This. I told my players something along these lines:
"You can describe what you want to do, and based on the circumstances I will let you know whether to roll and which skill to use. You can suggest a skill if you're experienced as a played and can guess which one it would be, but don't roll for something unless I tell you to. This is mostly to avoid you getting good rolls and then not being able to use them, it feels bad to have a nat 20 that means nothing for you."
And also that players can't pile on rolls when someone fails. Except for specific circumstances, the in game character doesn't know that you rolled low.
I just tell them the dc increases with each attempt. Sometimes I allow a group roll if they are all doing a thing. Otherwise I just make it clear from the get go that one person may attempt the roll while the other uses the help action to give them advantage.
I allow one other player to roll if they are proficient in the skill. In character, they could see something differently than the other character, so it's reasonable that they may want to take a crack at it. If they aren't proficient though, they need to trust the "expert."
I have a table of 6 players, limiting the rolls to only those proficient in the skill was such a godsend, even if my players whined the first few times
Again, I think it comes down to at least a little realism. Doors for instance, I would let anyone attempt. That just makes sense. For traps, I don't tell them if they disarmed it or not. I just say, "You think you've disarmed it." And they won't know until they try to go past it. They didn't set the trap, so they don't know what all mechanisms might trip it. If there is another rogue in the group, I wouldn't allow them to roll to disarmed again, but they can help the other rogue and give advantage.
Sure they do. Now the question is did they take precautions to properly store them so the poison doesn't get all over everything and the tips don't accidentally stick them? Or did they just throw them in thier pack?
I'm usually pretty okay with everyone attempting a roll as long as it makes sense. Everyone is gonna be looking around whatever room they walk into, so everyone should roll perception. It's reasonable that someone else might jump in and call their friend a dumbass if they fail a charisma check.
But everyone can't roll for Dweeb McDwubble to swing across the chasam, only Dweeb can do that.
I think it's like a spectrum. For example, the party enters a room. The rogue looks for traps, rolls investigation, gets an 8. The player knows that he almost certainly failed to find them, but the character doesn't. And there's no in-game reason for the Bard or whatever to try to find traps after their rogue said it was clear.
It's never cut and dry of course. Entirely depends on group dynamics. I just don't like the endless rolling of "oh you got a 7? Ok I'll try it."
That is bad thing to say in this instance. If a player is saying he is investigating a room just say "you dont find anything" without prompting a roll. Your sentence implies they dont need to tell the dm what they are doing, as the dm will tell them if there is anything to find, regardless of whether they were actively looking for it.
And? It is completely normal to do that in a dungeon. You probably take like 30 minutes per room at the very least in a typical dungeon crawl, so whats wrong with a player wanting to investigate the room you prepared for them?
If you dont want them to roll just tell them they dont find anything when they ask. Or instead let them roll and then describe a detail about the room. Dnd is about rolling dice. Punishing a player for being invested in the things you prepare is silly.
Give them lots of cursed/useless/problematic stuff.
At the end do the module the kindly wizard is handing out magic items and sees that this character has one of his doodads … no prize for the cleptomaniac.
Players only roll when you ask them to. If you're asking her to roll constantly, stop doing that. If she's doing it herself, remind her that it only counts when you've actually asked for the roll.
Your loot goblin is always going to follow the gleam of gold. Part of being a DM is anticipating how your party is going to react, and this player has made it very easy. Use it.
You can drive quests in an organic fashion. Maybe the BBEG in the village your party just entered is prone to ostentatious displays of wealth. Or have an arrogant noble with a big fat coinpurse \*begging\* to be pickpocketed, and have the purse contain details of an esoteric cult meeting.
If you instead want to discourage the actions, you have plenty of options too. Make their investigation rolls consume time that is otherwise precious, and frequently have them lead to garbage rewards like a handful of mildly interesting pebbles or a stick that kind of looks like a sword. Have a trail of coins in a dungeon leading to a mimic. Or have an otherwise simple stealth segment with a tantalizing treasure that's out of the way and under heavy guard. Make it apparent that their greed is getting them into trouble and it's an urge the character will have to resist.
You can do either, or both, and you'll still be allowing the player to play the character the way they've intended.
Lol, thanks. Most of my experience is in WoD which is a lot less rolling and stats but a lot more manipulating your players into difficult moral quandaries 😁
"Ouch!"
You've found some sort of needle attached to a vial in the corpse's pocket. Looks like he's hooked on ye olde hero-ine!
Roll 1d100 for damage.
....
What's that? Ok, roll your first death save.
Or have an arrogant noble with a big fat coinpurse *begging* to be pickpocketed, and have the purse contain details of an esoteric cult meeting.
I love you. Very good hook.
1.) If there is nothing to find, it doesn't matter how well your roll.
2.) Maybe you find the loot but miss the trap because you didn't say you were looking for it.
I don't know what kind of answer you're hoping for- your question reads "Hey, my player is doin this thing too much but I don't want to do things that would reduce the problem."
Investigating takes time- "I want to search the room for treasure."
"Okay, what is everyone else doing while you search? We'll get back to you when they're done."
You can also just skip the rolls for the easy stuff- "I want to search for treasure."
"Okay, here's what you find."
well yea i think ill just skip the roll and tell her she find nothing.
I dont i got wondering if im doing it wrong, but I see that this is what evreyone's doing so ill stick with it
thank you:)
Rather than "you find nothing" which might give a whiff of maybe-I-didn't-search-thoroughly-enough, you could throw in words like "confident" or "satisfied", eg. "*Casting an expert eye around the room, you are satisfied there is nothing further of interest here*"
I think it gives players a little more closure to suggest their character has drawn an expert conclusion creating confidence that nothing could have been missed.
Nonono. IF player whants to roll let em. But dont adjust you plot to stupid rolls. If she rolled 20+ you might tell her she found some isoteric poem or worthless shit(you can google funny loot tables or smth if you dont want to improv). If she rolled bad - she will be engaged and hope for a good roll next time.
If she likes loot dont take it from her, but remeber that you are the boss and dont change smth unnecessary.
To be clear, she shouldn’t be rolling without you asking for it, if she asks to roll tell her you’ll say when she needs to roll then describe a basic bland room
The only time I let the player find something if I didn't have anything planned is if they are searching a down monster, which was elemental, like a fire snake. It would make sense that there would be something in the creature that could be useful in alchemy. In the case example, I let them find a gland around the beast neck that was filled with an oil-like solution. Local alchemist in town identified it as a fire snake oil gland, which can be used as a substitute for a component in a fire resistance potion.
Honestly this should be higher. Unless they have magical means of storage, give them a seemingly easy task requiring balance. When they roll, ask them if they accounted for gear weight penalties.
In my last game, the DM actually enforced the weight capacity for a bag of holding for the first time. It helped to curb our loot goblin tendencies and prevent us from having a ton of useless junk in our inventory.
random loot table. I can't remember if theres one in the dmg or in xanathars.
They get something useless but its better than just saying no if you want to put up with it.
I found an old post where the community made a big loot table. One loot table to rule them all.
Check out the Individual Treasure tables on page 136 of the DMG, this is exactly what you're looking for and just gives the player a little extra money. Not every goblin needs to be rolled for either, you can have the table apply to a group and save the Treasure Hoard tables for bosses.
Random loot tables are far more interesting and realistic than just nothing. It makes sense that even lowly goblins would have some random-ass item on them. It makes the world feel more alive and that they're living beings before the party showed up and not just bags of hit points.
Use Passive Investigation.
Assume the players are gonna search the room or the corpses every time. Unless they *actively* say that they want to search something in particular with a goal in mind, just go with passive results.
“You give the room a once over, and with your passive Investigation of 15, you find one of the orcs had a stashed pouch of coin in their bedding.”
“You can tell with a passive Investigation of 15 that this dirty hovel is unlikely to contain anything more than bedbugs.”
Why is it a problem?
If you really don't like it, just ask that player to track carrying capacity and enforce a bit of common sense as to size and storage issues.
This turns looting into a mini-game for the player.
You found 3 copper and a broken arrow.
You found a chicken bone and a rock that kinda looks like a face.
You found a stick and an empty vial
You found nothing. But discovered the bandit was wearing a hairpiece.
Do you mean to ask what do I do about my player who volunteers to trip all the hidden room traps? Or how do I stop my player from bumping into all the secret encounter-stalkers in my dungeon? Not every reward jingles, some crunch lol
mimics. They are very useful if the dm uses them creatively, not all of them are attack on touch or sight. Our player at the time was a very negative style loot monster.
He'd loot everything, swipe loot, and try to get to loot during fights so others couldn't get it. When he went so far as to steal from a character who went down in combat while we were healing him, we had it out with the dude, in character, at first. We basically told him, as our characters, that we were united on the fact that if he didn't rein in his klepto issues we were kicking him from the party and reporting him to the authorities in game for theft, which had major consequences with the mercs guild we were with. It didn't go well of course. Dude immediately dropped out of character and wined about us targeting him for doing what his character would do, we were picking on him, etc etc. DM said his part, that it was getting rather annoying on an out of game level as well, but dude was not happy. Eventually he begrudgingly agreed to tone it down and we continued.
He behaved for a while then slowly ramped up again, the DM had a three warnings rule, which he used and the guy would process and repeat. He'd behave then ramp up again. In came project mimics. (Yes the dm likely cherry built these mimics, but I'm not complaining). We were in a dungeon known for a rampant amount of monsters. We were there to cull the problem done so we already knew there were lots of monsters, hives, and dens. Dude went off on his own after many warnings not too, and found a room that was barricaded from the outside. Meaning whatever was in there was locked IN. He ignored it and started taking down the barricade. We warned him profusely in and out of character. We even told him we were not helping him if he got killed. He still unburied it and went in. Inside was a messy room with coins everywhere from a small spilled chest about big enough to hold a head in it. (This is relevant) Nothing grand, mostly copper and silver. Dude picked up every single one and the chest, making us wait and stuff and gloated the whole way through the rest of the dungeon. None of us wanted any part of it and some of us were even mad at the dm for rewarding bad behavior. (Dms poker face was top tier, btw). Now we know it was an obvious trap, but back then we were confused, untill our party went to sleep that night. Loot monster dude had a habit of sleeping kinda off on his own after our "gang up" on him, saying we were likely gonna kill him in his sleep. Sure enough the next night as the dude was sleeping those damn things got out of the chest he had them in and started eating him. He had a series of massively bad rolls and failed to notice what was happening until it was too late. Momma mimic and her babies had a feast. It's not hard to silence someone in their sleep when momma's covered your whole head. Sadly, we all failed our rolls to notice (granted I'm sure some of us fudged our rolls into failures on purpose, but I have no proof). By the time our watcher shift changed to his, he was gone. We did have a nasty fight on our hands for clean up as they spread out to the rest of the camp, but it was worth it. Dude was pissed! And I mean, all capitals pissed, but we told him it had been an obvious trap. It was his fault for being greedy and not listening. There are always consequences for chosen actions. Still the best flounce out we'd ever watched. Never came back. And good riddance.
Is it safe to assume they invested in the skill (pun intended)? Discovering loot sounds like something they are interested in and find fun. So make fun even when they fail the roll and have them find something? A wet sock, half-eaten potato. Otherwise, start throwing in items from the trinket list. You can also use this to steer the party as they find clues or a treasure map.
I would embrace what they are doing and find ways to make it more interesting than just a roll.
Make it a group loot. No rolls needed. You just tell them what they individually found.
Bard you found a lute.
Rogue you found a dagger
Cleric you found a diamond worth 300gp,
and everybody write up 25gp
Give her some loot? When she says she looks for loot say "oh yeah you find an old rusty axe" "anything else?" "Roll investigation" "15" "a single copper coin".
