Purchasable Creatures?

[RoboEmperor]

Trying to figure out if I'm gonna play a cleric or not in my next game, and I will only play clerics if there is a reliable source of Animate Dead targets regardless of setting.

So... which creatures are purchasable so I can murder them and raise them?

Heavy Warhorse is #1 for being in core and virtually impossible to be excluded in any setting.
Lodestone Marauder is #1 for being a CR9 creature in MMIV that is purchasable for 6,000gp.

Any others? They don't have to be mounts, they just gotta be purchasable so by RAW available in every settlement within the Demographics limit.

[OgresAreCute]

Warbeasts (template in the appendix of MM2) are hilariously underpriced at (75*HD)+100gp. Only applies to have animals and vermin though.

Edit: That means the sample rhino costs a whopping 775gp. A CR 17 Warbeast Battletitan with 37 HD costs 2875gp. That's MM2 for ya.

[PhantasyPen]

The Arms and Equipment Guide by AEG has a selection of purchasable creatures.

[SLOTHRPG95]

Putting aside other horses, as per the PHB you can get one chicken for 2 cp, one goat for 1 gp hence the name goat piece, one sheep for 2 gp, one pig for 3 gp, one cow for 10 gp, or one ox for 15 gp. So if you're strapped for cash, you have a lot of things below the heavy warhorse price tab, and a few of them make decent zombie fodder if you really don't have any better options. Now, most of them are unstatted, but an ox has to be at least as strong as a bison, and a pig is really just a fat boar with short tusks.

On the higher end of usefulness, Hippogriffs, Griffons, Giant Eagles, Giant Owls, and Pegasi are all core monsters that RAW have guaranteed list prices in the MM. Even though some of these are in fact sentient, so I guess the question there is if you're evil or not. Oh and speaking of enslaving sentient beings and raising them for slaughter and subsequent animation, there's dragons, as per Dracominicon. Raising their eggs takes a long time and I'm not sure they're worth it, but the option exists.

[RoboEmperor]

Warbeasts (template in the appendix of MM2) are hilariously underpriced at (75*HD)+100gp. Only applies to have animals and vermin though.

Edit: That means the sample rhino costs a whopping 775gp. A CR 17 Warbeast Battletitan with 37 HD costs 2875gp. That's MM2 for ya.

That is awesome and just what I was looking for. Thanks.


On the higher end of usefulness, Hippogriffs, Griffons, Giant Eagles, Giant Owls, and Pegasi are all core monsters that RAW have guaranteed list prices in the MM. Even though some of these are in fact sentient, so I guess the question there is if you're evil or not. Oh and speaking of enslaving sentient beings and raising them for slaughter and subsequent animation, there's dragons, as per Dracominicon. Raising their eggs takes a long time and I'm not sure they're worth it, but the option exists.

Didn't know this. Gotta stop using the d20srd exclusively. Thanks.


The Arms and Equipment Guide by AEG has a selection of purchasable creatures.

Thanks I'll take a look.

[the_david]

I think this us one of those "ask your DM" questions. Ultimately, it's up to the DM to decide what is and what isn't for sale in the campaign setting. That being said, an ox would indeed be a good start.

[RoboEmperor]

Yeah, warbeast is just too good. MMII is unusable.

[Falontani]

From Lords of Madness we get this nifty gem of: The Slave Trade


The value of slaves is a different matter. Multiple factors go into the value of a slave, and the interest shown by the potential buyer is not the least. The basic method for determining the

value of a slave is based on the creature’s CR, using the following formula:

Cost = (CR, minimum 1)2 × 100 gp

An unskilled dwarf, for example, with CR 1/2, costs 100 gp (CR 1/2 rounds up to 1; 1 squared = 1; 1 times 100 gp = 100 gp). A troll slave, on the other hand, costs 2,500 gp (CR 5 squared = 25, times 100 gp = 2,500 gp).

