15 Loot Ideas for Your D&D Game - Rewarding Your Players with Style!

[@theDMLair]

What cool, special loot do you like to reward your players with? PATREON BENEFITS ▶▶ www.patreon.com/thedmlair CHEAP D&D ADVENTURES I'VE CREATED ▶▶ www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/11812/Luke-Hart FREE D&D ADVENTURES I'VE CREATED ▶▶ www.thedmlair.com/

[@briandaaranda9735]

I gave one of my players a Living Piggy Bank and he adores that thing. Basically it eats and spits out coins on command, up to 1k pieces of any kind. Another player got one of my BBEG's swords. And yet another got a nice owlbear pelt.

[@jacinto3513]

trophies from slain enemies recently, monster teeth, skulls, venom if the monster has a poison sack.

[@theDMLair]

Little Piggy Bank. Love it. 😂

[@kytownsend8295]

Definitely the best reward I gave my players was one I never expected them to take! They had to get to an island and I expected them to buy a small sail boat, but instead they stole an enemy nation’s capital ship! It had now become their home base and there is a 20 page doc detailing all the stats, maps, and economy of the ship

[@twilightgardenspresentatio6384]

the DM Lair you just changed the game!

[@Mr_Maiq_The_Liar]

My dm once gave me a wish without telling me. That’s just what happened when you slay this particular Demon. Next time I said I wish it would become true. “I wish for once, we could go to a nice cave filled with Cute Pseudodragons and pretty naked women who don’t try to murder us.” What an adventure that was. Yep. That was our next dungeon.

[@TentenchiAMVs]

That's a FANTASTIC idea! So much potential in that. XD

[@sanctifiedsuccubus2562]

Any cute naked men? Gotta have some of that variety ;D

[@palikia3233]

Big brain play. Particularly a fan of the Pseudodragons.

[@williamwontiam3166]

Alyssa Grace well, I guess equality is equality.

[@machixius]

Oh god, sounds amazing.

[@paddlesawtactic9788]

The Cloak of Billowing was put into my campaign. You can use a bonus action to make the cloak "billow dramtically". Most beloved item in that game.

[@deathsythe212]

Gary Gygax's favorite magic item iirc. I include it in every campaign I run.

[@handlebarfox2366]

I like the helm that makes your eyes glow red when you wear it.

[@kykisaky7841]

Can players use it to negate fall or other kind of damage?

[@Axeloy]

@@kykisaky7841 it literally just flies as if it were windy but even when there's no wind, purely cosmetic

[@BESTdonglewenis7254]

I gave it to a player and they promptly forgot about it

[@doodledog8593]

One time my dm gave us a flute that could control squirrels

[@theDMLair]

Oh, that sounds like sort of item that generated lots of fun stories. 😁

[@doodledog8593]

Yes our bard who cannot lie has it

[@kokosnet5161]

Great

[@cerentus2798]

That's pretty nutty

[@ImGlassy]

@@doodledog8593 that's a cool idea, reminds me of Lucifer

[@coffeefordays6913]

Luke: “I’m going to be DMing a game for members!” Also Luke: “I’m a fairly evil DM, you probably don’t want to play DND with me.”

[@theDMLair]

Yeah, I'm not the best salesman... 😬

[@MrDefaultti]

That's why it's a one shot :-D

[@RikkuTakanashi]

@@theDMLair Least your honest. XD

[@cthulhufhtagn2483]

@@MrDefaultti The question is how well aimed the one shot is.

[@melkiorwiseman5234]

Members: "Challenge Accepted!"

[@tardytortoise9227]

My players found a jar of candy in an abandoned house once. They started eating it and I had them roll for taste and just told them how good or bad it tasted based on the roll. They pretty much interpreted that as a reward, lol. They spent a good 15 minutes talking to each other and sharing candy.

[@tardytortoise9227]

@@lilconch I did the game virtually, and hadn't considered a beanboozle box... but now that I'm doing in person dnd games... I might have to buy one of those as well!

[@fleetcenturion]

Our DM once rewarded us with an airship for saving the King of Waterdeep's daughter (yes, I know there's no King of Waterdeep; just roll with it!). At the time, I thought it was a dumb idea (I wanted to name her "The White Elephant"), but it turned out to be his own clever way of solving the _big_ transportation problem in _Horde of the Dragon Queen._ Suddenly, the most tedious 5e campaign became lots of fun to play.

[@achimsinn7782]

I did exactly the same thing in my fist homebrewn campaign. Just with the issue that my players kept on flying the airship to random locations which cause me a lot of work and kept on forcing me to improv most of the time for the first 3rd of the campaign. I later found out that they did it on purpose as they wanted to test my improv skills and were trying to teach me how to prepare for unexpected

[@erockandroll39]

I do this in my own campaign as well. Though this tends to attract the attention of dragons. (Who believe the sky to be their dominion.) I love ships in general, it can function as a base of operations, while remaining mobile. And it can generate income for the party when used for trade.

[@gijsvanosdeman938]

The things I rewards my players are: Titles - They receive fame in the country for their deeds. Stories are told amongst the townsfolk about them Unique spells - sometimes a spellcaster uses the same spells over and over again in every campaign, until I started giving her unique spells to work with. Salary - the party works for the government as special forces. So they're being paid per day. Bounties - sometimes they come across someone they've seen on a bounty poster. Extra money!

[@theDMLair]

Unique spells are cool.

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

I enjoy giving my players the ability to slowly make new spells from old ones. In much the same way that a pointy rock can do a lot of damage by stabbing something with it, and a stick can poke things at a distance, thus combining them allows you to stab things at a distance, burning hands does a good bit of fire damage, and chill touch can reach 120 ft and deals necrotic damage that stops healing, so they might try and create a combination that has some parts from each (usually a lvl1 cauterizing touch spell that deals a mixed amount of damage)

[@DragonGunzDorian]

Bold of you to assume I wouldn't want unlimited amounts of gold. I want to be a dragon some day, and I'll need a horde. Also the rogue calling the dm stupid in the intro is a good way to attract a tarrasque...