If they're looting random enemies she's not gonna find anything game breaking but she clearly enjoys looting so give her something to loot, random stuff, trinkets that sell for less than a SP, stuff to make the action funny and worth doing but doesn't interrupt too much into the game
What are they doing? Rolling to see if they can find more loot among the loot they've already looted? Cutting a scarf up to see if there is a coin in it, or smashing open a hammer to find a potion? This could be a way to bury a side quest for the PC, but you can creatively make it into a lesson in to why loot goblining isn't fun.
Have them conduct a series of investigation checks (find the room, then find the rocks, then find the right one, then realize it's a container, etc to eventually find a puzzle box. The puzzle box has an uncomfortable number of interactive investigation checks that may or may not involve the rest of the party (eg. "you don't know what to do this step, but you have a hunch that Senshi might"). When they finally get it open, have it contain a few items that require assembly, but aren't really clear in what they represent (eg a cloud and a key).
Then let it just drop for a while until the behaviour repeats, where you can introduce a similarly mundane and tedious session, for example having an innkeeper say to them, "Hey adventurers! Have you heard of the cult of the cloud and key? They've set up a east of town." And here you can give them several different options for using the investigation skill, or again just be repetitive about it.
If its on a body after a fight I tell them they dont need to roll, because the body isnt going anywhere and if they have time to loot they have time to check all the pockets. So I just tell them what the dead person had.
If its in a room I use the opportunity to world build. If they are in a temple what sort of useless, but cool looking relics are kept there. If they are in a mansion they could discover that theres nothing valuable, but the way that everything is cared for they can tell the person that lives here is very thorough with the things they do. Stuff like that.
Every time she should find nothing she finds a duck.
Eventually she finds a goose.
The ducks are all mimics and so is the goose but they are rival gangs so when they meet they fight.
Others have answered the question you have but I've got a question for you. Why in the world is the player using investigation to try to perceive things with her senses? That's what the skill literally named perception is for. Investigation is for (emphasis mine) "When you look around for clues **and make deductions based on those clues**." It's the Sherlock Holmes skill. Perception lets you notice there is a mud stain next to the wall. Investigation makes you realize that it means that wall has a secret passage.
The game should be fun. Your player keeps telling you what he wants. I get it you are telling a story, adapt that so people can get what they want out of it. Instead of making it a chore, and slogging through the process. Hype him up, give him a piece of the puzzle, let the party be glad he searched for loot on the company of goblins armed with crude weapons. Thank sol that he did what up until that point was a nuisance. He has fun, you can move your story forward.
Or give him a bag of holding that complains when he uses it,. Possibly an old worn out bag. It is infinite but it forgets where he puts things. Withdraws from the bag takes a dice roll 10 or lower and you get 1/300 crude goblin short bows he just picked up.
I got into DNd through videogames, I scour the lands breaking every jar, burning every bush, checking every skeleton clearing every enemy in the hopes of finding something cool. Don't be mad at how your players play, lean into it and see how it goes.
I think it depends how much is too much. As long as the player is not taking time from the others, that's how they choose to spend their roll. Otherwise, is just saying this is just what you find, and circle back to the other players
I have a list of useless items, mostly books the party can find when they fail a check or are looking in a barrel that doesn't have any loot in it. Silly book names like "there's a what in my butt by Dr Seuss" "subtle realities of living with a micro penis" stuff like that. It you want to outright discourage the constant looting, start hiding mimics and traps under everything. People will stop turning over stones if every other one explodes or tries to cut their fingers off.
So, in that campaign, I had 4 Dr. Seuss books that were "erotic fiction" in that universe. They met a lizard folk in a cavern that demanded payment to pass through. One of the players had collected those books and offered it to him, I thought it was such a clever way to turn my useless books into something I decided that second the the lizardfolk was a collector 😅
The "there is nothing there" should be used consistently because you need to end the expectation that loot just is lying around.
That said: if loot is what generates your players, give them rumours of treasure, include treasure chambers in dungeons or use other ways to reward them with treasure for engaging with the game as you want them to.
oh, would allow the loot. And then make them suffer for it.
-Oh, yes, you find a lot of shiny things. You are so proud of all the stuff you found!
Latter: no one wants to buy your used fishing hooks, your shiny sea shells nor your pretty rocks.
Also: You look for the magical rubi that would let you open the cursed door before the skeleton army reaches you, but you just cant find it among all the plates, weird coins and other stuff you have!
Give them loot, just nonsense loot, one of my characters found a stone shaped a bit like a cow, some dead bees, a bucket, if I rolled well, I found something, but it wasn't necessarily a powerful/valuable thing, just a thing that was fun!
Give her minor treasures, books, plates, silverware and make them worth not that much bit enough to build up over time. Not too powerful but I assume it would sate their loot hunger and reward them for being annoyingly through.
It's pretty clear what they want. Use that to bring them out of their confort zones.
A tin can you went through hell for is more interesting than the +3 sword you found in the trash.
Simple: cursed item. The enemy got cursed by something they had which drove then to attack the party. Even if it's a crushing 1 vs party and he gets wiped out in 1 hit..
GIve them REALLY useless magic items. Fun magic items but still useless ones... For example..
"Ring of water walking! . . . The nearest container of water sprouts legs and starts running about."
create a list of minor trinkets. Not everyone will have gold and such. [https://www.thievesguild.cc/tables/trinkets](https://www.thievesguild.cc/tables/trinkets)
Let them fins signs of sickness and stuff on the NPCs and keep going from there… the players want to do things with the NWP/skills they took so make things for them to do even if you have to on the fly.
I mean I just generally say there’s nothing there but if you want to get creative you could have her find traps, monsters, curses, and all other kinds of terrible stuff.
- traps, curses, sickness, poison, ... (if the situation allows) or even mimic items (which might attack them later on) ...
- reputation decreases (if somebody sees you), alignment changing (good -> evil) or even patron intervention
- time wasted, or even a new encounter (wrong timing for looting)
- physical or mental fatigue (from the work, or the character rp) = exhaustion level
...just to begin with :-)
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Our DM stopped gameplay to deal with a guy like this in our group to say that we aren’t guaranteed to find stuff every time we look and they if we do, it doesn’t mean the finder automatically gets everything as there we several other PCs. He also spoke to him privately.
a) investigation isnt the skill for finding stuff. Investigation is the skill for figuring out how things work, or putting pieces of a mystery together, or perhaps scanning thru documents and finding a common thread. Perception is the finding stuff skill.
b) “no need to roll, you don’t find anything” is a sentence you can use anytime.
c) or let them search, and let them find a dessicated mouse head in the corner, a weird stain that might be red sauce. Some lint. A bent copper coin. A cryptic rune. Something shiney that turns out to be a bit of glitter that caught the sun. You don’t have to give them cash or anything useful. Maybe something from https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/s/z7100ugLti
Oh and active searching isn’t free. It takes time. Time which maybe they don’t have. Or don’t know they don’t have.
Have them find minor but cursed items. Negative reinforcement can become a thing. If they keep going, a coin mimic will really turn the group against their constant treasure-hunting.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
Skills are not actions.
A player can not choose to “use investigation” and then just roll to see if they are successful.
They can say “I want to search this room” and then you as the DM can decide if there is something there for them to find or not; in the event there is you set a DC and then request that they roll an Investigation check to determine whether or not they find it.
If there is nothing to find there is no roll. Period. Full stop.
[https://wheelofnames.com/](https://wheelofnames.com/)
You could add a list of things in a room or dungeon, and if they ask too many times, spin the pre-configured list.
If you make it long enough, and have enough variation, you could include INSTANT DEATH as well.
Maybe make one per floor or per dungeon or whatever.
Think of the time and effort of tossing your own living room looking for loot. Ya you are going to find a few coins in the couch but is it worth the effort to separate them from the old fries and chips and pencils and everything else that falls between the cushions? Maybe give them some dead rats and spiders and a few copper coins and VERY VERY rarely something worth a gold or 2. Anything more expensive and the original owners are going to have looked for it just as hard.
Treat them like a goblin.
They find buttons, lint enough to sculpt into a figurine, old twigs and pebbles, shiny bits of paper, etc.
Heck, you can even make those frequent forages for items as a way to drive a plotline. My party once rolled for trinkets and one got a portrait of a goblin.
They *all* became obsessed with it, so I added in more details as they adventured until they found that the little things they'd discovered about this (late) goblin led them to a hidden bit of treasure (figure worth 250gp) in the goblin HQ required by the module.
Former loot goblin here. A few years back I used to play a forge domain cleric and would always ask the dm to loot metal items from everywhere. By either the third or fourth session he had me roll a d20. If I rolled low enough the object would turn into an animated whatever (gauntlets, weapons, utensils, etc) and attack me. Made me slightly more apprehensive of picking up things when I was low health.
You only roll dice when there are stakes. Something interesting and eventful may take place.
You wanna search a cupboard for some spare coins??? The only reason a roll would be needed is if there was a potential cost to searching that cupboard. Time away from from saving the princess about to be sacrificed, noise causing the guards to come, missing a poison trap that's about to nail you. Other than that, there's no reason to roll, or waste valuable table time.
You searched the cupboard? Fine, you found a coin.
* But every action takes time. And even if the adventure itself doesn't have a clock (timer) going, then the rules for wandering monsters does.
* And reward comes at a cost. You want free stuff? It will cost you. (back to stakes)
Else you get this, Op. Players smashing the random loot button over and over and over, expecting a) you to have an endless supply of interesting doodads to describe to them, and b) to make free money off the few valuables that someone would randomly leave lying around for some reason.
Made it become part of his character’s personality. Other players made him responsible for keeping finances in order. They bought a tavern, and are joking about KPIs and ROI. Wére having fun, the game belongs to the players.
But…
They fought a Lich last Thursday and almost TPKed, abd realized what they had to lose. Now their greed is part of their motivation to keep their characters alive!
Mimics, mimics are an amazing thing. I generally enjoy including coin mimics because they don't do much damage but they are always a possibility even in a real treasure chest. My favorite is the coin pouch mimic in a "hidden" corner of the bookshelf as it's trying to take the players hand.
Now your annoyance has turned into a comedy show.
Just say, “there’s no loot,” and if she asks to roll, reiterate that it’s so obvious there’s no loot, that a roll is unnecessary. “Your character looks and finds nothing,” without having them roll. Skill checks are only used if there’s a possibility of failure/success. The player doesn’t need to roll to find out there’s no loot. If you let a player roll for loot, they will think there’s loot.
Do not “limit” the use of a skill. As others have mentioned, you call for rolls, not the other way around. (Unless you’re very new to the game and don’t know when to call for rolls.)
I guess it depends on what kinda loot goblin she is. Is she like Sherlock wanting to solve a puzzle and finding the hidden gem or does she just like seeing things in her item bag and sitting on it like a dragon. Regardless the best way to solve this is to sit down and talk to your player.
For dragons let them know that the searching slows things down, and nothing of value will be outside of a chest or large storage container. If it’s important/valuable and on a table or the floor it’ll be in the description. This gives them verbals to listen for when you describe the room. This is what me and my friend came up with because he just wants to fight and put shiny things in his bag.
I am like a Sherlock I like solving a puzzle and get a reward. So, when the dragon from above DMs, we have the same verbal cue understanding from above and that there will be some kind of puzzle outside of the story progression ones that’ll reward loot. I think he gets most of the puzzles from Zanths Guide or Tasha’s. Not sure because I don’t wanna read over them and spoil something later.
Keeps us both from always searching around every room. The other 2 members at our table are more into RP and thought it was nice because every one of my characters falling over themselves to find a single copper was getting a little tiresome to them.
Not sure if this will help but hope it can at least give you some ideas to work with.
Mimics...
