Skinning and crafting from Monsters

[Xavrias]

Has anyone ever created some sort of chart/table etc, that gives prices for furs, talons, horns, meat etc from a given animal or monster. Also on the side, alchemy is a big part of the campaign I'm currently running and I was wondering what kind of items should you be able to acquire from different kinds of monsters.
I've just always though it odd that after slaying big monsters, my players frequently don't do anything with them, so when I asked them, they told me that it's because their aren't really any rules for it. So if someone could help me out with this, I'd be really thankful, a little lost at where to start.

[Devronq]

Hmm im stoked to read this to i made a campaign where to pcs could sell various monster parts and i had values on them and things they could do when crafted with (all homebrew)

[JellyPooga]

This is one you really have to do on an ad hoc basis, I think. Unless your players specifically say "hey GM, I need a reagent to make this fireball spell more powerful, what creatures organs do I need to harvest?", there's just too many monsters to really do a list of what each and every one can provide for the budding alchemist/wizard/whatever. Most creatures are pretty easy, though. Troll Blood? Healing potion. Displacer Beast? Blur spell power component and so on and so forth.

As for prices, that's a little easier. Rare = Expensive. As a ball-park figure, multiply the creatures CR by 5gp (CR being an approximate indication of how rare a thing is). A well-harvested creature provides that much in gold value (e.g. skinning a Minotaur and salvaging it's horns might provide 20gp, if done properly, less if crudely done, whilst a juvenile green dragon will provide twice that value in scales, claws and bone).

[Malroth]

MONSTER HUNTER!!!!

Dibs on the Heavy Bowgun made out of Unicorn bones.

[Matticussama]

I like to let my characters get unique bonuses from the items created from a monster's hide/horns, based upon the monster's personal skills.

So, for example, say they fight and kill a Gargoyle. If they skin it and try to make a coak out of it's hide, I would let it give them a +2 bonus to all Hide checks and a +4 circumstance bonus to Hide checks when hiding against a stone background. If they don't have the proper crafting skills but take the hide to a skilled craftsmen, then I would charge them less than the normal price to create an item of a similar bonus since they're providing the raw materials.

Similarly, say they kill a Minotaur and want to create unique weapons out of its horns. Given the Minotaur's charge ability, I might give a Lance tipped with a Minotaur's horn a bonus to charge damage; or, alternatively, give them a discount (maybe 5% or 10%) when using it as a material component to enchant the Lance with any magical charging enchantments.

[drew2u]

This was the preliminary guideline I made (before actual playtesting) for something along these lines:

Magical Catalysts - Improvised Items
-
Heal Check DC of 10+CR of a creature to preserve chosen body part or fluid.
- For Item Creation: parts must be from a creature one size category larger than item size category. Reduces item creation cost of that kind of item (weapon, armor, etc.) by 25%. Any ability that is harvested is halved (potency, duration, saves, etc) due to death of the host creature and preservation methods.
- Spell Material Cost: parts salvaged equal to CR*10 in gp for relevant spells (white dragon parts for a 'Cone of Cold' spell or targeting a white dragon with an offensive spell [racial catalyst]) +2 to DC for a specific organ or ability, +4 to DC if using a vital organ
- Harvested parts must be corporeal in some manner when harvested.

Example: destrachan headband (earmuffs)
Heal DC 20 (+2 specific part)
part: Protection from sonics (Ex), [+2 save]
total cost: 8,000 gp
gold invested: 3,000 gp [or Craft DC: Craft (taxidermy) xx]
days to create: 8 days
item slot: head
description: +2 circumstance bonus to saves against sonic attacks

Example: Myrmarch Chitin (formian-exoskeleton armor)
Heal DC 22 (+2 specific part)
part: Energy Resistance Electricity, Fire, Sonic [+5 each]
total cost: 50,000 gp
gold invested: 18,750 gp [or Craft DC: Craft (taxidermy) xx]
days to create: 50 days
item slot: armor
description: armor of energy resistance +5 (electricity, fire, sonic)

Feats
Harvest: +2 to heal checks when scavenging parts to use as magical catalysts or for magic item creation.

Mass-Produce: The duration it takes to create an item you've created once before is reduced by 25%.

[Xavrias]

Thanks to everyone that replied, those are all good. Very helpful, and Devronq, if you could post an example or two, or send me some of your work I'd be really grateful. It sounds like you accomplished exactly what I wanted to do.

[Chronos]

2nd edition had an explicit section for things like this in the monster manual-- It's one of a few things I'm annoyed they didn't carry over in 3rd edition.

I've also been working on something like this myself, but it's sort of fallen to the wayside.