Material Values and Weights
Harvested materials have both a trade value and an encumbrance value.
A monster heart, a bundle of magical herbs, and a vial of distilled essence may all represent one useful crafting component, but they are not equivalent in form. Raw materials are bulky, perishable, and physically specific. Plant materials are lighter, more diffuse, and often require concentration before their magic becomes stable. Distilled essence is compact, tradeable, and enduring, but it no longer remembers the body or plant from which it came.
This page provides default values and weights for harvested monster materials, plant units, and distilled essences.
These values assume the material is intact, identifiable, properly harvested, and still usable. Spoiled, damaged, contaminated, unidentified, or poorly preserved materials may be worth half value, one-quarter value, or nothing at the DM's discretion.
Material Categories¶
Raw Monster Units¶
A raw monster unit is a magically significant physical part harvested from a creature.
It might be:
- a vial of blood
- a pouch of powdered bone
- a preserved eye
- a venom sac
- a gland
- a heart section
- a cluster of scales
- a horn shaving
- a core fragment
- a sealed portion of ichor
Raw monster units retain their identity. A basilisk eye, a troll heart, a dragon scale, and a fire elemental core are not interchangeable unless a recipe says they are.
Unless otherwise noted, one raw magical monster unit weighs 2 pounds, including any container, wrapping, preserving salts, wax seal, or field packaging needed to keep it usable.
Plant Units¶
A plant unit is a bundle, pouch, vial, root, cap, bark strip, seed cluster, berry cluster, or similar quantity of usable herbal material.
It might be:
- a bundle of leaves
- a vial of sap
- a pouch of pollen
- a preserved root
- a handful of seeds
- a strip of bark
- a fungal cap
- a cluster of berries
Plant units are lighter than monster parts, but their magic is usually more diffuse. Several units of the same plant are often required to produce one stable unit of essence.
Unless otherwise noted, one plant unit weighs 1 pound.
Distilled Essence Units¶
A distilled essence unit is compact and stable. It may take the form of:
- a sealed vial
- a tincture
- an oil
- a powder
- an alchemical salt
- a resin bead
- a folded spirit paper
- a waxed packet
- a rune-locked ampoule
Essence does not remember where it came from. It only remembers what it does. A unit of Potent Fire Essence distilled from a dragon, salamander, fire elemental, or magical plant is mechanically the same unless a recipe specifically requires a source.
Unless otherwise noted, one distilled essence unit weighs 1/4 pound.
Default Value and Weight Table¶
| Potency / Rarity | Raw Monster Unit Value | Plant Unit Value | Distilled Essence Value | Raw Monster Unit Weight | Plant Unit Weight | Essence Unit Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minor / ★ Common | 25 GP | 3 GP | 50 GP | 2 lb | 1 lb | 1/4 lb |
| Lesser / ★★ Uncommon | 100 GP | 20 GP | 200 GP | 2 lb | 1 lb | 1/4 lb |
| Potent / ★★★ Rare | 500 GP | 200 GP | 1,000 GP | 2 lb | 1 lb | 1/4 lb |
| Greater / ★★★★ Very Rare | 2,500 GP | 2,000 GP | 5,000 GP | 2 lb | 1 lb | 1/4 lb |
| Mythic / ★★★★★ Legendary | 10,000 GP | 8,000 GP | 20,000 GP | 2 lb | 1 lb | 1/4 lb |
Plant Value and Distillation¶
Plant materials are usually worth less before distillation because their magic is diffuse and unstable.
Several units of the same plant are required to produce one unit of essence:
| Plant Rarity | Essence Potency | Plant Units Required | Raw Plant Value Total | Distilled Essence Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ Common | Minor | 8 units | 24 GP | 50 GP |
| ★★ Uncommon | Lesser | 4 units | 80 GP | 200 GP |
| ★★★ Rare | Potent | 2 units | 400 GP | 1,000 GP |
| ★★★★ Very Rare | Greater | 1 unit | 2,000 GP | 5,000 GP |
| ★★★★★ Legendary | Mythic | 1 unit | 8,000 GP | 20,000 GP |
The difference between the raw plant value and the essence value represents successful concentration, preservation, alchemical reagents, suitable containers, specialist labor, time, and the risk of failed distillation.