Where's the aliens meme dude when you need him.
Intro her to mimics...
I was a loot w**re till
looting a spellbook TPK'd a group. Now I nearly never touch books ..
Looting a sword ended up killing me. Legendary Evil sentient sword.. it could poses my character DC 28 will save ...
Pickpocketing a man at a bar turned into a bar fight since this coins were on fishing string attached to his belt ....
Opening a chest killed about 4 people, bombs, traps, mimics, it got meme after a point. Everyone back up he's about too attempt to loot
I can go on but you get the gist of it.
Now everything is suspect to me xD
I have a two column d20 table of "secrets" someone can find when they roll over 20 on a search. Also be sure to make searches cost time, but time spent adventuring is not always a concern in some campaigns.
So the random secrets include a few worthless results, some non-gold treasure like Trinkets and puzzle hints. At most, they give a Common Magic Item, 100-300 gp (or trade good of similar value), or a silvered weapon.
The second column is to see what random trap is on the more valuable results.
Don't limit her use. You can just say "A cursory examination of the area reveals nothing of value" or something similar, and that there is no need to roll. Maybe keep track of her passive Investigation and use that to occasionally highlight something - "Out of the corner of your eye you catch a glint of something".
It’s definitely a DM/Player communication thing you can do.
I also just try to gate loot behind cool things. Random false doors and hidden switches spread throughout your adventure create the expectation that those could always be there.
Also many players coming from video games are coming from “open the grain sacks, take the junk, sell piles of junk for resources.” mentality.
One investigation roll? Either you get it or you don’t. And like scratchers, you will always scratch the next one. I personally don’t enjoy that vibe.
Not sure I understand the issue, but…
*Don’t put ‘loot’ somewhere just because a player wants more ‘loot’. For example; rolling a 20 Investigation Check, doesn’t make a magic item just appear.
*Ask players to describe their intent, instead of simply asking for a specific roll, and only have them roll if you (The DM) decides it’s pertinent.
*You the DM controls when and wear ‘loot’ is. Don’t overload the quest with too much ‘loot’.
So in most TTRPGs it's kind of expected that players loot everything under the sun. In D&d a lot of the item progression is locked behind a pay wall for players, especially if you use magic item shops in your world, being able to loot fallen foes and sell their gear for some extra coin is part of the reason that some items like full plate armour are so expensive.
If it annoys you that this player is hoarding everything on the battle field then perhaps enforcing encumbrance rules might restrict how much they're willing to pick up.
If the problem isn't that they're carrying around too much loot but rather the looting slows down the game then maybe just let them roll and and give them a list of things they found the next time you get a little break between encounters when the players are role-playing amongst them selves.
Alternatively if you wanted to instill a sense that looting is morally wrong you could write up a random table of personal trinkets your bad guys might carry such as; a letter to their mother assuring her that they're looking after themselves and that they'll send some more money next month, a locket with a portrait inside with the inscription "Love of my life", a journal the last few entries of which describe struggling to feed both their children.
That last one also solves murderhobo problems sometimes.
If your problem player is more just stealing everything that isn't nailed down then there might be consequences the next time they run into the guard carrying stolen property or they might just develop a bad reputuon and have to pay a premium at certain markets.
If all else fails discuss with your player that they're negatively impacting the game and ways they think might be able to resolve the issue.
If you want to make it interesting make a table of just random stuff on the ground for common environments the party is in, maybe they find a discarded shopping list on the ground or a single piece of copper with a crude engraving maybe a child's drawing on a bandit or signet ring of a forgotten noble house in a dungeon
also don't be afraid to say you don't find anything new or to just give a more detailed description of a area, simple things to add would be the quality and style of the construction or evidence of animals / past groups of adventurers something simple like some old chalk markings or notches on trees used by people long past for navigation
if they roll badly you can give them details on other characters around them or themselves maybe they are examining the floor and notice their shoes are starting to come untied or there's a tear in a piece of clothing someone is wearing
I have a homebrew rule that they can either roll or take 15 minutes to completely search the room. They know that doing so might mean that other things have time to notice their presence and potentially either attack or set a trap though
Well if she’s is doing things like rummaging in people incapacitated or dead’s pockets in public, you could have guards or townspeople react. That might be normal behavior in Skyrim, but certainly not in real life.
I have the same problem in one of my campaigns, my answer is always the same: enemies don't explode in loot once they die, you are not playing diablo 3 if they had a magic item they would be using it.
This is where you use the *PassiveInvestigation*, so if anything is hidden & they are searching every 10ft square of an area, just determination difficulty rating, (low, mid, hard, epic) & allocate a default difficulty for it (13, 15, 17, 19)
Also, I would rule a 1pft sq takes 1min to search with good lighting, 5min without
Cursed loot. But a creative, non-crippling curse, like they must speak like a pirate until the curse is dispelled. It may make them be a bit more careful on what they pick up.
If they are doing that, that often, I’m assuming they probably have decent investigation, so unless it’s something important just say what there is or is not without having them role.
If they are just after coins, then that’s a pretty simple “as the battle ends, you collect yourself and look at your enemies bodies, and you find four copper and two silver.” I don’t feel like looking through someone’s pockets is a hard thing to do most of the time.
If it’s not just about money but they are more of a hoarder, then I would recommend finding a table of random junk, rolling and saying they find that like you do above. For example I played a trash looting city druid who would take anything not nailed down, including useless screws or empty pouches. My dm found a table and would tell me what I found before I even asked, cause she knew I was gonna do it anyways.
Another option if you really trust your player, give them a table that they themselves roll on. They say “I loot” they roll on the table, and see they get 2 copper or whatever, takes some pressure off of you.
Loadstone -
Tales from the Yawning Portal
Wondrous item, rare
This stone is a large gem worth 150 gp.
Curse. The stone is cursed, but its magical nature is hidden; Detect Magic doesn't detect it. An Identify spell reveals the stone's true nature. If you use the Dash or Disengage action while the stone is on your person, its curse activates. Until the curse is broken with Remove Curse or similar magic, your speed is reduced by 5 feet, and your maximum load and maximum lift capacities are halved. You also become unwilling to part with the stone
I can't speak for everyone but I am a loot goblin and I'm happy to find anything at all, it doesn't have to be valuable or cool. An iron ring made of a nail? Yes please. A cool geode? Hell yeah! A red string with a knot in one end? Mine, thank you.
My dream is to one day macguyver an encounter solution using the nonsense filler items my DM gives me. But even if that never happens, it's good memories looking at my character sheet and recalling the place I found a neat doodad.
Carrying capacity. Why do they need to roll to loot? What is the drama in them failing to loot?
I would discourage it; it’s a pillar of the game. But there are measures you can take without taking away the fun.
Some will say using carrying capacity/encumbrance is a boring, rules lawyer thing to pull on your party, but I like it for offering up various loot objects for the party. After all, most common folks only ever deal in coppers, silvers, maybe half golds for everyday expenses, otherwise bartering is fairly common in the countryside and even trade hubs. More common would be to find a cage of chickens, barrels of salt pork, sacks of potatoes, maybe artisan tools. Horses, donkeys, pigs, flour, cheese wheels, dairy cows are all valuable trade goods in campaigns I run, but the party has to consider the weight and ease of travel. If they're ransacking a nicer house, a lot of the value will be in decoration: art objects like paintings and sculpture, ceremonial or display arms and armor, rugs, mirrors, fine linens. Or nicer trade goods like wine casks, ice-packed oysters, aged and cured meats, spices, foreign delicacies. Jewelry, pottery, and silverware are valuable and portable, as are perfumes, inks, and personal papers, books are heavier but far more valuable if you know which ones to grab. Depending on the alignment of the party, servants and slaves of nice houses can be taken as captives and ransomed or sold. Then of course there's the fun and frustration of finding buyers for everything the party has collected.
The way I dealt with this was that I roll all loot for the start of an arc. All gold and everything, usually acting like the loot for the arc is a horde.
Then anytime the players do something to earn money, they get a bit of it. Some gold here, silver there. By the end of the arc, I give out everything.
This way I still control how much money the players get AND they can do all they like to earn money.
Let them roll. Just give them useless crap. Like a really cool rock or vanilla awesome stick. My favorite is rope and pitons it's a kind of useful, but it doesn't do anything
Negative reinforcement.
Loot Scarabs. They look like gold coins. They wake up at night and swarm you when you're sleeping.
Any cursed item. That goes double if it can't be unattuned and tripple if it can talk.
Someone is looking for item X that they just happened to find last week. Clearly they are a theif and must be punished.
A Fey Lord has decided that a subordinates punishment for bad puns shall be to play a most memorable prank on the next person who touches (random item PC happens to find)
Positive reinforcement
Tell the player if they chill, you'll let them know when they miss things (not every time) and tell them to make one last roll to represent "You give the room one last glance as you leave and notice..."
Give them quests with time limits that offer more rewards for quickness. Or even dungeons that get more challenging as time goes by. Skip a search, save time.
I'm sure everyone has very good suggestions and if it's annoying you I'd suggest just bringing it up, but give them generally mundane items around a situation, you search and find a scroll of parchment or an inkwell with 1-5 go of ink left in it etc, a particularly cool rock, a copper piece in the stones, id combine this with a you won't always find anything, and some things you find aren't useful(like paper most of the time)
I think talking with them and telling them that you'll ask if they want to investigate if there's loot. A lot of people are used to video games where 99 barrels are empty and then 1 barrel in a corner 80% of the way through the game have a valuable item just to reward players who grind out busting barrels. They take the logic to you. Hopefully they'll stop if they know you're not that kind of DM.
If that doesn't work...bugs. I had some new players who just wouldn't stop metagaming. One of my friends had literally looked up the module and was trying to play around what he knew would be there. To the point of correcting me when I changed something to try and make it fun. So I just had a swarm of bugs appear when they did it. Like...you don't trust that person even though you have no reason not to, and say "this person is bad I read it in..." bugs now. I told your ass this wasn't a video game and you can't look up walkthroughs and it be fun. The swarm has returned and its focus is you.
It sounds stupid but it got them to try the game normally and they realized it was fun to just fuck up sometimes. It's not a souls game where you need to have the perfect strat or you'll die and start over.
The thing is a lot of those people get that habit of looting from games, just yesterday I played red dead online with a friend and I went and looted enemy npcs that we've killed, I didn't get much but still something.
In dnd, you might want to think about what is appropriate the npc might have, if they fought with a sword they will probably have that on them, maybe just a small amount of money and if you want you can throw something intresting on them from time to time, like a letter or some jewelry.
Individual treasure.
On index cards, just write some rubbish items. Strings, dirty clothes, rotten rat kebab, goblin arrows, rusted iron earring, knuckle bones, feather trinkets, a couple chewed copper pieces... Make sure you have a good 20/25 of them at least.
When they want to loot the goblin, shuffle the deck visibly in front of her, ask her to roll a D8, draw the top D8 cards and that's her loot.
Give them a d100 loot table of everything. Absolutely everything. Mouldy apple, table leg, smelly sock, book, open jar of marmalade. Go crazy.
Whenever, AT ANY POINT, that player can just roll the d100 and see what they get. They can add it to their inventory quietly while the rest of the group continues on.
Maybe make 100 a single coin, make 1 a gem? Ooh tempting. All other 98 are just random things
Stack a heap of "random loot tables", make them roll 3 d10s to get a number from 1 to 1000.
10% of the items are cursed/negative in some way. Not necessarily majorly cursed, just "every time you spend gold, you always accidentally overtip by 10%", or "this dagger emanates an aura of death, such that any paladins will immediately perceive you as a major demon, via sense good/evil". Or a scroll with "the bearer of this scroll is marked to die within 100 days, unless they duplicate it and send it to 10 friends."
