A GUIDE TO NON-RANDOM LOOT!

This post and the information within is intended for GMs who, like myself, prefer to hand pick the loot
they give, as opposed to randomly rolling. Obviously, there is nothing wrong with either approach or
even some combination of the two. Please feel free to use or forget any information provided within;
although, I would appreciate credit and links when appropriate!

BACKGROUND
After cracking open my DMG back in December I had one major outstanding question: How much loot
should I be awarding my players over the course of their adventures/levels/tiers of play? I think we all
know how rare Magic Items are intended to be in the 5e system, which put even more of an emphasis
on my usual desire to stay within the intended power levels of a given system.

{DIGRESSION FOR REFERENCE: in 3/3.5 there was a chart in the DMG for “starting wealth by character
level” which I then used/adapted to mean my players should have approximately x value worth of coin,
gear & magic items by y level. It actually worked really well in that system. In 5e there is a similar
table sorted by tier and also by Low, Normal and High Magic Campaigns. However, what it lists
seemed incredibly low at the time, and now I can confirm is definitely a fraction of what my
calculations below tell us.}

FINDING THE ANSWERS IN 5E

The nearest thing I could find to answer this question in 5e were the Treasure Hoard Tables; specifically
the following sentence:
“Over the course of a typical campaign, a party finds treasure hoards amounting to seven rolls
on the Challenge 0-4 table, eighteen rolls on the Challenge 5-10 table, twelve rolls on the
Challenge 11-16 table, and eight rolls on the Challenge 17+ table.” (DMG 133)
I now had a frame of reference within which I could award loot! But I like to pick and assign my loot,
not roll randomly. So I began calculating the averages of the values presented on these Hoard Tables.

WEALTH (BY GP) MAGIC ITEMS (BY TABLE)

TIER # HOARDS COIN SELLABLES TOTAL PARTY OF 4 #AS #BS #CS #DS #ES #FS #GS #HS #IS
0-4 7 1,372 1,258 2,630 658ea 7 2 2 2
5-10 18 69,426 12,375 81,801 20,450ea 9 6 4 1 6 1* 1*
11-16 12 378,000 56,550 434,550 108,638ea 2 3 9 4 1 1 2 2 1
17+ 8 2,576,000 112,200 2,688,200 672,050ea 1 2^ 2 1* 1* 1^
LIFETIME TOTALS: 3,024,798 182,383 3,207,181 801,795ea 18 11 16 7^ 3 9 2** 2** 2^

TABLE CLARIFICATIONS: Wealth includes Coin (the averages of the rolls for coinage) and what I’ve
called Sellables (gems and art) all converted to Gold Pieces (gp). The Sellables factor in the percentage
chance to find a given set of gems or art objects as well as the average results of the rolls listed.
Similarly, the Magic Items table factors in the percentage chance of a listed set as well as the average
number of times you would then roll on a given Magic Item Table. There are 3 instances on the Hoard
Tables where it lists 1 Item from either Table x or Table y. This is represented by asterisks (*) and
carrots (^) in a given Tier Row.

PLEASE NOTE: Because of fractions and the inability to hand a player 3/8ths of a Bag of Holding, I did
have to take some small liberties within the Magic Items calculations. Let it be known that I rounded!

Author: /u/Waffle2121 3/29/15 Page 1 of 2

A QUICK NOTE ON PARTY SIZE
Everything in the 5e DMG references parties of 4-5 Characters (including the numbers in this table). If
your party size differs from what Wizards considers the ‘norm’ you should modify appropriately. The
‘Party of 4’ column should give you a good idea of the wealth a single character should earn and
therefore any modifier you may need to apply to the Magic Items side of the table.

IMPLEMENTATION
I have been using this as my guide in my homebrew game, which has 8-10 players on a given night (so I
have been doubling the chart’s numbers). They are currently passing into the second tier of play and
this system has worked very well so far. Encounters are feeling balanced and players feel appropriately
rewarded. Hopefully this will continue to be the trend into the higher tiers!

My group uses google sheets to track attendance & individual rewards (which in turn lets me track the
group as a whole). You can find an example of it here if you’d like to take a look or use the format.

ITEM TABLES & RARITY

OK, so the final piece of this puzzle: What types of Items belong on each of these lettered Tables?
After all, the whole point of this is use by GMs who like to choose their own loot as opposed to random
rolls or generators. After comparing the lists to Item Rarity, I was able to establish their guidelines.
This was made much easier now that Wizards has published this little beauty. If you are creating your
own items you are probably already assigning rarities to them, therefore assessing their appropriate
table should be easy! Below is a guideline for where groups of items typically fall.

A All Common Magic Items; Minor Utility Uncommons;

Personally, I would also include almost all of /u/jwords’ ‘Better Than Nothing’ Items.
(Which are amazing and creative and you should check them out!)
B, C, D & E Utility and Consumables (also, Magic Ammunition), sorted by Table by Rarity:
B=Uncommons, C=Rares, D=Very Rares & E=More Very Rares & Legendaries
F, G, H & I Magic Weapons, Shields & Armor*, ‘Slotted’ Wondrous Items (Bracers, Rings, Cloaks, etc),
Rods, Staves, Wands, and Permanent Effect Consumables (Manuals & Tomes), also sorted
by Table by Rarity:
F=Uncommons, G=Rares, H=Very Rares & I=Legendaries

*A SPECIAL NOTE ON ARMOR

The type of armor seems to increase the standard rarity of the enchantment for purposes of these
tables (this is NOT reflected in the actual rarity of the Item for purposes of creation or buying/selling):

Leather, Scale Mail, Chain Shirt & Chainmail No Modification

Studded Leather, Breastplate & Splint Mail +1 Rarity
Half Plate & Full Plate +2 Rarity
Padded, Hide & Ringmail Not Listed, so I am considering as No Modification

EXAMPLE: So a +1 set of Full Plate (a Rare Magic Item) actually falls on Table I (Legendaries), two tables
higher than a Rare Item would normally appear.

Author: /u/Waffle2121 3/29/15 Page 2 of 2