"Beast Master"?

[MissingDividends]

I'm starting a level 10 (3rd edition) campaign and have a player interested in having (at least) a Griffon, Hippogriff, and Giant Owl. She's willing to pay for the eggs and make the checks to raise them (she has a good handle animal score).

There are a few issues I just don't know how to handle:
- How much will they cost to feed (or can they just go off and eat)?
- How does one store such large creatures? (I don't think most stables would be large enough. Are they intelligent enough to find a place to sleep and meet the party at a specific spot in the morning?)
- What's an appropriate way to decide how well they get along?

Are there any complications I might be overlooking?

--MD

 

[freyar]

This is all just guesswork, mind you, and I'm looking at 3.5 stats. That said:

The griffon and giant owl a definitely intelligent enough to take verbal instructions, and the owl can actually talk back! The hippogriff, however, is as intelligent as a horse.

They're all Large, same size category as a horse but are somewhat bigger in dimensions. So I'd guess most stables would be a little too small, but they'd be ok in a large stable or barnyard area.

Feeding: that's tough. Whether they can feed themselves may depend on the situation and whether you'd trust them to come back. I think you'd be able to trust the owl and griffon, but it'd be a lot like falconry with the hippogriff -- you might not know the first few times whether it will return. You could maybe represent that with a lowish DC Handle Animal check, so it's likely ok but could be costly on a bad flub. The cost of food is probably pretty high, since these are all carnivorous (I think). So I'd say more than a horse. You could look at the cost for a trainer to rear them, subtract a bit, and figure that's the amount of food for however long it would take them to grow up (say a year). Not sure.

As for getting along: I'd treat the hippogriff like a horse or a raptor or a bit of both. The griffon and owl I'd probably think of like an intelligent magic item. You might also take clues from their alignments and flavor -- maybe make the griffon prideful and the owl goodly and wise (since it's usually NG).

You might also try asking in the 3e rules forum to see if anyone knows a 3rd party publication that addresses this kind of issue.