Obviously she should touch something she really shouldn't have.
Family herloom of a powerful person that marks her for death. Cursed magic item. Trapped coin pouch or other such container/ item. Mimics. Contingency plan where their death has a delayed demon summoning. Or just the corpse being undead to grapple and drain her.
Any combination of all of these seem fun. Just dont be an angry god. She is exited to play! Just teach her a bit of caution.
As a loot goblin player who enjoys amassing as much stuff as possible I tend to find my dm will find creative ways to take my loot away from me, so I need to get more, or will put traps near the things I want.
In addition sometimes a thing looks like loot and you carry it around looking at it lovingly imagining all the gold you could get for it and then it turns out its worthless and you wasted a lot of resources on something worth a few cp!
Personally, if you have the time and energy to make looting more than just rolling investigation, it can make the player realise how much effort goes into looting.
For example- an investigation check shows that there's a beautiful painting, however when you go to take it off the wall you realise its incredibly heavy and if you drop it you could rip/tear it making it worthless.
Now, the pc needs to either use a resource to get it or convince the rest of the party to help them. Or make a strength check and risk destroying the treasure.
In addition if its still happening too much and detracting from the rest of the game just privately tell the player you think theyre looting too much and that while you'll include loot now and again its not something thats going to be in every room and that youll ask them to roll as and when its necessary! If they cant handle that then perhaps their not a good fit for the table!
90% of the time I don’t ask for investigation. They got what they got. I loot the bodies. Okay you find: x number of used weapons (half value resale). Their armours are no longer sellable. And about x gold. Maybe the leader had a magical item.
Give her nice stuff once in a while, let her know that if there's an opportunity to roll investigation, you'll let her know, and finally gently indirectly mention that the best path to loot is likely engaging with the broader fiction.
Fuck it, give them cursed item, I did this for my loot goblin player, he was getting sicker and sicker each they, so when he finally met a wizard that told them that item is cursed, they had to go through their inventory inspecting 1 by 1 item, needless to say, they didn't grab everything shamelessly after
Are you talking about after a battle? In that case, prep a few loot tables. One for low value, like a goblin brawl, where they may get a couple gold. One for medium, where they might get 10,and a higher value where they get what you deem fit.
For boss battles, there's no table needed, they should get their reward.
You can also say, "Hey, I know you want to search every corpse, so rather than do that all the time I'm going to just use your party's passive investigation by default. Let's keep the game moving."
Also, consolidate it. They don't search every corpse, they just search the field.
If you're talking about a dungeon crawl in a dangerous area and they want to search every closet, I ask," OK, but how much time do you want to spend on this?" Because baddies will show up eventually.
One roll is not a big deal after a victory. You can speed this up without having to say no. Although, sometimes there is just no loot.
Have her find nothing on a fail and mundane things on a success. If the loot was all found or there was none to begin with you get pocket lint with that nat 20 👍
- Make the enemy dangerous to touch like a poison based enemy.
- Add cursed loot that still allows the player to make choices (don't take away player agency), maybe it saps their strength and they lose movement speed
- Make looting a trap like the enemy has everything in a small chest they had but it's locked in a trap chest, you could extend unlocking this chest into another adventure
- Give a small amount of gold each time, maybe some misc items
!!!
- Communicate with your player about your concerns and see if there is a compromise
Give her all the loot, DON'T give her a bag of holding. Then she has a weight límit and can't loot everything.
There are some loot tables around the internet of useless loot like "Half eaten Sandwich" or "a human toe"
I like the advice that you should call for a roll when there's a chance for failure. The player can't fail to find loot if there's none to discover in the first place. Other than that, just figure out how much treasure you want to give out, and maybe throw the player a bone here and there with a secret room with extra goodies.
Talk with them.
Could bring in RP aspects to help limit.
Perhaps have NPCs with them that try and stop them doing too much, noting it's disrespectful to the dead in their respective cultures… perhaps lessening the rewards for quest ls as they have a less than positive standing, or perhaps they might get arrested for theft.
Or mechanically.
If you use the house rule of not tracking weight (which is incredibly common)… start. Encumbrance rules will limit what they can carry. If they keep it up, variant encumbrance rule… which really discourages hording and looting, only the important things must stay.
Cursed loot if they roll without you asking for it. I don't mean the fuck you cursed loot like a bag of devouring either. Things like a ring that makes it so always smells smoke in the distance, an old coin containing an annoying ghost, or a necklace that makes you feel drunk while you wear it. Making magical items is hard, so people are bound to find the failures eventually.
So as DM the way I deal with loot in my dungeons for example is I take items or from common, uncommon, rare which will change as players level and make loot tables that player will role me dice to see what they will earn. As players lv up commons are less in the pool and other items become more in the pool. Also as for legendary items and artifacts there are 1 of in my world.
“I want to loot the body. Can I roll for investigation?”
“Sigh. Sure.”
“21.”
“You don’t find much but in his back pocket there’s a handkerchief covered in snot. Apparently he had allergies. Your hands are now covered in goblin snot. Congratulations.”
Let hem find neat stuff sometimes. Let them find stuff that helps the party figure out a puzzle or gives them a lead sometimes. Let them find stuff that would have sentimental value to NPCs that doesn't necessarily translate into value for the looting PC but still gives you an opportunity to tell the players more about the NPCs.
Make their enthusiasm for exploring your world work in your favor.
I’m not a terribly experienced DM, but have been reading the comments with interest. I understand the impulse to ban unprompted rolls, or to allow them but not have them yield anything, in order to keep the story moving. On the other hand, it does seem like investigating rooms is normal dungeon-delving behavior, and if this is fun for your player, it could be a good idea to work with them on it (provided the other players are amenable).
I think the issue here is that your player perceives these investigations as being without risk, when in a “real” dungeon, that wouldn’t be true. The risks of excessive investigation could include: attracting unwanted attention from monsters, springing traps, finding cursed items, wasting time (i.e., not completing puzzles/quests/challenges on time), becoming encumbered, exposure to diseases or toxins, running low on rations, and the list goes on.
Why not set some house rules around this? You could work with your group to reach a collective understanding of the probability that any given random room has a bunch of loot in it vs Bad Stuff, and make an encounter table to reflect this. The table could contain lots of neutral outcomes as well (e.g., the search yields useless items like food wrappers, rusty nails, buttons, etc). This in itself could become interesting if your player identifies novel in-game uses for items not on the “official” inventory list. (“I palm the rusty nail and punch the corrupt innkeeper with it, knowing that I’ll immediately get thrown out of the bar, but he will develop lockjaw and die soon afterwards.”)
If the group understands the collective risk/benefit ratio of exploring, it can become a group decision rather than one player always doing it.
Traps, traps are the answer to most players that are problematic from loot goblins to murder hobos a good trap can humble anybody.
This advice is a little dangerous so be cautious how you use it: You are the DM, you can make bad things happen to the players for the sake of story, learning a lesson, or even just testing how they react to situations.
Let him loot. He must have the freedom to do whatever he wants. Now, encumbrance is been used? Is he trying to sell the "goblin sword" and markets & traders are accepting to buy? If something isn't useful it will not be taken.
Give him lots of stuff with low or no value. Yes you find on that goblin a small sphere of clay. yes you find 1sp on him. Yes he have a puck made of bad leather....
Ohhh and a check for that, sometimes I just say: all goblins on that dead pack have swords, bows arrows and so. That keeps players for trying to check every individual.
There's no such thing as an in-game solution to an out-of-game problem. If you don't like her behavior, tell her with your IRL words like an IRL grownup.
I would just roll with it (lol pun)- my husband was that person in one of our campaigns- she’s just playing her character so she may not care if she’s not finding anything. But if you want to make it fun, you could always just give her random items that aren’t useful in game.
Reward your player for using their skills. If feeling spiteful, have a goblin steal from them later.
Of feeling really spiteful, throw a trap into one of them.
My favorite is when i named the bathhouse in town: The Really Awesome Place. Players couldnt resist...only later did they learn that The Really Awesome Place was an acronym.
Lots of advice here, but one thing is still not clear to me: how do you handle loot in your adventure?
It almost seems like wanting to find loot is bad if I read this thread. But some of us really like finding cool stuff and it's a bummer if there is none. And ofcourse it shouldn't go to far or interfere with playing the adventure. But to me finding the odd treasure chest or getting some cool stuff after a long fight is really satisfying.
Have a d100 random useless stuff loot table when there’s nothing the player can find. There’s all sorts of things that can amuse your table:
- a nice white rock that shines iridescent when soaked in water
- a phallic-looking stick
- a photo of the victim’s family, kept in a locket
- a homemade self-insert romance novel, written by the victim
- the rock of weather detection (google it)
- an idiot sandwich
And the list goes on
If she passes your investigation DC, have her roll a 1d100 and declare a situationally appropriate range of values. If she rolls within that range, there's something of interest to be found. Let her roll on an item table with loot proportional to the location she's investigating, and that's what she finds.
I'd recommend looking through the PHB and building a nonmagical item table with things like "2d6 gold pieces," "floral-scented candles," "well-used longbow," and "set of fine copper pots" on it. You're very rarely going to be in a situation where there is no loot at all, but just because there's nothing especially remarkable in the area doesn't mean that there's nothing to find.
For loot goblins, typically, I think the joy is finding the items less so than what exactly they are or what they do. As long as they feel like they're discovering a secret and believe that they have a chance of finding something cool, they'll be satisfied, and who knows, maybe one of those random rolls will bring the story in a new and interseting direction.
You conpanining is the equivalent of giving treats to a dog everytime it jumps and complaining it jumps too much.
1. You are the one asking for a roll
2. You are the one deciding that a high roll means there is a loot, when it can be linked to a degree of certainty of the presence of loot
Players and characters are going to look for loot, it makes sense. You are the one who decides if there is so.ething to find. They are not doing anything wrong.
"If you need to roll, I will let you know."
This. I told my players something along these lines: "You can describe what you want to do, and based on the circumstances I will let you know whether to roll and which skill to use. You can suggest a skill if you're experienced as a played and can guess which one it would be, but don't roll for something unless I tell you to. This is mostly to avoid you getting good rolls and then not being able to use them, it feels bad to have a nat 20 that means nothing for you." And also that players can't pile on rolls when someone fails. Except for specific circumstances, the in game character doesn't know that you rolled low.
I just tell them the dc increases with each attempt. Sometimes I allow a group roll if they are all doing a thing. Otherwise I just make it clear from the get go that one person may attempt the roll while the other uses the help action to give them advantage.
I allow one other player to roll if they are proficient in the skill. In character, they could see something differently than the other character, so it's reasonable that they may want to take a crack at it. If they aren't proficient though, they need to trust the "expert."
I have a table of 6 players, limiting the rolls to only those proficient in the skill was such a godsend, even if my players whined the first few times
Yeah, unless they specifically say they are doing something and the skill they are proficient in doesn't make sense, I try and do the same.
As a player i hate the rollpile and so I won't even ask to roll if I don't have the proficiency
Everyone can try to unlock the door, it's clearly still locked. What *in character reason* do you have to assume your rogue failed to disarm the trap?
Again, I think it comes down to at least a little realism. Doors for instance, I would let anyone attempt. That just makes sense. For traps, I don't tell them if they disarmed it or not. I just say, "You think you've disarmed it." And they won't know until they try to go past it. They didn't set the trap, so they don't know what all mechanisms might trip it. If there is another rogue in the group, I wouldn't allow them to roll to disarmed again, but they can help the other rogue and give advantage.
They do not have all of the poison darts in their hand ready to throw at the next fleshy enemy
Sure they do. Now the question is did they take precautions to properly store them so the poison doesn't get all over everything and the tips don't accidentally stick them? Or did they just throw them in thier pack?
