Capturing and selling monster advice.

[Shadowbite]

A little bit of background to provide some context.

My party has recently began exploring an abandoned magical island that was the stronghold and invasion front of an army of Yu-anti 1000 years ago. Said invasion was stopped 1000 years ago by equivalent of dropping a magic nuke on it. This had the side effect of magically mutating a number of monsters and caused entirely new monsters to arise.

My party is considering getting into the business of capturing monsters and selling them for top dollar to interested parties. My question is what magic items, nonmagical items, and spells would help us with these endeavors.

We are about level 8 and the party consists of

Paladin (with a str of 6 and cha of 23, high AC and dex and saving throws)
Evoker/Spellwarp sniper (banned schools Enchantment and Necromancy)
Warlock
Conjurer/Malconvoker (my character, banned schools Enchantment and Illusion)
Cleric (creates undead and also might go into magic item creation).

We've got a good amount of money and the world is very magic rich. Any character can use any type of wand and magic items don't cost any exp to make. Magic items cost +50% to purchase. Thanks!

[Dawgmoah]

A little bit of background to provide some context.

My party is considering getting into the business of capturing monsters and selling them for top dollar to interested parties. My question is what magic items, nonmagical items, and spells would help us with these endeavors.



Do a bit of homework/divination to see what sort of powers the monsters on the island may have. Gather Information in the port cities nearby even to see what may spring up. Though this does not answer your question...

But once you have some idea of what the monsters can do you can then decide to buy what you need to counter their abilities. Can any of them petrify you? Incorporeal? Flying monsters? Acid spitting, flame spouters? Forcecage, Ropes of Entanglement, even lowly tanglefoot bags may be useful.

[(Un)Inspired]

Spells like web and entangle are your friend for live capture.

[Flickerdart]

Smoky confinement to trap the monster in a red and white sphere.

[Zirconia]

Look up rules for subdual damage, and try to equip for that; trapping a critter in web or entangle doesn't get it into your cage, you still need to knock it out somehow. . . I think there are some arrows that do subdual damage?

Make sure you have some "cages" that block off view, breath weapons, etc. given that you are going for exotic critters.

Charm Monster would be very handy for making them walk into your cages, but I noticed two of you barred Enchantment. :)

Look into stat damage/drain spells, a lot of those can basically render a critter helpless, and you can do a restoration later.

[Reinkai]

Non-lethal and temp ability damage too, for those ones you can't simply trap.

[Shadowbite]

Any good magic items for this purpose? Magical cages or anything like that? We might need a good sturdy boat as teleportation might be disrupted due to the magical nuke radiation.

[Gemini476]

Are any of you a Kobold? (Hey, it could work. +3 to all mental stats is great.)
Because if you are, an Enveloping Pit can fit a whole lot of critters in a space small enough to fit in a rucksack.
Or spread out on the boat, if you want them to get air and they are incapable of climbing the walls. You could toss in a bottle of air, alternatively.
But mostly it's just great for storage.

It might be a bit high level, though.

[ithildur]

Slight derail, but if some of these monsters are sentient types, you might run into problems with a paladin being around...

[Shadowbite]

Slight derail, but if some of these monsters are sentient types, you might run into problems with a paladin being around...

You bring up a good point. Yes the Paladin would not let us partake in Slavery. Luckily we've run into plenty monsters of animal-like intelligence. Notably a bulette, a weird crocodile with mouth tentacles, and this ooze that ate magic. We also know there is a hydra in a nearby swamp.

[Slipperychicken]

Well, you don't have to take the intelligent monsters as slaves. You could just take them as prisoners. Just outsource their captivity to some mainland prison facilities, and ask them only to contribute to your efforts to keep these beasts' ferocity at bay..

[Gamereaper]

3 words: Ray. Of. Stupidity.

Make an item that has that spell.

{{scrubbed}}

That should help.

[Dawgmoah]

3 words: Ray. Of. Stupidity.

Make an item that has that spell.

{{scrubbed}}

That should help.

Yes, that would certainly solve a bunch of the problems on getting the monsters. Then just need adequate transport.

[Gamereaper]

Yes, that would certainly solve a bunch of the problems on getting the monsters. Then just need adequate transport.

Wagons too simple? Tenser's floating disc. (?)

[Anxe]

There was a 3.0 metamagic feat in Tome and Blood that let spells deal subdual damage. Justicar from Complete Warrior seems like another good subdual damage prestige class for the paladin.

[Shadowbite]

Would a chained up unconscious monster with a bottle of air strapped to it's mouth in a portable hole work? The only question is how big of a monster can you get into a portable hole.

[Dawgmoah]

Wagons too simple? Tenser's floating disc. (?)

He did mention in his post that it was an island.