I'm DMing for a group, and I have a few people asking me about the possibility of exotic pets and mounts (wyverns, griffons, and a number of large beasties). I like this idea, but the problem is, I can't find a simple standard price to set for creatures like that, or a simple calculator to make my job easier.
While it's easier to tell them to find an egg, hatchling, or young creature to raise, that also brings in the price of egg costs should they find one in a menagerie shop.
If anyone has a simple formula for either full-grown creatures or egg/young costs based on hit points or CR, I'd appreciate it. I'm just looking to simplify a lot of headache early on so I can be more confident leading up to that point of the our campaign. I'm hunting online for something that isn't going to be an overly complicated mess.
EDIT: Not just for flying mounts, but for any kind of exotic creature; like Displacer Beasts, Winter Wolves, Sphinxes, Astrids, Unicorns, etcetera. I'm just trying to establish a calculatable baseline cost-wise, because magical menageries do exist in this world, and not all creatures are going to be rideable. I understand that some of these creatures do need to warm up to the party, and I'm already prepared for that. Something I can tangibly calculate with is what I'm looking for. My party started out with literally nothing, so they've scrapped and earned for everything since level 1. And considering how hard I make my party work for it's gold, anything they've spent it on, they taken care of and appreciated.
One is that when you have flying mounts (or whatever, I had a goblin who rode a giant ape, and that was problematic for it's own set of reasons), well then you have flying mounts. The game ceases to be the game it was before flying mounts, and now becomes a sort of 3d cirkus. Lot's of people seem to like that. Personally, I find it ... not to my taste.
That said, an adult, trained riding griffon costs 6000 gold (says I, some random guy on the internet). This price accounts for a great many things: Stealing the eggs from griffins in the wild (griffins do not breed in captivity), raising the cups from hatchlings to adult, meaning 6 years of work, expected loss of life and compensation to family - and so on.
Of course, the 6000 is just a figure. It'll be prohibitively expensive in games I run, but seems a pittance compared to the official guides to what magic items cost. So maybe 60.000 or even 600.000 is more reasonable in other campaigns.
If you're not a trained griffon trainer, and you try to invest 6 years of your adventuring life in raising a griffin instead, the cost is either your life, or that of the cup. Educated trainers know how to do what, and still expect fatalities on their staff. Someone who just feels that their proficiency bonus should allow them to do whatever, is going to find out that griffins eventually challenge for dominans and fight to the death.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Personally, I'd make it a quest or an adventure, especially if it's flying. Assuming you agree to give it to them, you could:
1. They get a quest to obtain the creature, a young version of the creature or an egg. They then have the debate of whether they should turn in the bounty, or forfeit the reward (and potentially incur other consequences) and keep it for themselves.
2. Make it a reward for a quest. Perhaps they come across someone that owns the creature/egg, and they're willing to discuss trading it...but they need this McGuffin first.
3. Tell them to keep their eyes peeled. They then come across one in the wild. You could even have them kill it (perhaps in an encounter), but notice that they're in a condition that suggests they're raising little ones or have eggs in a nest somewhere (eg maybe they're emaciated because they're starving themselves while giving food to the juvenile or incubating their eggs). They then have to track the trail back to the nest.
If they're low level though, definitely make it an egg or juvenile. They can't fly, but will grow up as the adventure progresses. When you're ready, they can mature and start flying - preferably shortly before the other characters gain the ability to fly, like with Fly.
With exotic mounts, I'd make them special by getting them to obtain them via quests etc rather than merely paying for them. They'll appreciate them more.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Often in D&D games it seems that the party ends up with more gold than they know what to do with. So in this instance I would suggest looking at how much gold the party has and make the cost of the exotic mounts a significant portion of their total gold: maybe 60-80%. Flying mounts should be rare, and therefore expensive, otherwise many of the people they encounter would have flying mounts. The queen/czar/emperor would obviously have a few if these kinds of things were at all readily available.
As Acromos stated, this will absolutely change the game. You'll have to think more vertically about encounters and exploration. There will have to be good reasons why the party can't just land on top of the wizard's tower and enter from there rather than sneak or fight their way up the tower past the guards, traps, and minions. Things like that. It isn't necessarily bad. My party has a flying carpet and it's not that hard to craft encounters with its abilities in mind, but it is just one flying carpet, whereas each character having their own flying mount does make it a bit more interesting.
Know that giving them flying mounts with no limit on how long they can fly does mean that if they encounter a Tarasque they can 100% kill it given enough time, while not being in any danger to the party.
