The CRB has recommendations for number and level of permanent items by level, but how do you actually select what these are?
It recommends that in place of 1st-level items, giving out mundane stuff including weapons & armour, so would that be things like giving a shortbow user a composite shortbow? Other than composite bows (and full plate, which is outside the 10–20 gp price range it lists anyway), won’t characters usually have started with all the mundane equipment they want?
What other options make sense to give low-level characters?
And as you level up to higher levels, are the bread-and-butter permanent items going to be runes for them to place on their weapons & armour? How do you decide what to give and how to balance the “necessary for balance” with “fun flavourful stuff”?
@Zagorath I look for items the players need and for items that are thematic! Anything else matters very little! Certain mundane things could be useful, but magical items are generally more fun! Oh, and if you’re willing to balance your encounters for things like “the party refuses to get any kind of armour rune because there are cooler magical items in the magical shop”, then it really shouldn’t matter too much!
Adding onto this: do you hand out the loot in the adventure or adapt it with new stuff?
I use ABP so that we can skip the less interesting +X stuff.
One of my players is very into crafting, and they work as a group to be able to afford things, so one of the best treasures I can give are uncommon or rare items, or even just the formulas.
I tend to focus more on fun than utility items, though this varies. And I like to give out thematic stuff. Recently they fought a Skuln, which is described as having adamant claws and teeth. But it has no listed treasure, so I gave them adamantium chunks as treasure from scavenging the body.
