Domesticated Monsters

I'm curious as to what monsters, that you'd probably find in a D&D bestiary, would be the something that someone might be able to domesticate, whether it be for protection or for potential food sources.

no

stop

do not eat bulette

bulette is friend

dragons domesticate all sorts of shit to guard their lairs

goblins, ropers... you name it.

train =/= domesticate

Slightly off topic but:

Is it (Byoo-let)
or (Byoo-Lay)
or (Boo-let)
or (boo-lay)
or (bull-et)
or what?

bul-ette

soft "e" sound on the end compared to "bullet."

I've been pronouncing it:

Boo-let-ah

Grey Render is probably the prime candidate for monster domestication.

Cave fishers. Their blood is alcoholic and used in some for the finest dwarven wines and their meat is like wine drenched crab.

Here are the important factors in domestication:
The animal on question has to be easily caught, enclosed and cared for. (there's a reason we chose to domesticate things like sheep and cows and not things like lions and tigers).
The animal in question should reproduce readily with minimal coaxing. Most domesticated animals actually have to be kept separate from members of the opposite sex to keep them from breeding unchecked.

It's byoo-lay.

Well technically we did domesticate cats, just not a particularly big breed, and people do keep tigers as pets and for the black market in tiger parts for things like traditional chinese medicine. Some of the wild ancestors of cows and even sheep could be ferocious in their own right too.

But yeah it takes some common sense thinking on why an animal is worth domesticating and how you actually manage the process.

We already hunted birds and foraged their eggs, keeping them and collecting their eggs as long as possible before killing them is a simple logical progression.
Dogs or their wild ancestors were one of the few things that could keep up with our endurance hunting. Even now some apes are domesticating dogs by kidnapping puppies and raising them as part of the family; when full-grown they protect the family against other dogs.

In many cases too much breeding isn't necessarily the primary motivation in separating sexes especially considering that most animals only mate at certain times, some animal breeds that have risen to prominence in farming today are specifically the ones that mate more readily whenever. Things like greater control over pairings is a significnat factor but there are also many with beliefs about how mixed groups can make for harder to manage behavior or even effect the product for milk or meat.

>Well technically we did domesticate cats, just not a particularly big breed
Cats were drawn to us by the rats and other vermin that they prey on. It wasn't a matter of humans plucking them from their natural environment. They simply adapted to get better access to food.
>eople do keep tigers as pets and for the black market in tiger parts for things like traditional chinese medicine
See Training and domesticating are entirely different. Additionally, the animals in zoos are not domesticated, they are just in a cage.
>Some of the wild ancestors of cows and even sheep could be ferocious in their own right too
This is for the most part true, Aurochs even appear in some bestiaries.

But we HAVE bred and domesticated cats regardless of how we wound up with them.

I didn't even mention zoos, no idea where you're pulling that from.

>I didn't even mention zoos, no idea where you're pulling that from.
you mentioned tigers. There is no such thing as a domesticated tiger.

Otyugh are often described as legitimately sentient, capable of communication and occasionally entirely non-aggressive if kept fed with garbage. If there's one monster I'd like to domesticate/indoctrinate to civilized life, it's these squishy trash friends.

Goblins/Halflings for labor, leisure, and pets.

I don't know if this is a meme but is right if it's pronounced in the French way like it seems it ought to be.

The final "e" is always going to be silent, so it's basically "bullet" or "boolet" with more stress on the second syllable.

"Bull-ay" would be spelled "bulet", and "boo-let-ah" would be "buletta".

I just say, delish!

...

From the mouth of Gary gygax himself.

Boo-lay

It's a jab at the french.

This. Otyughs could do wonders for waste disposal.

A point I always wondered about. Imagine you kept them in your city as a garbage disposal and promised it it's choice pick of garbage if it seperates out certain trash from others and basically gets to eat whatever is left over.

Boom, instant recycling.

That and I thought it would make for a neat encounter if the PCs are thrown into a sewer area where a family of Otyugh work. If they don't attack it it helps them get out without having to fight their way out.

Dwarves of my setting domesticated the bulette to use in excavation projects. They're half the size and fairly docile, living off rubble with occasional treats of meat

How to domesticate Monster:
Build Dungeon
Be Dungeon master, waver the class as removable when not in dungeon or when engaged in combat as Dungeon Master
Apply the Dungeonscape templates to everything you place in dungeon