Less so with modern Tarrasques, and regardless the fix there is to not let them be able to afford spending all day killing it with bug bites. It’s a kaiju; let it rampage for a few hours and I hope you’ve got a spare city to replace the one that’s been ground into fine powder.
One is that when you have flying mounts (or whatever, I had a goblin who rode a giant ape, and that was problematic for it's own set of reasons), well then you have flying mounts. The game ceases to be the game it was before flying mounts, and now becomes a sort of 3d cirkus. Lot's of people seem to like that. Personally, I find it ... not to my taste.
...
If you're not a trained griffon trainer, and you try to invest 6 years of your adventuring life in raising a griffin instead, the cost is either your life, or that of the cup. Educated trainers know how to do what, and still expect fatalities on their staff. Someone who just feels that their proficiency bonus should allow them to do whatever, is going to find out that griffins eventually challenge for dominans and fight to the death.
Personally, I'd make it a quest or an adventure, especially if it's flying. Assuming you agree to give it to them, you could:
1. They get a quest to obtain the creature, a young version of the creature or an egg. They then have the debate of whether they should turn in the bounty, or forfeit the reward (and potentially incur other consequences) and keep it for themselves.
2. Make it a reward for a quest. Perhaps they come across someone that owns the creature/egg, and they're willing to discuss trading it...but they need this McGuffin first.
3. Tell them to keep their eyes peeled. They then come across one in the wild. You could even have them kill it (perhaps in an encounter), but notice that they're in a condition that suggests they're raising little ones or have eggs in a nest somewhere (eg maybe they're emaciated because they're starving themselves while giving food to the juvenile or incubating their eggs). They then have to track the trail back to the nest.
If they're low level though, definitely make it an egg or juvenile. They can't fly, but will grow up as the adventure progresses. When you're ready, they can mature and start flying - preferably shortly before the other characters gain the ability to fly, like with Fly.
With exotic mounts, I'd make them special by getting them to obtain them via quests etc rather than merely paying for them. They'll appreciate them more.
Often in D&D games it seems that the party ends up with more gold than they know what to do with. So in this instance I would suggest looking at how much gold the party has and make the cost of the exotic mounts a significant portion of their total gold: maybe 60-80%. Flying mounts should be rare, and therefore expensive, otherwise many of the people they encounter would have flying mounts. The queen/czar/emperor would obviously have a few if these kinds of things were at all readily available.
As Acromos stated, this will absolutely change the game. You'll have to think more vertically about encounters and exploration. There will have to be good reasons why the party can't just land on top of the wizard's tower and enter from there rather than sneak or fight their way up the tower past the guards, traps, and minions. Things like that. It isn't necessarily bad. My party has a flying carpet and it's not that hard to craft encounters with its abilities in mind, but it is just one flying carpet, whereas each character having their own flying mount does make it a bit more interesting.
Know that giving them flying mounts with no limit on how long they can fly does mean that if they encounter a Tarasque they can 100% kill it given enough time, while not being in any danger to the party.
I'm looking beyond just for flying mounts, but for any kind of exotic creature; like Displacer Beasts, Winter Wolves, Sphinxes, Astrids, Unicorns, and such (I probably should have clarified that). I'm just trying to establish a calculatable baseline cost-wise, because magical menageries do exist in this world, and not all creatures are going to be rideable. I understand that some of these creatures do need to warm up to the party, and I'm already prepared for that. Something I can tangibly calculate with is what I'm looking for. My party started out with literally nothing, so they've scrapped and earned for everything since level 1. And considering how hard my party works to make gold, anything they've spent it on, they taken care of and appreciated. Especially their big purchases (in comparison to their income).
I mean, if you're letting them get at Legendary creatures, that's a whole other can of worms, both mechanically and narratively. Mechanically that's a potentially huge spike in power, given the creatures are designed to last several rounds again multiple PCs. Narratively while the ultimate nature of the setting is up to you, the typical characterization of a lot of these creatures is that they're either sapient or at least have very strong inclinations about what they want to do or will put up with, rather than being trainable beasts.
Step 1:Be a Paladin or Bard Step 2. Get 4th-level spells Step 3. Get Find Greater Steed through Spellcasting or Magical Secrets Step 4:Enjoy your exotic mount complete with exotic saddle, with food costs deducted due to magical status. Barding costs extra.
