Delta has a nice
post up about treasure, but I think it misses the mark just a little bit as it focuses on the random encounter tables and not on the dungeon stocking rules.
Let's break it down. The dungeon level was suppose to take PC's of similar level, dungeon level 1 for 1st level, dungeon level 2 for 2nd etc. In a mega-dungeon this comprises the "campaign" so we need enough XP on level one to get the PC's prepared for level two!
Level 1take 5 PC's. They will need roughly 15000-25000xp to prepare for level 2.
100 rooms (taking castle of the arch-magi as our prototypical mega-dungeon).
A We will place two treasures. (1) The first of which is the contents of a small goblin tribe. 150 goblins (45 males). Based on treasure type it's about 3000gp worth of gold/magic items. 25 of the males will be in the lair, the other 20 will be in surrounding chambers or out scouting. treasure (2) will be a hidden gem in an empty room discoverable through detect magic, find treasure, or a careful search of the room worth 5000gp.
B[ now it says that 33% of the rooms should be inhabited by monsters, so that's 30 more room other than the goblins. Let's assume all 1HD creatures of an average # being 4, so 400xp multiplied by 30 = 12,000xp from monsters slain plus 4,500xp from the goblins.
Total monster XP 16,500 (fear not if you think this is high, more explanation on this later)
TREASURE 50% of the room will have treasure. On a 1st level dungeon the average treasure will be 35gp with a 5% chance for a magic item. There are then about 2.5 magic items (not counting the goblin stash) in the first level of the dungeon. This might be a 250xp potion or a sword +2 (2000xp) so lets just say 2.5 magic items of average value of 1000xp/gp each so 2,500xp from magic items.
total treasure from goblins 3000gp and the 5000gp gem+4250 from random gold and magic items = 12,250gp
Total xp on level 1 of the mega-dungeon is 28,750 if totally cleared.
Now, about those monsters. A group of 5 PC's is never, ever (baring some really great role-playing, charming of the chieftain, illusionary dragon etc) going to defeat a goblin tribe alone. Since this is old-school d&d lets assume that in addition to the 5 PCs, we have 15 hirelings and swordsmen. These hirelings and swordsmen
take an equal share of combat xp from the party.
16,250/20 adventurers = 812xp for each of the PC's from monster kills.
But the PC's determine who gets the gold Let's give each man at arms a monthly salary per day (rules say a dungeon expidition is 1 week) so 5gpx7 = 35gp times 15 men. The players only loose out on 525 gp in payment. Let's double this number for a job well done and NPC morale. 1000gp for the 15, more than a years wages for a weeks work!
This leaves 11,250gp divided by 5 PC's or 2,250gp/xp.
monster xp: 812 (36% of xp)
treasure xp: 2,250 (64% of xp)
On a total clear, by awesome players, everyone will be 2nd level even the magic users and ready for the dungeon level 2 (more likely is a partial clear of level 1 and some forays into level 2 before finishing level 1 fully).
FINAL THOUGHTSI think I skimped a little bit on magic items and didn't even bother rolling for gems, which would raise the treasure xp up a fair bit (perhaps even up to the 80%). What raising the number of monsters does however, is raise xp....yes,
but also raises difficulty level. Really anything more than 36% xp from monsters makes for an almost impossible dungeon difficulty level. At 20% monsters, perhaps a group of PC's could do it with little to no hireling help, anything more requires a small army.