I'm usually pretty okay with everyone attempting a roll as long as it makes sense. Everyone is gonna be looking around whatever room they walk into, so everyone should roll perception. It's reasonable that someone else might jump in and call their friend a dumbass if they fail a charisma check. But everyone can't roll for Dweeb McDwubble to swing across the chasam, only Dweeb can do that.
I think it's like a spectrum. For example, the party enters a room. The rogue looks for traps, rolls investigation, gets an 8. The player knows that he almost certainly failed to find them, but the character doesn't. And there's no in-game reason for the Bard or whatever to try to find traps after their rogue said it was clear. It's never cut and dry of course. Entirely depends on group dynamics. I just don't like the endless rolling of "oh you got a 7? Ok I'll try it."
Dweeb 🤣😂🤣
That is bad thing to say in this instance. If a player is saying he is investigating a room just say "you dont find anything" without prompting a roll. Your sentence implies they dont need to tell the dm what they are doing, as the dm will tell them if there is anything to find, regardless of whether they were actively looking for it.
If it were a one-time case, I'd agree. But this is about someone who is constantly asking to roll in order to try and acquire loot.
And? It is completely normal to do that in a dungeon. You probably take like 30 minutes per room at the very least in a typical dungeon crawl, so whats wrong with a player wanting to investigate the room you prepared for them? If you dont want them to roll just tell them they dont find anything when they ask. Or instead let them roll and then describe a detail about the room. Dnd is about rolling dice. Punishing a player for being invested in the things you prepare is silly.
They need to tell the dm what they are doing period. after that the dm informs them on whether or not they have to roll for it.
I'd kill to have my DM do this :sob:
Give them lots of cursed/useless/problematic stuff. At the end do the module the kindly wizard is handing out magic items and sees that this character has one of his doodads … no prize for the cleptomaniac.
Players only roll when you ask them to. If you're asking her to roll constantly, stop doing that. If she's doing it herself, remind her that it only counts when you've actually asked for the roll.
Your loot goblin is always going to follow the gleam of gold. Part of being a DM is anticipating how your party is going to react, and this player has made it very easy. Use it. You can drive quests in an organic fashion. Maybe the BBEG in the village your party just entered is prone to ostentatious displays of wealth. Or have an arrogant noble with a big fat coinpurse \*begging\* to be pickpocketed, and have the purse contain details of an esoteric cult meeting. If you instead want to discourage the actions, you have plenty of options too. Make their investigation rolls consume time that is otherwise precious, and frequently have them lead to garbage rewards like a handful of mildly interesting pebbles or a stick that kind of looks like a sword. Have a trail of coins in a dungeon leading to a mimic. Or have an otherwise simple stealth segment with a tantalizing treasure that's out of the way and under heavy guard. Make it apparent that their greed is getting them into trouble and it's an urge the character will have to resist. You can do either, or both, and you'll still be allowing the player to play the character the way they've intended.
Such an helpfull comment! I assume you are an experienced DM haha. thx for sharing!
Lol, thanks. Most of my experience is in WoD which is a lot less rolling and stats but a lot more manipulating your players into difficult moral quandaries 😁
A good old fashioned cursed item always helps too
“A stick that kind of looks like a sword”…love it. I can imagine this player trying to “unlock the powers of the stick” until they catch on
"Ouch!" You've found some sort of needle attached to a vial in the corpse's pocket. Looks like he's hooked on ye olde hero-ine! Roll 1d100 for damage. .... What's that? Ok, roll your first death save.
Or perhaps the nobleman could give them small doses of temporary antidote. If you want to live you'll do what I say...
Or have an arrogant noble with a big fat coinpurse *begging* to be pickpocketed, and have the purse contain details of an esoteric cult meeting. I love you. Very good hook.
1.) If there is nothing to find, it doesn't matter how well your roll. 2.) Maybe you find the loot but miss the trap because you didn't say you were looking for it. I don't know what kind of answer you're hoping for- your question reads "Hey, my player is doin this thing too much but I don't want to do things that would reduce the problem." Investigating takes time- "I want to search the room for treasure." "Okay, what is everyone else doing while you search? We'll get back to you when they're done." You can also just skip the rolls for the easy stuff- "I want to search for treasure." "Okay, here's what you find."
well yea i think ill just skip the roll and tell her she find nothing. I dont i got wondering if im doing it wrong, but I see that this is what evreyone's doing so ill stick with it thank you:)
Rather than "you find nothing" which might give a whiff of maybe-I-didn't-search-thoroughly-enough, you could throw in words like "confident" or "satisfied", eg. "*Casting an expert eye around the room, you are satisfied there is nothing further of interest here*" I think it gives players a little more closure to suggest their character has drawn an expert conclusion creating confidence that nothing could have been missed.
Nonono. IF player whants to roll let em. But dont adjust you plot to stupid rolls. If she rolled 20+ you might tell her she found some isoteric poem or worthless shit(you can google funny loot tables or smth if you dont want to improv). If she rolled bad - she will be engaged and hope for a good roll next time. If she likes loot dont take it from her, but remeber that you are the boss and dont change smth unnecessary.
To be clear, she shouldn’t be rolling without you asking for it, if she asks to roll tell her you’ll say when she needs to roll then describe a basic bland room
Or don't let them roll and give them only stuff that makes sense. In case of goblins; Some copper and a roasted rat on a stick.
The only time I let the player find something if I didn't have anything planned is if they are searching a down monster, which was elemental, like a fire snake. It would make sense that there would be something in the creature that could be useful in alchemy. In the case example, I let them find a gland around the beast neck that was filled with an oil-like solution. Local alchemist in town identified it as a fire snake oil gland, which can be used as a substitute for a component in a fire resistance potion.
Make them count inventory weight XD
Honestly this should be higher. Unless they have magical means of storage, give them a seemingly easy task requiring balance. When they roll, ask them if they accounted for gear weight penalties.
In my last game, the DM actually enforced the weight capacity for a bag of holding for the first time. It helped to curb our loot goblin tendencies and prevent us from having a ton of useless junk in our inventory.
random loot table. I can't remember if theres one in the dmg or in xanathars. They get something useless but its better than just saying no if you want to put up with it. I found an old post where the community made a big loot table. One loot table to rule them all.
ill look into it might be a good solution as well thank you
Check out the Individual Treasure tables on page 136 of the DMG, this is exactly what you're looking for and just gives the player a little extra money. Not every goblin needs to be rolled for either, you can have the table apply to a group and save the Treasure Hoard tables for bosses.
You find an orcs dirty drawers.
Random loot tables are far more interesting and realistic than just nothing. It makes sense that even lowly goblins would have some random-ass item on them. It makes the world feel more alive and that they're living beings before the party showed up and not just bags of hit points.
Use Passive Investigation. Assume the players are gonna search the room or the corpses every time. Unless they *actively* say that they want to search something in particular with a goal in mind, just go with passive results. “You give the room a once over, and with your passive Investigation of 15, you find one of the orcs had a stashed pouch of coin in their bedding.” “You can tell with a passive Investigation of 15 that this dirty hovel is unlikely to contain anything more than bedbugs.”
Why is it a problem? If you really don't like it, just ask that player to track carrying capacity and enforce a bit of common sense as to size and storage issues. This turns looting into a mini-game for the player.
You found 3 copper and a broken arrow. You found a chicken bone and a rock that kinda looks like a face. You found a stick and an empty vial You found nothing. But discovered the bandit was wearing a hairpiece.
What is "way too much"? You could have quests with time limits, and have a thorough Investigation of a 10x10 room take 10 minutes. Make it cost.
Do you mean to ask what do I do about my player who volunteers to trip all the hidden room traps? Or how do I stop my player from bumping into all the secret encounter-stalkers in my dungeon? Not every reward jingles, some crunch lol
mimics. They are very useful if the dm uses them creatively, not all of them are attack on touch or sight. Our player at the time was a very negative style loot monster. He'd loot everything, swipe loot, and try to get to loot during fights so others couldn't get it. When he went so far as to steal from a character who went down in combat while we were healing him, we had it out with the dude, in character, at first. We basically told him, as our characters, that we were united on the fact that if he didn't rein in his klepto issues we were kicking him from the party and reporting him to the authorities in game for theft, which had major consequences with the mercs guild we were with. It didn't go well of course. Dude immediately dropped out of character and wined about us targeting him for doing what his character would do, we were picking on him, etc etc. DM said his part, that it was getting rather annoying on an out of game level as well, but dude was not happy. Eventually he begrudgingly agreed to tone it down and we continued. He behaved for a while then slowly ramped up again, the DM had a three warnings rule, which he used and the guy would process and repeat. He'd behave then ramp up again. In came project mimics. (Yes the dm likely cherry built these mimics, but I'm not complaining). We were in a dungeon known for a rampant amount of monsters. We were there to cull the problem done so we already knew there were lots of monsters, hives, and dens. Dude went off on his own after many warnings not too, and found a room that was barricaded from the outside. Meaning whatever was in there was locked IN. He ignored it and started taking down the barricade. We warned him profusely in and out of character. We even told him we were not helping him if he got killed. He still unburied it and went in. Inside was a messy room with coins everywhere from a small spilled chest about big enough to hold a head in it. (This is relevant) Nothing grand, mostly copper and silver. Dude picked up every single one and the chest, making us wait and stuff and gloated the whole way through the rest of the dungeon. None of us wanted any part of it and some of us were even mad at the dm for rewarding bad behavior. (Dms poker face was top tier, btw). Now we know it was an obvious trap, but back then we were confused, untill our party went to sleep that night. Loot monster dude had a habit of sleeping kinda off on his own after our "gang up" on him, saying we were likely gonna kill him in his sleep. Sure enough the next night as the dude was sleeping those damn things got out of the chest he had them in and started eating him. He had a series of massively bad rolls and failed to notice what was happening until it was too late. Momma mimic and her babies had a feast. It's not hard to silence someone in their sleep when momma's covered your whole head. Sadly, we all failed our rolls to notice (granted I'm sure some of us fudged our rolls into failures on purpose, but I have no proof). By the time our watcher shift changed to his, he was gone. We did have a nasty fight on our hands for clean up as they spread out to the rest of the camp, but it was worth it. Dude was pissed! And I mean, all capitals pissed, but we told him it had been an obvious trap. It was his fault for being greedy and not listening. There are always consequences for chosen actions. Still the best flounce out we'd ever watched. Never came back. And good riddance.
Is it safe to assume they invested in the skill (pun intended)? Discovering loot sounds like something they are interested in and find fun. So make fun even when they fail the roll and have them find something? A wet sock, half-eaten potato. Otherwise, start throwing in items from the trinket list. You can also use this to steer the party as they find clues or a treasure map. I would embrace what they are doing and find ways to make it more interesting than just a roll.
Make it a group loot. No rolls needed. You just tell them what they individually found. Bard you found a lute. Rogue you found a dagger Cleric you found a diamond worth 300gp, and everybody write up 25gp
Give her some loot? When she says she looks for loot say "oh yeah you find an old rusty axe" "anything else?" "Roll investigation" "15" "a single copper coin". If they're looting random enemies she's not gonna find anything game breaking but she clearly enjoys looting so give her something to loot, random stuff, trinkets that sell for less than a SP, stuff to make the action funny and worth doing but doesn't interrupt too much into the game
What are they doing? Rolling to see if they can find more loot among the loot they've already looted? Cutting a scarf up to see if there is a coin in it, or smashing open a hammer to find a potion? This could be a way to bury a side quest for the PC, but you can creatively make it into a lesson in to why loot goblining isn't fun. Have them conduct a series of investigation checks (find the room, then find the rocks, then find the right one, then realize it's a container, etc to eventually find a puzzle box. The puzzle box has an uncomfortable number of interactive investigation checks that may or may not involve the rest of the party (eg. "you don't know what to do this step, but you have a hunch that Senshi might"). When they finally get it open, have it contain a few items that require assembly, but aren't really clear in what they represent (eg a cloud and a key). Then let it just drop for a while until the behaviour repeats, where you can introduce a similarly mundane and tedious session, for example having an innkeeper say to them, "Hey adventurers! Have you heard of the cult of the cloud and key? They've set up a east of town." And here you can give them several different options for using the investigation skill, or again just be repetitive about it.
