Help Me Price This Item: Sack of Monkeys

[Mistwell]

From the SRD:

Bag of Tricks

This small sack appears normal and empty. However, anyone reaching into the bag feels a small, fuzzy ball. If the ball is removed and tossed up to 20 feet away, it turns into an animal. The animal serves the character who drew it from the bag for 10 minutes (or until slain or ordered back into the bag), at which point it disappears. It can follow any of the commands described in the Handle Animal skill. Each of the three kinds of a bag of tricks produces a different set of animals. Use the following tables to determine what animals can be drawn out of each.

The heavy warhorse appears with harness and tack and accepts the character who drew it from the bag as a rider.

Animals produced are always random, and only one may exist at a time. Up to ten animals can be drawn from the bag each week.

——— Gray ———
d% Animal
01–30 Bat
31–60 Rat
61–75 Cat
76–90 Weasel
91–100 Badger

——— Rust ———
d% Animal
01–30 Wolverine
31–60 Wolf
61–85 Boar
86–100 Black bear

——— Tan ———
d% Animal
01–30 Brown bear
31–60 Lion
61–80 Heavy warhorse
81–90 Tiger
91–100 Rhinoceros

Faint or moderate conjuration; CL 3rd (gray), 5th (rust), 9th (tan); Craft Wondrous Item, summon nature’s ally II (gray), summon nature’s ally III (rust), or summon nature’s ally V (tan); Price 900 gp (gray); 3,000 gp (rust); 6,300 gp (tan).

 

[IanB]

"It can follow any of the commands described in the Handle Animal skill."

That is better than I thought it was, but still would seem to severely limit the actions the monkey could actually take; indeed it would seem to limit it more, in some ways, since you can't order it to do anything else even if you *can* talk to it, by a strict reading.

 

[Hypersmurf]

What if you accidentally pull out a monk, ey instead of a monkey? Or a Monkey (a member of the Monkey clan)?

Or, indeed, a Monkee!

-Hyp.

 

[Shayuri]

TYPO5478, this one's for you.

"With a pickled mind, we kick the nipple beer,
Steady as she goes, we're flying over trout,
Heading down the highway at the speed of light,
All I want to hear is the wind in my eyes."

"Sack of monkeys in my pocket,
My sister's ready to go..."

(Chorus)

Etc etc.

In short. Yes. It is, in fact, what inspired me to think up that item.

Good point about the Handle Animal limitation too. In fairness, I haven't actually tried to use it to pull levers or push buttons yet. Still, monkeys are fully capable of doing that...and even in the wild, untrained, they're curious and like to fiddle with things.

Oh well. It's still a very fun item. Insert jokes about flinging dung and monkey kung-fu here.

*makes "okay" gesture*

IT STINKS!!

 

[TYPO5478]

Awesome.

Push the button, Frank.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

"With a pickled mind, we kick the nipple beer,
Steady as she goes, we're flying over trout,
Heading down the highway at the speed of light,
All I want to hear is the wind in my eyes."

"Sack of monkeys in my pocket,
My sister's ready to go..."

I don't know whether this is random gibberish or utterly perverted. This is solid S.O.A.D. material there

 

[TYPO5478]

I would love to hear SoaD's version of that song.

It couldn't be any worse than the original.

 

[Delta]

What if you accidentally pull out a monk, ey instead of a monkey?

A Canadian Monk? A Monk from Moncton, perchance?

(My college band recorded a song by that title, a big favorite. )

 

[Kae'Yoss]

A Canadian Monk? A Monk from Moncton, perchance?

He picked up the accent to cultivate the sense of mystery he wants to surround himself with. Surely not your usual choice of language for quoting long-dead philosophers in, but all the people making fun of him because of that provided him with plenty of brawling training.

 

[Leif]

Shayuri,

I just have to say that this is a GREAT idea!!

[And also: You're one SICK puppy, tch, tch, tch.]

BTW, all of the pricing suggestions posted so far are reasonable and well-supported by logic and wisdom. Basically, then, I guess it boils down to what you can con the DM out of.