Monster Harvesting Crafting Materials

How to Harvest

The act of removing useful body parts from a creature is referred to as harvesting. Anything that can be harvested from a creature is referred to as a harvesting material or simply material. In general, only creatures that have died may be harvested, but there may be some exceptions based on context.
This section details the steps associated with actually performing a harvest, and any factors that may influence it.

Appraising

Before a player begins hacking and butchering their hunt, they may instead choose to take a moment first and appraise the creature to be harvested. To do this, they must spend 1 minute examining the creature to be harvested and then roll an Intelligence check, adding their proficiency bonus if they are proficient in the skill corresponding to that creature (see table below). For example, appraising a Beholder (which is an aberrant), the check would be an Intelligence (Arcana) check, while appraising an Ogre (which is a giant) would require an Intelligence (Medicine) check.

Appraisal DC = 8 + the Harvested Creature's CR (treating any CR less than 1 as 0)

The DC of the check is equal to 8 + the Harvested Creature's CR (treating any CR less than 1 as 0). Success on this check grants the player full knowledge of any useful harvesting materials on the creature, the DC requirement to harvest those materials, any special requirements to harvest them, and any potential risks in doing so. In addition, any harvesting check made on that creature by that player is rolled at advantage. A character may only attempt one appraisal check per creature.

Monster Type/Skill Check

Creature Type	Skill
Abberration	Arcana
Beast	Nature
Celestial	Arcana
Construct	Investigation
Dragon	Nature
Elemental	Arcana
Fey	Arcana
Fiend	Arcana
Giant	Medicine
Humanoid	Medicine
Monstrosity	Nature
Ooze	Investigation
Plant	Nature
Undead	Arcana

Splitting up the responsibilities

Some party members may prefer to let one character handle the appraisal of materials, while another more dextrous character handles the actual harvesting. In this scenario, all benefits of appraising a creature are conferred to the player doing the harvesting, so long as the player that performed the appraising assists the harvesting player through the whole duration of the harvest.

Harvesting

In order to harvest a creature, a character must make a Dexterity ability check using the same skill proficiency as listed in the above appraising table. For example, a character attempting a harvest check on an Aberrant would receive a bonus equal to their Dexterity modifier and their proficiency in Arcana (if they have any).
This check reflects a character's ability to not only properly remove the intended item without damaging it, it also involves any ancillary requirements of the harvest such as proper preservation and storage techniques.

Using other proficiencies

If a player is harvesting a certain creature, or harvesting a creature of a certain type of material, the DM may allow them to use a relevant tool proficiency rather than a skill proficiency.
For example, the DM may allow a player to add their proficiency with Tinker's Tools to their attempt to harvest a mechanical golem or use their proficiency with leatherworker's tools when attempting to harvest a creature for its hide. Alternatively, all creature type proficiencies may be replaced by proficiency with the harvesting kit

Each individual item in a creature's harvesting table is listed with a DC next to it. Any roll that a player makes that equals or exceeds this DC grants that player that item. Rewards are cumulative, and a player receives every item with a DC equal to or below their ability check result. For example, rolling a total of 15 on a check to harvest an azer will reward the player with both "azer ash", and "azer bronze skin", but not a "spark of creation". If they so wish, players may opt to not harvest a material even if they have met the DC threshold to harvest it.
Only one harvesting attempt may be made on a creature. Failure to meet a certain item's DC threshold assumes that the item was made un-salvageable due to the harvester's incompetence.
For most creatures, the time it takes to harvest a material is counted in minutes and is equal to the DC of that material divided by 5. For huge creatures however, it is equal in DC of that material, while for gargantuan creatures, it is equal to the DC of that material multiplied by 2.

