D&D 5E Dragon scales: Worth, Uses and Others?

[insight994]

Okay, so my party picked up a metric, s&it ton of dragon scales and would like to get rid of them, either by selling them or having them fashioned into armor/weapons. I've been trying to find supplements or something on UEA or elsewhere to give me an impression of how much these things are worth, but to no avail. Anybody know where I can find that kinda info or have any suggestions? Thanks!


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[cbwjm]

In the DMs Guide, there is dragonscale armour. Perhaps they could requisition a mage/artificer to craft the scales into some armour for them.

 

[LordEntrails]

Value? Well, when you have a metric ton of it... you have to find someone who can use that much. And it's going to be much less per pound than if you were only selling a pound of it. With that much, they are going to flood the market.

I guess for a value you could find a price for dragon scale armor, then assume half that value is for materials. Divide cost by weight, divide by 2. That would give you a generic cost, and then if they found a buyer for a ton of it, they would probably only get 5-10% of that value. IMO.

 

[MNblockhead]

White Dragon: donate the larger scales to an orphanage as makeshift snow boards and sleds.

Black Dragon: sell to alchemists to pound into laminates to cover work benches, floors, walls, etc. to acid-proof your work area. Also to make stealth "tank" armor.

Green Dragon: camoflague dragonscale armor for your special-ops fighters.

Red Dragon: keep for yourself and cover your walls and floors with it — bling for brag'n about kill'n the drag'n.

 

[S'mon]

I generally have large dragon scales fashionable into +1 magic daggers. Probably worth 100gp each as a crafting component. Small scales could be used for armour, say 20gp each.

 

[Dualazi]

If they already have the scales in question then I guess the cat is out of the bag, from a personal standpoint I usually don't let my players take copious dragon bits without some checks to show they know how to use them. That said, the most recent downtime UA has crafting rules that stipulate proposed CR creatures to hunt ingredients for, so since you have that squared away I think that crafting would just follow the default rules. Obviously I would say armor/shield would be the most beneficial use, but other options might include armor for devices or vehicles the players possess (nothing says 'naval dominance' like a dragon-boat.), spell reagents, decorations if you have a home base, or maybe just a fancy coaster set of the dining room. In prior editions there were draconic constructs made from dragon scales/bones, if you have the time and means it would be another cool base addition.