D&D 5E Magic armor and harvesting creatures

CapnZapp · Jun 26, 2017

Do you know of any 5E-compatible effort to list armor made out of dragonscale, behir or umber hulk plating, and the like?

I really wished the monster manual entries contained examples of what parts you could usefully harvest: such as "a DC 12 check to make the equivalence of Half-Plate out of this defeated Ankheg" or "a DC 17 check to pickle the eyes of this Beholder, which gives one-time use of Fireball"

and so on...

I'm asking if you know of any good homebrew of harvested monster parts in general and "monster armor" in particular?

Inglorin · Jun 26, 2017

I really like

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/3m4eqn/monster_harvesters_handbook_price_guide_for/

though it only has the harvesting part not the usage.

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Cap'n Kobold · Jun 26, 2017

I don't know of any actual rules, although I would bet that theres something on DM's Guild.
Off-the-cuff I would probably allow someone proficient in an applicable tool to make a check to harvest useful materials from unusual monsters. These materials could be applied against the material cost of crafting items.
(So someone proficient in alchemists equipment could harvest materials from a creature with unusual capabilities that I thought would be alchemically active. These could be used to instead of buying materials for making alchemical items using the crafting rules. Likewise with perhaps leatherworking tools for hides/chitin for armour etc.

The amount of materials harvested would probably be something along the lines of CR of creature x Result of Int-based tools check. and could be done over a short or long rest.

CapnZapp · Jun 26, 2017

What I'm specifically looking for is wonderfully long lists of ready to use game effects for the harvested items.

The actual harvesting DCs and monetary values I could probably base simply off the HD or CR values of the monster. That's actually the easy part.

What I'm talking about is instead the gloriously specific boons and benefits like
"The X of a Bulette can be used as a Barkskin spell"
"The hand of a Flesh Golem can be used as Mage Hand for a tenday"
"The ichor of an Otyugh will reduce the component cost of a ressurrection spell by half"
"The Hubba of a Bubba lets a Warlock use the Grinchenify invocation one extra time"

and so on and so on. Loading and overloading upon each and every possible spell, class feature or item usage

Ideally with themes based around, say, the environment and type of monsters.

The Skyrim ingredients does follow the general idea, but they're far too bothersome to convert. Not only is the monster lists significantly different, the list of effects is too (can't have fiddly "3% better frost damage" without a computer).

I remember Magic of Faerun offered beautiful gemstones that could amplify/augment wands and staffs: "this red opal adds +1 to every fire damage dice you cause". Stuff like that, but for monster parts.

The main thing is that creating the lists and coming up with weird yet playable effects is a huge undertaking, and so I'm hoping it already exists for D&D... (and it really needs to be 5E compatible or it will again be too much work)

snickersnax · Jun 27, 2017

Here's my short list mostly just straight out of the books

basilisk gullet - oil of petrification restoration
bulette plates - +1 shield (from the 1st ed monster manual - The great plates behind the bulette's head are highly prized for use in shield making, for a skilled dwarven craftsman can fashion them into a shield of + 1
to +3 value")
displacer beast - displacer cloak
dragon scales - dragon scale armor ( I HR +1 for young, +2 for adult, +3 for ancient)
pixie dust - three uses: flight, confusion and sleep ( I HR that concentration does not have to be maintained if pixie dust is used to cast these spells)
unicorn horn - Wands of unicorn horn channel powerful magic,while unicorn horn weapons strike with divine force.Wizards can work powdered unicorn horn into potent potions and scroll ink, or use it as a component
in eldritch rituals.
boogle oil - oil of slipperiness
cave fisher filaments - invisible rope
fire beetle glands - 10' of light, 10' dim light for 1-6 days
flail snail shell - shell shield, spellguard shield, robe of scintillating colors
korred hair - rope of entanglement
giant octopus or squid tentacle - spell component for evard's black tentacles
umber hulk blood - spell component for guards and wards
petrified eye of newt - component for hex
pickle octopus tentacle - component for Hunger of Hadar
adder's stomach - component for melf's acid arrow
snake's tongue - component for suggestion and mass suggestion

Bupp · Jun 27, 2017

Medieval Melodies blog has started a series on this recently. He's working thru the MM letter by letter.
Explanation of the system.
Monsters A
Monsters B

CapnZapp · Jun 28, 2017

Whoa.

That's like, a triple thanks worthy post right there.

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CapnZapp · Jun 30, 2017

B is up

http://medievalmelodies.blogspot.se/2017/06/creature-loot-b.html

While I'll probably not use the detailed rules for harvesting in the initial post, I will certainly keep tabs on the actual ideas for creature parts!

It's EXACTLY the kind of stuff I asked for, and my only objections are 1) the series is only at B, and 2) it isn't official, in the Monster Manual

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SkidAce · Jun 30, 2017

Bupp said:
Medieval Melodies blog has started a series on this recently. He's working thru the MM letter by letter.
Explanation of the system.
Monsters A
Monsters B

That is nice work.