Rules Index | GM Screen

Gamemastering / Basics from the Core Rulebook / Building an Adventure

Placing Treasure

Source PRPG Core Rulebook pg. 399
As PCs gain levels, the amount of treasure they carry and use increases as well. The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game assumes that all PCs of equivalent level have roughly equal amounts of treasure and magic items. Since the primary income for a PC derives from treasure and loot gained from adventuring, it's important to moderate the wealth and hoards you place in your adventures. To aid in placing treasure, the amount of treasure and magic items the PCs receive for their adventures is tied to the Challenge Rating of the encounters they face—the higher an encounter's CR, the more treasure it can award.

Table 12–4 lists the amount of treasure each PC is expected to have at a specific level. Note that this table assumes a standard fantasy game. Low-fantasy games might award only half this value, while high-fantasy games might double the value. It is assumed that some of this treasure is consumed in the course of an adventure (such as potions and scrolls), and that some of the less useful items are sold for half value so more useful gear can be purchased.

Table 12–4 can also be used to budget gear for characters starting above 1st level, such as a new character created to replace a dead one. Characters should spend no more than half their total wealth on any single item. For a balanced approach, PCs that are built after 1st level should spend no more than 25% of their wealth on weapons, 25% on armor and protective devices, 25% on other magic items, 15% on disposable items like potions, scrolls, and wands, and 10% on ordinary gear and coins. Different character types might spend their wealth differently than these percentages suggest; for example, arcane casters might spend very little on weapons but a great deal more on other magic items and disposable items.

Table 12–5 lists the amount of treasure each encounter should award based on the average level of the PCs and the speed of the campaign's XP progression (slow, medium, or fast). Easy encounters should award treasure one level lower than the PCs' average level. Challenging, hard, and epic encounters should award treasure one, two, or three levels higher than the PCs' average level, respectively. If you are running a low-fantasy game, cut these values in half. If you are running a high-fantasy game, double these values.

Encounters against NPCs typically award three times the treasure a monster-based encounter awards, due to NPC gear. To compensate, make sure the PCs face off against a pair of additional encounters that award little in the way of treasure. Animals, plants, constructs, mindless undead, oozes, and traps are great “low treasure” encounters. Alternatively, if the PCs face a number of creatures with little or no treasure, they should have the opportunity to acquire a number of signif icantly more valuable objects sometime in the near future to make up for the imbalance. As a general rule, PCs should not own any magic item worth more than half their total character wealth, so make sure to check before awarding expensive magic items.

Table 12-4: Character Wealth by Level

PC Level*	Wealth
2	1,000 gp
3	3,000 gp
4	6,000 gp
5	10,500 gp
6	16,000 gp
7	23,500 gp
8	33,000 gp
9	46,000 gp
10	62,000 gp
11	82,000 gp
12	108,000 gp
13	140,000 gp
14	185,000 gp
15	240,000 gp
16	315,000 gp
17	410,000 gp
18	530,000 gp
19	685,000 gp
20	880,000 gp

*For 1st-level PCs, see table 6-1 in Chapter 6.

Table 12-5: Treasure Values per Encounter

	Treasure per Encounter
Average Party Level	Slow	Medium	Fast
1	170 gp	260 gp	400 gp
2	350 gp	550 gp	800 gp
3	550 gp	800 gp	1,200 gp
4	750 gp	1,150 gp	1,700 gp
5	1,000 gp	1,550 gp	2,300 gp
6	1,350 gp	2,000 gp	3,000 gp
7	1,750 gp	2,600 gp	3,900 gp
8	2,200 gp	3,350 gp	6,000 gp
9	2,850 gp	4,250 gp	6,400 gp
10	3,650 gp	5,450 gp	8,200 gp
11	4,650 gp	7,000 gp	10,500 gp
12	6,000 gp	9,000 gp	13,500 gp
13	7,750 gp	11,600 gp	17,500 gp
14	10,000 gp	15,000 gp	22,000 gp
15	13,000 gp	19,500 gp	29,000 gp
16	16,500 gp	25,000 gp	38,000 gp
17	22,000 gp	32,000 gp	48,000 gp
18	28,000 gp	41,000 gp	72,000 gp
19	35,000 gp	53,000 gp	79,000 gp
20	44,000 gp	67,000 gp	100,000 gp

Archives of Nethys

Rules Index | GM Screen

Placing Treasure

Table 12-4: Character Wealth by Level

Table 12-5: Treasure Values per Encounter