The cost of Horrid Animals (or why hasn't House Vadalis made Warbred Animals?)

[Cieyrin]

So, when going through animal templates to make awesome mounts, I come once again to the ECS, which has both the Horrid Animal and Magebred Animal templates. Getting something Magebred costs twice the base animal but Horrid doesn't have an attached cost. Most likely since they're either only found as the companions of the Gatekeepers or as wild animals. On the other hand, there's nothing really stopping someone from grabbing a breeding pair of wild Horrid Animals of the desired breed, domesticating them and making your own herd till you had Magebred Horrid animals.

Supposing that House Vadalis got around to acquiring said animals and managed to get a stable supply of them to put them on sale, what do you think the price would be for Horrid Animals or Magebred Horrid (Warbred?) Animals? Would Horrid animals be equal in cost to the equivalent Magebred or more, since Horrids are Dire Animals, which aren't exactly common, either? If both templates are equal in value, would having both on the same creature be a tripling of cost or quadrupling?

[Akal Saris]

Given their rarity, it could be as high as the DM decides, maybe 10x or 20x the cost. After all, don't the Gatekeepers hate arcane casters? And there are probably lots of things that go wrong with breeding either horrid or magebred animals - it might even make their offspring sterile, like a mule.

I think it would make a cool storyline though.

[Cieyrin]

You're confusing the Gatekeepers with the Ashbound. Different sects entirely.

As for interbreeding, horrid animals are specifically designed to breed true on their own. Also, magebreeding isn't so much a different species as bringing out the strengths of a beast in it's progeny, just magically accelerating the evolution process. I don't think they're exclusive from one another, so I think the only real obstacle is, as stated earlier, is just getting the appropriate breeding stock to begin the process.

[Teron]

It's your choice, of course, whether horrid animals can be magebred, though I think House Vadalis would already be working with horrid animals if it was possible and profitable.