Critter Bits and Magic Recipes!

[Conaill]

These are cool, keep em coming!

Any suggestions for an alchemist with a couple of gallons of (green) dragon's blood?

 

[Conaill]

Any uses for a wyvern?

I've already had an idea to make a whip out of it's stinger tail. Maybe I can work something out with the necromancer cleric in the party to keep the tail "alive" somehow, so the poison glands stay active...

 

[Hashmalum]

A lot of these monster "by-products" seem fairly obscure, and methods for extracting them even more so. Even if the players know that a certain gland possessed by purple worms repels other purple worms, how are they going to know what bit of disgusting wormflesh to hack off? I'd strongly recommend that a specific skill be necessary. I'm also thinking of Final Fantasy Tactics here, which would allow you to get items cheaply by hunting monsters, but they had to be killed by a physical blow from someone with the "Secret Hunt" ability. I'm strongly leaning towards adding Monster Lore skills to my campaign, and extraction of obscure valuable substances from a monster's body would seem to fit. For other campaigns, a Knowledge (arcana) check would seem appropriate for the stuff used in making magic items; perhaps Knowledge (nature) for the other stuff, like the aforementioned purple worm glands?

Incidentally, it seems you could use this sort of information for more than just encouraging your PCs to butcher various odd critters and making magic item creation more flavorful; if these creatures have valuable body parts, someone somewhere is going to come up with the idea of raising them for profit. What happens if a druid objects, or if the monsters get free, or raising them has some other sort of unforeseen consequence (such as hydra ranching attracting dragons)? Lots of potential here!

 

[BOZ]

those are some great ideas. and yes, i think i'll advocate a Monster Lore type of skill to prevent metagaming - "hey guys! a white dragon's tongue casts cone of cold!" or somesuch will require a skill check to deduce from now on.

 

[frankthedm]

I'll try not to get too vile ....

It seem orcs tend to be quite fecund, so it goes to reason that certain glands of orcs can likely be harvested to brew potions to boost the fertility of those trying to create progeny. Though the appearance of such children may leave a little to be desired.

Extreme care is advised when using the materials of the flora, fauna, and / or unclassifiable entities of the places outside the known multiverse, sometimes referred to as the Far Realm. While the Potent abilities of these Things cannot be denied, their peculiar makeup can cause unforeseeable consequences in the items they are used in. Some of these abominations can literally reform themselves from their remains, years after said material was crafted into an enchanted item.

 

[BOZ]

orcs are just unusually... excitable, that's all.

 

[frankthedm]

orcs are just unusually... excitable, that's all.

To me orcs seem about as fertile as a non magical race gets. they are quite capable of cross breeding with many non human things[ ogres, lesser cyclops, ettins, and thus I assume for my own games they are very good choice for fertility related formulas.

 

[blackshirt5]

IMC, Unicorn Horns are great for either Healing Wands and draughts. The problem is that unless the Unicorn gives up it's horn willingly(and thus dies), then you've got a useless horn(not to mention you've probably succeeded in pising off just about every elf and centaur in the forest).

 

[CombatWombat51]

I'm surprised nobody popped open the 1e DMG. On page 116-117, it has a list of ingredients requried for potions.

Animal Contol - Organ or gland from representative type or types to be controlled
Clairaudience - Human or simian thalamus gland or ear from an animal with keen hearing
Clairvoyance - Human or simian thalamus gland or eye from an animal with keen sight
Climbing - Giant insect legs
Delusion - Doppleganger flesh or rakshasa ichor
Diminuation - Powdered kobold horn and wererat blood
Dragon Control - Brain of the appropriate dragon type
ESP - Mind flayer brain
Extra-healing - troll blood (or hair of a saint if a cleric is creating the potion)
Fire Resistance - Fire elemental phlogiston or salamander scales
Flying - Hippogriff feathers and wyvern blood
Gaseous Form - Vampire dust or ogre magi teeth
Giant Control - Brain of an appropriate giant type
Giant Strength - Drops of sweat from appropriate giant type
Growth - Ogre magi gland
Healing - Ogre magi blood (or thread of a saint's garment if a cleric is creating the potion)
Heroism - Heart of a lion or similar giant cat
Human Control - Vampire eye or nixie blood
Invisibility - Invisible stalker ichor
Invulnerability - Gargoyle horn or lycanthrope skin
Levitation - Beholder eye (from stalk) or will-o-wisp essence
Longevity - Dragon blood and treant sap or elf blood
Oil of etherealness - Shedu fat or demon brain
Oil of slipperiness - Purple worm gland or liver of giant pike
Philter of love - Dryad hair
Philter of persuasiveness - Harpies' tongues or devil tongue
Plant Control - Shreiker spores and umber hulk eye
Polymorph Self - Mimic skin or succubus hair
Speed - Pegasus heart and giant weasel blood
Super-Heroism - Giant wolverine blood and minotaur heart
Sweet Water - Water elemental eye or triton blood
Treasure Finding - Gold dragon scale and six different powdered gems
Undead Control - Dust of freshly destroyed spectres or vampire brain or ghost ectoplasm or lich tongue
Water Breathing - Water naga blood or nixie organs

Sure, it'd take a little conversion, but I think it's a decent list... especially since it only required a glance at the index to find it

 

[frankthedm]

Extra-healing - troll blood (or hair of a saint if a cleric is creating the potion)

Healing - Ogre magi blood (or thread of a saint's garment if a

Ahh, back when adventure didn't have addictions to healing potions and bulls strength.

Thanx for doing that typing.