of is doing things like giving your goblins and such improvised gear or stone tools and weapons that break or have no value on the open market.

Or preventing players from looting in mass by never allowing them the time to do so... somehow.

Or, I guess, something like Rokugan where if people discover you're selling arms and armor stripped from corpses, they force you to either become a renegade NPC or commit seppuku. :smallconfused:

Or you make them out of... Some special ice that evaporates at reasonable temperatures, permanency endure elements on the mooks. Their gear is protected from the temperature... Until it gets stripped and then :P oof: it goes

Also the Rokugan example shows why you don't sell the armor: you rework it: into an art object, a weapon, a different sort of armor or a construct butler. You gotta hide the evidence people! And you gotta add value, otherwise you're hawking cheap junk.

[BWR]

Also the Rokugan example shows why you don't sell the armor: you rework it: into an art object, a weapon, a different sort of armor or a construct butler. You gotta hide the evidence people! And you gotta add value, otherwise you're hawking cheap junk.

Ah yes, the "let's apply D&D gamist logic to different settings and ignore anything resembling culture" approach.
I always detested that one.

To illustrate the proper way to loot a body in Rokugan:
In one game we played a PC died and my character was the last one standing (the others had run off with the VIP or were down but not dead). I didn't have time to see to a proper burial for my comrade and was in enemy territory so I did the right thing: I beheaded him (Crab do that to corpses - don't want them spontaneously animating now do we?), took his swords and mask (dead guy was a Scorpion) to return to his family along with the tale of how he died nobly fighting for the VIP. the big pouch of gold was left behind because my character didn't even think of it, though all the players did. The gold would have made our journey a lot easier but it simply does not occur to your average samurai and is dismissed as a horribly dishonorable deed by almost everyone else.
You might take some weapon, armor or other personal effect as a battle trophy (kind of iffy, but it is done), but more commonly you would leave the corpse for eta to clean up and return to the deceased's family, while samurai will remove swords (since only samurai are allowed to touch swords).

Sure, ronin (because they are often too poor to ignore convenient money), some peasants and the truly despicable clan samurai loot the dead for monetary gain, but it is never socially acceptable like it generally is in most D&D settings. Touching dead bodies is considered about like wading through sewage in our days - you become unclean and need some serious cleaning afterwards.

[fishyfishyfishy]

Most of my characters are the type to strip the enemy naked, skin them, cut the meat from the bone, and pack the bones too. Armor/weapons get sold to the appropriate smiths, clothing to tailors, meat to butchers, skin/hide to tanners, and bones to necromancers. If I am playing a necromancer I will even summon a cacodaemon to eat its soul and take the soul gem it makes from it.

Waste not want not. If we start getting too over burdened, I will use soul gems to animate a few skeletons to carry the rest and then sell control of the skeleton later on to a different necromancer.

As a DM I expect no less of my players themselves. Though they usually play some variety of Good and don't go as far.

I like your style

[Kelb_Panthera]

As a DM... What do you mean by allow?

Player: "I take his longsword to sell later."
Me: "Nope."

I'll field this one, if the OP will forgive my liberty.

Some DM's may want to -forbid- looting corpses for various reasons; narrative flow, setting concerns (Rokugan), or simple distaste (some people are squeamish *shrug*). It's not a matter of what makes sense but a matter of respecting the social contract and/or people's boundaries.

Does that clear it up?

[Coidzor]

I'll field this one, if the OP will forgive my liberty.

Some DM's may want to -forbid- looting corpses for various reasons; narrative flow, setting concerns (Rokugan), or simple distaste (some people are squeamish *shrug*). It's not a matter of what makes sense but a matter of respecting the social contract and/or people's boundaries.

Does that clear it up?

Not really. What does squeamishness have to do with anything, unless the players are going on about pulling out gold teeth... or regular old teeth? :smallconfused:

Is this some kind of non-Western cultural dissonance or something?

[OldTrees1]

Dms: Do you allow your players to strip the mundane weapons and armor from the corpses of your defeated foes and hawk them to the local pawn shop?

Players: Do you take the time to do this?

Just an interesting question.