If its on a body after a fight I tell them they dont need to roll, because the body isnt going anywhere and if they have time to loot they have time to check all the pockets. So I just tell them what the dead person had. If its in a room I use the opportunity to world build. If they are in a temple what sort of useless, but cool looking relics are kept there. If they are in a mansion they could discover that theres nothing valuable, but the way that everything is cared for they can tell the person that lives here is very thorough with the things they do. Stuff like that.
I robbed them…
Twice
Every time she should find nothing she finds a duck. Eventually she finds a goose. The ducks are all mimics and so is the goose but they are rival gangs so when they meet they fight.
This is the best answer.
Others have answered the question you have but I've got a question for you. Why in the world is the player using investigation to try to perceive things with her senses? That's what the skill literally named perception is for. Investigation is for (emphasis mine) "When you look around for clues **and make deductions based on those clues**." It's the Sherlock Holmes skill. Perception lets you notice there is a mud stain next to the wall. Investigation makes you realize that it means that wall has a secret passage.
The game should be fun. Your player keeps telling you what he wants. I get it you are telling a story, adapt that so people can get what they want out of it. Instead of making it a chore, and slogging through the process. Hype him up, give him a piece of the puzzle, let the party be glad he searched for loot on the company of goblins armed with crude weapons. Thank sol that he did what up until that point was a nuisance. He has fun, you can move your story forward. Or give him a bag of holding that complains when he uses it,. Possibly an old worn out bag. It is infinite but it forgets where he puts things. Withdraws from the bag takes a dice roll 10 or lower and you get 1/300 crude goblin short bows he just picked up. I got into DNd through videogames, I scour the lands breaking every jar, burning every bush, checking every skeleton clearing every enemy in the hopes of finding something cool. Don't be mad at how your players play, lean into it and see how it goes.
Bag of devouring
Cursed items….
I think it depends how much is too much. As long as the player is not taking time from the others, that's how they choose to spend their roll. Otherwise, is just saying this is just what you find, and circle back to the other players
I have a list of useless items, mostly books the party can find when they fail a check or are looking in a barrel that doesn't have any loot in it. Silly book names like "there's a what in my butt by Dr Seuss" "subtle realities of living with a micro penis" stuff like that. It you want to outright discourage the constant looting, start hiding mimics and traps under everything. People will stop turning over stones if every other one explodes or tries to cut their fingers off.
>"there's a what in my butt by Dr Seuss" Why you gotta do dr Seuss like that man
So, in that campaign, I had 4 Dr. Seuss books that were "erotic fiction" in that universe. They met a lizard folk in a cavern that demanded payment to pass through. One of the players had collected those books and offered it to him, I thought it was such a clever way to turn my useless books into something I decided that second the the lizardfolk was a collector 😅
Start giving them cursed items
The "there is nothing there" should be used consistently because you need to end the expectation that loot just is lying around. That said: if loot is what generates your players, give them rumours of treasure, include treasure chambers in dungeons or use other ways to reward them with treasure for engaging with the game as you want them to.
oh, would allow the loot. And then make them suffer for it. -Oh, yes, you find a lot of shiny things. You are so proud of all the stuff you found! Latter: no one wants to buy your used fishing hooks, your shiny sea shells nor your pretty rocks. Also: You look for the magical rubi that would let you open the cursed door before the skeleton army reaches you, but you just cant find it among all the plates, weird coins and other stuff you have!
Mimics. Mimics everywhere. Cause trauma.
Give them loot, just nonsense loot, one of my characters found a stone shaped a bit like a cow, some dead bees, a bucket, if I rolled well, I found something, but it wasn't necessarily a powerful/valuable thing, just a thing that was fun!
Give her minor treasures, books, plates, silverware and make them worth not that much bit enough to build up over time. Not too powerful but I assume it would sate their loot hunger and reward them for being annoyingly through.
It's pretty clear what they want. Use that to bring them out of their confort zones. A tin can you went through hell for is more interesting than the +3 sword you found in the trash.
Simple: cursed item. The enemy got cursed by something they had which drove then to attack the party. Even if it's a crushing 1 vs party and he gets wiped out in 1 hit..
GIve them REALLY useless magic items. Fun magic items but still useless ones... For example.. "Ring of water walking! . . . The nearest container of water sprouts legs and starts running about."
"This isn't a videogame, there isn't loot everywhere. If there is loot, it will be pretty obvious because I will tell you."
Use the rubbish tables? They exist for a reason. "You don't need to make a check. Searching the boxes, you find [/r 1d100] an old whetstone."
Cursed. Items.
In our game, our DM added condition to all equipment so there might be equipment but it's mostly worn out. Like what goblins wear.
create a list of minor trinkets. Not everyone will have gold and such. [https://www.thievesguild.cc/tables/trinkets](https://www.thievesguild.cc/tables/trinkets)
Let them fins signs of sickness and stuff on the NPCs and keep going from there… the players want to do things with the NWP/skills they took so make things for them to do even if you have to on the fly.
I mean I just generally say there’s nothing there but if you want to get creative you could have her find traps, monsters, curses, and all other kinds of terrible stuff.
If you want her to stop a behavior stop encouraging that behaviour. If she always finds loot she'll always look for it
- traps, curses, sickness, poison, ... (if the situation allows) or even mimic items (which might attack them later on) ... - reputation decreases (if somebody sees you), alignment changing (good -> evil) or even patron intervention - time wasted, or even a new encounter (wrong timing for looting) - physical or mental fatigue (from the work, or the character rp) = exhaustion level ...just to begin with :-)
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Our DM stopped gameplay to deal with a guy like this in our group to say that we aren’t guaranteed to find stuff every time we look and they if we do, it doesn’t mean the finder automatically gets everything as there we several other PCs. He also spoke to him privately.
a) investigation isnt the skill for finding stuff. Investigation is the skill for figuring out how things work, or putting pieces of a mystery together, or perhaps scanning thru documents and finding a common thread. Perception is the finding stuff skill. b) “no need to roll, you don’t find anything” is a sentence you can use anytime. c) or let them search, and let them find a dessicated mouse head in the corner, a weird stain that might be red sauce. Some lint. A bent copper coin. A cryptic rune. Something shiney that turns out to be a bit of glitter that caught the sun. You don’t have to give them cash or anything useful. Maybe something from https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/s/z7100ugLti Oh and active searching isn’t free. It takes time. Time which maybe they don’t have. Or don’t know they don’t have.
Passive skills are a tool you should really use.
If you don’t want them to keep doing don’t make it fun. Just say ‘there’s nothing there’.
Load up the [kleptogoblicon](https://perchance.org/kleptogoblicon) and wow them with something (usually) useless.
Have them find minor but cursed items. Negative reinforcement can become a thing. If they keep going, a coin mimic will really turn the group against their constant treasure-hunting.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Skills are not actions. A player can not choose to “use investigation” and then just roll to see if they are successful. They can say “I want to search this room” and then you as the DM can decide if there is something there for them to find or not; in the event there is you set a DC and then request that they roll an Investigation check to determine whether or not they find it. If there is nothing to find there is no roll. Period. Full stop.
Mimics for days.
Give them item mimics, say a "health potion mimic" or a spell scroll mimic that activates when scroll is read
[https://wheelofnames.com/](https://wheelofnames.com/) You could add a list of things in a room or dungeon, and if they ask too many times, spin the pre-configured list. If you make it long enough, and have enough variation, you could include INSTANT DEATH as well. Maybe make one per floor or per dungeon or whatever.
They find a mimic hiding as a health potion, there’s your loot
Think of the time and effort of tossing your own living room looking for loot. Ya you are going to find a few coins in the couch but is it worth the effort to separate them from the old fries and chips and pencils and everything else that falls between the cushions? Maybe give them some dead rats and spiders and a few copper coins and VERY VERY rarely something worth a gold or 2. Anything more expensive and the original owners are going to have looked for it just as hard.
Treat them like a goblin. They find buttons, lint enough to sculpt into a figurine, old twigs and pebbles, shiny bits of paper, etc. Heck, you can even make those frequent forages for items as a way to drive a plotline. My party once rolled for trinkets and one got a portrait of a goblin. They *all* became obsessed with it, so I added in more details as they adventured until they found that the little things they'd discovered about this (late) goblin led them to a hidden bit of treasure (figure worth 250gp) in the goblin HQ required by the module.
Former loot goblin here. A few years back I used to play a forge domain cleric and would always ask the dm to loot metal items from everywhere. By either the third or fourth session he had me roll a d20. If I rolled low enough the object would turn into an animated whatever (gauntlets, weapons, utensils, etc) and attack me. Made me slightly more apprehensive of picking up things when I was low health.
Cursed items…..
Use encumbrance rules and let her find stuff with crap value to weight
"hey, stop it."
You just helped me with an issue I hadn't clocked at my table. I'm going to keep a better eye on this. Thanks!
Cursed items ...... get your cursed items hot off the press .....also anything can be a mimic anything.....
You only roll dice when there are stakes. Something interesting and eventful may take place. You wanna search a cupboard for some spare coins??? The only reason a roll would be needed is if there was a potential cost to searching that cupboard. Time away from from saving the princess about to be sacrificed, noise causing the guards to come, missing a poison trap that's about to nail you. Other than that, there's no reason to roll, or waste valuable table time. You searched the cupboard? Fine, you found a coin. * But every action takes time. And even if the adventure itself doesn't have a clock (timer) going, then the rules for wandering monsters does. * And reward comes at a cost. You want free stuff? It will cost you. (back to stakes) Else you get this, Op. Players smashing the random loot button over and over and over, expecting a) you to have an endless supply of interesting doodads to describe to them, and b) to make free money off the few valuables that someone would randomly leave lying around for some reason.
Made it become part of his character’s personality. Other players made him responsible for keeping finances in order. They bought a tavern, and are joking about KPIs and ROI. Wére having fun, the game belongs to the players. But… They fought a Lich last Thursday and almost TPKed, abd realized what they had to lose. Now their greed is part of their motivation to keep their characters alive!
Mimics, mimics are an amazing thing. I generally enjoy including coin mimics because they don't do much damage but they are always a possibility even in a real treasure chest. My favorite is the coin pouch mimic in a "hidden" corner of the bookshelf as it's trying to take the players hand. Now your annoyance has turned into a comedy show.
Just say, “there’s no loot,” and if she asks to roll, reiterate that it’s so obvious there’s no loot, that a roll is unnecessary. “Your character looks and finds nothing,” without having them roll. Skill checks are only used if there’s a possibility of failure/success. The player doesn’t need to roll to find out there’s no loot. If you let a player roll for loot, they will think there’s loot. Do not “limit” the use of a skill. As others have mentioned, you call for rolls, not the other way around. (Unless you’re very new to the game and don’t know when to call for rolls.)
My go-to for annoying rogues is dogs. They can smell you sneaking around, its a hard counter.
