CockroachTeaParty
2016-02-10, 08:58 PM
A chicken (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/animals/chicken) is worth 65 XP.
On the slow XP track, a character could go from level 1 to 20 by killing 82,308 chickens (rounding up to the nearest fowl).
If a level 1 character were somehow transported to our world to do this, they would destroy slightly more than 4 standard 'boiler' chicken farms, which average about 20,000 birds each. This act of chicken genocide would only impact 0.00052% of the global chicken population (just shy of 16 billion). To put it another way, there are enough chickens on planet Earth to fuel the ascension of 192,616 characters.
This is the slowest scenario. On the medium track, Earth's chickens could see 286,248 characters to level 20 (55,385 chickens slain each), and 429,377 characters on the fast track (36,923 chickens slain each).
A chicken only costs 1 gp according to Ultimate Equipment. Based on a settlement's purchase limit alone, a large city could finance the chicken-ascension of 1 level 20 character on the fast track, while a metropolis could almost pull off 3 characters. Of course, that's the trade value of a chicken; the cost of running a productive chicken farm would likely be a fraction of the cost over the course of a year.
In a 3.5/PF crossover world, chicken-infested commoners could become XP batteries, fueling the creation of epic heroes in record time, although I'm sure the lunacy of the chicken-infested flaw has been covered much more thoroughly than the scope of this thought experiment.
Of course, it's reasonable to assume that a character would not receive XP for defeating traditional non-combative chickens. Only blood-thirsty war-chickens that know no fear would count as sufficient challenge. While the danger would still likely be low for low-level characters, it would likely slow down the process until said characters possessed the ability to destroy chickens en masse (fireball, great cleave, etc.)
An arms race emerges: what nation can produce the largest population of combat chickens at the cheapest cost, while keeping low-level character deaths at a minimum?
On the slow XP track, a character could go from level 1 to 20 by killing 82,308 chickens (rounding up to the nearest fowl).
If a level 1 character were somehow transported to our world to do this, they would destroy slightly more than 4 standard 'boiler' chicken farms, which average about 20,000 birds each. This act of chicken genocide would only impact 0.00052% of the global chicken population (just shy of 16 billion). To put it another way, there are enough chickens on planet Earth to fuel the ascension of 192,616 characters.
This is the slowest scenario. On the medium track, Earth's chickens could see 286,248 characters to level 20 (55,385 chickens slain each), and 429,377 characters on the fast track (36,923 chickens slain each).
A chicken only costs 1 gp according to Ultimate Equipment. Based on a settlement's purchase limit alone, a large city could finance the chicken-ascension of 1 level 20 character on the fast track, while a metropolis could almost pull off 3 characters. Of course, that's the trade value of a chicken; the cost of running a productive chicken farm would likely be a fraction of the cost over the course of a year.
In a 3.5/PF crossover world, chicken-infested commoners could become XP batteries, fueling the creation of epic heroes in record time, although I'm sure the lunacy of the chicken-infested flaw has been covered much more thoroughly than the scope of this thought experiment.
Of course, it's reasonable to assume that a character would not receive XP for defeating traditional non-combative chickens. Only blood-thirsty war-chickens that know no fear would count as sufficient challenge. While the danger would still likely be low for low-level characters, it would likely slow down the process until said characters possessed the ability to destroy chickens en masse (fireball, great cleave, etc.)
An arms race emerges: what nation can produce the largest population of combat chickens at the cheapest cost, while keeping low-level character deaths at a minimum?