[@theDMLair]

Both very good points. Lol

[@rmt3589]

This comment! This comment right here!!!

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

Terrasque? That's an odd way to spell Ancient Great Wyrm Shadow Brainstealer Prismatic Dragons (with retained breath weapon). These are totally balanced and not capable of taking out several armies (totally not a cr of 75+ and resistant or immune immune to all damage except force when in dim light or darkness). Perfectly suited for level 1-5 parties...

[@DragonGunzDorian]

TheApexSurvivor I'm honestly not sure what your talking about. Is that an actual thing or did you just mash a bunch of stuff together or somthing?

[@Alresu]

@@DragonGunzDorian Prismatic Dragons seem to be something from third edition. They look nice and i just saw one in a list of powerfull monsters in D&D. On second place after the Tarrasque.^^

[@jesternario]

My favorite magic item to give players is the sword "A Light Shining in the Darkness," or better known by my players as "the Sword of Bob" due to the fact that it has the words "Made by Bob." on in in ancient runes. The sword is a weapon that at first is just a normal old boring +1 bastard sword (long sword in 5th ed). However, as the players level, it gains more power, as it needs time to wake up and become the full radiant-damage anti-demon weapon of heroism it is meant to be. What this means is that the weapon in and of itself is an okay weapon that rewards the players for using it, giving them more power as they level, which is a neat thing for players to get. "Okay, and so, having beaten the big bad, your sword glows for a bit with radiant light. It is now a +1 longsword, +2 vs fiends."

[@Harrowed2TheMind]

Yep. Loving me some scaling magic items! ^^ ('Legacy' magic items in 3.5, save without the darned penalties that came with them).

[@robinthrush9672]

Sounds a bit inspired by "Pale Justice" from the first Icewind Dale game.

[@myrtislockett7792]

That is genius.

[@nickm9102]

I love the common magic items for this. I also like the idea of just having an item with magical properties. Maybe you find a necklace that belonged to the first champion of the village. It is just a necklace with the sentenal property.. Or you find a worn out doll, it once belonged to a great mage who as a child was afraid of the dark. When squeezed it has the moontouched property. So now you go around squeezing a doll and holding it up instead of a torch.

[@williamwontiam3166]

Nicholas May what about joke magic items? Like a hat that breeds with other hats when nobody’s anywhere near.

[@jwmmitch]

Glo-bug!

[@quantummaniac5]

DO NOT GIVE YOUR PLAYERS DEAD BODIES! One of my players carried tons of corpses around in a portable hole and kept collecting more and more. I realized I'd made a grave error when he started taking necromantic spells.

[@intergalactic92]

I was once part of a group running Rage of Demons. We were trapped in the underdark, fleeing from the Drow. Most of us had Dark vision so were coping quite well, however one of our group was a halfling so she did not. Whilst the rest of us happily wandered the Underdark without trouble, she would stumble around increasingly frustrated over her inability to see properly. I won’t go into all the build up but in the third session we came upon a group of giant fire beetles and as soon as we realised that they emitted light the Halfling's player squealed with delight and declared that she wanted one. What followed was an hilarious battle in which she and myself (because I thought this was pretty cool and wanted one too) attempted to tame the creatures whilst the rest of the party and the NPCs tried to kill them. Long story short we ended up killing all but two of the beetles, however, these were asleep and untamed so we could not easily keep them (the ones we had tamed for ourselves were murdered by one of the NPCs in front of me, but at least I’m not bitter). With a bit of experimentation with the dead beetles revealed that they would glow even in death and so we were able to make a lantern for the halfling. She would stumble around no more. It was very good planning from the DM to set up an encounter in which the reward was useless for combat but essential for the one character that could not see in the dark.

[@JohnSmith-ex8iw]

A lot of my loot isn't even given by the dungeon master, I just take it. One time, when my party killed a tarrasque, I cut open the stomach and took acid from each of the three stomachs in magically enhanced bottles. The tarrasques stomachs are the only things that can permanently kill a greater god so they don't come back. I now have god-killing arrows! Yay!

[@theDMLair]

No way! That's awesome. Lol

[@Kino_Cartoon]

Hoooouuww did you huys kill a tarrasque??

[@JohnSmith-ex8iw]

@@Kino_Cartoon polymorph into clay golem

[@Kino_Cartoon]

@@JohnSmith-ex8iw continue 👀 Did you choke it?

[@JohnSmith-ex8iw]

@@Kino_Cartoon just continuous slam attacks.

[@mastablastarocks]

In a game I'm in atm, my dm had put a comfy, swivel office chair randomly placed there. You know what we did? We stuck it in our bag of holding and are going to try and figure out how to make them later so we can sell them.

[@theDMLair]

Starting that side hussle. 😁

[@kenle2]

"Bring forth ... THE COMFY CHAIR!" "Now ... what am I bid? 100 gold?. Do I hear 100?"

[@eafigarella]

I remember one of the best campaigns I played. I was an assassin and I had a brother (who apparently died in a Lord raid to gain control of the land) but was traveling with me. We both were chasing the same man but never talked about it and we both went with hidden last names. And we were part since childhood, no way of recognizing each other. We got a big loot of 3k or more gold each and I spent all of it in a purple worm poison vial. We found the guy, it was a boss fight. He had 100 hp and we were lvl 4 or 6. I said that epic dialog after he almost killed me with 1 blow and I single shot him with a 117 hp critical dmg. And my brother recognized me. Best session ever.

