Dungeons & Dragons: How Treasure Works In The 2025 Monster Manual

Providing meaningful rewards to players like treasure is always a great way to cap off any Dungeons & Dragons session. However, sometimes, when you're crafting an encounter or climatic battle from scratch, it can be easy to forget to come up with original treasure or rewards to gift your players with after they prove themselves victorious.

Luckily, when pulling monsters from the 2025 Monster Manual, each Monster Entry, or grouping of monsters, has notes on what kind of treasure these creatures might hoard. If you're just picking up the 2025 Monster Manual for the first time, here's what you need to know about how treasure works.

How Treasure Works

In the 2025 Monster Manual, each monster type has a Treasure Tag that dictates the type of treasure the creature has in its possession, and how much. There are a handful of different treasure tags, listed below.

Treasure Tag	Details
Any	The monster has any kind of treasure hoard or any singular piece of treasure, to be used at the DM's discretion.
Individual	The monster doesn't have a specific treasure hoard, but it does have one piece of treasure on its person, like a singular magical item or more typically, gold of some kind.
Treasure Theme	The monster has a treasure hoard or a singular object skewed to a particular theme (more on this below). This can be coupled with the Individual tag as well.
None	The monster doesn't care about treasure, and likely doesn't have any.

What Are Treasure Hoards?

A treasure hoard is a mass of treasure containing various types of objects, typically rewarded to players after a difficult combat encounter.

In the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide, various tables in Chapter Seven can help you flavor Treasure Hoards with different types of gems, stones, metal bars, coins, and more.

Each of these Treasure Hoards also has a Treasure Theme that dictates the type of rewards your players might get.

What Are Treasure Themes?

In the 2025 Monster Manual, at the top of each Monster Entry, there's a section listed for Treasure Theme right next to the creature's chosen habitat.

This Treasure Theme tag can also be coupled with the Individual tag, meaning the monster in question has one piece of treasure tailored to that theme.

Depending on the type of monster, you might see one of four different themes.

1. Arcana - Magical items plus gemstones of a mystical variety.
2. Armaments - Coins, gold, and silver, plus magical items that are meant for combat.
3. Implements - Coins, gold, and silver, plus magical items with a focus on utility.
4. Relics - Artistic objects plus magical items with religious purposes.

How To Create A Treasure Hoard

Once you understand the basic overview of each Treasure Theme, it's time to design a Treasure Hoard based on the monster you select from the 2025 Monster Manual.

To construct a Treasure Hoard, follow these steps.

Step	Details
Determine Amount Of Treasure	First, you'll want to determine the amount of magical items or individual, specific objects you'll want to place in the hoard for players.
Determine Treasure Worth	Second, you'll want to determine the material worth of the objects like coins, gold, art objects, etc.
Determine Specific Objects	Once you've figured out value and the number of objects, you can create the stat blocks, rules, and other details for said objects.

To determine the size and worth of the treasure, you can use the following table, available in the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide.

Challenge Rating	Monetary Treasure Value	Magic Items
0-4	2d4 x 100 (500) GP	1d4 - 1
5-10	8d10 × 100 (4,400) GP	1d3
11-16	8d8 × 10,000 (36,000) GP	1d4
17	6d10 × 10,000 (330,000) GP	1d6

Treasure Hoard Example

Let's take a look at a Treasure Hoard example by using the 2025 Monster Manual entry for Adult Black Dragons, which can be found under 'B,' alphabetically.

Adult Black Dragons have the Treasure Theme Relics, and don't have the Individual tag, meaning they have a large hoard of Art Objects and religious magic items. Plus, their CR is 14, which is relatively high.

Using this info, we can determine the amount of treasure in their hoard and its worth.

1. Amount Of Treasure = 1d4 Magic Items
2. Worth Of Treasure = 8d8 x 10,000 (36,000) GP

From there, you can either homebrew your own magic items, or roll on the Random Magic Items table under Relics found in Chapter Seven of the Dungeon Master's Guide.

To determine Art Objects found in the hoard, you can roll on the Art Objects table ​​​​​​found in Chapter Seven as well as many times as necessary to achieve the equivalent worth of the treasure listed above.

Remember, ultimately, these are all just guidelines. As a DM, you can do whatever you want with a monster's Treasure Hoard, just make sure it feels rewarding to players!

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