Warbeasts?

[Inevitability]

As we all know, the suggested prices for Warbeasts are ridiculously low. I wonder, however, what would be a good, balanced way to determine their cost. Has anyone created any fixes?

[Mrs Kat]

Suggested cost x10 to x20 feels about right to me. 5.5-11k for a warbrownbear (CR ~5?).

The real barrier to getting an exotic warbeast should be a roleplay one. Your players won't just walk into a shop and pick out the warbear hanging in suspended animation behind the counter. They have to find the guy who is crazy enough to train bears/rhinos, and convince him to sell them one of his babies.

[Solaris]

Suggested cost x10 to x20 feels about right to me. 5.5-11k for a warbrownbear (CR ~5?).

The real barrier to getting an exotic warbeast should be a roleplay one. Your players won't just walk into a shop and pick out the warbear hanging in suspended animation behind the counter. They have to find the guy who is crazy enough to train bears/rhinos, and convince him to sell them one of his babies.

Too high. Nobody would ever use a brown warbear, because it would be too expensive to use at the levels at which it's relevant and too weak to use by the time it gets relevant. Making a warbeast cost piles of gold really sucks when it gets wiped out pretty easily.

I have it done up that the market price for a warbeast is a function of its Hit Dice and size: 50 gp/HD for a warbeast of 3 HD or less, or 50 gp + 75 gp/HD for one of 4 HD or more. If the warbeast is Medium double its market price, while if it is Large triple its market price, and Huge or bigger quadruple its market price. Thus, a wardog (3 HD, Medium) would cost 300 gp, while a heavy destrier (heavy warhorse with the warbeast template added because I don't hate mounted combatants; 5 HD, Large) would cost 1,275 gp and a war elephant (12 HD, Huge) would cost 3,800 gp. If the warbeast has special abilities or is otherwise significantly stronger than its HD would indicate, consider increasing the market price accordingly.

On the surface, it looks like getting a warbeast is a better plan than a magic weapon. Magic weapons, however, are less likely to die, get turned through magic, require feeding and care, and they are more useful in a wider range of situations than some of the larger warbeasts (like war elephants, who are impossible to take into dungeons and can be difficult to control under the best of circumstances).

[Thurbane]

As we all know, the suggested prizes for Warbeasts are ridiculously low.

http://completepuppytrainingreview.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/14215016594049-10faa3dd372f7571b23f25f630ee6eb0-15.jpg

Sorry couldn't resist! :P

[Bronk]

If you wanted to increase the cost somehow without being too random about it, you could add basic gear to the base cost... along with extra role playing.

Warbeasts are trained for at least a year, raised from birth, often from a special group/pack/herd/flock/etc. cultivated over generations by highly trained master animal handlers who would probably not appreciate their animals being sold to a revolving door adventurer who doesn't properly care for their prized animals. They might very well put a hard sell on items to either protect their beloved warbeasts, or to enhance their effectiveness as a form of advertising. Besides, who would buy an extra powerful super animal (that they weren't good enough to train themselves) without safety gear, special harnesses, extra training gear, a nice saddle, barding of some sort, special warbeast food, a stable rental, a handle animal masterwork tool of some kind, natural attack enhancers, a minimum set of cure potions, grooming tools, and so on, and that's before special materials and magic items are brought up. Maybe they'd have to pay an additional fee or sign a pledge to bring the beast back to the trainer to be assessed later, possibly to rejoin the gene pool if it's proved itself.

I'd say, realistically, a character buying a warbeast wouldn't be too put off by being told that the animal and it's armor (at least) are a package deal, although it might be fun to role play trying to get an armorer to take the measurements of a polar bear bred specifically for extra aggressiveness!

[unseenmage]

See now I liked the idea of just buying them on a shop. Esp as living purchases tend to be a consumable item.

That's why in my sig you can find a list of animals, vermin, and templates that don't change the creature's type. The lists even include the ability to roll random monsters and templates to simulate a marketplace.

In a vast enough market (Sigil for example) one should definitely have the chance to find/purchase random warbeasts IMHO.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Per Lords of Madness, the neogi charge 100x2 gp for a slave, where x is challenge rating, with a minimum of 1.

The warbeast brown bear would be CR 5, costing 2500 gp.

[Mrs Kat]

Per Lords of Madness, the neogi charge 100x2 gp for a slave, where x is challenge rating, with a minimum of 1.

The warbeast brown bear would be CR 5, costing 2500 gp.

Oh, I like that.

[Bronk]

See now I liked the idea of just buying them on a shop. Esp as living purchases tend to be a consumable item.

That's why in my sig you can find a list of animals, vermin, and templates that don't change the creature's type. The lists even include the ability to roll random monsters and templates to simulate a marketplace.

In a vast enough market (Sigil for example) one should definitely have the chance to find/purchase random warbeasts IMHO.

Oh, I agree, I meant the randomness of the added cost. Of course, the shops could be filled with the crazy trainers...