Unusual or marketable qualities in a slave, such as great strength, great beauty, valuable skill, or exotic origin, can multiply the price by two, three, or four. A skilled miner dwarf might bring 200 gp if sold at a mine. If that same dwarf were exceptionally strong, he could cost 400 gp. If that dwarf was an 8th-level rogue and the buyer was the head of a thieves’ guild, the slave could cost between 12,800 and 25,600 gp. The DM has considerable leeway when setting these prices, of course.

When dealing with high-level characters, there’s always a possibility that the neogi don’t know how valuable or how skilled a particular captive is, leading them to undervalue the slave.

Several skills come into play when haggling with neogi. Appraise is valuable for obvious reasons, but it’s less useful when dealing with unfamiliar or alien goods. Diplomacy is another handy skill. Long years of trading with some of the most unsavory creatures imaginable have made the neogi difficult to offend, but they respond uncharacteristically well to politeness.
Sense Motive is essential; neogi lie about anything if they expect to get away with it. Pertinent Craft and Knowledge skills can provide essential synergy bonuses to relevant Appraise checks.

With that there formula anything, and I mean literally any creature that feasibly could be captured, can be sold. That said, some party members won't be game for this method, many creatures that are purchased in this fashion would be inexplicably evil, and depending on the laws of the state, could be illegal.

[RoboEmperor]

From Lords of Madness we get this nifty gem of: The Slave Trade


The value of slaves is a different matter. Multiple factors go into the value of a slave, and the interest shown by the potential buyer is not the least. The basic method for determining the

value of a slave is based on the creature’s CR, using the following formula:

Cost = (CR, minimum 1)2 × 100 gp

An unskilled dwarf, for example, with CR 1/2, costs 100 gp (CR 1/2 rounds up to 1; 1 squared = 1; 1 times 100 gp = 100 gp). A troll slave, on the other hand, costs 2,500 gp (CR 5 squared = 25, times 100 gp = 2,500 gp).

Unusual or marketable qualities in a slave, such as great strength, great beauty, valuable skill, or exotic origin, can multiply the price by two, three, or four. A skilled miner dwarf might bring 200 gp if sold at a mine. If that same dwarf were exceptionally strong, he could cost 400 gp. If that dwarf was an 8th-level rogue and the buyer was the head of a thieves’ guild, the slave could cost between 12,800 and 25,600 gp. The DM has considerable leeway when setting these prices, of course.

When dealing with high-level characters, there’s always a possibility that the neogi don’t know how valuable or how skilled a particular captive is, leading them to undervalue the slave.

Several skills come into play when haggling with neogi. Appraise is valuable for obvious reasons, but it’s less useful when dealing with unfamiliar or alien goods. Diplomacy is another handy skill. Long years of trading with some of the most unsavory creatures imaginable have made the neogi difficult to offend, but they respond uncharacteristically well to politeness.
Sense Motive is essential; neogi lie about anything if they expect to get away with it. Pertinent Craft and Knowledge skills can provide essential synergy bonuses to relevant Appraise checks.

With that there formula anything, and I mean literally any creature that feasibly could be captured, can be sold. That said, some party members won't be game for this method, many creatures that are purchased in this fashion would be inexplicably evil, and depending on the laws of the state, could be illegal.

Nice find! I doubt my DM is gonna have a slave market accessible to the party since we're the good guys, and I further doubt he's gonna have every single monster in the market XD. But really, nice find!

[OgresAreCute]

Nice find! I doubt my DM is gonna have a slave market accessible to the party since we're the good guys, and I further doubt he's gonna have every single monster in the market XD. But really, nice find!

Walks into McSlaver's
"Hey can I get uhhhh Chicken McBalor with fries?"

[RoboEmperor]

I looked through a good deal of books now and it seems Lodestone Marauder is the winner.
In MMIV, not an obscure book and not 3.0
Affordable. 6000gp is affordable at level 5.
Very tanky
High STR so its good as a skeleton, and Girallon's Blessing will skyrocket is DPR.
As a cleric, Divine Insight makes training it a joke. You literally only need 1 point here.

All the other creatures are not suited for combat, significantly weaker than him (all sentient mounts go under this), horribly broken (Warbeast), or too hard to obtain like no listed price, too expensive, needing to find it in the wild and either convince it to be your mount or steal its young.