[@Drail2089]

Really enjoying these dm tips. Helps to get me ideas for what to do and helps give me confidence with running games in front of people. Much appreciated.

[@theDMLair]

Awesome! Glad their helping. 😁

[@kirktate647]

I gave my party a rabid squirrel. The wizard wanted a pet wombat, and an ornery squirrel he got. A few sessions later they threw it at an owlbear to distract it and get out of a sticky situation. They explored the wilderness for another few weeks before returning to town and finding they had a reputation. Tales spread far and wide of the exploits of the adventuring band known as the Mad Squirrels. You see, the squirrel was found and cured by a local druid, who understood its squirrelly ravings. The druid told the story to a local woodcutter, who told a farmer, who told a traveling peddler, who told his cousin in town... Eventually wild tales were everywhere, not remotely true, and the party had a name.

[@theDMLair]

Oh that's awesome. Lol. Wilp the party ever meet back up with their namesake? 😁

[@xandercretuitus9704]

"cool but useless items" One time a paladin was looting an orc he had just slain. My response? "You find a necklace made of human teeth" Paladin: "awesome! I'm gonna keep it" Little later on, he showed the necklace to a tavern owner, and that got him a free room and meal for clearing out the orcs that had been killing travelers.

[@preacherjohn]

I thought that last sentence was going to end ".. and that got him arrested on suspicion of him being a serial killer".. XD

[@erlanddrow7950]

One thing I liked doing recently is giving my characters items that work basically like gold but feel more realistic for what they looted. Search a bandit's body, they have a necklace of an iron horse. Going through a cave, there are chests that hold gems the miners found. Mansion dungeon, oil painting with golden frames 🙃

[@leighclifton8335]

One of my players characters has a cheese obsessions. I gave him a cheese board that produces a hunk of cheese of the players choice every 24 hours.

[@theDMLair]

LOL that's beautiful.

[@brandongore711]

Timestamps for myself 1. Lore & Knowledge - 5:05 2. Cool (But Mostly Useless) Items - 5:40 3. Plot Relevant Items - 6:07 4. NPC Contacts, Allies, & Friends - 6:35 5. Pets & Followers - 7:00 6. New Skills & Languages - 7:40 7. Trinkets - 8:05 8. Boons, Blessings, & Charms - 8:36 9. Properties - 9:12 10. Mundane Weapons & Armor - 10:05 11. Broken Items - 10:23 12. A Brand New Car! - 10:42 13. Land & Title - 11:00 14. Faction Favor - 11:23 15. Backstory Stuff - 12:13

[@chickenborn7697]

Oh thank you so much. Was starting to wonder if I would have to do that myself

[@05Tom1]

I'm actually working on story-line based rewards, just as you suggested in the end, but I've made some of the components tangible, so that my players actually have some things at they table :) For example, I've gotten a puzzle box for the monk, that is going to be sent to her by her master, with the note that once she has the patience to figure out how to open the box, she will be ready for what's inside (and I've put a small magic item, and a plot hook device inside the box). I also created a cardboard version of the pendant one of my players carries everywhere as part of their backstory, and added hidden information in the glyphs that the player can try to discover later :) I thought these were cool ideas for ways to reward role playing and give loot, without it being just gold or magic items...

[@theDMLair]

Yeah! Physical stuff that players can hold is the best. 😁

[@prestonjones1653]

"A rival bakery is taking your share of the market!" *GRABS RUSTY AX* "Let's go take care of that!" This kids, is what adults call "aggressive negotiations."

[@kendrickrochelanzot2053]

I cannot thank you enough for these, man. You are really helping my sessions out. Loot is hard for me to come up, I am as creative as possible, but its burning out.

[@theDMLair]

Yes, creativity is tiring at times. Happy to help! 😁

[@fluffygreysocks6703]

One of my favorite things to do is give an item that would appear pointless to the players... but is VERY relevant to an NPC's story. See what they do with it. In one case they throw it away, and I get to watch their horror and frustration when I later bring in the NPC. In the other they keep it, I bring in the NPC and they enjoy the experience. Inevitably, one or two players subsequently become hoarders of *incredibly* pointless stuff. This always happens with beginners. Always.

[@LostFunocity]

I gave one of my players a sentient 'bag of devourering' which was a beginner spell caster spell mispoken, turning his pet dog in to said bag. It slobbers, it barks at people, it eats virtually anything you give it and loves all the snuggles and gets very vocal with squirrels and other small things that scamper.

[@nes819]

My absolute favourite kind of reward is "Ilegal contraband" al the bs wich is somewhat awsome, but when found on the party, it could realy hurt their good names. I alwhays lett them know when something's obviously ilegal (It's a trapp because someone at some point alwhays forgetts to cover something, but they where warned). My absolute favourite was a slave who spent their whole life in service and who asumed the slayers of his master to be the new masters. The charakters struggled a lott when this one told the gatekeeper of "Player Hubbcitty" that he was their loyale slave.

[@DragonGunzDorian]

The last part sounds like an interesting tale.

[@theDMLair]

Yes, contraband is the best. Especially valuable contraband. Then there is the moral dilemma of whether to sell it for profit or destroy it.

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

Bonus if it's a vision inducing narcotic that sends them on both legitimate quests and wild goose chases, so they also have to choose whether to use it all to gain quests, or whether to try and sell it for money (big random payout vs smaller guaranteed payout).

[@tannerray5014]

I used a journal once as something for them to find in a dungeon, and now I’m not allowed to anymore. The journal described one man’s quest to cover the world in liquid bone. It creeped them out. So naturally I had to bring that back for a new campaign.