Harvesting Time

Creature Size	Harvesting Time (minutes)
Large or smaller	Material DC / 5
Huge	Material DC
Gargantuan	Material DC × 2

Particularly violent deaths

This guide assumes that most creatures you attempt to harvest died in direct combat and thus already accounts for the idea that you are harvesting creatures that are not in pristine condition. However, some deaths are more violent than others and can make harvesting useful materials either extremely difficult or downright impossible. Such examples include burning by fire, dissolving from acid, or being completely crushed under a pillar of stone. In these cases, raise the DC for harvesting any of that creature's materials by 5. Alternatively, the DM may decide that well-orchestrated hunts result in a carcass that is prime for harvesting, such as creatures killed mostly through psychic damage, or those killed in one clean attack. In these cases, the DM should lower the DC for harvesting any of that creature's materials by 5.
Furthermore, the DM may adjudicate whether or not some of a creature's individual materials have been made useless due to effects imposed by them in the course of their death. Examples may include blood being tainted from poisoning, or their pelt being worthless due to excessive slashing/piercing damage.

Optional Rule: Carcass Degradation

This guide mostly assumes that harvesting takes place on a freshly killed corpse and that little to no decomposition has yet occurred. However, in some cases, a player may desire to harvest a creature that has been dead for quite a while. In these cases, the DM may declare that certain body parts have already withered away and become un-harvestable or may decide to increase the DCs of all harvestable materials as if the creature had died a particularly violent death. If corpse decomposition is too advanced, it is entirely within the DM's right to deny harvesting the creature altogether.
As a quick guide, the following timeline may be observed to decide on decomposition levels:
1 hour after death: The carcass' hide has ruptured from bloating and has become useless.
1 day after death: The carcass' blood has become too tainted to be useful, and soft tissues like the eyes have putrefied.
3 days after death: The carcass' internal organs have decomposed.
7 days after death: The carcass has undergone extensive purification and none of its soft tissue remains harvestable.
Note: Harder materials like bones, teeth, claws, and hair do not generally undergo decomposition and will remain usable indefinitely.

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The Harvest Tables

Understanding the Tables

Every unique monster from the Monster Manual has been listed in this book with an associated harvest table. When your players attempt a harvest, simply look up the relevant monster in this guide, and read out the results (monsters are listed in the same order as in the Monster Manual). The following is an explanation of how to read the table.

DC

This is the DC required to harvest this item. Any harvesting check that equals or exceeds this threshold allows the player that made that check to successfully harvest that item.

Item

The name of the item received. While for most items, the player only receives one of the listed item, some item names have parentheses next to them. These indicate the amount that a player receives upon a successful harvest e.g.: Aarakocra Feather (small pouch) or Aboleth Mucus (3 vials). At the DM's discretion however, they may adjudicate that a player receives less or more than the stipulated quantity. Such reasons may include extremely high success on a roll, or certain methods in which the creature was killed.

Optional Rule: Harvesting Dangerous Materials

Harvesting some creatures are more dangerous than others. While most creatures are harmless once killed, others possess poisons, acids, and breath sacks that remain active even after the creature's death. Even worse is that a simple misplaced knife stroke or errant twitch of the hand can lead to these materials accidentally harming the harvester.
Under this optional rule, whenever a harvester rolls below the DC of a harvestable material that has a "Use" section that deals damage, the material is not just lost, it also expends its ability on the harvester. For example, a character that fails to properly harvest a poison would suffer the effect of that poison on themselves, or a character that fails to harvest a breath sack would release the effect of that breath sack in their direction. The exact adjudication of the failure result may change depending on the DM.

Description

A brief description of the item to be harvested, written by Hamund. While this is usually just for flavour, some items also have a "Use" section. These items may be used immediately after being harvested and require no further adjustments or crafting. Their function is described here in the description box.
Additionally, some materials have harvesting requirements beyond just steady hands and a sharp knife. Any extra requirements or criteria for harvesting a material will be listed here.

