Anyone got values for Dragon Hides?

[Altalazar]

We have had occasion to slay a few (rather impressive) dragons and now we are trying to figure out what we can get for the hides...

Strangely (unless I'm missing something) while there are rules about what you can do with the hides in Draconomicon, there is no table listing the value of hides based on Dragon type / size or anything like that.

The DM said that he thought there was a table in an issue of Dragon, but he did not remember which issue it was in.

Does anyone know of that magazine? Or of anywhere in any of the rule books where one can find a table of values for dragon hides?

 

[Noumenon]

I read something from one of the designers somewhere (nice citation, I know) where he said he didn't really like to make dragon hides worth money. Two reasons:

* It adds treasure value to the monster that's not in the MM, so you have to give less useful treasure
* It turns the party into butchers who are always dragging around smelly animal parts.

 

[taliesin15]

I run it in part depending on the type of Dragon. Plus, part of the deal you'll have to rule on is, depending in part on the size of the Dragon, how much damage the monster sustained in combat. In most encounters where the Dragon is defeated, it is pretty much cut to shreds with ginsu knives. So there is the question of how much value is left.

One thing I don't like at all is the idea that only one suit of armor can be made from a slain Dragon's hide. I had an encounter built with an Ancient Silver Dragon where the mostly Good aligned party helped her out--and as reward she gave each party member a couple of scales, each of which could be used for fashioning a Large Shield and/or Breastplate Armor, I think each of which conferred something like a +3 or 4 magical bonus if fitted by a master armorsmith (not someone with a few ranks as an Armorer). Which is better than selling Dragon hides, IMV. I think the torn up ones tended to get taxidermy treatment and sold to an Inn somewhere as advertising/tschakas.

 

[Vascant]

There was a dragon article dealing with "Dragon Parts", maybe that would help

 

[frankthedm]

* It adds treasure value to the monster that's not in the MM, so you have to give less useful treasure

Twice standard is plenty for a hoard, then make the hide "standard treasure". Badda-boom badda-bing, Triple Standard treasure if the party collects everything, and they don’t get completely screwed if they were not near the lair! The same principle could have been applied to more monsters so instead of dire bears having no treasure, they instead provide 1d4 sets of masterwork cold weather clothing.

 

[Altalazar]

Given that there is only a loose balancing of treasure to begin with in 3.5E, I don't worry too much about it. As it is, it probably wouldn't matter in this instance as the hides were gathered in an EPIC adventure and even if they were worth 100,000 gp each, they would be only a minor part of the treasure.

But in general, I can see the problems. I rather like the idea of "parts" myself, just because you can get some flavor out of it, particularly if they are ingredients in making items players want. But that is a whole different thread.

I was really just hoping someone could point me to a resource, specifically, the Dragon magazine article - as in, which Dragon was it in, which issue? Or any other official source. If there are none, then a non-official source could work.

I still think it is somewhat strange that the Dragonomicon has extensive rules on dragon part items and yet has no prices for actual dragon parts. Oh well.

 

[Vascant]

I checked the Dragon archive I have and found pretty much nothing dealing directly with dragon hides/leather or dragon armor. I did find a website by J. Drain that started to tackle the subject matter but after reading it left me with more questions then answers.

Like you, I also started checking both WotC and a few other d20 sources as follows

Legends and Lairs: Dragonic Lore (Nothing)
WotC: Draconomicon (Nothing)
TSR: For1 Draconomicon (Nothing)
AEG: Dragons (Does have some interesting material and info)
MGP: Slayers Guide to Dragons (Nothing)


In the end I came to the conclusion to just write my own rules for how this should be handled in my world, after reading all the above material it took me little more then 30 minutes before I had 2 pages of notes.