[@TentenchiAMVs]

I really enjoyed watching this video, especially the intro, lol! The more videos like this I see, the more my brother is verified to be a natural DM. He doesn't use the handbook for the economy, but he has a solid enough understanding of economics to make the world functional. That added with his creativity gives some interesting results. We get very little gold but... We've had a bigfoot, a keep, decorative bone armor, dolls that look like plot characters, Michigan J. Frog (who sings on a nat 1), books on learning a new language, children (rescued), items that give a +__ to a particular stat (such as a monocle that adds +1 to investigation checks), and the occasional items from the future (such as land mines or a pistol that can only receive ammo as special rewards). The list goes on. So much fun when you have a creative DM! XD

[@ariariari7138]

One of the pieces of loot that was surprisingly popular and interesting was a journal of a prisoner who was killed. I tossed it in just randomly just intending for the chest of old prisoner stuff to feel more full but one of my players not only kept it but used it to impersonate the man later on and it was super cool

[@bonbondurjdr6553]

Having a TV IS special: people are slowly getting rid of 'em!! Haha! Nice video!

[@theDMLair]

Yeah...I rarely even watch a real TV these days. Lol

[@VVhirl]

This was a good resource to use. I give a questionnaire to my players about game expectations, in character backstory questions, and also little lists. One of my lists ask the players to rank what they would like to receive as a reward, 1 being the most desired, 6 being the least desired. Those lists are very helpful to get my players to think about what they want but also helps me see rankings of lots of sliding scales of dnd (theres also a list for what dnd styles they like ala intrigue, combat, exploration, rp, ect)

[@oramac7237]

I can't speak for everyone else, but I would absolutely love to hear about your Faction Favor system!

[@theDMLair]

Done!

[@badgerchillsky535]

I ran Death House from Curse of Strahd as a one shot for my daughter and a friend who were both new players. In a coat closet my daughter’s character found an old top hat that had a fancy label inside that said “Horacio’s Hat of Hiding”. Turned out to be a bag of holding in hat form. She loves it and to this day is a big part of that character’s flavor. My friend later opened a cleaning closet, which had an animated broom, which she ended up befriending. She was sooo excited about that broom.

[@polywannakraken8839]

I recently let my players purchase an Elephant (using the pricing in the PHB, with a small discount because of persuasion). They proceeded to pool their remaining money together for the components for the Druid to cast Awaken. I didn't expect it to get this far, but my players love Peanut. He is a big focus for some of the players.

[@tysoncarver5181]

Bro, I stumbled upon your channel by chance. That was a real life Nat 20. I'm prepping to run my first ever session and your tips videos are AMAZING you definitely got ms to sub. Please keep up the good work!

[@CanisiaThe3rd]

Once gave them a book that when insulted would slap anyone in its vicinity and scream bloody murder. (1d4 bludgeoning dmg) They used it to deal the final blow to a red dragon

[@gehnzou1]

I like to remind my players that valuable and rare artwork, furniture and the like isn't just monetary. These can be collected or mapped for later retrieval and maybe be donated to a local orphanage or whole town. I use Renown and Infamy and encourage players to think of intangible rewards. I have been ttrpg since about 9 or 10 and I'm 40s now. I think as a DM my players tell me everything to do. Now days making a campaign starts with one question: What would you like to see? I build everything else off of that so my players are literally baked into their campaign. I've given backstory rewards which are personal and special, one of a kind. It may have the same stats but it's yours, none exist anywhere but in your hands. Am I making sense? I want the players to feel like they belong and they're important because they ARE the story. Love the channel def subbing

[@kurtruizjr.2929]

Hey Luke, just ran your "trouble in round hill" adventure, and my players loved it. It was a little difficult at first for them (they almost got wiped out by a stone defender because none of their characters had a magical or adamantine weapon), but once I threw in an adamantine Sword, the game ran great. Probably the best part was when my players had this crazy and creative idea to slit open and crawl into the Iron Cobra's body and use it as a trojan horse to over the rust spore trap. Long story short, thanks for making such awesome videos, and adventures, and I can't wait to participate in the live stream on Friday! :)

[@theDMLair]

That's awesome dude! I'm happy to hear that your players enjoyed the adventure. My players stuggled with the same thing due to no admantine weapons. 😁 Yes, see you Friday!

[@G.O.D.-Official]

I keep the teeth, scales, claws, etc. of literally anything we kill, it went to a point where the DM made an enemy be afraid of me just from seeing me in my armor (tho which all of this was equipped to for RP purposes), but after I had waaay to much of that stuff so our DM made us encounter a bone dragon and the only way to win his favor was by giving him the bones, scales, fangs, claws, etc... I collected so far.

[@asmusholm4245]

TL:DW 1. Lore & Knowledge 5:05 2. Cool (But mostly useless) Items 5:40 3. Plot-Relevant items 6:06 4. NPC Contacts, Allies & Friends 6:36 5. Pets & Followers 7:00 6. New Skills and Languages 7:40 7. Trinkets 8:05 8. Boons, Blessings and Charms 8:37 9. Properties 9:12 10. Mundane Wapons and Armour 10:07 11. Broken Items 10:23 12. A Brand New Car 10:42 13. Land & Title 11:02 14. Faction Facor 11:24 15. Backstory Stuff 12:13

[@noabsolutelynot4587]

One of my players, actually scratch that, several of my players, insist on dancing with all the dead bodies. I will now be rewarding them (when they reach higher levels) with a wand of deadly dances; once per day, you may cast danse macabre at 5th level.