So I challenge someone with a non-slave non-warbeast purchasable creature that will surpass the Lodestone Marauder either in its CR5 skeleton form or its CR9 normal form.

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

What about Deep Hound from RoS? 4250 for a trained pup, higher str than the marauder, not as many attacks per round, but its bite is more powerful than the marauders.

[RoboEmperor]

What about Deep Hound from RoS? 4250 for a trained pup, higher str than the marauder, not as many attacks per round, but its bite is more powerful than the marauders.

I think you're looking at the wrong thing. The Lodestone Marauder is literally superior in every way. It has higher STR, attack, attacks per round, and damage per attack than the Deep Hound. Deep Hound is only CR4.

I think even the skeleton is stronger than the Deep Hound.

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

I said the marauder had more attacks per round.
There's only 1 point difference in their strength scores, I screwed up which is higher ( been on disability and a never ending scrip for muscle relaxers for 6 months, brain power isn't what it used to be, my bad).
The marauder does +15 to hit 1d8+7 with its bite, the Deep Hound +11 to hit and 2d6+9, so more damage there anyway, but the claw attacks are nice.

The Deep Hound is also 2/3 of the price, so more affordable.

Dont believe I said it was better than the marauder, just offered it as an option.

Edit: and based on the other thread you're posting about it in, maybe it's easier to find a Deep Hound as well since they're bred by dwarves and not wild.

Understand your pain though, my DM leaves a lot of availability on specific requests up to a percentile roll, got lucky with a warbeast tiger this campaign, but have been wearing the same armor for about 5 levels now and haven't been able to get ahold of anything better.

[unseenmage]

...

So I challenge someone with a non-slave non-warbeast purchasable creature that will surpass the Lodestone Marauder either in its CR5 skeleton form or its CR9 normal form.

Aww, crud. And here I was going to point you to my list of templates (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?372681-How-do-template-stacked-Animals-compare-to-more-common-corpses-for-necromancy) that dont change an animal's type so you can have template stacked Warbeasts.

It's even got random die rolls applied and everything so your GM could simulate a beast tamer's bazaar.
The animal lists are not quite comprehensive but I believe the template list to be.


I threw it together in anticipation of just such a situation as your own. Impending necromancer in need of corpses.

[RoboEmperor]

I said the marauder had more attacks per round.
There's only 1 point difference in their strength scores, I screwed up which is higher ( been on disability and a never ending scrip for muscle relaxers for 6 months, brain power isn't what it used to be, my bad).
The marauder does +15 to hit 1d8+7 with its bite, the Deep Hound +11 to hit and 2d6+9, so more damage there anyway, but the claw attacks are nice.

The Deep Hound is also 2/3 of the price, so more affordable.

Dont believe I said it was better than the marauder, just offered it as an option.

Edit: and based on the other thread you're posting about it in, maybe it's easier to find a Deep Hound as well since they're bred by dwarves and not wild.

Understand your pain though, my DM leaves a lot of availability on specific requests up to a percentile roll, got lucky with a warbeast tiger this campaign, but have been wearing the same armor for about 5 levels now and haven't been able to get ahold of anything better.

You raise some excellent points. I am going to agree with you that a Deep Hound is an excellent alternative. But you forgot that the Lodestone has superior AC and HP by far, and can disarm all enemies at once and knock them all prone too in the same action. In any case the Deep Hound will be my alternative for sure.


Aww, crud. And here I was going to point you to my list of templates (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?372681-How-do-template-stacked-Animals-compare-to-more-common-corpses-for-necromancy) that dont change an animal's type so you can have template stacked Warbeasts.

It's even got random die rolls applied and everything so your GM could simulate a beast tamer's bazaar.
The animal lists are not quite comprehensive but I believe the template list to be.


I threw it together in anticipation of just such a situation as your own. Impending necromancer in need of corpses.

