Treasure
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Heroes may quest for justice, for a higher purpose, for the salvation of their queen and country, but just as many adventurers seek treasure—a horde of shiny rupees, full armaments of powerful magic items, and jewels or gemstones hidden away long-forgotten dungeons. As the Dungeon Master, you decide where treasure can be found and in what amount.
It may be important to remember that Legends of Hyrule is playable with or without treasure. A party of capable adventurers can make it to 20th level without even earning a single rupee. The more riches and magic items they earn, however, the more capably they can overcome obstacles along the way. By contrast, a party that earned almost every magic item herein might find their adventures far too easy, but there would still be ways to challenge such an overpowered group of heroes.
Although you are empowered to award treasure and additional rewards however you like, this section will focus on four methods of doing so: piecemeal, chests, stockpiles, and classic.
Piecemeal Treasure
Simply put, you award rupees, magic items, or other treasure without referencing any other materials or tables. While there are no hard rules on how often or how much you award, the best games usually have the party earning modest but useful rewards early on, with increasingly powerful and game-changing benefits as the campaign progresses. This creates a satisfying feeling of escalation through sequential adventures.
Treasure Chests
This method might be best if your party gains levels primarily through experience points earned in combat.
A typical monster in the bestiary has on its page a "Treasure Chest" table. Simply enough, when that creature is subdued or slain, roll the die listed on the Treasure Chest table and award the listed result. If the party's average level is 11 or higher, then instead roll twice and award both results. If a monster doesn't have its own unique chest, you can instead use a Generic Treasure Chest based on the monster's challenge rating.
Monsters award Treasure Chests based on their own rating individually, not the rating of the encounter.
Needless to say this treasure need not necessarily be in a literal chest. It could be awarded immediately as loot found on the monster's body, loot found in a nearby area that was perhaps guarded, or "stored" to later be rewarded at a more thematic or appropriate time. There's no need to force this treasure onto the party, either—if you decide the treasure is found on the monster's body, the party should only get that treasure if they actually look for it.
A Treasure Chest table is based on the corresponding monster's XP value. Whether it be rupees, spoils, gemstones, magic items, or something else, each entry on a Treasure Chest table is assigned a value in rupees. The average result of a table will usually have a rupee value that is equal or nearly equal to the monster's XP value. There are occasionally some exceptions; for example, a champion chilfos can award a frostspear, which is normally too valuable for a monster like this but an exception is made for its thematic merit and the relatively low chance of rolling it.
You need not necessarily roll for a Treasure Chest table to make use of it. The table may simply inspire options for you to award as Piecemeal Treasure.
Compared to guidance from official D&D sources like the Dungeon Master's Guide and Xanathar's Guide to Everything, Treasure Chests provide comparable levels of loot on average across the course of a campaign, but different amounts and types. Chests provide more loot at low levels and less at higher levels. Depending on the monsters faced, there is also a tendency to award a wider supply of low-tier magic items, and fewer monetary assets or high-tier magic items. From 17th level onward, Treasure Chests fail to provide enough compared to official sources—if your campaign reaches this height, you may want to award each character one legendary major magic item and two legendary minor magic items sometime between 17th and 20th level, in addition to any rolled from Treasure Chests.
Treasure Chests never award magic items of "epic" rarity.
See also: Generic Treasure Chests.
Treasure Stockpiles
This page or section is incomplete, and will eventually be expanded with more information. |
This method awards treasure at similar pacing and ratios to official guidance from the Dungeon Master's Guide and Xanathar's Guide to Everything.
For every player-character in the party, you have a "stockpile" of rupees and magic items based on the character's current level. Under this guidance, make available about that much treasure before they reach the next level. This treasure can be spread throughout the level, awarded all at once, or even saved for later levels. If you're using level milestones, it might be thematically appropriate for each chapter or level to end with a hefty reward of all the level's treasure at once in one huge hoard. This amount needn't at all be shoved into the party's face; if they fail to find a hidden chest or don't finish a quest, they don't get the treasure you allotted to that, simply enough.
This unfinished table is meant to represent each individual character. If there are three characters in the party all of the same level, for example, then triple the amount or roll three times as much.
At some point during each level, roll a single d20 for each character. The character may earn a magic item depending on the result, as shown in the following table. A single result might pull from two different columns.
Level | Rupees & Spoils | Minor Magic Items | Major Magic Items | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
com. | unc. | rare | v. rare | legend | unc. | rare | v. rare | legend | |||
1st | 700 (2d6 × 100) | 11-16 | 17-18 | 19 | — | — | 20 | — | — | — | |
2nd | 1,100 (2d10 × 100) | 9-15 | 16-17 | 18 | — | — | 19-20 | — | — | — | |
3rd | 1,300 (2d12 × 100) | 6-13 | 14-16 | 17 | — | — | 18-20 | — | — | — | |
4th | 2,600 (4d12 × 100) | 3-11 | 12-14 | 15-16 | — | — | 17-20 | — | — | — | |
5th | 22,000 (4d10 × 1,000) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
6th | 27,000 (6d8 × 1,000) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
7th | 33,000 (6d10 × 1,000) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
8th | 39,000 (6d12 × 1,000) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
9th | 42,000 (4d20 × 1,000) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
10th | 50,000 (2d4 × 10,000) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
11th | 70,000 (2d6 × 10k) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
12th | 100,000 (4d4 × 10k) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
13th | 140,000 (4d6 × 10k) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
14th | 180,000 (4d8 × 10k) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
15th | 270,000 (6d8 × 10k) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
16th | 390,000 (6d12 × 10k) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
17th | 1,000,000 (4d4 × 100k) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
18th | 1,400,000 (4d6 × 100k) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
19th | 1,800,000 (4d8 × 100k) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
20th+ | 2,200,000 (4d10 × 100k) |
Classic Treasure
If desired, you can completely use the guidance from the Dungeon Master's Guide or Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Due to copyright protection, the exact guidance in those books will not be reproduced here.
Easily enough, replace any amount of gold pieces earned with ten times as many rupees earned. E.g., earn 1,000 rp instead of 100 gp.
You can also replace the DMG's Magic Item Tables with corresponding Hyrulean tables:
- Table of Common Minor Magic Items replaces Magic Item Table A
- Table of Uncommon Minor Magic Items replaces Magic Item Table B
- Table of Rare Minor Magic Items replaces Magic Item Table C
- Table of Very Rare Minor Magic Items replaces Magic Item Table D
- Table of Legendary Minor Magic Items replaces Magic Item Table E
- Table of Uncommon Major Magic Items replaces Magic Item Table F
- Table of Rare Major Magic Items replaces Magic Item Table G
- Table of Very Rare Major Magic Items replaces Magic Item Table H
- Table of Legendary Major Magic Items replaces Magic Item Table I
Additional Rewards
Although treasure is tangible and renowned, adventurers may seek or find rewards of a less distinct nature.
This page or section is incomplete, and will eventually be expanded with more information. |