[@dragonlord4643]

my players love me for my creativity. My Party slayed a known Archdruid of the Deepwoods, who controlled literally the nearby Woodelven Clans and the Wild Creatures. Well the Wizard of the Party lootet the Druides Rod. The Rod was thin and became thicker to the top, the top was formed like a Head with a Jade-Green Moonstone planted inside. They inspectet the Rod more precise and it tunred out that the Rod is actually a Creature. The Druide of the Party became its Master and gained Four new Abillitys which actually can only cast the Rod itself but on the Casters command. So it was basiclly a Weapon-Pet, the Rod was able to spoke the language of the Treemen and was able to cast a Spellshield, Healing Aura (AoE Heal not OP but really good to heal everyone a bit), Squeezing Roots (literally squeezing and hoding an enemy with roots good damage and stun) and a "Scream of Wildness" which turns 3 nearby Trees alive for a short time who help the group in a fight (Trees are needed to be around, logical) It became one of the most favorite Items :D

[@anidiotplayslivestream5206]

I'm so, so happy you did this one. I royally screwed up and loaded my players up on gold at the start of my campaign, I've been working towards fixing it (organically) for four months. Thanks!

[@_Simoose]

I only watched the beginning and gave my players a television. They still thought it was pretty awesome.

[@Menzobarrenza]

By level 1, session 2, I had given my players a small ship. It was 2 brutal sessions to earn it, though. By level 3 they replaced it with a huge galleon they "emptied". Now they have to keep earning gold to pay the salaries of the sailors from the village they saved.

[@NovaGirl8]

in my current campaign I have a special magical item shop that sells some cool items. It is supposed to show up only once per player (if they have someone with them, it will apply to them). It is like a dollar store where everything is 50gp but you can only buy one item. I had a problem where one PC new to the group who wanted to see the store. She had more than enough gold to buy a special scroll but I didn't want to sell it that easily (plus it is also a one-shot) so I gave her and her sidekick a quest to clean out one of the shopkeepers storage rooms of some 'pests'. In the end she had to face 16 boggles and a Barghest (for flavor purposes) that the Shopkeeper had to engage because she has not mastered combat vs large groups and keps fighting the barghest while the boggles were whittling down her health. Had to activate the shopkeepers special abilities twice to help her and they managed to kill everything. Shopkeeper wasn't amused of the whole ordeal and gave her the scroll as promised and way less coin rewards. And as a parting shot I gave her a tiny hint of what would happen in the plot while tying it to her backstory and when she tried to ask for more info the shop disappeared in a blink. Player's mind was blown and simultaneously creeped out by my intentionally creepily mysterious shopkeeper. I just hope she does not think to ask how much the Kobold PC's new cloak costs.

[@erikkennedy8725]

My players just looted a shrine and walked off with a bunch of art objects. Including a matching set of drinking cups. We’ll see which ones they sell off. I’ve also let them learn skills when they have a month of down time- which skills depend on which are reasonably available (can’t learn animal handling on a ship.) Every game I’ve played in has had problems keeping horses alive. Until one of the players came in with a character with a knight background and had squires to take care of them. I throw in backstory rewards routinely as plot hooks. My player’s ranger discovered her dad was alive and trapped inside a planar portal and it’s been a major plot hook for the entire campaign.

[@mirandaowler6187]

I'm DMing a Morrowind tabletop game and one item in a miscellaneous loot chest was a drawing of a lusty argonian maid, it got swiped up immediately lol

[@mirandaowler6187]

They also accidentally got a ship

[@Super12212012]

Since I cant find DMs. I have given my party some fun stuff. But the best thing in recent memory is my dwarf made a wish for a Beard of holding.

[@xeonespydonum4995]

gave my level 3 players a ring of 3 wishes, they wasted all 3 in under 5 minutes, and ended up with less than they started with.

[@Packless1]

...be careful what you wish, it could really happen...! ;-)

[@NobodyDungeons]

So I had a character with missing family and I had one of the family members doing the same thing as his character was adventuring around looking for any signs of their family which ultimately lead to the new NPC joining the party on their adventures and giving the PC someone to share their grief with at the loss of their family when they realize they are the only ones still alive

[@alexreese614]

In a game I'm running, I gave a character a "magic item" that was a magic orb made by an ancient race. The orb was made as a knowledge storage type, but because it's sentient it usually messes with the player and only gives so much lore at once. That same player also took a petrified goblin from a cockatrice nest and uses it as a threat in interrogations or beatdowns

[@russelljacob7955]

Also, combine stuff. Mundane items that are unique that you need to assemble to bring power back.... Which then revive the big baddie that decimates the world. Oops for misleading clues Or have your transportation the property. I had my players running about earning favours which earned them a custom prototype sailing ship made for them in a naval campaign. Imagine a ship of the line meets catamaran. It had a small launch sloop, could sail the grand river up to the capital, but still be ocean going. It was a reward built over several sessions, and then party was able to continue investing with upgrades, crew, weapons, etc.

[@karpmageddon4155]

So you're telling me to collect the pieces of a puzzle box, solve it and then get new friends from the Outer Realm? Surely nothing could go wrong...

[@russelljacob7955]

@@karpmageddon4155 Well, this one was about a post apocalyptic if apocalypse was high fantasy. The party was tracking down and putting together the divine arms and armor of the grand hero who sacrificed self to stop a great war. All legends tell of how stopped the bloodthirsty murderous hordes etc. Clues pointing to didnt die, but entered realm between realms to seal off the magics. This gear being a source of binding and to be gathered should ever need to arise and save world. Problem was, the humanoids (elves, halflings, humans etc) were the bloodthirsty invaders of the monster race lands. The great hero caused apocalypse to stop them. They bring back a half orc megaboss set on purging humans/etc from existence. But it was a campaign where the only treasure the party cared about was seeing what that next piece looked like and getting more of this lore. Nobody was asking for shinies, just another bit of documentation. It was my greatest plot twist. My magnum opus. And it was the true start of what became a grand saga.