Thanks I'll give it a look. But seriously, Warbeast is unplayable! Like a 2nd level character can buy that freaking sample Rhinoceros Warbeast. What was 3.0's WBL for WotC to give players such powerful minions for pennies?

[OgresAreCute]

Thanks I'll give it a look. But seriously, Warbeast is unplayable! Like a 2nd level character can buy that freaking sample Rhinoceros Warbeast. What was 3.0's WBL for WotC to give players such powerful minions for pennies?

Brave of you to assume WotC actually checked the WBL table.

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

Warbeast is absolutely overpowered for what it is, luckily my DM doesn't really number crunch like that too much beforehand, he just ups the CR of encounters and adjusts xp and treasure to stunt growth if things are getting out of hand.

[Falontani]

Elsewhale, it is aquatic, but aquatic creatures suffer no penalties when they are undead; it has an advancement table which can bring it up to colossal (which is not applied to the price of the creature, but nowhere does it state that the price of the Elsewhale is for the weakest variety), it has a 35 str, and a 4d6 bite at gargantuan, and its all yours for the low low price of 8,000 GP.

Gaspar, it is land based, and fast. It has advancement table again, up to gargantuan. It has 14 HD, 7 natural attacks, Powerful charge, and 27 str. This thing is an absolute beast, and is purchasable for your price of 22,500 gold.


Finally if you want cheese; scroll of wish to create a golem, scroll of Incarnate Construct to turn it alive, kill it, animate it. with that you have Effigy Rules, to create any human shape creature of any size. Obviously better to create stronger creatures, however killing them may be hard, and would definitely be cruel.

Oh and, don't forget the Jerky Cow! Take a cow, kill it, smoke it so the whole body is jerky, and then turn it into a zombie.

[RoboEmperor]

Brave of you to assume WotC actually checked the WBL table.

Actually the Phylactery of Change is half the cost of what it should be if we using the custom item rules, so perhaps everything in 3e was half the price of 3.5, so the warbeast templates cost should be doubled... but even when they're doubled they're too cheap. lol.


Finally if you want cheese; scroll of wish to create a golem, scroll of Incarnate Construct to turn it alive, kill it, animate it. with that you have Effigy Rules, to create any human shape creature of any size. Obviously better to create stronger creatures, however killing them may be hard, and would definitely be cruel.

Pretty sure the golem is gonna be superior to the skeleton in every single way imaginable so... this method seems... um... XD

I forgot to mention this is for levels 1-8 because from 9 you got lesser planar binding for all of your minion needs and PaO for your endgame 40hd dragon wyrm skeleton stuff.

[ShurikVch]

Tyrg (Dungeon #112): 8 HD Large Magical Beast with Str 25, cost 4000 gp

Bulette (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/bulette.htm) priced 15000 gp in Races of Stone, but it's Huge, and have burrow speed...

For a flying option - Dire Eagle (Races of Stone): Large Animal with 20 Str, cost 4000 gp

[death390]

Nice find! I doubt my DM is gonna have a slave market accessible to the party since we're the good guys, and I further doubt he's gonna have every single monster in the market XD. But really, nice find!

why not? purchase them, agree to "pay them" a wage that when they make the equivalent money they go free. if they die, part of the contract is for them to continue in your service as an undead. trick is to pay them enough that if they don't die they can reasonably make it out of your service within a reasonable time. caveat to the contract is that you can't kill them nor anyone else on your behalf. you provide them with the gear and food/water they need (suggest a few unlimited food/drink items) not coming out of their wages. lifetime of a mook is not often the best. even better is that you could round out the party depending on what skills they mooks have, if any. as part of the lawful side of things this is better than they would normally get since slaves often don't go free. i would suggest a retirement package for them. hell first one to go free, i would suggest offering them a safe job working for you. buy a plot of land/ shop/ ect and have them work it. if they level up on the adventures ask that they learn a trade.

[Bullet06320]

Champions of Valor pg153-7 for more horse breeds

[Fizban]

No mention of Elephants? 2,000gp in Oriental Adventures. If gp limits are your only limit, Elephants as far as the eye can see, in every City in all the lands and even the Large Towns too.