Dragonscales and Unicorn Horns: What can they do?

The horn is an aphrodisiac

Phoenix feathers make for some spicy, authentic Hellfire Gyoza.

Blood is a very low-density source though. One guy ran the numbers and it would take a fairly large number of humans to get enough iron for a sword.

Speaking from a D&D perspective, depending on the type of dragon you kill, the armor gives you elemental resistance to that dragon's breath weapon element type but you are vulnerable to the element they are weak to. For example a red dragon armor would give you fire resistance but makes you weak to cold, while white dragon armor would do the opposite.

In 3.5 if you got a unicorn horn it can be used to make a (healing) spell that normally only has touch range, turn into a 30ft cone so it's able to heal all the characters in that area's effect; enemies get heals too though. However if you killed the unicorn, the horn would lose it's magical effect after it died.

Okay but if you're just smelting all the iron out of it why does it need to be organic?

i know i made it a big point that this is exactly what someone did to create a blood drinker sword in my game, to top it off a guy created angel killing sigils and inscribed them into the blade

I know that i usually have a magical property directly related to the creatures powers, such as a Basilisk will grant poison blood, a Mermaid grants water breathing scales

OP here, maybe i should have made the topic just magical materials and not mentioned unicorn horns at all.

But since I'm here, anyone got ideas for what they might recover from a hydra? I'm going to be having one of those coming up soon

and they enjoy harvesting from big baddies, it allows them to wear their amazing victories and remember the effort they actually had to put in to succeed, they just seem to like it better than finding a random +3 chain mail in a dungeon

My players do it anyway. One motherfucker just collects guts. One has a pair of legs. One's got a hand, and a bunch of skins and bones.

what you got yourself is the makings of a necromantic golem

Hydra hide and teeth
I would also allow a character with alchemist's supplies to harvest some of it's blood to distill a potion of regeneration, which can also be crafted with troll blood or that of any other regenerating creature

They're all martials though.

Alchemy, potions, Damascus Steel, etc.

How many we talking here? This could be a good plot hook for a bbeg

400 according to

I would guess that hydra venom could be used as a poison of some sort

Probably not, but you might be able to use it as a venom.

A steel longsword weighs 400 tacks? That sounds like bullshit.

A shitty necromantic golem.

You never played AD&D 2nd Edition, did you? No?

It had the best monster catalogues of any fantasy game ever.

Here:
lomion.de/cmm/_contents.php

You can have longswords as light as a kilogram.

But can you make kilograms as light as a longsword?

CHECKMATE ALCHEMISTS

>Aranea Silk is especially good at absorbing and holding on to magical energy, providing an excellent starting point for any magically enhanced clothing
>Dragon Scales repel flames or cold (depending on what the Dragon in question breathed)
>Ground Unicorn Horn has restorative properties and is essential to making powerful healing magic
>Will-o-Wisp ectoplasm is an excellent medium for potions, making them much easier to create
>Imp Blood is caustic, and makes for an exceptional way to etch runes into metal, making it cheaper to create magic weapons or armor.

Actually their is a snail which creates an iron shell by living near iron rich volcanic vents. It's pretty tough material for a deep sea dwelling crustacean. I'd say it's as accurate as anything. As a dragon ages it's scales get harder than iron as its scales get denser, harder, and heavier.

Do we make a transition to an ancient adamantine alternative or just say it's heavier so better.

Hmm.

Would dragons consume metallic ore in order to harden their scales in this case?

Well, it's useless if smelted but "organic iron" might have unique crystallization patterns and other materials mixed in to alloy it stronger.

The Alicorn (the horn of a unicorn or the material of which it is made, now often used as the term for winged unicorns) has it worse. The name began in Latin, passed into Arabic, and then into English. The definite article in Arabic (al) was added to the word when it cam into English, and the definite article in Latin (li) was added when it came into Arabic, so it can be translated as "The The The Horn".

Why say Horn of a unicorn when there is a word with a far funnier story just waiting for you to use it?

