Animal Prices

[Babale]

What are the prices of animals in a standard campaign setting?

Not riding dogs, etc., I mean elephants, bears, and even monsters.

Any ideas?

[Coidzor]

I think maybe the monster manual has prices for a couple, like how much an owlbear cub/egg is worth... Not sure beyond that.

[Babale]

So is it just a DM's call, based on the rarity and cost to maintain and capture the animal?

[Tiki Snakes]

The 4th edition Adventurers Vault has prices for various mount-worthy creatures. I do not know how it would translate of course, given the likely WBL differences and hell knows what.

But for comparison, perhaps;

Blade Spider; 13, 000gp
Camel; 75gp
Dire Boar; 1,800gp
Dire Wolf; 1,000gp
Elephant; 3,400gp
Griffon; 9,000gp
Riding Shark; 3,400gp
Horse, Skeletal; 17,000gp
Manticore; 45,000
Tri-horn Behemoth; 21,000gp (A snip for your very own dinosaur!)

Etc etc etc.

So, mount-wise, you can get a 'normal' mount like a horse or camel for really not very much. A war worthy one for a few small hundred, or rock and roll mounts for a thousand or more. :)
Not sure how this compares, but I'm interested.

The 4th ed basic 'Horse' is 75gp. The 3.5 srd says a 'Horse' is about 75gp.
The 3.5 srd also says that a Heavy Warhorse is 400gp. 4th ed puts a warhorse at 680gp, but then, it's a pretty brutal horse.

[Zaq]

There are some hints in the Arms and Equipment Guide, though they're rather incomplete. Still, they're a good jumping-off point.

[shadzar]

Elephant --
Labor 200 gp
War 500 gp

Copyright 1999 TSR Inc.

Monsters would be at slave prices.

Bears probably 100gp in accordance with the elephant price.

[Coidzor]

Monsters would be at slave prices.

Bears probably 100gp in accordance with the elephant price.

Ok, what're you quoting there?

[shadzar]

Ok, what're you quoting there?

:smallconfused: Strange I thought it always added the product with the copyright....

AD&D 2nd edition. From the PHB.

[jcsw]

There's the warbeast template in MM2 which has a price after you apply the template.

[sofawall]

Monsters would be at slave prices.

Bears probably 100gp in accordance with the elephant price.

Do you mind adding that it's AD&D? I've seen some confusion when you post stuff from AD&D and people assume it's 3.5.

On topic, I always just give things war beast for ease when pricing.

[shadzar]

Do you mind adding that it's AD&D? I've seen some confusion when you post stuff from AD&D and people assume it's 3.5.

:smallconfused: 3.5 was around in 1999?

[sofawall]

People don't read too well.

[Kosjsjach]

There's the warbeast template in MM2 which has a price after you apply the template.
That does seem to be the easiest method.
So a War Beast Elephant would cost exactly 1000gp.
A War Beast Brown Bear would be 625gp, while a War Beast Polar Bear would be 775gp.
Easy enough.

Looks like you're out of luck with riding monsters, though.

[Babale]

Why am I out of luck?

[Kosjsjach]

Because thus far no-one's found a rule to allow anything but a modified animal to be trained for riding, and these are a resourceful bunch of people.

[Babale]

I haven't seen the Warbeast template yet, but as a DM, couldn't I houserule that the template may be applied to magical beasts and abberations with animal-like intelligence?

[Kosjsjach]

Of course you could, but then, why all the stressing in the first place?
You're going to want to watch out, though. Magical Beasts and Aberrations have special qualities not commonly found in Animals, so applying the War Beast template and calling it a day is a bit haphazard if you're looking for a standardized way to price them.

[Devils_Advocate]

Monsters would be at slave prices.
Humanoid monsters that can speak Common probably would be. Pegasi, griffons, and the like would more likely be priced as exotic means of transportation rather than as laborers, despite their intelligence. Many creatures would be priced based on the difficulty of capturing them and their value as guard monsters, if they're sold at all. ("Hey, where does a guy go to buy a good wyvern around here?")

"Priced based on the difficulty of capturing them and their value as guard monsters" probably means "priced according to CR".

Some non-animal monsters only have animal intelligence, so they wouldn't be considered slaves even if intelligent non-talking non-humanoids are. Like hippogriffs or bulettes. These are mostly magical beasts, I think.

In Eberron, you can buy a bunch of magic items that have unfortunate elementals stuck in them. But that's similar to purchasing other creatures more in its moral implications than in its actual functionality, never mind pricing (which is based on the item's magic, obviously).

[Babale]

I'm looking for the MMII now, and once I find it, I'll take a look at the template.

[Wabbajack]

The Warbeast template can be used for Vermin, Animals and [Magical] Beasts. They did forget the "Magical", but that's an error, exactly like the monster one or two pages later where they wrote "beast" as type^^

[Tsotha-lanti]

The Warbeast template can be used for Vermin, Animals and [Magical] Beasts. They did forget the "Magical", but that's an error, exactly like the monster one or two pages later where they wrote "beast" as type^^

Actually, no. Beast was a type in 3.0 - it was, essentially, animals that don't exist in the real world. It was completely unnecessary and silly and was therefore removed.


Beast: A beast is a nonhistorical, vertebrate creature with a reasonably normal anatomy and no magical or unusual abilities. Beasts have Intelligence scores of 1 or 2. Unless noted otherwise, beasts have low-light vision and darkvision with a range of 60 feet.

Hit Die: d10
Attack Bonus: Total HDx3/4 (as cleric)
Good Saving Throws: Fortitude and Reflex
Skill Points: 10-15
Feats: -

[Babale]

Oh...

Also: This template is acquired by training the animal, right? What happens if you train a wildshaped druid as a warbeast? and then breed him so he's magebred? (Or at least, his kids are.) :smalltongue:

[Tsotha-lanti]

Oh...

Also: This template is acquired by training the animal, right? What happens if you train a wildshaped druid as a warbeast? and then breed him so he's magebred? (Or at least, his kids are.) :smalltongue:

You get about halfway through the sentence before a flung DMG deals 6 points of damage to you.

[Babale]

Nope! I have uncanny dodge!