[@karpmageddon4155]

@@russelljacob7955 Sounds like a messed up translation of a Zelda game, where Ganon is the good guy. I love it! 😀 Come to think of it, orcs were pig-like in appearance to begin with. So it even fits the lore.

[@KylaFallenAngel124]

I homebrewed a "Raw Resource" system. Every Humanoid drops gold but every creature drops resources. I handed out a sheet that tells the players what kind of resources they can loot from which kinds of creatures and they tell me what they attempt to harvest from what they killed. They can get leather, hide, stone, magic crystals, animated vegetation, ectoplasm, bones, eyes and metal. They use these components when buying items, potions, and armor to make the items cheaper, otherwise the items at various stores are double priced. They can also choose to sell these materials for varying amounts of copper, silver, or gold. Its been working well for us.

[@karpmageddon4155]

As much as it sounds like something out of a video game, it would make sense to do something with monster parts. Plus it make sense for them to reduce costs since they would otherwise be materials needed to craft said items, so you are basically covering their overhead. Also it can provide fairly standard MMO quests, where a certain amount of x needs to be acquired from y for the local apothecary to brew healing potions or something of similar need.

[@theDMLair]

Cool, sounds interesting. Do players ever try to craft things from the resources?

[@KylaFallenAngel124]

@@theDMLair i made it known from the beginning of using this system that these specific items they get from creatures are not for crafting, and if they want to find materials for crafting themselves to let me know beforehand and we'd discuss what to do about that. though the players have never expressed a desire to do any crafting. whether that had anything to do with the resource system or not i'm not sure. i wanted to post the sheet i made in the discord but i wasn't sure which tab to post in since there's so many lol

[@KylaFallenAngel124]

@@karpmageddon4155 that was kinda what i was going for. i saw how the loot system was currently working and was like "i can make this better, monsters wouldn't carry gold around like that" i made it its own loot table and handed it out to players so they knew what each material was, what it was used for, what gets discounted at shops and for how much, and how much it sells for. this way they also have the option of using it how they want, they don't have to use it for shop discounts if they don't want to and it still has a purpose and a use by selling it. so this way its not immersion breaking, and still useful to the players. not to mention this system also allows me to diversify loot in chests and rooms as well. gnolls would hoard trophies of things they've killed and bring it back to their lair, which the group could loot for resources. it works well and i'm happy with how it turned out.

[@kendrickrochelanzot2053]

Thank you Luke, I often come back to these for help

[@theDMLair]

You're very welcome!

[@avakio19]

7: Don't talk to me, my Owlbear hat, my tanned Lizardfolk Belt, my Dragon Tooth necklace, my Direbear cloak, or my Hill Giant leather boots ever again. If you were an adventurer who killed monsters you'd take trophies too. And if you're a necromancer PC there's plenty of potential uses for the bodies.

[@keithd26]

One of my DMs gave me a "branch of healing". To which I took great pleasure in repeatedly hitting my companions over the head whilst telling them off for being stupid enough to get hurt. Each hit healed for 1d4

[@Vinemaple]

First time watching this channel, just had it randomly come through my suggestion feed... but after seeing the intro skit, I know I like your channel. Absolutely hilarious.

[@claytrimble4599]

I was once a goblin "baron" of f*ckyoustan. End of campaign: my baron is now fully recognized by the court of Neverwinter.

[@georgemercer402]

I don't know how you would classify this, but I'd award my players with a homebrewed magic item: an enchanted ship in a bottle. I would explain what's necessary about it such as the pros and cons along with how to summon the ship and return it to the bottle; how to do so will be a little hard to to though.

[@gon9000]

You could Just give them magic items so rarely that your players will kill themselfs to get one. I also like giving them gems which they can trade with merchants about worth of it.

[@theDMLair]

I like that idea... 😈

[@gon9000]

👍

[@BiasFree]

A home base is a great reward for players, gives them a place to make their own and get attached to, and give you as the DM a good setting for something bad to happen later.

[@theDMLair]

Something bad to happen later... You sound like my kind of DM. 😁

[@manaraxjendo7900]

One of the coolest items I ever gave the pcs was a randomly rolled treasure, a jade inlaid mug. See, I rolled this 6 times over the next 10 sessions. They began to wonder why there were so many. I came up with a legend that they were originally a commemorative set of mugs. The cool thing is I let loose that there was a rumor/legend that they would be magical if the entire set was collected. They are now attempting to find and collect all of them. It's great.

[@kenlee5509]

I had a character collecting Lapis Lazuli for a fireplace they were designing... Another had a Methanol still for creative weaponry and fire-starters... fuel air bombs... in closed spaces... hehehe.

[@impishDullahan]

With the current campaign I'm running, I find that half of my rewards are expanded homebrew rules that only 1 player knows about. I gave my cleric and amulet that grants her the devotion rules from MOoT, my rogue learned Thieves' Cant from a major NPC so I found some rules for that for future use, my druid was given an empty totem from her totem spirit patrons to store a familiar in so I found special rules surrounding the acquisition of this familiar. It's all just giving them extra, character specific mechanics to play with and use as side-quests or options to present quest hooks.

[@BramLastname]

I use a lot of these, My players really like rings, So I tend to give them a bunch of rings. And most of them are magical. But some are just nice bling to strengthen the knuckledusters.

[@cedriceby3052]

I gave one of my players a talkative grung who wouldn't stop yapping and yapping. He found it by trading with a traveling merchant called joe (which they killed after they traded with him), and bought the grung for 40 gp (or maybe even 55). I don't know why, but the player who bought the grung was the rogue, and not the ranger.

[@ironkeepgaming1936]

My campaign called the Iron Keep will have an entire crafting system in it, hopefully this will be awesome 😎. The crafting book is 120 pages long.