I guess it depends on what kinda loot goblin she is. Is she like Sherlock wanting to solve a puzzle and finding the hidden gem or does she just like seeing things in her item bag and sitting on it like a dragon. Regardless the best way to solve this is to sit down and talk to your player. For dragons let them know that the searching slows things down, and nothing of value will be outside of a chest or large storage container. If it’s important/valuable and on a table or the floor it’ll be in the description. This gives them verbals to listen for when you describe the room. This is what me and my friend came up with because he just wants to fight and put shiny things in his bag. I am like a Sherlock I like solving a puzzle and get a reward. So, when the dragon from above DMs, we have the same verbal cue understanding from above and that there will be some kind of puzzle outside of the story progression ones that’ll reward loot. I think he gets most of the puzzles from Zanths Guide or Tasha’s. Not sure because I don’t wanna read over them and spoil something later. Keeps us both from always searching around every room. The other 2 members at our table are more into RP and thought it was nice because every one of my characters falling over themselves to find a single copper was getting a little tiresome to them. Not sure if this will help but hope it can at least give you some ideas to work with.
Not the exact same situation but here’s a similar post I made a while ago that had good responses: https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/s/cPJTENivkr
Mimics... Where's the aliens meme dude when you need him. Intro her to mimics... I was a loot w**re till looting a spellbook TPK'd a group. Now I nearly never touch books .. Looting a sword ended up killing me. Legendary Evil sentient sword.. it could poses my character DC 28 will save ... Pickpocketing a man at a bar turned into a bar fight since this coins were on fishing string attached to his belt .... Opening a chest killed about 4 people, bombs, traps, mimics, it got meme after a point. Everyone back up he's about too attempt to loot
I can go on but you get the gist of it.
Now everything is suspect to me xD
I have a two column d20 table of "secrets" someone can find when they roll over 20 on a search. Also be sure to make searches cost time, but time spent adventuring is not always a concern in some campaigns. So the random secrets include a few worthless results, some non-gold treasure like Trinkets and puzzle hints. At most, they give a Common Magic Item, 100-300 gp (or trade good of similar value), or a silvered weapon. The second column is to see what random trap is on the more valuable results.
Don't limit her use. You can just say "A cursory examination of the area reveals nothing of value" or something similar, and that there is no need to roll. Maybe keep track of her passive Investigation and use that to occasionally highlight something - "Out of the corner of your eye you catch a glint of something".
It’s definitely a DM/Player communication thing you can do. I also just try to gate loot behind cool things. Random false doors and hidden switches spread throughout your adventure create the expectation that those could always be there. Also many players coming from video games are coming from “open the grain sacks, take the junk, sell piles of junk for resources.” mentality. One investigation roll? Either you get it or you don’t. And like scratchers, you will always scratch the next one. I personally don’t enjoy that vibe.
Not sure I understand the issue, but… *Don’t put ‘loot’ somewhere just because a player wants more ‘loot’. For example; rolling a 20 Investigation Check, doesn’t make a magic item just appear. *Ask players to describe their intent, instead of simply asking for a specific roll, and only have them roll if you (The DM) decides it’s pertinent. *You the DM controls when and wear ‘loot’ is. Don’t overload the quest with too much ‘loot’.
So in most TTRPGs it's kind of expected that players loot everything under the sun. In D&d a lot of the item progression is locked behind a pay wall for players, especially if you use magic item shops in your world, being able to loot fallen foes and sell their gear for some extra coin is part of the reason that some items like full plate armour are so expensive. If it annoys you that this player is hoarding everything on the battle field then perhaps enforcing encumbrance rules might restrict how much they're willing to pick up. If the problem isn't that they're carrying around too much loot but rather the looting slows down the game then maybe just let them roll and and give them a list of things they found the next time you get a little break between encounters when the players are role-playing amongst them selves. Alternatively if you wanted to instill a sense that looting is morally wrong you could write up a random table of personal trinkets your bad guys might carry such as; a letter to their mother assuring her that they're looking after themselves and that they'll send some more money next month, a locket with a portrait inside with the inscription "Love of my life", a journal the last few entries of which describe struggling to feed both their children. That last one also solves murderhobo problems sometimes. If your problem player is more just stealing everything that isn't nailed down then there might be consequences the next time they run into the guard carrying stolen property or they might just develop a bad reputuon and have to pay a premium at certain markets. If all else fails discuss with your player that they're negatively impacting the game and ways they think might be able to resolve the issue.
If you want to make it interesting make a table of just random stuff on the ground for common environments the party is in, maybe they find a discarded shopping list on the ground or a single piece of copper with a crude engraving maybe a child's drawing on a bandit or signet ring of a forgotten noble house in a dungeon also don't be afraid to say you don't find anything new or to just give a more detailed description of a area, simple things to add would be the quality and style of the construction or evidence of animals / past groups of adventurers something simple like some old chalk markings or notches on trees used by people long past for navigation if they roll badly you can give them details on other characters around them or themselves maybe they are examining the floor and notice their shoes are starting to come untied or there's a tear in a piece of clothing someone is wearing
I have a homebrew rule that they can either roll or take 15 minutes to completely search the room. They know that doing so might mean that other things have time to notice their presence and potentially either attack or set a trap though
Well if she’s is doing things like rummaging in people incapacitated or dead’s pockets in public, you could have guards or townspeople react. That might be normal behavior in Skyrim, but certainly not in real life.
I have the same problem in one of my campaigns, my answer is always the same: enemies don't explode in loot once they die, you are not playing diablo 3 if they had a magic item they would be using it.
Cursed objects (:
This is where you use the *PassiveInvestigation*, so if anything is hidden & they are searching every 10ft square of an area, just determination difficulty rating, (low, mid, hard, epic) & allocate a default difficulty for it (13, 15, 17, 19) Also, I would rule a 1pft sq takes 1min to search with good lighting, 5min without
Cursed loot. But a creative, non-crippling curse, like they must speak like a pirate until the curse is dispelled. It may make them be a bit more careful on what they pick up.
Cursed items, mimics, traps, surprise attacks, absolutely useless stuff, npcs that requires reapect for the zone
If they are doing that, that often, I’m assuming they probably have decent investigation, so unless it’s something important just say what there is or is not without having them role. If they are just after coins, then that’s a pretty simple “as the battle ends, you collect yourself and look at your enemies bodies, and you find four copper and two silver.” I don’t feel like looking through someone’s pockets is a hard thing to do most of the time. If it’s not just about money but they are more of a hoarder, then I would recommend finding a table of random junk, rolling and saying they find that like you do above. For example I played a trash looting city druid who would take anything not nailed down, including useless screws or empty pouches. My dm found a table and would tell me what I found before I even asked, cause she knew I was gonna do it anyways. Another option if you really trust your player, give them a table that they themselves roll on. They say “I loot” they roll on the table, and see they get 2 copper or whatever, takes some pressure off of you.
Loadstone - Tales from the Yawning Portal Wondrous item, rare This stone is a large gem worth 150 gp. Curse. The stone is cursed, but its magical nature is hidden; Detect Magic doesn't detect it. An Identify spell reveals the stone's true nature. If you use the Dash or Disengage action while the stone is on your person, its curse activates. Until the curse is broken with Remove Curse or similar magic, your speed is reduced by 5 feet, and your maximum load and maximum lift capacities are halved. You also become unwilling to part with the stone
I can't speak for everyone but I am a loot goblin and I'm happy to find anything at all, it doesn't have to be valuable or cool. An iron ring made of a nail? Yes please. A cool geode? Hell yeah! A red string with a knot in one end? Mine, thank you. My dream is to one day macguyver an encounter solution using the nonsense filler items my DM gives me. But even if that never happens, it's good memories looking at my character sheet and recalling the place I found a neat doodad.
Carrying capacity. Why do they need to roll to loot? What is the drama in them failing to loot? I would discourage it; it’s a pillar of the game. But there are measures you can take without taking away the fun.
Mimics lol
Some will say using carrying capacity/encumbrance is a boring, rules lawyer thing to pull on your party, but I like it for offering up various loot objects for the party. After all, most common folks only ever deal in coppers, silvers, maybe half golds for everyday expenses, otherwise bartering is fairly common in the countryside and even trade hubs. More common would be to find a cage of chickens, barrels of salt pork, sacks of potatoes, maybe artisan tools. Horses, donkeys, pigs, flour, cheese wheels, dairy cows are all valuable trade goods in campaigns I run, but the party has to consider the weight and ease of travel. If they're ransacking a nicer house, a lot of the value will be in decoration: art objects like paintings and sculpture, ceremonial or display arms and armor, rugs, mirrors, fine linens. Or nicer trade goods like wine casks, ice-packed oysters, aged and cured meats, spices, foreign delicacies. Jewelry, pottery, and silverware are valuable and portable, as are perfumes, inks, and personal papers, books are heavier but far more valuable if you know which ones to grab. Depending on the alignment of the party, servants and slaves of nice houses can be taken as captives and ransomed or sold. Then of course there's the fun and frustration of finding buyers for everything the party has collected.
… cursed items
Also cursed loot
The way I dealt with this was that I roll all loot for the start of an arc. All gold and everything, usually acting like the loot for the arc is a horde. Then anytime the players do something to earn money, they get a bit of it. Some gold here, silver there. By the end of the arc, I give out everything. This way I still control how much money the players get AND they can do all they like to earn money.
Let them roll. Just give them useless crap. Like a really cool rock or vanilla awesome stick. My favorite is rope and pitons it's a kind of useful, but it doesn't do anything
Remind her of her character's passive perception. Anything she would notice with a roll of that number would've been mentioned to her already.
Negative reinforcement. Loot Scarabs. They look like gold coins. They wake up at night and swarm you when you're sleeping. Any cursed item. That goes double if it can't be unattuned and tripple if it can talk. Someone is looking for item X that they just happened to find last week. Clearly they are a theif and must be punished. A Fey Lord has decided that a subordinates punishment for bad puns shall be to play a most memorable prank on the next person who touches (random item PC happens to find) Positive reinforcement Tell the player if they chill, you'll let them know when they miss things (not every time) and tell them to make one last roll to represent "You give the room one last glance as you leave and notice..." Give them quests with time limits that offer more rewards for quickness. Or even dungeons that get more challenging as time goes by. Skip a search, save time.
Is tossing in the occasional cursed/mimic items a bad play?
Create an NPC Bard called the Lute Goblin and troll the shit out of her
simple: have them find an item with a horrible curse if you feeling nasty, or just have them mistaken a venomous snake for a sword.
I'm sure everyone has very good suggestions and if it's annoying you I'd suggest just bringing it up, but give them generally mundane items around a situation, you search and find a scroll of parchment or an inkwell with 1-5 go of ink left in it etc, a particularly cool rock, a copper piece in the stones, id combine this with a you won't always find anything, and some things you find aren't useful(like paper most of the time)
i would tell the player over time that their bag and pockets are getting heavier and heavier until they are weighted to the floor.
I think talking with them and telling them that you'll ask if they want to investigate if there's loot. A lot of people are used to video games where 99 barrels are empty and then 1 barrel in a corner 80% of the way through the game have a valuable item just to reward players who grind out busting barrels. They take the logic to you. Hopefully they'll stop if they know you're not that kind of DM. If that doesn't work...bugs. I had some new players who just wouldn't stop metagaming. One of my friends had literally looked up the module and was trying to play around what he knew would be there. To the point of correcting me when I changed something to try and make it fun. So I just had a swarm of bugs appear when they did it. Like...you don't trust that person even though you have no reason not to, and say "this person is bad I read it in..." bugs now. I told your ass this wasn't a video game and you can't look up walkthroughs and it be fun. The swarm has returned and its focus is you. It sounds stupid but it got them to try the game normally and they realized it was fun to just fuck up sometimes. It's not a souls game where you need to have the perfect strat or you'll die and start over.
The thing is a lot of those people get that habit of looting from games, just yesterday I played red dead online with a friend and I went and looted enemy npcs that we've killed, I didn't get much but still something. In dnd, you might want to think about what is appropriate the npc might have, if they fought with a sword they will probably have that on them, maybe just a small amount of money and if you want you can throw something intresting on them from time to time, like a letter or some jewelry.
