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 is the general system; Dragon Harvesting is one application of it.
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.
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.
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.
Grand Carcass
A Gargantuan and/or legendary creature is large enough to work every station without crowding. Against such a body, each character may take one roll per tool proficiency instead of a single roll. An elder dragon always qualifies; a merely Gargantuan beast is the DM's call.
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 |
| 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.
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. Known formulae are listed at Dragon Crafting Recipes.
Creature harvest profiles
- Hydra — CR 8
- Dragon Turtle — CR 17
- Ice Spider Queen — CR 2