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DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
Honestly I would make something like this into a full on adventure since Most of these creatures aren't conventional mounts and at least 2 of the ones you've proposed (unicorn and Sphinx) are in point of fact sentient so "Taming them and buying them" would be close to slavery...
Yeah, this is far enough off the beaten path that you're in "Make it up chief".
One is that when you have flying mounts (or whatever, I had a goblin who rode a giant ape, and that was problematic for it's own set of reasons), well then you have flying mounts. The game ceases to be the game it was before flying mounts, and now becomes a sort of 3d cirkus. Lot's of people seem to like that. Personally, I find it ... not to my taste.
...
If you're not a trained griffon trainer, and you try to invest 6 years of your adventuring life in raising a griffin instead, the cost is either your life, or that of the cup. Educated trainers know how to do what, and still expect fatalities on their staff. Someone who just feels that their proficiency bonus should allow them to do whatever, is going to find out that griffins eventually challenge for dominans and fight to the death.
Personally, I'd make it a quest or an adventure, especially if it's flying. Assuming you agree to give it to them, you could:
1. They get a quest to obtain the creature, a young version of the creature or an egg. They then have the debate of whether they should turn in the bounty, or forfeit the reward (and potentially incur other consequences) and keep it for themselves.
2. Make it a reward for a quest. Perhaps they come across someone that owns the creature/egg, and they're willing to discuss trading it...but they need this McGuffin first.
3. Tell them to keep their eyes peeled. They then come across one in the wild. You could even have them kill it (perhaps in an encounter), but notice that they're in a condition that suggests they're raising little ones or have eggs in a nest somewhere (eg maybe they're emaciated because they're starving themselves while giving food to the juvenile or incubating their eggs). They then have to track the trail back to the nest.
If they're low level though, definitely make it an egg or juvenile. They can't fly, but will grow up as the adventure progresses. When you're ready, they can mature and start flying - preferably shortly before the other characters gain the ability to fly, like with Fly.
With exotic mounts, I'd make them special by getting them to obtain them via quests etc rather than merely paying for them. They'll appreciate them more.
Often in D&D games it seems that the party ends up with more gold than they know what to do with. So in this instance I would suggest looking at how much gold the party has and make the cost of the exotic mounts a significant portion of their total gold: maybe 60-80%. Flying mounts should be rare, and therefore expensive, otherwise many of the people they encounter would have flying mounts. The queen/czar/emperor would obviously have a few if these kinds of things were at all readily available.
As Acromos stated, this will absolutely change the game. You'll have to think more vertically about encounters and exploration. There will have to be good reasons why the party can't just land on top of the wizard's tower and enter from there rather than sneak or fight their way up the tower past the guards, traps, and minions. Things like that. It isn't necessarily bad. My party has a flying carpet and it's not that hard to craft encounters with its abilities in mind, but it is just one flying carpet, whereas each character having their own flying mount does make it a bit more interesting.
Know that giving them flying mounts with no limit on how long they can fly does mean that if they encounter a Tarasque they can 100% kill it given enough time, while not being in any danger to the party.
I'm looking beyond just for flying mounts, but for any kind of exotic creature; like Displacer Beasts, Winter Wolves, Sphinxes, Astrids, Unicorns, and such (I probably should have clarified that). I'm just trying to establish a calculatable baseline cost-wise, because magical menageries do exist in this world, and not all creatures are going to be rideable. I understand that some of these creatures do need to warm up to the party, and I'm already prepared for that. Something I can tangibly calculate with is what I'm looking for. My party started out with literally nothing, so they've scrapped and earned for everything since level 1. And considering how hard my party works to make gold, anything they've spent it on, they taken care of and appreciated. Especially their big purchases (in comparison to their income).
All the creatures you've listed are sapient (many of them are, in fact, quite a bit smarter than the average PC). As such, you're not going to find them for sale except in an exotic slave market. If you want a winter wolf or displacer beast for your character, you need to recruit it as a follower, not buy it.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
The only ones that has a higher Int than a Commoner are the sphinxes. I couldn't find stats for the Astrid or even find mention of them online, but all the others have their Int at 8 or below.
I'd potentially allow them to become the Sphinx's pet though.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
All the creatures you've listed are sapient (many of them are, in fact, quite a bit smarter than the average PC). As such, you're not going to find them for sale except in an exotic slave market. If you want a winter wolf or displacer beast for your character, you need to recruit it as a follower, not buy it.