Value

All materials are listed with their base resell value. This is how much money an average shopkeeper would be willing to pay for the materials in good conditions. DM discretion is advised when varying this value, dependant on shopkeeper mood, rarity within the setting, condition of the material, etc. A material with a value listed as "varies" indicates that its usage is too specific for it to be sold to an average shopkeeper, and the value of the material would depend heavily on context.
When items are harvested in discrete quantities, the value listed refers to each individual item. For example, Aboleth Mucus is harvested as a set of 3 vials, and so the value listed (20 gp) refers to each individual vial (so successfully harvesting Aboleth Mucus would be worth 3 × 20 gp = 60 gp). When items are listed as indiscrete quantities however, the value listed refers to the entire quantity. For example, Aarakocra Feathers are harvested in the indiscrete quantity of a: "small pouch." Thus the 8 sp value listed refers to the value of a "small pouch of Aarakocra Feathers", not 8 sp for each individual feather.

Value Factors

The values listed here are based on a myriad of factors including: CR of the monster, average treasure horde values, use in crafting, whether the monster tends to be found alone, whether the item is consumable, probability of successfully harvesting the item, balance around existing prices, and sometimes just for flavour. These prices are intended as a baseline only, and the DM is free to adjust these values as they see fit for their campaign. The DM is also to keep in mind that, although certain items may have high values, not all vendors may want to buy them. For example, although a Death Knight Heart may be worth the high price of 4,000 gp, it may be difficult to sell it to the village grocer. Sometimes, finding the right buyer for an esoteric item can be an entertaining side quest in and of itself, or simply used as a good downtime activity.

Weight

The weight of the item listed in pounds. The weight listed here follows the same rules as values do; the listed number refers to the weight of individual items, unless that item is harvested in indistinct quantities, in which case the weight refers to the whole indistinct quantity.

Crafting

Some items, although valuable, require a skilled artisan to craft them into a usable item. The material's description details which item they can be crafted into. If this section is blank, the item has no craftable item associated with it.
The section of crafted items at the end of this book details the usage of crafted items, as well as details on their crafting requirements. Some craftable items originate from published source books from WotC. These receive special tags in brackets that denote which book they come from.

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Types of Materials

Reagents

Reagents are a huge range of things; most often they are plants that contain some magical essence, but almost as frequently they are harvested from various magically inclined monsters. The exact source of a reagent usually does not matter beyond defining its type, as the part of the reagent used is the fragment of magic contained within that is distilled out.
There are many different ways to make a potion. Consequently, the materials are sorted into categories. These categories include curative, reactive, and poisonous. These each come in the standard material rarities: common, uncommon, rare, very rare, and legendary.
Reagents can't be salvaged once they have been combined into another form (such as potions, essences, or ink).
Reagents can be assumed to weigh 0.2 pounds each.

Interchangeable Reagents

All curative, reactive, and poisonous ingredients are interchangeable. This is intentional to drastically simplify the crafting process and tracking thereof. Individual names are included only to deepen the immersion of the finding and buying ingredients, and can be treated as interchangeable by their label if preferred.

Magical Ink

While ink has many uses, crafting is mostly concerned with magical ink which has the power to hold the arcane words of scrolls. This is synthesized by alchemists from the magical properties of reagents, as it is concerned with extracting their magical properties, the exact nature of the reagents used do not effect the final ink beyond its potency.
Magical ink is not typically found or harvested on its own, though it may be found as loot, and in some instances a GM could rule that some blood collected from a fiend, celestial or dragon could be counted as such. It is generally created from reagents or purchased from alchemists that create it from reagents.
Magical ink can't be salvaged once they have been combined into another form (such as potions, essences, or ink).
Magical Ink can be assumed to weigh 0.1 pounds each.
E

