Combat-trained alligator = ???gp

[mardaddy]

OK, so my Ratfolk Urban Druid used very high rolls on his Animal Handling (with some circumstantial bonuses) to semi-domesticate an alligator that was about to attack the party.

With an INT of 1 and a weeks worth of training, Mr. Bitey has learned one trick: "Down" (I figured that was the first and most important thing to teach it for everyones safety.)

ASSUMING I craft Mr. Bitey a stat-boosting INT item to bring INT up to 3 and Combat Train him, how much would Mr. Bitey be worth to sell?

We're talking a highly trained, pretty exotic animal here; in Kintargo (Cheliax.)

I can see that the difference between a Riding Horse and a Combat Trained horse is +50%, but a Riding Horse is already trained for Riding and that training is already figured in to its cost; and I'd still have to know the "base cost" of an alligator...

Maybe just confer with the GM. If it ain't gonna make some bank, the PC is NOT investing the time...

[Avoron]

Crocodiles, which are mechanically identical to alligators, cost 55 gp and can therefore be sold by PCs for 27 gp. You're spot on with an estimated +50% price for combat trained animals; that holds true for everything from bison to tigers. So a combat trained alligator would cost around 82 gp and could be sold for around 41. You'd only make a 14 gp profit from training them - definitively in the realm of "not worth the time." It's worth talking to your GM, though - maybe that could be increased by the animal's exotic nature.

[mardaddy]

Arg. Well, it IS an albino alligator, I was thinking train it up and sell it to an animal collector with gold to spend, but that does not look worth it...

If I am laying out 2000gp and the time to craft the INT-boost, plus the time to train (assuming all checks are passed), unless I could sell it for around 1,000x more than that 41gp... It would not be worth it; the time training the thing would be better spent crafting.

[Bob Bob Bob]

If you're trying to get more money because it's "exotic", you're selling it as a collector's item or art piece. There is no bonus for training it. Nobody cares about the frame on their Picasso. If you want bonus money for training it there has to already be a standard price for it, which means you're selling it at standard market rates. Standard market rates for a crocodile, even an albino one, probably suck. Even lions are only 200 gp, crocs are much weaker.

[Oxylepy]

I just got a savannah monitor, but considered a nile. If you want a lizard attack animal, get these. Better yet, get a few of them and train them to pack hunt

[shadowkras]

Quote:

If I am laying out 2000gp and the time to craft the INT-boost, plus the time to train

You are selling the alligator with a headband of vast intelligence?

Then you should add the magic item's price to this math.

Quote:

You'd only make a 14 gp profit from training them - definitively in the realm of "not worth the time."

For a PC, no. But from a npc point of view, 14g per week training alligators is double their average weekly income.

[Cevah]

As a Fetchling, I have thought about getting a Shocker Lizard. With 1d8 non-lethal at will, my cohort, also a Fetchling, needs a 4 to save and I need a 2. Our resist 5 electricity means that we take at most 3 points non-lethal. Nice little ability for a mount to have. If only we weren't on a ship. Sigh....

/cevah