Hey gang, I kind of did a double take through the 2024 core rules... and either I'm dead tired (shouldn't be reading at 4am)... or are there seriously no rules for collecting drops from monsters?
Obviously, I'm not talking about picking up a bandit's coin purse, or a hobgoblin's armor, but rather harvesting from more specific and uncommon creatures. For full context, my group managed to barely cut off a Young Green Dragon's escape at the end of our last session. We literally got to a point where we were a matter of exactly the right distance for 1 last hit and take it out (plus it was a crit, poetic). One of them floated the idea of trying to get resources from the now dead dragon body (and yes, they obviously went through the hoard too). Basically, yes I'm aware, and that's why I worded the title this way, but this is the Monster Hunter loot idea.
Early in the campaign, one of the players was going around attempting to knock out some dead goblin teeth to make a necklace, which didn't really go anywhere, but I was making him roll dexterity for arbitrary numbers on this ... umm project. The difference here is that I don't see anyone really buying goblin teeth, or orc raider rags, but dragon claws or poison sac, that kind of stuff might be more compelling. I'm just... surprised not to find anything to handle this in a general sense in the core rules, I sort of feel hunting isn't that farfetched, but perhaps I assumed, or saw it at someone else's game and thought it was official. I certainly wouldn't expect a rule for dragon fangs specifically, but do you just wing that kind of stuff with arbitrary monetary values? I'm going to try and reign in the group somehow so we don't spend like an hour turning this thing in sashimi, but you get my point. Also, I kind of feel this might be more of a Nature check, seems more relevant than random dexterity, but I guess that's debatable.
5.5 edition doesn’t really cover monster parts at all, as did it’s predecessor. The most rules there are for that type of stuff is poison extraction and crafting. For a young green dragon, they could probably have enough resources to craft green dragon scale armour, if given the time.
Everything else is up to dm discretion and the different tools the players can use.
There's nothing official but there are quite a few third party releases that contain advice and mechanics for harvesting and using monster parts. Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting is very popular but for me it's too complicated unless you want to make your whole campaign about monster hunting. I prefer the mechanics in Monsters of Drakkenheim which simply allow each player to take one thing from each monster in categories like "Natural Weapons", "Hide", "Bones" etc and then create magic items using specific recipes that each require 3 or 4 ingredients each
Alright, then I must have imagined that as being a thing. I certainly don't want to turn Phandalin and Below into a Monster Hunter campaign. Granted, there are a few prominent monstrosities, I'll dare hope they won't start to try and craft stuff from psionic goblins and mindflayers... then again, maybe those gems and fragments could be chardalyn, that would make it reasonably simple to detract them from gathering tons of it.
Guess that's another system to wing on the fly. Fair enough, the poison crafting rules should come in handy though I'll have to think of a custom poison type. For a green dragon, maybe inhaled makes sense, but contact always makes it easy for players to use . As for armour, I guess crafting "chain mail" from dragon scales should be reasonable, maybe even "splint" though maybe that's not giving me much leeway in case they fight an adult dragon. The only member with medium armour training is the paladin, so heavy armour it is. Not sure how I'd feel about blanket poison resistance as an item (especially since that is part of the tiefling rogue's racial trait), but I guess advantage against poison should make sense. Thankfully the rogue enjoyed being given a Dagger of Venom.
Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting is a bit pricey, but I find it very useful just because of all the extra they've packed in there. It sounds to me like they enjoy looting monsters for body parts and crafting things, which is what Heliana's is about. They also have a whole bunch of character options, monster hunts, and rad magic items. I would definitely recommend for your scenario.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM: He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
Down, down, down the road, down the Witches Road
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
"When are we gonna take a snack break?"
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Hey gang, I kind of did a double take through the 2024 core rules... and either I'm dead tired (shouldn't be reading at 4am)... or are there seriously no rules for collecting drops from monsters?
Obviously, I'm not talking about picking up a bandit's coin purse, or a hobgoblin's armor, but rather harvesting from more specific and uncommon creatures. For full context, my group managed to barely cut off a Young Green Dragon's escape at the end of our last session. We literally got to a point where we were a matter of exactly the right distance for 1 last hit and take it out (plus it was a crit, poetic). One of them floated the idea of trying to get resources from the now dead dragon body (and yes, they obviously went through the hoard too). Basically, yes I'm aware, and that's why I worded the title this way, but this is the Monster Hunter loot idea.
Early in the campaign, one of the players was going around attempting to knock out some dead goblin teeth to make a necklace, which didn't really go anywhere, but I was making him roll dexterity for arbitrary numbers on this ... umm project. The difference here is that I don't see anyone really buying goblin teeth, or orc raider rags, but dragon claws or poison sac, that kind of stuff might be more compelling. I'm just... surprised not to find anything to handle this in a general sense in the core rules, I sort of feel hunting isn't that farfetched, but perhaps I assumed, or saw it at someone else's game and thought it was official. I certainly wouldn't expect a rule for dragon fangs specifically, but do you just wing that kind of stuff with arbitrary monetary values? I'm going to try and reign in the group somehow so we don't spend like an hour turning this thing in sashimi, but you get my point. Also, I kind of feel this might be more of a Nature check, seems more relevant than random dexterity, but I guess that's debatable.
5.5 edition doesn’t really cover monster parts at all, as did it’s predecessor. The most rules there are for that type of stuff is poison extraction and crafting. For a young green dragon, they could probably have enough resources to craft green dragon scale armour, if given the time.
Everything else is up to dm discretion and the different tools the players can use.
There's nothing official but there are quite a few third party releases that contain advice and mechanics for harvesting and using monster parts. Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting is very popular but for me it's too complicated unless you want to make your whole campaign about monster hunting. I prefer the mechanics in Monsters of Drakkenheim which simply allow each player to take one thing from each monster in categories like "Natural Weapons", "Hide", "Bones" etc and then create magic items using specific recipes that each require 3 or 4 ingredients each
Alright, then I must have imagined that as being a thing. I certainly don't want to turn Phandalin and Below into a Monster Hunter campaign. Granted, there are a few prominent monstrosities, I'll dare hope they won't start to try and craft stuff from psionic goblins and mindflayers... then again, maybe those gems and fragments could be chardalyn, that would make it reasonably simple to detract them from gathering tons of it.
Guess that's another system to wing on the fly. Fair enough, the poison crafting rules should come in handy though I'll have to think of a custom poison type. For a green dragon, maybe inhaled makes sense, but contact always makes it easy for players to use . As for armour, I guess crafting "chain mail" from dragon scales should be reasonable, maybe even "splint" though maybe that's not giving me much leeway in case they fight an adult dragon. The only member with medium armour training is the paladin, so heavy armour it is. Not sure how I'd feel about blanket poison resistance as an item (especially since that is part of the tiefling rogue's racial trait), but I guess advantage against poison should make sense. Thankfully the rogue enjoyed being given a Dagger of Venom.
Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting is a bit pricey, but I find it very useful just because of all the extra they've packed in there. It sounds to me like they enjoy looting monsters for body parts and crafting things, which is what Heliana's is about. They also have a whole bunch of character options, monster hunts, and rad magic items. I would definitely recommend for your scenario.
DM: He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
Down, down, down the road, down the Witches Road
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
"When are we gonna take a snack break?"