1) Yes
2) No. Heavy armor and masterwork items can be worth selling at very low level. But quickly they become a waste of time given the WBL curve.

[Sliver]

I'll field this one, if the OP will forgive my liberty.

Some DM's may want to -forbid- looting corpses for various reasons; narrative flow, setting concerns (Rokugan), or simple distaste (some people are squeamish *shrug*) It's not a matter of what makes sense but a matter of respecting the social contract and/or people's boundaries.

Does that clear it up?

Sorta. I get it, but it doesn't make it reasonable. If there isn't time, or the items aren't valuable (or break upon looting), or it being frowned upon within the setting, it's not the DM forbidding the attempt, just making it inconvenient and less desirableness. It's still up to the players to decide whether they want to go through the trouble or not.

Outright forbidding it, that's just like any other railroading. You are forcing your own preferences on your players, otherwise there would be no question regarding 'allowing' such action or not.

Plus, if the DM is squeamish doesn't like mundane stuff being looted, he wouldn't like magical stuff being looted either, wouldn't he?

[WeaselGuy]

In our recently hiatus'd campaign, my Warlock actively stole small items from pretty much everywhere. We were infiltrating a mansion, and I went to the dining room and started snagging all the fine silver I could lay my hands on. At our next down-time in a nearby town, I went back to the mansion with a donkey and cart, and loaded up on all the tapestries and rugs that I could find, then later went back for all the (now) deceased (corrupt) nobleman's fine clothing and personal jewelry. After my last trip of collecting decorative statues and suits of armor, my DM finally asked what I was doing with all this stuff. When I told him I was going to sell it in town, he just gave me a base price of what the décor of the manor would sell for, then asked me what I was doing with the profits, if I was sharing with the party. I told him no, now I was going to the town hall to buy said run-down and looted manor. Since a) there had been a murder there, and b) there were no interior decorations, I got it for a steal. Then I went to the local property office, purchased insurance on the manor, and that night it "mysteriously" burned to the ground. After collecting the insurance for my mansion (of course I had arson-insurance!), then I donated (most of) the money to the party. Screw WBL. If it ain't bolted down, it's burning down!

My DM and I have a very love/hate relationship.

[Malimar]

I've been known to forbid looting an ally's body. But it was just "Your new characters are coming in at full WBL, so I'd rather you bury your deceased characters with their gear so you don't wind up with more wealth than you should have." (I made an exception for unique items.)

If my players had objected to this at all, I would have said "okay, that's fine, just subtract the value of your old character's gear from your new WBL, then."

But yeah, forbidding looting enemies? Only cultural things such as the Rokugan example mentioned several times upthread makes sense to me.

[Vogie]

Half of the mooks you encounter are using spirit weapons and armor! The other half vanish from the material plane once defeated! The defeated Goblins were actually Vampire goblins, and dissolved into dust! Et cetera, et cetera

I mean, it's really DM fiat whether or not they play that half of the metagame. In my experience, some don't care about spell components, others do. Some really care about storage space, others just give their players Handy Haversacks and focus on the storytelling.

Kinda reminds me of the discussion about a homebrew ability that'd basically be the reverse of Blood money that a DM would give to healerless teams in lieu of having bandoliers of CLW wands... I don't think that was here on the playground though...

[bahamut920]

Yes, although what they actually choose to loot depends upon level. If they end up getting ridiculous about it, I might hurry them along, but otherwise looting is generally fine.

Yes, usually at low levels.


I've been known to forbid looting an ally's body. But it was just "Your new characters are coming in at full WBL, so I'd rather you bury your deceased characters with their gear so you don't wind up with more wealth than you should have." (I made an exception for unique items.)
My DM does this. Nobody complains. Of course, once we hit mid-high levels, nobody stays dead for long anyways, so "bury me with my stuff" isn't a big issue.

[Grollub]

Pretty much YES!!

The group I'm in currently ( 3 players ) each have a handy haversack to help in transporting loot, so we stock up on anything/everything we can carry. Lol

[Kelb_Panthera]

Not really. What does squeamishness have to do with anything, unless the players are going on about pulling out gold teeth... or regular old teeth? :smallconfused:

Is this some kind of non-Western cultural dissonance or something?