[@marf2953]

Planning a campaign right now where I reward my players with invitations to the local lord's lavish wedding. Then there's a murder mystery at the wedding, and when they solve the murder they're rewarded with a knightship.

[@josephdellavecchia7828]

Hey Luke, a faction favour video sounds absolutely amazing

[@theDMLair]

Okay, you got it! 😁

[@timbomb374]

I love the more obscure items that have only very niche abilities that I have to figure out how to make useful. The more niche the more room there is for other magic items with different abilities.

[@angie.castle]

Dude, one of my players was so happy with getting a big pot as a reward. Not magical. Just a big bronze pot he could put on his head and use for shenanigans. It's basically the symbol of the crew now.

[@JohnSmith-qe6fb]

I am the DM for a group of younger players and they love silly items: The Horn of Screaming: A horn that screams when blown. I play a sound effect and allow enemies to be slightly confused if they don't pass their save. Creatures must have above 8 Intelligence to be affected. When slightly confused, they have a -1 to attack. Will be useless at higher levels but fun for now. The Sword of Unending Gossip:Tells the players stupid little secrets about town characters at random times. Gives no bonus to hit or damage, but if they listen to it enough they may reveal a secret side quest. The Boots of Clippety-Clop: If the players dash, I use two coconuts to simulate the sound of a horse. A miniature pony can be summoned outside of combat to carry a small amount of extra loot but disappears during combat.

[@sigwolvs4954]

Starting a campaign one of my party wanted to start with a magic sword, discussing it with them we agreed it was unlikely such a low level character would be carrying a magic sword but we agreed that as part of the back story they had fled a temple with an item that whilst giving some benefit +1 to attack and +1 damage it would also cause using any other weapon to be at disadvantage due to a malevolent spirit which must be banished from the blade. The rest of the party where given options to take similar items that could have a positive or negative effect each based around the characters story and each character searching for a missing page of a book or piece of a broken orb to fix their broken items.

[@Syntheconductor]

Hello, new subscriber here. Thanks for such helpful and fun content. I played my first D&D campaign that lasted about a year and a half and tonight is my first time DMing. Very excited and appreciative for all your tips!

[@theDMLair]

You're very welcome! Good luck tonight! 😁

[@WickedCrispy]

One thing I always liked was some random item with a secret to it that could perplex the players who found it for awhile, like a blank piece of parchment that made a bell go off with Detect Magic or something but the players weren't powerful enough to figure it out just yet. Do you as the DM even have to know what the item does when they find it? No, you can save it for later. Say they take it to a shop to have it appraised and it immediately freaks out the owner who angrily kicks you out of the shop, cursing you for bringing it there while refusing to tell you what it is. You can waste all sorts of time with something like this. Basically a MacGuffin that can pay off later. It could be a hidden map (yawn), a devious spell left behind just to make the bearer of it seemingly smell bad to random people by a trickster mage (warmer), or truly awful and ruin a player's other items durability or sap magic over time (despicable). The best players would end up keeping it and using it against some other enemy later while simple players would just try to get rid of it like a cursed ring you can't take off.

[@danielclark-hughes692]

I recently had the magic items all slowly become sentient. First, the Bag of Holding became self aware. It would berate anyone who opened it for their poor organisation skills. A little later the Sentinel Shield began exclaiming things like "Ha haaa! Thou cannot bypass my defensive capabilities!" whenever a creature missed. Some of my favourites were an Enduring Spellbook that would call out the names of spells in the style of Matt Berry and a magic dagger that would vocalise the Jaws theme when moving in stealth and shout "Sneak attack!!" when the rogue got her sneak attack bonus

[@ShugoAWay]

My favorite thing is give odd minor magic items like a ring that vibrates when its mated ring is rubbed they can come up with hlw to use it and if they do something way broken with it maybe chat with them about it or minor non magic creations like a bottle of hot sauce that is mostly empty (about enough left to flavor 2 personal meal or 1 group meal)

[@lockwoan01]

Barbarian: It's like writing a Christmas List. Funny you should mention that.

[@jedbex7070]

I wish you got more views! You're stuff is incredible and it makes me think of things I should do or have done for my players and things I think would be cool if my DM did it!

[@TheodoreMinick]

Share the video. Text the link to your DM, or to your gaming group. Better yet, your entire contact list.

[@jedbex7070]

@@TheodoreMinick Our DM is new and very anxious I don't want to send them a bunch of videos because idk if they'll take it as criticism or just good advice. I'm new to the group.

[@TheodoreMinick]

@@jedbex7070 alright, well, maybe don't share _this_ video. Share one of a funny story, like Luke's "Don't taunt the DM" video. Or maybe the two videos he did about shit advice on Reddit and Facebook. Let Luke himself do the pitch for his DM tips. But, yeah, if you want to grow the channel, sharing videos with your friends is the best way.

[@jedbex7070]

@@TheodoreMinick Great idea!

[@josephmort4039]

I gave my players a magical staff that, when placed on the ground and spoke a command word, it would stand upright. You could easily knock it over so it was like a horrible version of an Immovable Rod but my players were always trying, and usually failing, to find creative ways to use it. Also, there was a writing desk that always had fresh parchment in the main drawer. No one was a scribe, no one wanted to write a book or anything, but they lugged around that desk everywhere until a dragon destroyed it out of spite.

[@RobertWF42]

How about a magic compass with a needle that points toward treasure. The closer and more valuable the treasure, the stronger the needle's attraction. However the magic compass is ancient & in disrepair - it cannot tell the user how far the treasure is, or whether the needle is averaging the direction between two or more treasure hoards. Therefore players will have to figure out on their own how to estimate the distance to the closest treasure.

