D&D (2024) Rewarding PCs with Unbalancing Power

MGibster

Legend
I'm about to start a 5th edition Greyhawk campaign. In the first scenario, the PCs take on an organization, the Ordo Ventricula Sanctus, a group of villainous monks dedicated to becoming one with the universe through gastronomical exploration. The PCs should run across one of their storage areas where I intend to have a griffin in a cage who is up on the chopping block as the order's next meal. The PCs can free the griffin and gain an ally in the next fight, but it occurred to me that one or more of the players might want to keep the griffin. That wouldn't be an unreasonable desire on their part and it'd make sense narratively speaking.

I've got two problems I need to get sorted out. The first is to make sure the addition of the griffin doesn't throw off the balance of the game too much. As I don't expect the players to be more than level 3 by the time they rescue it, I'll let 'em know it's going to take a while to train it well enough before you can use it as a mount. From a balance perspective, it's not like they can have the griffin with them wherever they go. It can't walk around the free city of Greyhawk with them, it won't go into dungeons, etc., etc. But it'll make a useful scout when they're traveling and of course the lower the level of the PCs the more of a heavy hitter the griffin is going to be. I'm more than a little worried about how to balance encounters and I hope you all have some suggestions.

My next problem is deciding how to handle boarding a griffin. I'm going with the assumption that griffins are notoriously difficult to train and as apex predators they're very expensive to maintain, so I'm leaning towards aristocratic lifestyle of 10 gold per day just to keep the creature in good health. Since I plan on having months pass between adventures, this might actually be a significant drain to funds.
 

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If you run it in combat and run it a bit unpredictably, I think this will be a non-issue. Until the pcs are a few levels higher, maybe it doesn't always attack the target they want. Maybe it's prone to flee if it gets wounded or bloodied or sees fire.

A griffon is also a pretty soft target; its AC is low, and presumably it can't fly in heavy barding (and maybe not in medium barding either). The pcs may find combat becoming more interesting when they have to try to defend and protect their new griffon, rather than trying to have it be their brutal skirmishing machine.

If you want to avoid the whole issue, you can let the players know that a griffon has to be tamed and trained from the time it hatches. This one is too old for that. However...

If you want to allow them to have it, having it be difficult to maintain is one "cost" you can impose. Maybe it takes 10 gp per day... or maybe it only eats live prey. Maybe it takes a bite out of nearby horses from time to time, as griffons are notoriously fond of horse flesh. Heck, maybe it takes a bite out of nearby npcs (or even pcs!) when they ruffle its feathers, even if the pcs don't want or expect it to- and it can be hard to know what ruffles its feathers. Maybe it's loud noises, maybe it's the color red, maybe it's some kind of smell that the pcs can't even detect.

Some places probably won't allow a griffon in their town due to these difficulties; in some larger communities there may be exotic animal laws that regulate where, how, and for how long you can have one. There might be deposits required to stable one, or you might have to find a separate building to put one in, as no stabler wants to risk the griffon eating the horses in their care. Sometimes the griffon might have to stay out of town; if a pc or hireling doesn't stay with it, someone might come upon it and try to steal it (successfully or not). The pcs might end up on the hook for any harm it does.

Anyway, just a few thoughts- I've had a couple of pcs in one group with hippogriffs for a while, and they've had a variety of these issues depending on where they are and who they have to deal with.
 

If you look at videos of wild animals being released, they usually run off pretty quickly. Why wouldn't a griffon fly off as soon as it was free?

You can still have their actions have meaning by doing things like having the griffon drop a dead deer in front of them as a thank you.
 

I think you need to decide whether you want them to have the griffon, or not. If not, you can just play it as it's a wild animal that needs its freedom, and it's not really tameable to the extent that it could be relied upon like a dog or something. Like, you can sort of tame a tiger, but it wouldn't be a good idea to take it to the kiddie park. They shouldn't expect that they can have a griffon just because it would be cool.

If you want them to have a griffon, then you need to take that into account in your forward planning. It potentially gives them flight at level 3, which could change a lot of things, and will make balancing combat tricky - at low levels, it'll dominate, but at higher levels it'll be relatively fragile. Plus, as you mentioned, there are a lot of environments where it wouldn't really work.
 

