D&D General Elephants are cheaper than Warhorses

[OptionalRule]

I double checked and they're the same price as they were in 2014. The elephant is 200 gp and a Warhorse is 400 gp. I'm waiting for my wife to start screaming "where's my elephant?".

For funzies, the internet says an elephant has about 1,000 lbs of meat. Rations are 2 lbs and cost 5 sp. 1,000 lbs of rations cost 250 gp, or more than an elephant.

D&D economics are silly.

D&D economics are silly. This means absolutly nothing but just working on a post about crafting so this is just for a bit of fun.

Live animals are worth less than the aggregate total of the meat, or there wouldn't be a livestock industry. To make a ration, the meat would be turned into jerkey which is anywhere from half to a quarter of the original weight.

So rations are a better deal price wise than raw meat.

 

[OptionalRule]

D&D economics are silly. This means absolutly nothing but just working on a post about crafting so this is just for a bit of fun.

Live animals are worth less than the aggregate total of the meat, or there wouldn't be a livestock industry. To make a ration, the meat would be turned into jerkey which is anywhere from half to a quarter of the original weight.

So rations are a better deal price wise than raw meat.

Another no reason point.

Total cost of ownership on an Elephant is MUCH higher than a horse, both in food and property damage.

 

[LordEntrails]

Ah, I'm so glad to know that my favorite RPG of Bankers & Bookkeepers has a new edition. Not sure why they had to change the name to Butchers & Bookkeepers, but whatever.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Did they at least give the warhorse enough HP to survive more that 1 turn in combat? I dunno about the price of elephants, but 400GP is way overpriced for the 5e horse that is functionally useless as a combat mount for player characters.

 

[MGibster]

Did they at least give the warhorse enough HP to survive more that 1 turn in combat? I dunno about the price of elephants, but 400GP is way overpriced for the 5e horse that is functionally useless as a combat mount for player characters.

I can't believe we got this far into the thread before someone pointed out the obvious. Mounted combat isn't really a thing in D&D.

 

[GrimCo]

Lord, I envy your D&D experience. Most d&d campaigns I’ve been a player in never saw any player have more than 200 gold on their character at any one time.

How? I can see this happening if DM lowers treasure, but keeps prices by PHB. Maybe you never looted properly

Obtaining full plate by level 4? More like level never.

Again, how? Unless you only fight incorporeal, aberrations and beasts, sooner or later, there will be someone wearing plate armor. If you are playing Dark Sun, then sure, metal full plate is out of the picture.

 

[Bitbrain]

How?

Both of the other two DMs in my group barely hand out treasure at all. And absolutely none of the monsters they throw at the party wear any armor, including the humanoids.

 

[GrimCo]

Both of the other two DMs in my group barely hand out treasure at all. And absolutely none of the monsters they throw at the party wear any armor, including the humanoids.

Well, let me tell you about our old party, know as "Eco patrol". We looted everything that wasn't bolted down with adamantium bolts, untill we had enough for adamantium crowbar, then we looted those adamantium bolts too. Also, party started to demand advanced pay to go out and deal with stuff. No free adventuring. King has erand? Coool. Here's a list of equipment we need, here is our per diem, at least 30% payable up front. Too much? Well, sorry, but we can't work for free. Send your troops to deal with Nagaroth the Terrible.

 

[Mannahnin]

In Thailand an elephant sells for around 2 million Baht, a Horse maybe 50000 Baht.

So even where elephants are relatively common workhorses they generally cost a lot more than a horse

Of course if theres too much fantasy in the equation then there really is no common baseline on which to make a comparison

This is comparing to a regular horse, not a specially trained and bred warhorse. If you want to check modern prices maybe compare to racehorses.

 

[MarkB]

Still, I could never get over a hunting jaguar costing 5,000 gp.

Jaguars have always been pricey, especially with the optional extras. It's a prestige thing.