Elephants- costs

[aco175]

I was trying to figure out how much an elephant would cost. I have a kingdom where they would be common enough, but not more so than horses and ponies, but have no idea on the equipment or cost.

I was trying to get an idea on the following;

elephant
war elephant
a big wagon that elephants would pull (insert cool name)
that basket/saddle structure on top of the elephant (insert real name)
barding
DC to train for both domestic uses and war.

If you have other things that I missed, throw them in as well.
Thanks.

 

[Felnar]

in 2nd ed, war elephants were 500gp

 

[sniffles]

I was trying to figure out how much an elephant would cost. I have a kingdom where they would be common enough, but not more so than horses and ponies, but have no idea on the equipment or cost.

I was trying to get an idea on the following;

elephant
war elephant
a big wagon that elephants would pull (insert cool name)
that basket/saddle structure on top of the elephant (insert real name)
barding
DC to train for both domestic uses and war.

If you have other things that I missed, throw them in as well.
Thanks.

I don't know anything about cost, but the basket/saddle structure used for riding on top of an elephant is called a howdah. The person who steers the elephant by sitting on its neck is called the mahout (these are both the Hindi names, I believe).

In real life I don't believe elephants have ever been used to pull any kind of wagon. A wagon large enough to stand up to being pulled by an elephant would be very difficult to manage. Normally a wagon driver can see over the head of the animal pulling the wagon, so for this to work an elephant wagon would have to be very tall, and therefore very difficult to load or get aboard. Elephants in Southeast Asia and India are used to pull logs, but then they're just hauling on a chain attached to the log, not pulling a wheeled vehicle. Mostly elephants are used for riding, lifting or pushing.

 

[Beholder Bob]

Footprints in the jello

My game has them priced at 2500 - but part of that is they are not a 'local product'. The cost of shipping an elephant is rather high, as is the care and feeding of them. A region with native elephants would charge much less, say the earlier suggested 500 gp. I'd assume, though, this would be for a simple 'haul my stuff elephant', not one used to a rider or a war elephant. I'm probably not spelling it correctly, but I believe the prod used to direct elephants is an Ankus. I'm hoping someone will verify/correct this spelling.

BB