Thats cool, i can see a dragon doing that

Players get wind of a great dragon raiding vaults and stealing gold, but also raiding armories and taking weapons.
They track down its lair, as always expecting to slay the dragon and loot the hoard. maybe get some cool weapons
When they enter they see the dragon feasting on the weapons and gold by the handful.
Players both collectively shit themselves at a super armored dragon, but also feel the disappointment of no loot at the end of this.

I want exactly this, and therefore do exactly that. At the beginning of the campaign, I had my players run across an old druid whose cottage was covered in drying racks full of pixies. He would ground the dried pixies into pixie dust, which when inhaled would allow you to fly. And get you high as a kite.

It was mostly good for long-distance travel, making sure that your trip would be both fast and entertaining.

The players got into the spirit of things very quickly.

And in case anyone doesn't get it, the 'high as a kite' part is where the happy thoughts come in.

Dragonscale codpieces and unicorn powder sexual stimulant.

There's 2.5-3g total iron in a person, which is mainly distributed throughout the body in cytochrome complexes. Maybe a half to a quarter of that is found in the blood. A medieval longsword weighs 1.25-1.5 kg. You're looking at somewhere north of a thousand humans to make a sword, then you have to find a way to turn that hemoglobin into elemental iron.

What if we forge it with lightning strikes too, increase the badass level by 10,000.

>unicorn powder sexual stimulant
Magic horse cock powder? Sign me up.

That would make for an epic quest to forge an evil weapon

one of my BBEG's lieutenants has a pair of them, quenched in demon blood, stabbed through a unicorn's heart, and prayed to by a large congregation for 33 days each

He killed enough demons to forge two swords out of them. impressive.

What does stabbing a unicorn do for an item? i understand the praying probably gives it a holy facet or damage bonus. What other powers is it benefiting from?

Traditionally, killing a unicorn is in the same territory as killing an innocent (only more so). So extra cursed?

That brings up a good question: Does evil have diminishing returns? If so, at what rate?

Elves and fey can wield it since its not cold iron from the depths of the earth. Organic iron swords, plus metal from meteors is the only materials elven smiths can work with. That's why elven weapon craftsmanship is so good : Every ounce of useable metal counts.

Magical horse viagra spreads across the land, even has a slogan "Make love like a stallion".
Selling for exorbitant prices, people are going wild over it, creator is rich.
But in order to keep up he has to hunt down more unicorns for the powder.
Druid approaches the party and says that unicorns are almost gone, they were already dwindling before and that he needs them to stop the the man creating viagra for everyone.

Thus begins the quest to kill everyones boners

I'm sure there's a haughty noble somewhere willing to pay top dollar for genuine dragon scales and unicorn horns. Not to mention alchemists who think they might be able to use ground unicorn horn mixed with phoenix spittle to turn lead into gold or something.

If they don't want to sell it, let them keep it as a trophy. They can impress people later by showing it to them.

Eh, the guy used a lot of dwarves as filler, since they have a lot of metal in their blood.

The unicorn was mostly to prevent the weapons themselves from becoming demons, and the praying was to reinforce their power.

How do you do it then? How do you solve the looting issue?

Boner pills.
Half the endangered species in the world are going extinct because someone thinks that their horn/gall bladder/toenails are going to allow their tiny, withered dick to get up one last time.
I'm looking at you, China.

It doesn't say anything about what you can do with monsters part though.

Had an idea like this a while ago. Make my artificer spend several days in the Elemental Plane of Air working with an elder Storm Elemental to create a bolt of Not!Uru.

I never got around to deciding if it would be a sword, a spear, a dagger, or a wand, then the campaign dropped, so I never got to do it.

yeah, we get it, DUDE WEED LMAO

After reading the thread, here are some ideas:

Core of a Hydra
>A large, pulsating sac. Hydras posses remarkable regenerative properties, and the core of a freshly slain hydra is a prominent ingredient in creating "reactive" metals. "Reactive" metals are light, flexible materials that harden in response to physical contact. Examples include spectacular leather armor, whip swords capable of solidifying on contact, and various occult trinkets.

Dragon Scale
>Harvested from a dragon. These scales seem awfully brittle, but when ground and applied, they are capable of creating eternal fires that can coat and linger on various materials.

