Monster Parts - Okay what do?

[MerlinCross]

I have a player in my game that's playing basically a hunter/merchant from another world/land/region.

One of their gimmicks is to strip a monster of any... useable parts. Skin for Leather, meat for cooking, bones/scales/tusks for other purposes.

Which I love, I was a fan of Monster Hunter but I have no idea how to actually rule this or use this other than giving them more home made rations(Which is good given that they have a large company following them) and maybe some extra gold.

That's the easiest but also cop out bland way to handle it. ANy ideas/tips/resources to look into?

[Ikorus]

Treat it as raw materials for weapons, armor, potions, and wondrous items that either require or can conceivably use the parts, for discounts on crafting.

If he wears and/or wields a full set of stuff from one beastie, give him irony bonuses against that creature. Also circumstance bonuses for well-made meals from monster meat/bones/skins/etc

But nothing over the top, just little stuff like a +2 to rolls made to intimidate, or +1 to hit.

[avr]

As always in PF, there's a feat for that. Two in fact; harvest parts and grisly ornament. If they just want to make a profit you might give them the effect of the first feat for free given a sufficient skill check.

[GotAFarmYet?]

Why not flip it a bit and make them like big game hunters. They get the Jobs to harvest parts of Monsters from a company. What is left of the monster after the parts that was to collected is removed then becomes the new adventure do they host a 3 BBQ or try to sell other parts to the local tribes for extra money. The kicker would be that they are always time constrained by the transportation department. You can even have the transpiration depart trying to cheat them by taking the parts themselves for the money.

[Lady Asharah]

The two feats seem like overkill for already feat heavy game like Pathfinder.
I think the simplest would be to use crafting rules. Technically "crafting" a resource out of the carcass.

so, skill check result (Heal or Craft(of some kind)) x DC (set by DM, I'd go with CR of the creature +5) = value of harvested materials in silver. You could make it gold if the creature is particularly rare or powerful.

[Meirril]

If you want to support your player, then cheat. Reduce the amount of treasure you give the party. Include that missing treasure back in as valuable creature parts.

It is normal to design a series of encounters and then move the treasure away from encounters that don't make sense to have treasure (like swarms, oozes and animals) and move them towards encounters that make sense to have more treasure (Bandits, Dragons, Tax Collectors). Now spend a little time thinking about if any of these creatures have something that sounds like its worth something.

Creatures that spew fluids should have sacks that store small amounts of the fluid. Some claws, horns and bones would be good for crafting. Some creatures have 'valuable' hides. Most of these should be raw materials that need to be processed (or sold to processors) via crafting to sell to others. Like you kill a Bear and strip its hide. The raw hide is worth 30gp but only tanners will buy it raw. If you tan the hide it triples the value to 90gp but that means you also spent the time to craft it.

Alternatively, if you want to give your party an opportunity to get ahead you could use the downtime rules and the party earns resources like you would for doing a job. So the party gets full normal treasure and if our entrepreneur spends a whole day gathering bits and pieces he gets a skill roll to earn the right to pay for magic/goods resources. Possibly influence or labor if he spends time cultivating contacts and knows people are looking for stuff and he trades it for favors.

[Mysterious Stranger]

Unless the character has some way of making something out of the parts using it for survival and extra gold is about all you should do. If the character has skills and feats to actually make things, especially crafting feats, than allow him to use the part to create items.

[Mark Hoover 330]

On the D20PFSRD site under Gamemastering there's a section on Trophies and harvesting them from monsters. I think this is all originally from the Ultimate Wilderness book.

Under Trophies however there's a subsection re: Magical Affinities of Trophies. In other words, certain monsters might provide Trophies that synergize with the creation of specific magic item types, so crafting a Trophy from these monsters requires not only a different skill than a simple Craft skill but is also harder to do. If you succeed however the preserved Trophy with magical affinity counts as 20% more valuable in the creation of an item the affinity works towards.

For example if a PC defeats a Schir Demon, they might want to take it's heart for use in items with an Evil descriptor or its tongue for items pertaining to Disease. A normal Trophy would require a Craft check DC 15 + the creature's CR, which this demon would be 4, for a total of 19. Success gives you a Trophy worth 200 GP.

Making a Trophy from a Schir Demon with magical affinity though requires a Knowledge: Planes check with a DC of 20 + the monster's CR, for a total of 24. If the PC succeeds however they've got a Trophy valued at 240 GP worth of components towards the Crafting costs for crafting an item (or items) with the Evil descriptor or pertaining to Disease.

There are also rules from UW pertaining to harvesting Poison from slain monsters. Using that as a basis you COULD, if you were super generous, houserule the harvesting of other alchemical substances from monsters for either Alchemical crafting materials or subbing for alchemical items whole cloth.

Perhaps on a high Survival or Craft: Alchemy check a PC can harvest the blood of a Fire Elemental for a single vial of Alchemist's Fire; the glands of a Giant Spider for a Tanglefoot Bag; the dried hair of a nerid can craft several Tindertwigs. Whatever, just have fun with it.

Finally, there's the time-honored tradition of PCs harvesting arcane spell components/boosts from fallen enemies. Want your Fireball to deliver a little extra kick? Shave an Azer bald for more damage, and so on. There are alchemical power components and rules for harvesting Trophies with magical affinities; combine these two and potentially boost effects or add new ones if the PC is so inclined to go after some.

One other thing to consider is the RP and setting impact of the merchant's activities. If the region is fairly neutral or opportunistic there might not be any impact at all but if the area has a heavily Good alignment or local governments fear reprisals from monsters whose kin are being sold in open markets, the PC might be in dutch with the law.

It might be a cool side plot for this PC or the whole party to establish a hidden market for these sales, make special contacts, maybe even get jobs for specific monster parts.

[MerlinCross]

Thanks for this, I got a couple ideas of what to do/how to run this.

I just found this to be a rather interesting idea and the fact the player is so hyped for this has hyped me too, as this is something I've always had cooking in the back of my head.