ssences

While reagents are substances that contain a glimmer of magical power that can be harnessed through refinement, Essences are more purified forms of magical power. These come in three types: Arcane, Divine and Primal as well as in the five normal rarities (common, uncommon, rare, very rare, and legendary). These essences are the pure stuff of magic that makes things work.
You can get these by rendering down magical reagents, salvaging magic items, harvesting them from magical monsters, or through the hard work of spell casters. Or you can find them as loot from people that have already done one of those harder steps. The rules for rendering them down from materials are contained within each branch of crafting, while the rules for creating them yourself are under Enchanting, as it is their domain and skill set needed to do so.
While all branches occasionally use essences when extra magical power is needed, they are the primary material of Enchanters, and their pricing can be found in that section.
Essences can be found as loot during the courses of your adventures, but can also be harvested (from monsters), salvaged (from magical equipment), synthesized (from reagents), or created from the raw power of a spell caster, though the method is long and arduous.
Essences are flexible in their exact nature. There are many paths to each desired outcome, and this flexibility is represented in Essences. While the traditional way to make a belt of hill giant strength may call for a hill giant heart as its essence, an enchanter may substitute a dragon heart as their primal essences to make a belt of dragon strength that just has the same statistical effect.
Essences can be assumed to weigh 1 pound each.

Salvaging Essences

You also may be able to salvage magical essence from unwanted or broken magical items, though such a reclamation process can be difficult, and rarely results in more than a fraction of the essence infused into the original item. An item returns one essence equal to its rarity when harvested. The process takes 2 hours to complete, and doesn't work if the item is currently attuned to any creature. An essence can only be salvaged from permanent magic items; a permanent magic item is one that recharges or doesn't have a limitation on its charges or uses. A magic item with charges or uses can only be salvaged while it is at full charges or uses.
The item becomes nonmagical after the essence is salvaged from it. If it required magic to function or exist, it is destroyed.

Synthesizing Essences

In addition to harvesting essences from magical monsters fully intact, a more approachable and incremental way is to combine several reagents to get an essence. You have to combine three reagents of the same rarity to gain one essence of that rarity. You can combine reagents in the following ways:

Synthesizing Essences

Essence	Component Reagents
Arcane	1 curative, 1 poisonous, 1 reactive
Primal	3 reactive
Divine	2 curative, 1 reactive

This process takes 4 hours, and requires alchemist's supplies and a heat source.

Making Essences

Another potential source of an Essence is being created by a spellcaster. This process is long and arduous, and typically only suited to downtime. A creature with the Spellcasting feature can create 1 essence during 1 workweek (5 days, 8 hours a day this process can't be completed faster and for the duration they are considered to have spent all of their spell slots.
At 1st level or higher can make a common essence in this way, a caster 5th level or higher can make an uncommon essence this way, a caster at 11th level can make a rare essence in this way, and a caster at 17th level or higher can make a very rare essence this way. Legendary essences require special rituals, more casters, and take far longer; they are exceedingly hard to make.
The type of essence produced depends on the source of the spell casting levels as per the table below:
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Caster Essence Types

Caster	Essence Type
Inventor K	Arcane
Bard	Arcane
Cleric	Divine
Druid	Primal
Monk	Psionic
Occultist K	Any*
Paladin	Divine
Psion K	Psionic
Ranger	Primal
Sorcerer	Arcane
Warlock	Varies*
Sorcerer	Varies*
Wizard	Arcane

Special Cases Explained

Sorcerers produce a type based on their subclass; Dragon or Wild makes Primal, Divine Soul makes Divine, and Shadow makes Arcane.
Warlocks likewise produce a type based on their subclass; Archfey makes Primal, Celestial makes Divine, and all others make Arcane.
Occultist can produce any type, but takes 1.5x as long to produce an Essence in this manner. A GM can rule based on the special circumstances of a character their power source may be different than normal. This can stand in for Shaman, Witch, or Oracle classes if you use those instead of Occultist.
Inventor can stand in for any half-arcane caster of a similar theme.
A half- or third-caster would generate essences at 1/2 or 1/3 their character level, respectively.

Ingots

Ingots are chunks of metal that can be used to craft things. They are assumed to be relatively pure and weigh 2 pounds each. The default ingot listed in all the crafting tables is an ingot of Steel. These cost 2 gp per ingot. There are cheaper metals (such as Iron pure Iron can't be used to craft weapons and armor, but can be used for other items, resulting in a cheaper item. On the other end of the spectrum, more advanced metals such as Mithral and Adamantine can be used conferring special properties, but being far more difficult to work with and costing more.
Ingots can be assumed to weight 2 pounds each.