A griffon is also a pretty soft target; its AC is low, and presumably it can't fly in heavy barding (and maybe not in medium barding either). The pcs may find combat becoming more interesting when they have to try to defend and protect their new griffon, rather than trying to have it be their brutal skirmishing machine.
I didn't even consider barding. I'd limit it to light barding if they expect the griffin to fly. And that's going to be one surly griffin if it can't fly.

If you look at videos of wild animals being released, they usually run off pretty quickly. Why wouldn't a griffon fly off as soon as it was free?
I'll have to work in the price of training the griffin if the PC is incapable of doing it themselves. Otherwise, yeah, it'll bolt ASAP.

If you want to avoid the whole issue, you can let the players know that a griffon has to be tamed and trained from the time it hatches. This one is too old for that. However...
That's the easy out, but I thought it'd be more interesting if they had the option to keep it. It's also nice to provide them with a reward that isn't a magic item or gold/gems.

If you want to allow them to have it, having it be difficult to maintain is one "cost" you can impose. Maybe it takes 10 gp per day... or maybe it only eats live prey.
Yeah, the aristocratic lifestyle I'm thinking about imposing would match that and take into account all the difficulties of boarding such an animal. That comes out to about 3,600 gold pieces a year.

Some places probably won't allow a griffon in their town due to these difficulties; in some larger communities there may be exotic animal laws that regulate where, how, and for how long you can have one. There might be deposits required to stable one, or you might have to find a separate building to put one in, as no stabler wants to risk the griffon eating the horses in their care.
I didn't even consider this. You can't just take your griffin to some podunk village and expect to be able to care for it.

I think you need to decide whether you want them to have the griffon, or not.
Yeah. More importantly, I need to be willing to accept the consequences if I let them keep it.
 

Just because they want to keep the griffon doesn’t mean you need to let them. As you say, it’s an apex predator that’s in captivity. It will want out and it’s unlikely to want to be a pet. It can absolutely be an ally to them and that wouldn’t unbalance anything.
 

Just because they want to keep the griffon doesn’t mean you need to let them. As you say, it’s an apex predator that’s in captivity. It will want out and it’s unlikely to want to be a pet. It can absolutely be an ally to them and that wouldn’t unbalance anything.
I know it isn't something I have to allow. But if they manage to save the griffin, having them be able to keep it might be something neat to do. Maybe they could sell or gift it to someone of influence within the city? Or they might decide to just let it go. Players have freewill and I can't always predict what they might do.
 


I'm about to start a 5th edition Greyhawk campaign. In the first scenario, the PCs take on an organization, the Ordo Ventricula Sanctus, a group of villainous monks dedicated to becoming one with the universe through gastronomical exploration. The PCs should run across one of their storage areas where I intend to have a griffin in a cage who is up on the chopping block as the order's next meal. The PCs can free the griffin and gain an ally in the next fight, but it occurred to me that one or more of the players might want to keep the griffin. That wouldn't be an unreasonable desire on their part and it'd make sense narratively speaking.

I've got two problems I need to get sorted out. The first is to make sure the addition of the griffin doesn't throw off the balance of the game too much. As I don't expect the players to be more than level 3 by the time they rescue it, I'll let 'em know it's going to take a while to train it well enough before you can use it as a mount. From a balance perspective, it's not like they can have the griffin with them wherever they go. It can't walk around the free city of Greyhawk with them, it won't go into dungeons, etc., etc. But it'll make a useful scout when they're traveling and of course the lower the level of the PCs the more of a heavy hitter the griffin is going to be. I'm more than a little worried about how to balance encounters and I hope you all have some suggestions.

My next problem is deciding how to handle boarding a griffin. I'm going with the assumption that griffins are notoriously difficult to train and as apex predators they're very expensive to maintain, so I'm leaning towards aristocratic lifestyle of 10 gold per day just to keep the creature in good health. Since I plan on having months pass between adventures, this might actually be a significant drain to funds.
hmm I don't know. If that were done to me and my character, I'd just find a rich noble and sell the griffon to them.
 

Befriending NPCs and monsters is great. Players expecting to create powerful pets is not something I enjoy as a DM.

In your situation, I’d have the griffon gratefully seek to aid the party in their next combat then clearly and definitively indicate that,while they are thankful, they are now even and need to fly away to freedom. Maybe they’ll meet up again at some point later in the campaign and act as an ally but they would not be an ongoing pet.
 

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