[@achimsinn7782]

If the players already have a home or base or anything like that, giving them anything that expands on that is always a good option. Like orchid seeds that could be raised into pretty flowers (and if you are an evil DM will raise into monstrous flowers that grow over the base and lead to a little side quest) a tapestry that would like just lovely in the dinner hall, A egglaying woolmilkswine (I did that as a pun) that could live in the garden and serve as pet and lay eggs, give milk and wool and if they would ever slaughter it also give meet. (but also needs A LOT of food forcing the players to spend 10 gold per month for keeping it) An engineer who would build an elevator into their base after being saved (didn't do that one, but maybe in the future) The players will be happy about most of that stuff, even if it does nothing to enhance their game or even if it actually turns into a liability. I even had situations where they specifically asked for sidequests for obtaining useless decoration items for their base just because they wanted to have them.

[@megamania9393]

Fun fact, in my first ever champagne i ran, i rolled on the trinkets table to see what my players would find. My friend who was playing a Blue Dragonborn Barbarian found a pair of dice, bone dice to be specific. he immediately wanted to see if they are magical (they weren't) but continued to carried them with him for the entire champagne asking anyone and everyone about them, they all told him the dice were normal. The near beginning of the last session of the champagne they were fighting a Piercer and mid fight he was finally done with the dice and threw them at the Piercer *nat 20* I did quick math +rage + cool points and the dice went flying through the creature killing it and both die landing 2 sixes.

[@TheDungeonCoach]

Sometimes man... it’s like you’re in my head! And it gives me a great assurance lol! I LOVE giving my PCs things to make them love then break their hearts... I do that with their backstories too... as we make it... I’m just looking for someone to kill... or kidnap... or scare... if I’m not feeling too evil!

[@Emanemoston]

One of my most prized possessions was a crystal tankard with a mage’s name on it (the bad guy we filled full of extra holes). We once were “rewarded” with a small parcel of land and a few peasants to work the land, of course it was overrun with lizard men, and the duke was wanting all those back taxes paid off in short order. Another session, the party through in together and built an inn, The Wayward Inn, again there was taxes and upkeep to be paid, but the information we gleaned from passing adventurers made it worth it.

[@seankrake4776]

I had a really goofy campaign. My bard liked using his ukelele as a club, but at higher levels he needed an upgrade. I gave him an all steel, double necked, contrabass ukelele, known as the “ukes of hazard”. His original ukelele was named the “uke-ular bomb”

[@alexandraelizabeth8522]

Best magic item from a campaign: A magical tankard that once per day could transform into a large bathtub filled as full (90% full tankard=90% full tub) as the tankard was with liquid the same temperature as was in the tankard. A portable bath for my noble was a wonderful in game luxury that had no mechanical bonus.

[@tmoore22]

I award “reputation points.” The players can add up to 10 points as a buff to any CH roll. If they succeed they only spend half the points, fail, all wagered points, crit success, no points, and crit fail double points. If they fall to negative points total, they suffer the minus to future CH checks until they have earned enough reputation points to be at or above zero in their pool.

[@michaelnagel2205]

Would love to hear your spin on factions and favor. I like rewarding with... minor magic tokens, near useless magic items, unique spells, lore & languages. ..mug of chilling ..ever clean/dry boots ..washcloth of cleaning ..fireless frypan ..scultures tool, stylus of stone shape .. 1 GP of Returning (reqs attunement) ..minor image of a loved one (hologram) Single use Token of ..feather fall ..alarm ..message/sending ..

[@theDMLair]

Single use magic items and ones somewhat useful outside of combat but otherwise not are fun ones to reward. Faction favor video coming soon!

[@mikestuckless2841]

I remember the time I gave my group a single white glove. The ongoing quest to find the other glove was a lot of fun. **Insert Michael Jackson Music here***

[@theDMLair]

That's awesome. Was the glove magical at all?

[@mikestuckless2841]

@@theDMLair well +1 1 to all Charisma rolls is a must lol

[@FrostSpike]

Reminds me of the 1e UK2 module - "The Sentinel", the other glove would be "The Gauntlet" in UK3. ;-)

[@christianacquasanta1472]

Well what I do is giving as loot 1 or 2 "upgrade" magic item depending on the quest. It means +1 stuff and all things like that that players can use + some "trinket items". This is something like Ring of planar resistence: Advantage to resist the effects of the outer planes (Arboria, Nine Hells, etc)

[@jackhume1525]

Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you

[@-MCMLXXII-]

I once ran a game where they explored a dungeon that was inside of a rather large magical tree, the interior of which was covered in elaborate bas relief carvings. Once they'd fully translated the info inside them they realized I'd used their back stories to reveal that the party's elven sorcerer was the daughter of the fighters great grandfather.

[@sandsquid1683]

In the last game I played, the DM had to let us buy an island because we had nearly 20,000 GP between the five of us. It was -- a lot. But, we bought a freakin island, so that was awesome.

[@ramgladore]

My group is doing Lost mines of Phandelver. The monk named Yato was standing guard for the first half of the night while the others were sleeping and he was attacked by a random encounter orc who was armed with a great axe. The orc damn near killed Yato but the Yato still won. He not only got a great axe that does 1d12 slashing but he found a piece of paper with crudely drawn likenesses of everyone in the group. Its written in a language that nobody in the party can read but they figure its a bounty. They did in fact let some key figure bad guys get away like Irano Albrek as well as the drow assasin and even Yeemik from the Cragmaw cave. I'd like to take credit for the idea except the module actually says they could encounter a bounty hunter with a paper with their faces drawn on it. It was kinda neat seeing my group actually role play over it because role play isn't something they're too high up on. Usually they just wanna run and gun.

[@Spiceodog]

I love it when the dm gives me songs and stories to my bard as a reward

[@handlebarfox2366]

When I was a kid, we were excited when we got a phone line all of our own. Today, it's still unusual to have a land line phone in your home.