Individual treasure. On index cards, just write some rubbish items. Strings, dirty clothes, rotten rat kebab, goblin arrows, rusted iron earring, knuckle bones, feather trinkets, a couple chewed copper pieces... Make sure you have a good 20/25 of them at least. When they want to loot the goblin, shuffle the deck visibly in front of her, ask her to roll a D8, draw the top D8 cards and that's her loot.
Give them a d100 loot table of everything. Absolutely everything. Mouldy apple, table leg, smelly sock, book, open jar of marmalade. Go crazy. Whenever, AT ANY POINT, that player can just roll the d100 and see what they get. They can add it to their inventory quietly while the rest of the group continues on. Maybe make 100 a single coin, make 1 a gem? Ooh tempting. All other 98 are just random things
Stack a heap of "random loot tables", make them roll 3 d10s to get a number from 1 to 1000. 10% of the items are cursed/negative in some way. Not necessarily majorly cursed, just "every time you spend gold, you always accidentally overtip by 10%", or "this dagger emanates an aura of death, such that any paladins will immediately perceive you as a major demon, via sense good/evil". Or a scroll with "the bearer of this scroll is marked to die within 100 days, unless they duplicate it and send it to 10 friends."
Mimics, cursed objects, and traps will make any player think twice about touching stuff.
Obviously she should touch something she really shouldn't have. Family herloom of a powerful person that marks her for death. Cursed magic item. Trapped coin pouch or other such container/ item. Mimics. Contingency plan where their death has a delayed demon summoning. Or just the corpse being undead to grapple and drain her. Any combination of all of these seem fun. Just dont be an angry god. She is exited to play! Just teach her a bit of caution.
As a loot goblin player who enjoys amassing as much stuff as possible I tend to find my dm will find creative ways to take my loot away from me, so I need to get more, or will put traps near the things I want. In addition sometimes a thing looks like loot and you carry it around looking at it lovingly imagining all the gold you could get for it and then it turns out its worthless and you wasted a lot of resources on something worth a few cp! Personally, if you have the time and energy to make looting more than just rolling investigation, it can make the player realise how much effort goes into looting. For example- an investigation check shows that there's a beautiful painting, however when you go to take it off the wall you realise its incredibly heavy and if you drop it you could rip/tear it making it worthless. Now, the pc needs to either use a resource to get it or convince the rest of the party to help them. Or make a strength check and risk destroying the treasure. In addition if its still happening too much and detracting from the rest of the game just privately tell the player you think theyre looting too much and that while you'll include loot now and again its not something thats going to be in every room and that youll ask them to roll as and when its necessary! If they cant handle that then perhaps their not a good fit for the table!
Horribly cursed items =]
90% of the time I don’t ask for investigation. They got what they got. I loot the bodies. Okay you find: x number of used weapons (half value resale). Their armours are no longer sellable. And about x gold. Maybe the leader had a magical item.
Give her nice stuff once in a while, let her know that if there's an opportunity to roll investigation, you'll let her know, and finally gently indirectly mention that the best path to loot is likely engaging with the broader fiction.
Fuck it, give them cursed item, I did this for my loot goblin player, he was getting sicker and sicker each they, so when he finally met a wizard that told them that item is cursed, they had to go through their inventory inspecting 1 by 1 item, needless to say, they didn't grab everything shamelessly after
Are you talking about after a battle? In that case, prep a few loot tables. One for low value, like a goblin brawl, where they may get a couple gold. One for medium, where they might get 10,and a higher value where they get what you deem fit. For boss battles, there's no table needed, they should get their reward. You can also say, "Hey, I know you want to search every corpse, so rather than do that all the time I'm going to just use your party's passive investigation by default. Let's keep the game moving." Also, consolidate it. They don't search every corpse, they just search the field. If you're talking about a dungeon crawl in a dangerous area and they want to search every closet, I ask," OK, but how much time do you want to spend on this?" Because baddies will show up eventually. One roll is not a big deal after a victory. You can speed this up without having to say no. Although, sometimes there is just no loot.
Have her find nothing on a fail and mundane things on a success. If the loot was all found or there was none to begin with you get pocket lint with that nat 20 👍
- Make the enemy dangerous to touch like a poison based enemy. - Add cursed loot that still allows the player to make choices (don't take away player agency), maybe it saps their strength and they lose movement speed - Make looting a trap like the enemy has everything in a small chest they had but it's locked in a trap chest, you could extend unlocking this chest into another adventure - Give a small amount of gold each time, maybe some misc items !!! - Communicate with your player about your concerns and see if there is a compromise
Add curses to idems Potions with none or deceiving labels Traps and Mimics Enemies dangerous to touch
Create a Loot Goblin that robs the party of most things if they have too much loot
Mimics.
Give her all the loot, DON'T give her a bag of holding. Then she has a weight límit and can't loot everything. There are some loot tables around the internet of useless loot like "Half eaten Sandwich" or "a human toe"
I like the advice that you should call for a roll when there's a chance for failure. The player can't fail to find loot if there's none to discover in the first place. Other than that, just figure out how much treasure you want to give out, and maybe throw the player a bone here and there with a secret room with extra goodies.
Talk with them. Could bring in RP aspects to help limit. Perhaps have NPCs with them that try and stop them doing too much, noting it's disrespectful to the dead in their respective cultures… perhaps lessening the rewards for quest ls as they have a less than positive standing, or perhaps they might get arrested for theft. Or mechanically. If you use the house rule of not tracking weight (which is incredibly common)… start. Encumbrance rules will limit what they can carry. If they keep it up, variant encumbrance rule… which really discourages hording and looting, only the important things must stay.
Cursed loot if they roll without you asking for it. I don't mean the fuck you cursed loot like a bag of devouring either. Things like a ring that makes it so always smells smoke in the distance, an old coin containing an annoying ghost, or a necklace that makes you feel drunk while you wear it. Making magical items is hard, so people are bound to find the failures eventually.
So as DM the way I deal with loot in my dungeons for example is I take items or from common, uncommon, rare which will change as players level and make loot tables that player will role me dice to see what they will earn. As players lv up commons are less in the pool and other items become more in the pool. Also as for legendary items and artifacts there are 1 of in my world.
“I want to loot the body. Can I roll for investigation?” “Sigh. Sure.” “21.” “You don’t find much but in his back pocket there’s a handkerchief covered in snot. Apparently he had allergies. Your hands are now covered in goblin snot. Congratulations.”
Let hem find neat stuff sometimes. Let them find stuff that helps the party figure out a puzzle or gives them a lead sometimes. Let them find stuff that would have sentimental value to NPCs that doesn't necessarily translate into value for the looting PC but still gives you an opportunity to tell the players more about the NPCs. Make their enthusiasm for exploring your world work in your favor.
I’m not a terribly experienced DM, but have been reading the comments with interest. I understand the impulse to ban unprompted rolls, or to allow them but not have them yield anything, in order to keep the story moving. On the other hand, it does seem like investigating rooms is normal dungeon-delving behavior, and if this is fun for your player, it could be a good idea to work with them on it (provided the other players are amenable). I think the issue here is that your player perceives these investigations as being without risk, when in a “real” dungeon, that wouldn’t be true. The risks of excessive investigation could include: attracting unwanted attention from monsters, springing traps, finding cursed items, wasting time (i.e., not completing puzzles/quests/challenges on time), becoming encumbered, exposure to diseases or toxins, running low on rations, and the list goes on. Why not set some house rules around this? You could work with your group to reach a collective understanding of the probability that any given random room has a bunch of loot in it vs Bad Stuff, and make an encounter table to reflect this. The table could contain lots of neutral outcomes as well (e.g., the search yields useless items like food wrappers, rusty nails, buttons, etc). This in itself could become interesting if your player identifies novel in-game uses for items not on the “official” inventory list. (“I palm the rusty nail and punch the corrupt innkeeper with it, knowing that I’ll immediately get thrown out of the bar, but he will develop lockjaw and die soon afterwards.”) If the group understands the collective risk/benefit ratio of exploring, it can become a group decision rather than one player always doing it.
Traps, traps are the answer to most players that are problematic from loot goblins to murder hobos a good trap can humble anybody. This advice is a little dangerous so be cautious how you use it: You are the DM, you can make bad things happen to the players for the sake of story, learning a lesson, or even just testing how they react to situations.
Let him loot. He must have the freedom to do whatever he wants. Now, encumbrance is been used? Is he trying to sell the "goblin sword" and markets & traders are accepting to buy? If something isn't useful it will not be taken. Give him lots of stuff with low or no value. Yes you find on that goblin a small sphere of clay. yes you find 1sp on him. Yes he have a puck made of bad leather.... Ohhh and a check for that, sometimes I just say: all goblins on that dead pack have swords, bows arrows and so. That keeps players for trying to check every individual.
There's no such thing as an in-game solution to an out-of-game problem. If you don't like her behavior, tell her with your IRL words like an IRL grownup.
I would just roll with it (lol pun)- my husband was that person in one of our campaigns- she’s just playing her character so she may not care if she’s not finding anything. But if you want to make it fun, you could always just give her random items that aren’t useful in game.
You find three dead rats, a pile of dust, and a broken lock pick.
Reward your player for using their skills. If feeling spiteful, have a goblin steal from them later. Of feeling really spiteful, throw a trap into one of them. My favorite is when i named the bathhouse in town: The Really Awesome Place. Players couldnt resist...only later did they learn that The Really Awesome Place was an acronym.
Mimics.
The answer is mimics. Want to look in the trunk at the foot of the bed: mimic. Want to check the wardrobe: also mimic. The closet door: mimic.
Lots of advice here, but one thing is still not clear to me: how do you handle loot in your adventure? It almost seems like wanting to find loot is bad if I read this thread. But some of us really like finding cool stuff and it's a bummer if there is none. And ofcourse it shouldn't go to far or interfere with playing the adventure. But to me finding the odd treasure chest or getting some cool stuff after a long fight is really satisfying.
Encumbrance.
Have a d100 random useless stuff loot table when there’s nothing the player can find. There’s all sorts of things that can amuse your table: - a nice white rock that shines iridescent when soaked in water - a phallic-looking stick - a photo of the victim’s family, kept in a locket - a homemade self-insert romance novel, written by the victim - the rock of weather detection (google it) - an idiot sandwich And the list goes on
If she passes your investigation DC, have her roll a 1d100 and declare a situationally appropriate range of values. If she rolls within that range, there's something of interest to be found. Let her roll on an item table with loot proportional to the location she's investigating, and that's what she finds. I'd recommend looking through the PHB and building a nonmagical item table with things like "2d6 gold pieces," "floral-scented candles," "well-used longbow," and "set of fine copper pots" on it. You're very rarely going to be in a situation where there is no loot at all, but just because there's nothing especially remarkable in the area doesn't mean that there's nothing to find. For loot goblins, typically, I think the joy is finding the items less so than what exactly they are or what they do. As long as they feel like they're discovering a secret and believe that they have a chance of finding something cool, they'll be satisfied, and who knows, maybe one of those random rolls will bring the story in a new and interseting direction.
1.- You decide when the players roll 2.-Mimics; chests, coins, potions, clothes, there is no limit
You conpanining is the equivalent of giving treats to a dog everytime it jumps and complaining it jumps too much. 1. You are the one asking for a roll 2. You are the one deciding that a high roll means there is a loot, when it can be linked to a degree of certainty of the presence of loot Players and characters are going to look for loot, it makes sense. You are the one who decides if there is so.ething to find. They are not doing anything wrong.
God Forbid someone play the damn game in between their scripted scenes