Heart of a Dragon
>A dense, muscular clump, far heavier than appearances suggest. It's said that when cooked correctly, people who consume the meat are capable of inhuman feats of strength, perception, and luck. These benefits come at a cost. Without a steady supply of meat, users are prone to violent and irrational outbursts. Heavy users have been seen with visible Dragonosis, the first step in becoming a dragon.

But only when the whole thing is up your butt

" and various occult trinkets." totally made me think of dishonored

>what have you done in your games like this?

I've always done up the "Butcher the monster" as opposed to "It spits out some money and an item".
All the hours of Monster Hunter grinding have conditioned me.

>Dragons/Wyverns: Scales, Hide, Fur, Meat: Neck, Stomach, Tail. Organ: Fire Gizzard
The Scales are durable as steel or iron, but at the same time flake off the creature constantly. They're fire resistant, but not "insulating", so don't think you're safe.
The Hide & Fur are insulating and immune to fire- use THEM to provide the fire immunity, not the scales. Both the hide, fur and scales can be worked with a very basic acid rub to keep them soft enough to work like regular leather- vinegar, piss, etc.
The best meat is on the stomach, neck and tail respectfully: Dragon/wyverns have no parasites, but you should still cook the meat. It's best smoked.
The Fire Gizzard is the organ the dragon uses to create flame- you can find it between their lungs. The Gizzard can be used to store dry goods as the flesh of the organ is semi-permeable absorbing "humidity" to keep the dragon from exploding.

>Unicorn: Hide, Horn
The Horn of a Unicorn is NOT magical once it's dead; it's regular ivory no better than any other creatures ivory. Magic Unicorn Horns are a Myth to sell Ivory.
The Hide or Pelt of the Unicorn however is smooth & luxurious, but also EXTREMELY resistant to both arcane and divine magic. Often made into coats, vests, shawls, or apron-like skirts- if you're short you could make a tunic or robe. Offers no physical protection or resistance against nature magic.
Everything else about a dead unicorn is mundane.

A really macabre puppet show.

While dragon scales do have excellent protection against fire or piercing attacks, unicorn horns have +5 placebo effect and thus are highly sought after by medicine men and wizards.

>don't want the characters becoming walking butcher's shops.

My DM and one of the players would agree with you, the other five (including myself) have butchered, harvested, and eaten just about every non(usually)-humanoid we have killed.

Its just fun for us, we ended up buying a flying street vendor and serving up beholder eyestalk kebabs and dragon fried rice. We also built the black market of monster parts.

The DM has begrudgingly joined us in this because we do still follow the story, the remaining player just pouts until he gets to bounce around in combat.

Right now my players are trying to do this with normal animals like Deer and Bears, but being that they're converted murdehobos none of them have any skill in any hunting, skinning, forging, or trade.

so far it ended in bloody torn up hides that they mangled but i let them salvage meat they use to eat every night, I'm debating hooking them up with a hunter npc who agrees to skin and sell their kills in exchange for 50/50

>Weekend at Krastator the Unholy's

My DM let me skin the dragon and turn the scales into armor. We had a fighter smith and he made one set of full plate and one set of half plate with the scales. It was a black dragon, so the DM said the armor had acid resist as a natural property, so we could enchant something else over it (but not another resistance)

I'm new to Veeky Forums both the board and the games. How does the game master manage the loot? does he just invent a number for skinning and shit or is it actually in the books? Thanks guys.

Your group sounds fun as fuck, I've been wanting to play a kind of 'chill' campaign where there's no world ending shit happening. Maybe just hunt monsters and set up a food place like in your post. I guess most people wouldn't find that exciting enough though.

>not wanting to play Monster Hunter: the tabletop

i know i just make it up based on how i judge the difficulty, but thats because my system doesn't have anything in place for this.

Most other systems (D&D/Pathfinder) have rules in place for loot tables, difficulties for harvesting things, and what the harvested things do.

I would only give monster parts special properties if the monsters themselves were rare and/or those parts are used for attacking and such.

Sounds like you're in a Dungeon Menshi style party.

It really helps to have a goofy group in this kind of thing, our previous campaign was Gurps Discworld so we are already in the mood for being Dibblers and oddballs.

I will not deny that being an inspiration, at the time though only the first chapter was translated.