[RPG] How to deal with giving the loot (armor, weapons) from dead enemies to players while staying in line with rules

dnd-5etreasure

After a successful fight party regularly checks enemies bodies for any kind of loot – their weapons and armor too with the intent to sell in the city. In 5e PHB pp. 144 you can read:

As a general rule, undamaged weapons, armor, and other equipment fetch half their cost when sold in a market. Weapons and armor used by monsters are rarely in good enough condition to sell.

So from what I understand here reselling enemies equipment is mechanically allowed, but discouraged. As looting is a very popular trope in cRPG games, I would like to also give this option to my players.

However, the PHB rules aren't specific, so I'm not sure how to proceed without being too arbitrary. The equipment rules from 5th Edition SRD also highlights the freedom of what to do for DM.

You can equip Monsters with additional gear and Trinkets however you like, and you decide how much of a monster’s Equipment is recoverable after the creature is slain and whether any of that Equipment is still usable. A battered suit of armor made for a monster is rarely usable by someone else, for instance.

Based on all of this, I want to build mechanic support for DM in line with core rules of dealing with looting weapons, armor and other equipment from slain enemies. Maybe you use or encounter a mechanic which worked fine for your games?

Additional, I want to make sure is that this influx of gold will not destabilize game, by making player characters rich too fast.

Best Answer

The system I made, which I'm testing with my party:

  • Armours and shields are damaged during the fight, so they can't be sold.
  • Weapons, as far as I know, aren't damaged during the fight, so players should be able to sell them..
  • Other enemies gear is undamaged.
  • I assume that rarely means 20%, so for each weapon player need to roll d20 and 17+ means that it is in a good enough condition to be sold.
  • The merchant, if they are interested, has enough gold to buy items according to this answer, so 250gp from moderately sized merchants in larger cities, 50 gp from small merchants / large cities or moderate merchants / small cities, and 10 gp from rural merchants.
  • Merchant is offering 50% of the price, as said in PHB as long as they have more than 50% available cash (PCs didn't sell enough loot yet).
  • When a merchant has less than 50% of available cash, they offer 25% for the weapons or denies the interest in buying.
  • A merchant doesn't buy if they don't have cash but can be persuaded for barter exchange.
  • Merchant resupplies in cash in 10 days.
  • If players want to bargain they need to make a persuasion skill check 15 (can be modified depending on players standings to a merchant or other reasons) and for each 5+ over merchant agrees on buying weapons for 10% more.

From what I see compared it gave an influx of cash which is between the median and the optimal wealth, so it is a small buff. Remembering about living expenses, which is 1 gp daily, also helps with balance.