Animal Companion Prices

[Psion]

Okay, the 3.5 MM has prices for eggs and young of various creatures (animals and magicl beasts), and prices for training. It costs generally around 500 gp / hd , but not precisely.

I have a player who is trying to find dealers in animals and most of them come from third party books with no costs. Has anyone worked up a method for costing out creatures in this way?

 

[LazerPointer]

a god-like, arbitrary DM call has my vote.

 

[ARandomGod]

a god-like, arbitrary DM call has my vote.

Ooh! Mee Tooo!

Or, the simple NPC comment:
"Gee, noone I know sells anything like that. Do you think people would buy it? I'm a ranger, you know, maybe we could go into busness together...."

To start up a nice questy adventure.

 

[Terath Ninir]

If it's around 500 gp/HD, I'd just use that number. Many of the numbers they use are just pulled out of thin air. I analyzed the swarm stats, and others have analyzed the dire vs. regular animals, and they do a lot of stuff where they just pick what sounds good.

If it's something not covered by the regular rules, and fairly exotic (like this), simple is best. Approximate is more than fine.