What can I do with these monster parts?

[3DZ]

My players recently fought and defeated a beholder. (Big season-ender style battle with lots of twists.) While looting the area and fallen, one PC went a bit overboard and carved the beholder up and carefully preserved the parts with a plan to later 'make magic items' from these bits.

Yuck element aside, it got me thinking: What could the PC actually construct/extract from bits of a beholder or other magical creatures?

Looking for existing rules or flavor, tables, items, that describe how PCs can extract magic for re-use from creatures. Dragon scales, purple worm gullets, unicorn blood, etc.

Does not have to adhere to any particular system. I can always convert to suit.

To seed the ideas with more specifics I have:

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In my current setting most magic force and creatures are tied together in a larger 'weave' of magic/life force. (See: Wheel of Time)

Based on that, what if parts of this strongly magical outsider retain some of that weave and could create limited use items. Without the living creature, there is nothing to keep rebuilding new energy in that specific weave pattern or some such, but the pattern remains for some time with the physical body and can be leveraged by those with the right knowledge and tools.

Basically any power the creature had (Eye Rays), has some chance of being recreated in a limited fashion as a magic item or alchemical item.

I was going allow the creation (roll for it) of alchemical powder that functions as a magic disruption field for a certain duration. Powder that puffs out from a blowgun tube/grenade/flask as an area cloud, the area disrupts or messes with magic till the powder oxidizes or its weave unravels etc.

The powder could coat surfaces and creatures and be pretty nasty shut-down effect. + Don't accidentally get some on yourself if you are a caster or heavily magic dependent...

[Almaseti]

Well, I could see using the parts to make magic items. Beholders have eyes that each grant special effects, right? So the anti-magic eye could be used to make an item that grants spell resistance without having to meet the normal prereqs, or for cheaper, since the magic is already there.

Generally it will probably help you to stick to existing items or effects. I'm pretty sure the DM guide has rules for that. Perhaps you should make them make Spellcraft, Alchemy or Survival checks to properly preserve and use the material. DC could be something like 10+hd survival to preserve the items, 15 + level of spell that's being mimicked/replaced to use them, craft as the craft rules give you, but substitute Alchemy.

[Mastikator]

I always figured that the cost of making magic items was buying these exotic parts, and if you had them then it would be free. Made no sense that the gold would just vanish.

The eyes could be used to make items that either shoot energy rays or absorb beholder energy rays.
The antimagic eye could be used to make some magic resistance item, or spell resistance, or activate to create antimagic field item.
Some part could be used to replicate the beholder's flight and/or permanent featherfall.
Each of the spells the beholder can cast could be turned into an item that cast that spell x times/day

[Alex12]

I vote that the central eye can be used to create a potion that provides a permanent Cha bonus. If your players ask, you can explain that "beauty is in the eye of the Beholder."

[drew2u]

The DMG on page 36 under VARIANT: POWER COMPONENTS

This variant allows for special rare ingredients to be added to material spell components in place of an XP component ... They're certainly rare and certainly expensive - ten to twenty times the XP component in gold pieces is a good baseline price... In the same way, special ingredients can substitute for the XP that a character otherwise has to spend to create magic items

Although it also says that the price/worth of said parts is pretty arbitrary so if beholders are common in your game, then the price of beholder parts to XP substitution would be rather low, thus you'd have to kill a lot of beholders to substitute all the XP in creating a magic item.

Off of this thread: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2lu90?Ha...ated-Creatures there are many ideas on how to calculate the preservation DC. Personally I'd do 10+HD or 10+CR for preserving most parts and then 10+poisonDC for poisons, etc. to keep those potent.

Right now I want my 1st level players able to preserve Giant Fire Beetle glands to keep the illumination fresh (DC 10+1/3rd - DC 3?) for +1d3 days
as well as preserve a stirge's proboscis for a bleeder needle (DC 4? for 1 point of damage +1d4 CON, -4 attack). Craft [Arms & Armor] negates the attack penalty.

[The Glyphstone]

I always figured that the cost of making magic items was buying these exotic parts, and if you had them then it would be free. Made no sense that the gold would just vanish.

The eyes could be used to make items that either shoot energy rays or absorb beholder energy rays.
The antimagic eye could be used to make some magic resistance item, or spell resistance, or activate to create antimagic field item.
Some part could be used to replicate the beholder's flight and/or permanent featherfall.
Each of the spells the beholder can cast could be turned into an item that cast that spell x times/day

A discount, maybe, but not free...just having the monster part isn't enough, unless you just want to go around wearing a rotting/preserved beholder eye strapped to your forehead. You've got the monster bit for the magic, but you could need the metal/wood/stone (precious or otherwise) to sculpt/forge into the item that'll hold the magic, you might need the dust/oils/powders involved in preparing the item to be a receptacle for the magic, maybe you need a rare and expensive incense to put yourself in the meditative trance for doing the actual enchanting....depending on how detailed you want to make your magical item enchanting process, there's a ton of different things that crafting gold could be spent on. Imagination!

[3DZ]

Thanks for the responses. Good stuff to work with.

Creature part value: Beholders are very rare in the current setup.

Preservation: Have to admit I kind of hand-waved the preservation as auto-succeed with some minor material costs, as they had a cleric of fairly high level (could store whole bodies without decomp for ~ days/weeks). Will review the sources for future creature carving if it becomes a habit...meh.

The cost of creating an item was going to be high to very high, re:level of item created. He already has some of the rarest components (the eyes) but I am sure the alchemist/priest smiths will have other requirements for him or that they will need him to pay for or go get...