There are people, east and west, that find the idea of touching a corpse much more disturbing than making one. I'm not going to say I get it but it's a thing.


Sorta. I get it, but it doesn't make it reasonable. If there isn't time, or the items aren't valuable (or break upon looting), or it being frowned upon within the setting, it's not the DM forbidding the attempt, just making it inconvenient and less desirableness. It's still up to the players to decide whether they want to go through the trouble or not.

Never said it was entirely reasonable. On the other hand, if it is a personal boundaries thing it might be even less reasonable to ignore it.


Outright forbidding it, that's just like any other railroading. You are forcing your own preferences on your players, otherwise there would be no question regarding 'allowing' such action or not.

That's not railroading. Forbidding a single action (or category of action, if you prefer) is not the same as forcing an intended plot on the game. Just because it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to us doesn't make it more than it is.


Plus, if the DM is squeamish doesn't like mundane stuff being looted, he wouldn't like magical stuff being looted either, wouldn't he?

Naturally. As long as he provides the necessary wealth or magic item access some other way, I don't see there being a problem.

Taste is what it is. Nobody has to play in a game they don't want to play and pretending the DM's taste doesn't matter is a good way to end up without a DM.

[daremetoidareyo]

I allow looting as a DM. I do question when exalted or lawful good characters do it, however. Looting the dead vs. theft vs. grave robbing is really tricky terrain. I can't rationally defend one as a "good" or "lawful" behavior without extending to the rest.

Robbing a pyramid of a long lost good king who is now dead and was buried with 1000s of GP of swag is somehow evil, but looting the body of a guard on the other side of political border that you killed is somehow in bounds of honor?

I mean all of the power the whole mummy myth is predicated on the collective guilt of a society that "robs" the tombs of "conquered" foreign lands, no?

[Magesmiley]

As a DM, I expect my players to do it. They don't always.

I am a stickler for carrying capacity both as a DM and when I'm a player.

As a player I always haul off anything that isn't nailed down that I can manage to find a way to take. And then figure out how to get the stuff that is nailed down too.

Some less considered items that I've done:
Doors (or other items) with traps built into them (after the rogue disarmed them) - traps have a value. Another time the party had a long email conversation about how we were going to empty a pool of acid and transport it to a major city to sell in flasks.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

You know all of those ridiculously expensive fixtures that normally can't be carted out of a dungeon or other dwelling, such as outhouses, fountains, and exquisitely carved fireplaces? Just remember that you can sacrifice them to your Ancestral Relic feat, because portable altars are a thing. Also, it's entirely possible for, say, a psicrystal or familiar to take the feat, as well. So your Dragonwrought kobold wizard/psion/cerebremancer has Ancestral Relic, Improved Familiar, and Psicrystal Affinity, and your blink dog and psicrystal also have Ancestral Relic. Feel free to devour entire buildings at higher levels to add to your hoard.

[Sayt]

I once had a Dark heresy character gain insanity due to her looting expensive ammunition off of her warp-travel induced time paradox twin.

[Elder_Basilisk]

As a DM, I expect my players to loot unless I'm running Rokugan or a similar campaign (which I've never done), however I will account for carrying capacity and will sometimes introduce encounters or situations that make the characters choose between mobility and thorough looting, choose which loot is most important, or even choose how long they want to spend looting when they know that enemy reinforcements are on the way.

As a player, it depends upon the character, but in general I'll take armor, weapons, magic items, and loose coins. Only some of my characters will loot down to boots and gold teeth for humanoids, but it it's a dragon or something else interesting, you can bet we'll skin it and use every last bone, claw, tooth, and scale. And when it comes to humanoids, I did once calculate the weight to value ratio for the equipment we looted off dead cultists beneath Diamond Lake in order to ensure the maximum loot haul for our carrying capacity. (It turned out that mass numbers of longbows are crazy good loot for their weight, even if not masterwork).

[ff7hero]

I typically take whatever I can get out of the dungeon, and I've been known to bring a mule or two to make sure I can get it all in one trip.