Summary
The beauty of playingDungeons & Dragonsis when you have to deal with the unexpected, since out of those interactions is where the essence of D&D shines. There are many games where you slay dragons, but few let you talk it out with the beast and become lifelong friends.
Out of these situations, your players will often be fighting things you didn’t expect and uncovering treasure you didn’t prepare for. You always want to reward your players for having clever ideas or encountering new ways of dealing with enemies, but improvising a reward that keeps everything balanced isn’t an easy task.
7Have Rewards Prepared Beforehand
You Never Know When You Need To Be Handing Out Gold
The obvious way to solve an improvisation issue is not having to improvise at all. While you can’t be expected to be prepared for every single scenario, you can always have a side treasure prepared in case your players start looting the local Thieves Guild.
This doesn’t need to be anything fancy, maybe a couple of gold and some potions, but you’ll certainly surprise your players if you have a treasure on the ready for when they ransack a random house. The world will feel more alive this way, and you’ll be able to get the session back on track in no time.
6Use The Monster’s Equipment
It Isn’t Always Listed On The Stat Block
Sometimes, the best answer is the simplest one, so next time your players loot the corpse of a Goblin and you aren’t sure what to give them, just look at what the monster can do. If it can hit with a Scimitar and a Shortbow, then the players can gain those things.
Granted, this doesn’t always work, since some monsters have stats that make the weapons better than what they are, but it is a practical solution. It is also the best way to reward playersat the early levels, since they might not have the gold or the knowledge to buy some basic pieces of gear.
5Give Them Pieces Of Art
You Can Add Value Later
If you’re too worried about the balance of a session, you can avoid giving your players too much gold by not letting them know how much they just earned. You can have them earn a portrait or a small statue as a reward, and next time they go to a city (likely next session), you can tell them how much each item is worth.
To avoid having your players take everything not nailed down, you can have them do a perception check to tell if there are any valuable items around. That way, if they snagged a painting worth a lot of gold last time, you can stop them from taking every single painting on their future travels.
4Make Players Roll For Book Chapters
You Have Plenty Of Magic Items In Source Books
When you want to reward something grand to your players, but you don’t have anything planned, you’re able to take any magic item from your many D&D books and give them something from there. If you can’t decide, you can have your players roll to choose the book: a D6 if you have six books, a D4 if you only have four, and so on.
It doesn’t even need to be a magical item, and since the player is the one throwing the dice, the reward feels even more earned. Just verify that their reward is something that makes sense, or at the very least something they can take home.
3Have NPCs Owe The Party A Favor
Not All Rewards Are Tangible
You don’t always need to give your players something to feel they earned a reward, especially if they just helped someone in need that has nothing to give to them. You can have that NPC claim that they will help the party inwhatever they might need in the future, or even aid on a problem that they have right now.
That way, you may reward the party for saving that villager by gaining free lodgings for the night, or a guard they saved at a cave can help them get into the city without paying a toll. You can even have the reward happen in a different session, although try not to take too long, otherwise the players might forget who the NPC was.
2Use The D&D Beyond Item Search
You Can Give Them Rewards Based On Their Experience
Searching for items in D&D Beyond is similar to doing so in your own books, although with the filters, you can customize the search to fit whatever adventure your party is having. That way, you’re not just getting a random item, but something tailor-made for the context they just had.
For example, if your party just defeated a Green Dragon, you could go to the D&D Beyond Magic Item catalog and add some filters, like a Very Rare item that has resistance to poison. From the limited options, the Dragon Scale Mail fits the context, being looted from the corpse of a knight that tried to fight the Dragon and lost.
1Ask Your Players For Time To Deal With Rewards
There Is No Shame In Communicating With Friends
If your mind is completely blank and no option seems viable for rewarding your players, you’re able to always just talk to them about it. You’re among friends after all, so you can open up about the fact that you weren’t prepared for a reward in this context, and that you need a little more time to prepare something worthy.
For this scenario, it is best to leave the reward they earned for the next session. Maybe they found a bag or a chest, but they didn’t have the time to go over the contents until they were safe in their hideout; then, you can give them whatever fits best for the adventures they just had.
