Disclaimer: This question is tagged dnd-5e, since consideration of the value of money or the magic item system might be relevant. I do, however, doubt that an answer based primarily on these would provide a satisfying solution to the problem at hand.
Clarification on magic items: I do not conside...
At 5th level why are they expected to defeat a dragon that has such a large hoard? you have stated in a comment that this is a scaled-down dragon, why is the hoard not also reduced?
Level and world impact are pretty much unrelated in my games. We play at a level that players like and I make adventures that I think are interesting. There are no restrictions like you cannot kill a real dragon below level 15.
That might be the problem right there - while you're purposely scaling down the dragon to be a reasonable encounter for your party, and allowing them to fight it in your world, which is fine if you all agree to it, you aren't willing to also scale the type of reward they get to be appropriate to their level - with everything else being scaled down, but not the treasure, you're creating an imbalance in the reward they get for the challenge they face.
I disagree. If they were level 15, I'd still say that the dragon hoard should contain more wealth than you get from a usual quest. The problem would be the same. As stated before, I am not concerned about the absolute amount of money but the relative.
This question is devolving into idea generation. Given the extended comments discussion that has been had, I suggest that you add some focus to your question. (Granted, it has attracted a few quality answers). Also, why does the hoard need to be impressive? These are level 5 characters. Are you interested in answers that explains what you are doing wrong, conceptually?
Is this your actual problem statement, here? "If I have myself a nice dragon hoard, the next quest reward will be quite stale unless it is also really impressive which would create a vicious cycle" PS adding more to this is only useful if you first get rid of some of the fat/perform liposuction.
OK, good, can you please pull that out and focus on it? I had to dig around to try and discern the core 'problem to be solved' - I'd suggest you trim a lot of the noise in section 3 and really focus on that core problem to be solved. (Subsequent treasures seeming anticlimactic or a let down ... something like that...)
One thing to be aware of at this point is if focusing the question will invalidate further answers. If so, it may be better to simply ask your core question separately if the answers provided don't actually address it now.
The answers do answer my problem. I think the issue is more that they are not backed up. I'll think some about removing some ancillary info that is not absolutely necessary and unify the three variants of the core question.
@Anagkai I tried to back up my answer with examples and a little bit of personal experience at the end. Would you like it to be supported with more concrete examples, like citations to and explanations of old D&D classics like Keep on the Borderlands or were you hoping for a more academic sort of support (e.g. IJRPG citations)? I can probably do the former but the latter is a bit out of reach for my currently available amount of effort, unfortunately ^^;
@Pleasestopbeingevil I meant the former kind, and not specifically your answer. But the question got many answers now and some are not backed that way.
@Anagkai " I'd still say that the dragon hoard should contain more wealth than you get from a usual quest." I absolutely disagree. Because at level 15 you DO NOT DO "usual quests"! at lvl 15 you slay dragons or topple entire kingdoms. And guess what kind of wealth a kings treasury holds?!
@Hobbamok Usual as in usual for a given level, no matter what the level is.
This "making it up with renown" could be a possibility of "shifting the focus away from monetary reward" to remove money without them feeling robbed. Do you have experience with this kind of reward?
This "I am way more concerned about creep: If I have myself a nice dragon hoard, the next quest reward will be quite stale unless it is also really impressive which would create a vicious cycle." Seems to be your actual issue, but you do not put proper emphasis on it while you use formatting to highlight other aspects, perhaps people are confused by this - I do not think that it is a detterent, so I voted to reopen the question.
Discussion on question by Anagkai: Ho…
Discussion on question by Anagkai: Ho…