Items to be constructed from this creature's magic patterns:

• Anti magic/magic disruption effects
• Spell resistances
• Elemental resistance (it was a cold based beholder, eye of ice or whatever)
• Flight
• Rays of death and pain
• Cha bonus, LOL, but why not? It could be charm based right?
• Rip its spell list, as daily casts etc. Not sure if I want to go that route as the question becomes: were those part of its nature, or things it learned as an intelligent spellcaster? (I am not the expert on the creature so maybe they all are natural spell-like abilities.)

[The Glyphstone]

If they're the spells it cast through its eyestalks, they'd be an innate spell-like trait of the beholder itself. Beholder spellcasters - known as Beholder Mages - are an entirely different beast, primarily because they gouge out their own central antimagic eye in exchange for ridiculous arcane power. They're upper-double-digit spellcaster boss monsters.

[Jay R]

As a DM, I think it's the player's responsibility to come up with these ideas.

"OK, you have a beholder eyelash. How do you intend to use it?"

A good idea will make a cheaper item. A really good idea will make a more powerful item. A superb idea is very likely to make an item with properties your character doesn't even know about.

[Rhynn]

In Adventurer Conqueror King (a D&D retroclone), creating a magic item requires monster parts. You need parts from a number of monsters with a total XP value equal to the GP value of the item. Different recipes (which you find or research) have different components; a Lawful mage will probably rather use a recipe that requires the skulls of 100 hellhounds than one that requires the horns of 50 unicorns.

One monster is only good for one part, for the sake of sanity and balance.

For D&D 3.X, you could convert this at some ratio (easier in Pathfinder with fixed XP values for monsters), letting monster parts substitute for GPs in magic item creation (and accounting for this in your WBL tracking, perhaps letting the PCs get a little bit further ahead than crafting your own items usually lets you).

[3DZ]

The Glyphstone: Thanks. Based on that, these effects are elements of the creature, and fair game for item creation concepts.

Jay R: Yeah, I run my game sort of in that fashion. It is why I am in the current situation to start with. "Wait what? Your PC wants to chop up the creature and preserve the parts? Hmm, OK, for what purpose?" Zip ahead a few sessions and the PC is back in a major city, hunting for specialists who might be able to utilize the latent magical elements to create him some awesome gear. I have left what he could make open to the player's input, but...

I like to have something to hang my decisions on, for a lot of reasons. Consistency is probably the biggest one. If one PC can do it, so could others, and NPCs. So I want to make sure I am not varying the availability, power, etc. unintentionally. It is nice to rely on a guide and extend from there. (Not always possible, but I prefer it to avoid a constant stream of DM fiat that players are unable to understand or predict.)

Rhynn: Have read reviews of ACK, but do not have it. Interesting approach, I definitely will use the custom recipe concept. Each creator goes about the making in a different way, and has a list of what they can make based on their skills. (PC is going to a vendor/artisan and not building it themselves)

[Jay R]

Early editions of Chivalry and Sorcery had a long list of items and what they could be used for (which I immediately extended).

My character went dragon hunting for parts, and was still finding uses for red dragon parts:
Blood helped make a protection from fire potion.
A bone was used for a wand of Fireballs.
A cloak of dragon wing skin would grant flight.
An eye was used to make a permanent Wizard Eye.
etc.

The crucial thing was that I had to justify each one to the DM. But the basic principles were to look at specific properties of the beastie. For red dragons, the crucial properties were flame, toughness, flight, and general magic use.

For a beholder, I'd let each eye be used in an item with the associated spell.

My current DM allows improved spell if you use components from rare magical beasts.

[Adam...?]

People have already mentioned using monster parts to account for some (or all) of the material or XP components for crafting specific magic items, and I think that's a pretty fun idea.

Another idea that was mentioned in one of the 3.5 splatbooks was that certain parts could be used as substitute spell components, perhaps even adding free metamagic effects. There's a whole list of ideas on the SRD (although only some of them are monster parts).

I'm going to second Jay R's suggestion that you leave it to the players to decide what parts can be used for what. I know you said you'd like to have some consistency, which is admirable, but I just don't think that this is that big a deal in terms of world impact or game balance. The problem with trying to come up with a comprehensive list of this sort of thing is that there are a lot of monsters in DnD. Instead, maybe it'd be easier to come up with a general system that can be applied to any monster on the fly.

[Sebastrd]

Lords of Madness actually describes and depicts the anatomy of a beholder and tells you what all the parts are for.

[Rhynn]

My character went dragon hunting for parts, and was still finding uses for red dragon parts:
Blood helped make a protection from fire potion.
A bone was used for a wand of Fireballs.
A cloak of dragon wing skin would grant flight.
An eye was used to make a permanent Wizard Eye.
etc.

Teeth for summoning skeletons... blood for a potion of invulnerability...

[Jay R]

I imagine a party hiring a sage to learn what can be made form all these parts. He spends six months researching, using several hundred thousand of their gold pieces, and eventually calls them together to say, "All those parts can be combined to make...

... Beholder stew."

[Calmar]

You could use it to create a potion of antimagic field that affects only the one using the potion - or just devour the eye to gain the same effect.

[Erasmas]

All of my characters that fight and kill rust monsters take their feelers and grind them into powder. I've always liked the idea of throwing a fistful of the stuff at some evil warrior that the DM throws at us and going, "How do you like it?!"

Just kidding, I love rust monsters. In fact, I just gave one as a pet to my bevy of Iron Golems that guard my personal treasure room. What could possibly go wrong?

[Jay R]

I recommend deciding that beholder parts go bad after three days.

[Calmar]

I recommend deciding that beholder parts go bad after three days.

They start regrowing into new beholders.