Treasure comes in two main forms: wealth (coins, gems, and salable valuables like jewelry, equipment, and art) and magic items (such as magic weapons, rings of invisibility, and so on). Treasures are physical objects. Information, allies, fame, and fulfillment of the party’s goals and ambitions are desirable, and can often be earned along with treasure, but are not treasure.

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How Much Treasure to Give?

The Narrator decides how much treasure to give out as rewards, but there is no requirement that adventurers must earn a certain amount of wealth—it depends on the style of game and scale of the campaign. The High and Low Treasure Campaigns section below has more information on departing from default treasure levels.

The Treasure by Level table shows the rate of treasure adventurers acquire if their rewards are generated randomly or use the sample treasures in the Monstrous Menagerie. The Narrator can vary widely from these numbers without seriously affecting game balance. 

The Gold Acquired This Level column indicates how much wealth, in gold pieces, a single adventurer is likely to find or earn during the course of that character level. This accounts for their share of the coins found as well as the value of nonmagical treasure.

The Magic Items Acquired This Level column indicates the probability that an adventurer finds one or more magic items each level (roll 1d100 to determine which), and lists the treasure tables that offer appropriate magic rewards for that level. Over the course of their career, an adventurer should find about 24 magic items: 18 consumable magic items or enchanted trinkets as well as 6 permanent magic items.

 

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Creating Treasure Rewards

The Narrator can give out treasure in one of three ways: crafting unique treasure rewards, rolling on the tables in this chapter to create random treasure, or granting the listed treasure for a particular encounter in the Monstrous Menagerie or in an adventure.

Crafting Unique Treasure Rewards

To determine the gold piece value of all the treasures a party finds at a given level, multiply the number of adventurers by the appropriate amount of wealth from the Gold Acquired This Level column of the treasure table above. Narrators don’t have to stick to this number rigorously by any means—there’s enough latitude to give anywhere between twice this amount and none based on the demands of the story. 

With a total gold piece value worked out, the Narrator divides it into one, two, three, or more individual treasure hoards, each a reward for overcoming a different obstacle. Instead of granting each treasure hoard in gold pieces, these can be customized by using different coin denominations, gems, and valuables of all kinds. See the Treasure Descriptions section below for inspiration.

For example, a 10th level party of four adventurers is expected to find an average of 16,000 gold over the course of leveling from 10th to 11th (4,000 gold x 4 adventurers). The Narrator decides that there are three large treasure hoards available—a hidden cache of 5,000 gold that can only be found by solving a puzzle, a ruby ring worth 5,000 gold which can be earned by finding a noble’s missing relative, and a dragon’s hoard worth 10,000 gold (half in coins and half in gems). This totals more than average treasure for the level, and it could vary even more depending on circumstances. The party could fail to decipher or even notice the puzzle, foregoing one of the treasures, they might be able to bargain the noble up to an even higher reward, or they could suffer defeat at the claws of the dangerous dragon. The PCs might also find other, smaller incidental treasures along the way. 

To determine the average number of magic items found over the course of a level, multiply the number of adventurers by the percentages in the Magic Items Acquired This Level column of the Treasure by Level table. For instance, a single 1st level adventurer has a 60% chance of finding an expendable magic item from Table: Magic Items #1 or #2, and a 35% chance of finding a permanent magic item from Table: Magic Items #4, #5, or #6. Over the course of gaining their first level, a party of three adventurers is likely to find approximately 2 expendable magic items (three times they’ll have 60% chance of finding one) and 1 permanent magic item (three times they’ll have a 35% chance of finding one). Narrators may halve or double these numbers—granting anywhere between 1 and 4 expendable magic items, and 0 and 2 permanent magic items—without straying too far from the default rate of treasure acquisition.

Rolling for Random Treasure

Instead of doling out parcels of treasure, many Narrators like to randomly generate wealth or adopt a hybrid random-custom method: randomly generating a hoard and then altering it by swapping out pieces of wealth and magic items appropriate to the story.

To create a random treasure hoard, use the Random Treasure Tables section below. On average, a typical party finds roughly 1 to 3 random treasure hoards per character level. The Narrator decides the location of each treasure. An important adversary, such as a legendary or elite monster, might guard a massive cache which consists of two random treasure hoards.

Using Premade Treasure

Most monsters in the Monstrous Menagerie include an Encounters section listing one or more treasures, broken down by encounter difficulty. Narrators can use one of these treasures as it stands or modify it to better fit a campaign. When using premade treasure, it’s important to remember that not every encounter gives out treasure! As with random treasure, the average party finds 1 to 3 treasures per level, and additional encounters might yield no treasure or only incidental treasure (see below).

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Varying Treasure

Whenever considering treasure, the Narrator should customize rewards to the needs of the game, the logic of the ongoing story, and the party’s desires. 

Customizing Magic Items

Randomly assigned treasure doesn’t take into account the party’s classes or favorite weapon types. Some Narrators like to swap randomly assigned magic items for those that are more useful to their adventurers. For example, if one of the PCs is a greatsword-wielding herald, the Narrator might alter a randomly generated sun blade longsword, making it a greatsword instead, or even trade a robe of the archmagi for a holy avenger. In a party containing a wizard, the Narrator might convert some randomly-generated scrolls of cleric spells into wizard spells.

Incidental Treasure

Sometimes the party stumbles into a small amount of wealth that doesn’t constitute a treasure hoard. They might pickpocket a noble, defeat a beast in its lair, or ransack a merchant’s storeroom, but Narrators don’t need to count or keep track of incidental treasure. Grant an incidental treasure whenever it feels appropriate. When in doubt about whether incidental treasure is present (such as after defeating a minor adversary or after searching a room), roll a 1d6. On a roll of 4–6, incidental treasure is found.