Salvaging Ingots

Metal items can be converted back to ingots quite efficiently, but require a forge to do so. With a forge and 2 hours per item, a metal item can be rendered down into its component ingots.
Advanced metals may require special tools to smelt.

Smelting Ore

Creating ingots from raw ore is largely out of scope for most adventurers, but you can create ingots from raw ore with a suitable facility. For more details see the Components and Materials table under Blacksmithing.

Hides & Leathers

Hides, scales, and carapaces all tend to be harvested from monsters. Leather is a product of hides that can be processed from what it is harvested from the monster.
The GM determines if a monster provides hide, scale, or carapace. Hides do not come in different sizes, rather larger creatures simply provide more hides, and monsters that are not large enough to produce one hide provide only hide scraps.
Scales are likewise abstracted: each increment is simply an arbitrary unit of scales that the unit of scales covers. Scales can be much larger or small from different-sized creatures.
The system does not attempt to say how many scales a creature provides or how many literal actual scales makes up scale mail, but rather provides a number that is then consistently used.
Creatures are harvested using a Survival check, with its DC listed below. If the DC check is failed, the harvest does not fail entirely, but instead they get 1d4 hide scrapes in place of any hides, carapaces of one size smaller, and half as many scales.

Processing Hides

The process of turning hide into leather takes quite awhile (as per the crafting table), and is often something adventurers can delegate to NPCs (delivering hides to be processed) or do during downtime. If you would like a more expedited system, there is no balance reason for this, and you can short the leather crafting process to taking 2 hours, it just won't be exceedingly realistic.

Parts

The term "parts" is used to refer to gears, wires, springs, windy bits, screws, nails, and doodads. Parts can be either found or salvaged or forged from metal scraps (or even straight from ingots by a Blacksmith for those that really want to be industrial about it). The exact nature of each item making up this collection is left abstracted.
In addition, metal scraps are collections of salvaged material that generally fall into the category of things "too small to track" which can then be used for the creations of tinkerers. In addition to all of this, occasionally tinkers will use ingots... particularly ones of tin (which is their namesake, after all).
Like other crafting branches, there are also named components for more iconic pieces of gear—the stock of a crossbow, for example, or other items. The cost for these items can be found on the common component table, and are generally minor.
Lastly, Tinkerers use essences when constructing things that push beyond the mundane principles of plausibility, crafting magical properties into their inventions.

Named Components

In almost all cases, named components (such as a "wooden stock" for a crossbow) can be simply abstracted out as a minor cost, but, as always, the level of abstraction is up to the GM.

Salvaging parts

The other main way to acquire parts is to salvage them. What can be salvaged is determined by the GM, but in general common items provide parts, uncommon or expensive items may provide fancy parts, and esoteric parts are found only from esoteric sources at your GM's discretion. Tools, vehicles, and complex items generally return 1d4 metal scraps and 1d4 parts for a Small or smaller item, 2d6 metal scraps for a Medium-sized item, 3d8 metal scraps for a Large-sized item, and more for larger items, though they may return less of rare types of parts.

Wood

Commonly available in its lowest quality (firewood), higher quality woods are often found in rather exotic locations. Wooden branches (including wood scraps) are assumed to be of a useful wood that can be worked, while firewood covers everything else, with more useful woods falling into categories such as "quality branches" or rarer options. Wood scraps are assumed to be scraps of common branch quality wood, and consequently can't be salvaged from firewood.
Wooden branches can be assumed to weigh 2 pounds each.

Salvaging

For the most part, wood can't be easily salvaged. Wood carving is not necessarily a reversible process, and wood can't be smelted down.
You can render wooden crafted product into wood scraps equal to 4 × the number of branches used to create it.

Quality Branch

A quality branch refers to one that can be made into more precious objects, particularly bows. It is nonmagical in nature, but typically yew when dealing with bows, though ash, mulberry, elm, oak, hickory, hazel, and maple can be used under broader definitions.