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.
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.