Monster Harvesting

Monster Harvesting

Description and context.

Origin

Where it came from or who created it.

Contents

Include the full text or excerpt.

Interpretation

Theories, importance, or player insights.

Monster Harvesting

A slain monster is a mobile treasury of crafting materials. A steady hand and the right tools can turn scale, gland, fang, ichor, and bone into arms, armor, alchemy, and arcana.

This system was unveiled in full at the table in Session 51.

Harvesting a carcass

After a fight, each character may make one harvest check: pick a single tool you are proficient with, roll d20 + that tool's bonus, and claim every component in that tool's column whose rarity you meet on the ladder below. Proficiency in a fitting knowledge or handling skill (Nature or Arcana to know the beast, Medicine or Survival to work the body — the DM's call) grants Advantage.

A tool only produces if the carcass actually holds materials in that column — Calligrapher's Supplies pull nothing from a dumb beast. Choose the tool that fits the body in front of you, not just your highest bonus.

Scraps are automatic. Even a failed or low roll yields the base salvage — meat, fat, blood, hide-scrap — at no DC. Nobody walks away empty-handed.

Natural 20 — beyond the ceiling. (Rule added in Session 53.) A natural 20 on a harvest check can harvest a component one rarity level higher than the monster's CR ceiling would normally support — the harvester finds something in the body that, by rights, should not be there. First invoked on Karma's natural 20 (29 Herbalism) over a CR 3 blue dragon wyrmling, pulling a Rare component from an Uncommon-capped carcass.

The harvest ladder

Rarity sets the difficulty; the monster's CR sets only what is available to find.

Rarity	Harvest DC	Craft Value (CV)
Scraps	0	1
Common	5	2
Uncommon	10	4
Rare	15	8
Very Rare	20	16
Legendary	25	32
Artifact	30	64

What a monster yields (by CR)

CR sets the rarity ceiling (the best a body can hold) and the number of component slots, never the DC.

CR	Rarity ceiling	Component slots
0–½	Common	2–3
1–4	Uncommon	3–5
5–9	Rare	5–7
10–14	Very Rare	7–10
15–19	Legendary	9–12
20+	Artifact	12+

Every notable monster has one signature component — its most evocative part — set at the creature's ceiling rarity, the single greatest prize on the body. A natural 20 is the one way past the ceiling.

Scaling components (CR 9+)

On creatures of CR 9 and up, a structural or signature part may exist in several grades at once; the highest band your roll clears is the version you recover.

• roll 5–9 → Common
• 10–14 → Uncommon
• 15–19 → Rare
• 20–24 → Very Rare
• 25–29 → Legendary

Below CR 9, components are single-rarity: you clear their DC or you don't. Where two harvesters share a column, the higher roll takes the signature or best grade; plentiful parts (blood, bile, meat) duplicate freely, signatures do not.

Tools and what they collect

The tool decides the category you can extract and what it feeds into. This is why a lower bonus in the right tool beats a higher bonus in the wrong one — the wrong column simply has nothing to give.

Tool	Collects	Feeds into
Alchemist's Supplies	Glands, blood, bile, ichor, organs, essences	Potions, oils, acids, bombs
Herbalism Kit	Spores, saps, antitoxin glands, medicinal organs	Healing draughts, antitoxins, salves
Poisoner's Kit	Venom sacs, stingers, toxic glands	Poisons, paralytics, contact toxins
Smith's Tools	Scales, plates, horn, claws, fangs, chitin, hard bone	Weapons, shields, heavy & medium armor
Leatherworker's Tools	Hide, membrane, pelt, sinew	Light armor, cloaks, straps, tents
Woodcarver's Tools	Bone, ivory, antler, beak (fine work)	Hafts, foci, wands, ammunition
Calligrapher's Supplies	Ink sacs, chromatophore fluid, sigil-blood, psychic residue	Magical inks, scrolls, glyph & sigil reagents
Navigator's Tools	Eyes & lenses, weather organs, swim bladders, lateral lines, wing-tendons	Optics, weather & travel instruments, sea & sky gear
Jeweler's Tools	Gemlike eyes, crystalline growths, gizzard pearls	Gem-foci, ornaments, luckstones
Cook's Utensils	Flesh, fat, marrow, organs	Rations, tallow, exotic cuisine
Tinker's Tools	Cores, gears, animating crystals	Construct & clockwork parts
Thieves' Tools	Generalist fine work — pick from the small-Smith's, Calligrapher's, Jeweler's, or Tinker's columns for that check	As the chosen column
None (Scavenge)	Swallowed loot, gizzard contents	Coins, gear, oddments — anyone may attempt

Niche defaults: Weaver's → silk & web cordage; Glassblower's → crystalline organs & lenses; Painter's → pigment glands; Brewer's → fermentable organs; Mason's or Potter's → shell & calcified plating; Cartographer's overlaps Navigator's. (Thieves' Tools as a generalist column: DM ruling sketched at the table in S53 — treat as provisional.)

Crafting with what you harvest

Harvested parts are spent as Craft Value against item thresholds — see the component crafting economy for how a primary component sets an item's effect and rarity cap, and how secondary parts are added to reach a tier. The party's banked components, their effects, and what each can build are tracked on the Harvested Materials ledger.

Creature harvest profiles

• Arauthator — ancient white dragon, CR 20
• Dragon Turtle — CR 17
• Hydra — CR 8
• Blue Dragon Wyrmling — CR 3
• Ice Spider Queen — CR 2