To randomly determine incidental treasure, generate a treasure with a Challenge Rating of the party’s average level – 1d6 (minimum 0). A low-level party defeating a bandit sentry is likely to find a handful of silver or gold coins while tier 4 adventurers might win a few hundred platinum in a dice game—in either case, what’s gained is a fairly insignificant amount of money to the party.

High and Low Treasure Campaigns

When using the standard treasure rules, an adventurer finds an average of 6 or so permanent magic items over 20 character levels, along with enough money to buy a seventh, legendary item. Narrators might prefer more frequent treasure rewards and more fabulously wealthy adventurers, or to run a campaign with a lower level of magic or even no magic items at all.

 Narrators that consistently grant more than double the amount of treasures per level (say, one treasure hoard per character per level) should raise the difficulty of combat encounters and exploration challenges. A well-equipped party of mid-level or higher can easily handle a steady diet of hard encounters, and probably has enough tricks to consistently succeed on medium and hard skill checks. Raise the level of challenge by including more deadly combats and more difficult obstacles to overcome, as well as encounter elements.

When running a low-treasure campaign with few magic items, Narrators can expect a combat that’s rated medium to provide a stiff challenge. A combat that’s rated as a hard challenge may offer significant peril. Magic-poor adventurers don’t have as many ways to escape the consequences of failure (extra healing, teleportation, and so on), and the Narrator should design challenges with the awareness that failure is a real possibility.

Treasure for Large and Small Groups

The above random and pre-computed treasure guidelines assume a party consisting of 4 or 5 adventurers. Smaller parties won’t find enough treasure using these guidelines, and large parties will find too many high-level magic items. Use the following modifications to give small parties fewer but richer treasure hoards and large parties more but poorer treasure hoards.

Crafting Unique Treasure Rewards. No changes are necessary to the way treasure is given or crafted, making it a great choice for unusually large or small groups. Just grant the desired amount of treasure per party member.

Rolling for Random Treasure. For small parties of 2 or 3 adventurers, the PCs only find an average of 1 random treasure hoard per level. To generate each hoard, after determining the Challenge Rating of a combat encounter or quest, use the treasure table one band higher. For example, if a treasure’s Challenge Rating is 6 (the Treasure for Challenge Ratings 5–10 table), instead use the Treasure for Challenge Ratings 11–16 table.

For large parties (6 or more adventurers), roll on a random treasure table 3 or 4 times per level (perhaps combining two or three treasure rolls into a single monster’s hoard or quest reward). For each roll on the treasure table, after determining the Challenge Rating of a combat encounter or quest, use the treasure table one band lower. For example, if a treasure’s Challenge Rating is 6 (Treasure for Challenge Ratings 5–10 table), Treasure for Challenge Ratings 3–4 table.

Using Premade Treasure. Narrators can apply the same rules as for generating random treasure when using one of the treasure suggestions from the Monstrous Menagerie. Small groups find around 1 hoard per level, using the treasure for the next hardest encounter, while large groups find 3 or more hoards, each of which uses treasure from the next easiest encounter. If there is no harder or easier encounter, or when using a published adventure module, instead double (for small groups) or halve (for large groups) the number of coins, gems, and valuables they find.

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Random Treasure Tables

The following tables allow Narrators to generate an appropriate treasure for a combat or noncombat challenge. There are nine tables, each a reward for encounters of different challenge ratings.

Some treasure hoards are won by defeating monsters in battle. To randomly determine the treasure belonging to enemy combatants, total the Challenge Ratings of all the combatants to get the treasure’s Challenge Rating.

Other treasures are discovered through exploration, given as a reward, or otherwise earned through noncombat encounters. Quests like these can be assigned a Challenge Rating just as combat encounters can. A simple task or a small treasure has a Challenge Rating equal to the party’s average character level. A difficult or rewarding quest can have a Challenge Rating up to twice the party’s average character level. 

Once a treasure’s Challenge Rating has been determined, find the matching Random Treasure Table and roll a d20 three times: once for coins, once for other wealth, and once for magic items. Each price category of gem and valuable (such as ‘10 gp gem’ or ‘25 gp valuable’) has its own subtable, as does each of the random magic item tables, numbered from 1 to 10.

Challenge Rating	Average Value
0	30 gp
1-2	100 gp
3-4	300 gp
5-10	1,000 gp
11-16	3,000 gp
17-22	10,000 gp
23-30	30,000 gp
31-40	100,000 gp
41+	300,000 gp

 

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Challenge Rating 0 (average value: 30 gp)

 

Challenge Rating 1-2 (average value: 100 gp)

 

Challenge Rating 3-4 (average value: 300 gp)

 

Challenge Rating 5-10 (average value: 1,000 gp)

 

Challenge Rating 11-16 (average value: 3,000 gp)

 

Challenge Rating 17-22 (average value: 10,000 gp)

 

Challenge Rating 23-30 (average value: 30,000 gp)

 

Challenge Rating 31-40 (average value: 100,000 gp)

 

Challenge Rating 41+ (average value: 300,000 gp)

 

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Coins

Caches of coins are found in denominations of pp (platinum), gp (gold), ep (electrum), sp (silver), and cp (copper). Fifty of any denomination of coins weigh 1 pound. A stack of 2,000 coins weighs 40 pounds and is considered to be one bulky item for the purposes of carrying capacity.

Each ‘coins’ result on the treasure table lists the average number of coins found, and then in parentheses lists the dice expression used to generate a random number of coins. For instance, a result of ‘700 (2d6 × 100) sp’ indicates that 700 silver pieces, or 2d6 × 100 silver pieces, are found.

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Other Wealth

Treasures can contain non-monetary wealth: gems and valuables. ‘Valuables’ is a catch-all term for jewelry, works of art and craft, and other costly but nonmagical objects.