Griffin has an int of 2.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
All the creatures you've listed are sapient (many of them are, in fact, quite a bit smarter than the average PC). As such, you're not going to find them for sale except in an exotic slave market. If you want a winter wolf or displacer beast for your character, you need to recruit it as a follower, not buy it.
Griffin has an int of 2.
And it wasn't listed in the post I was replying to.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Pegasai are Intellegence 10, Unicorns 11 as others have said as a general rule I don’t have exotic mounts or animals available for sale. They can be acquired via side adventures, as actions in a campaign like the giants or against Tiamat where wyverns and hippogriff are potentially available. I’ve also provided pegasai to PCs with proper role play when dealing with them as wandering monsters. Same for fairy dragons, psuedodragons and the intelligent elven cats. I could see doing something like the giants or”horse clans oath” with intelligent cats, giant eagles, etc. there are ways to provide exotic mounts and pets outside of purchasing them.
And it wasn't listed in the post I was replying to.
Ah. You just included everyone else as well - but you were responding to Thane_Altaerus. Missed that. Sorry, my bad.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
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Hey guys,
I'm DMing for a group, and I have a few people asking me about the possibility of exotic pets and mounts (wyverns, griffons, and a number of large beasties). I like this idea, but the problem is, I can't find a simple standard price to set for creatures like that, or a simple calculator to make my job easier.
While it's easier to tell them to find an egg, hatchling, or young creature to raise, that also brings in the price of egg costs should they find one in a menagerie shop.
If anyone has a simple formula for either full-grown creatures or egg/young costs based on hit points or CR, I'd appreciate it. I'm just looking to simplify a lot of headache early on so I can be more confident leading up to that point of the our campaign. I'm hunting online for something that isn't going to be an overly complicated mess.
EDIT: Not just for flying mounts, but for any kind of exotic creature; like Displacer Beasts, Winter Wolves, Sphinxes, Astrids, Unicorns, etcetera. I'm just trying to establish a calculatable baseline cost-wise, because magical menageries do exist in this world, and not all creatures are going to be rideable. I understand that some of these creatures do need to warm up to the party, and I'm already prepared for that. Something I can tangibly calculate with is what I'm looking for.
My party started out with literally nothing, so they've scrapped and earned for everything since level 1. And considering how hard I make my party work for it's gold, anything they've spent it on, they taken care of and appreciated.
There are two things I'd say on this.
One is that when you have flying mounts (or whatever, I had a goblin who rode a giant ape, and that was problematic for it's own set of reasons), well then you have flying mounts. The game ceases to be the game it was before flying mounts, and now becomes a sort of 3d cirkus. Lot's of people seem to like that. Personally, I find it ... not to my taste.
That said, an adult, trained riding griffon costs 6000 gold (says I, some random guy on the internet). This price accounts for a great many things: Stealing the eggs from griffins in the wild (griffins do not breed in captivity), raising the cups from hatchlings to adult, meaning 6 years of work, expected loss of life and compensation to family - and so on.
Of course, the 6000 is just a figure. It'll be prohibitively expensive in games I run, but seems a pittance compared to the official guides to what magic items cost. So maybe 60.000 or even 600.000 is more reasonable in other campaigns.
If you're not a trained griffon trainer, and you try to invest 6 years of your adventuring life in raising a griffin instead, the cost is either your life, or that of the cup. Educated trainers know how to do what, and still expect fatalities on their staff. Someone who just feels that their proficiency bonus should allow them to do whatever, is going to find out that griffins eventually challenge for dominans and fight to the death.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Personally, I'd make it a quest or an adventure, especially if it's flying. Assuming you agree to give it to them, you could:
1. They get a quest to obtain the creature, a young version of the creature or an egg. They then have the debate of whether they should turn in the bounty, or forfeit the reward (and potentially incur other consequences) and keep it for themselves.
2. Make it a reward for a quest. Perhaps they come across someone that owns the creature/egg, and they're willing to discuss trading it...but they need this McGuffin first.
3. Tell them to keep their eyes peeled. They then come across one in the wild. You could even have them kill it (perhaps in an encounter), but notice that they're in a condition that suggests they're raising little ones or have eggs in a nest somewhere (eg maybe they're emaciated because they're starving themselves while giving food to the juvenile or incubating their eggs). They then have to track the trail back to the nest.
If they're low level though, definitely make it an egg or juvenile. They can't fly, but will grow up as the adventure progresses. When you're ready, they can mature and start flying - preferably shortly before the other characters gain the ability to fly, like with Fly.
With exotic mounts, I'd make them special by getting them to obtain them via quests etc rather than merely paying for them. They'll appreciate them more.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Often in D&D games it seems that the party ends up with more gold than they know what to do with. So in this instance I would suggest looking at how much gold the party has and make the cost of the exotic mounts a significant portion of their total gold: maybe 60-80%. Flying mounts should be rare, and therefore expensive, otherwise many of the people they encounter would have flying mounts. The queen/czar/emperor would obviously have a few if these kinds of things were at all readily available.
As Acromos stated, this will absolutely change the game. You'll have to think more vertically about encounters and exploration. There will have to be good reasons why the party can't just land on top of the wizard's tower and enter from there rather than sneak or fight their way up the tower past the guards, traps, and minions. Things like that. It isn't necessarily bad. My party has a flying carpet and it's not that hard to craft encounters with its abilities in mind, but it is just one flying carpet, whereas each character having their own flying mount does make it a bit more interesting.
Know that giving them flying mounts with no limit on how long they can fly does mean that if they encounter a Tarasque they can 100% kill it given enough time, while not being in any danger to the party.
Less so with modern Tarrasques, and regardless the fix there is to not let them be able to afford spending all day killing it with bug bites. It’s a kaiju; let it rampage for a few hours and I hope you’ve got a spare city to replace the one that’s been ground into fine powder.
Agreed, Ace. It was mostly a tongue-in-cheek nod to TikTok D&D discourse.
I'm looking beyond just for flying mounts, but for any kind of exotic creature; like Displacer Beasts, Winter Wolves, Sphinxes, Astrids, Unicorns, and such (I probably should have clarified that). I'm just trying to establish a calculatable baseline cost-wise, because magical menageries do exist in this world, and not all creatures are going to be rideable. I understand that some of these creatures do need to warm up to the party, and I'm already prepared for that. Something I can tangibly calculate with is what I'm looking for.
My party started out with literally nothing, so they've scrapped and earned for everything since level 1. And considering how hard my party works to make gold, anything they've spent it on, they taken care of and appreciated. Especially their big purchases (in comparison to their income).
I mean, if you're letting them get at Legendary creatures, that's a whole other can of worms, both mechanically and narratively. Mechanically that's a potentially huge spike in power, given the creatures are designed to last several rounds again multiple PCs. Narratively while the ultimate nature of the setting is up to you, the typical characterization of a lot of these creatures is that they're either sapient or at least have very strong inclinations about what they want to do or will put up with, rather than being trainable beasts.
If any of my players ask me how much an exotic flying mount would cost, I would simply tell them, "If you have to ask, you can't afford it."
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
Step 1:Be a Paladin or Bard
Step 2. Get 4th-level spells
Step 3. Get Find Greater Steed through Spellcasting or Magical Secrets
Step 4:Enjoy your exotic mount complete with exotic saddle, with food costs deducted due to magical status. Barding costs extra.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
Honestly I would make something like this into a full on adventure since Most of these creatures aren't conventional mounts and at least 2 of the ones you've proposed (unicorn and Sphinx) are in point of fact sentient so "Taming them and buying them" would be close to slavery...
Yeah, this is far enough off the beaten path that you're in "Make it up chief".
All the creatures you've listed are sapient (many of them are, in fact, quite a bit smarter than the average PC). As such, you're not going to find them for sale except in an exotic slave market. If you want a winter wolf or displacer beast for your character, you need to recruit it as a follower, not buy it.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
The only ones that has a higher Int than a Commoner are the sphinxes. I couldn't find stats for the Astrid or even find mention of them online, but all the others have their Int at 8 or below.
I'd potentially allow them to become the Sphinx's pet though.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Griffin has an int of 2.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
And it wasn't listed in the post I was replying to.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Pegasai are Intellegence 10, Unicorns 11
as others have said as a general rule I don’t have exotic mounts or animals available for sale. They can be acquired via side adventures, as actions in a campaign like the giants or against Tiamat where wyverns and hippogriff are potentially available. I’ve also provided pegasai to PCs with proper role play when dealing with them as wandering monsters. Same for fairy dragons, psuedodragons and the intelligent elven cats. I could see doing something like the giants or”horse clans oath” with intelligent cats, giant eagles, etc. there are ways to provide exotic mounts and pets outside of purchasing them.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Ah. You just included everyone else as well - but you were responding to Thane_Altaerus. Missed that. Sorry, my bad.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.