Selling raw plants is useful. Distilling them unlocks their full magical value.
Monster Material Value¶
Use the raw monster unit value when a harvested part is magically significant but has not yet been distilled.
| Monster Material Type | Value Rule | Weight Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Magical blood, ichor, venom, sap, bile | Full raw monster unit value | 2 lb per unit, including container |
| Magical organ, gland, heart, eye, core | Full raw monster unit value | 2 lb per unit by default |
| Magical bone, claw, horn, tooth, scale cluster | Full raw monster unit value | 2 lb per unit by default |
| Mundane hide, shell, chitin, fur | Usually 5-25 GP per unit, more if exotic | 10 lb per unit |
| Mundane meat | Usually ration value, not magic value | 10 lb per unit |
| Trophy-quality mundane part | DM adjudication, usually 25-250 GP | varies |
Mundane materials such as ordinary meat, hide, bone, fur, shell, chitin, feathers, claws, teeth, and trophies do not use the magical material value table unless they are magically significant.
Mundane Harvested Materials¶
Most mundane harvested materials are useful, but they are not essence-bearing treasure.
Meat¶
One unit of edible meat can usually be converted into 10 rations if properly butchered and preserved.
Unless otherwise noted, one unit of meat weighs 10 pounds.
Fresh meat spoils quickly unless cooked, salted, smoked, dried, frozen, magically preserved, or otherwise protected from decay.
Hide, Fur, Scale, Shell, and Chitin¶
One unit of hide, fur, scale, shell, or chitin is enough raw material for one major crafting use, such as:
- a cloak
- a suit of light armor
- a shield covering
- a large tent panel
- a saddle
- a set of straps
- several smaller goods
Unless otherwise noted, one mundane hide, fur, scale, shell, or chitin unit weighs 10 pounds.
The default value for mundane hide, fur, scale, shell, or chitin is 5-25 GP per unit, depending on quality, danger, rarity, and local demand. Especially exotic materials may be worth more.
Bone, Teeth, Claws, Horns, and Trophies¶
Hard parts may be valuable as tool material, carving stock, weapon fittings, ritual components, trade goods, or trophies.
Their value is usually determined by the DM.
As a guideline:
| Material Quality | Typical Value |
|---|---|
| Ordinary animal parts | 1-10 GP |
| Impressive beast trophy | 10-50 GP |
| Dangerous monster trophy | 25-250 GP |
| Rare named creature trophy | 250+ GP |
A trophy's value depends heavily on who wants it. A hydra tooth may be worth little in a starving camp, but a great deal to a noble collector, monster-hunter's guild, or alchemical college.
Distilled Essence and Supply Units¶
One unit of Minor Essence is worth 50 GP, which is equal to 1 Crafting Supply Unit.
This makes Minor Essence a meaningful magical component for Common magic items. Higher-potency essence scales upward, but it does not replace the full resource burden of higher-rarity magic items.
A Rare magic item may require Potent Essence, but the essence is not the entire cost of the item. The remaining resource burden still represents refined materials, workshop access, fuel, stabilizers, binding salts, failed attempts, tool wear, inscriptions, and the work needed to make the enchantment permanent.
| Essence Potency | Essence Value | Equivalent Supply Units |
|---|---|---|
| Minor | 50 GP | 1 Supply Unit |
| Lesser | 200 GP | 4 Supply Units |
| Potent | 1,000 GP | 20 Supply Units |
| Greater | 5,000 GP | 100 Supply Units |
| Mythic | 20,000 GP | 400 Supply Units |
These Supply Unit equivalents are useful when trading or substituting materials, but they do not mean essence alone can replace every required component in a recipe.
Buying and Selling Harvested Materials¶
The listed values are standard crafting values, not guaranteed sale prices.
In a large city, academy, guildhall, alchemical market, temple district, monster-hunter lodge, or wizard college, a seller may receive close to full value for properly identified and preserved materials.
In a frontier village, military camp, ruined settlement, or isolated region, the material may be difficult to sell at all unless someone nearby can use it.
As a default:
| Market Condition | Sale Price |
|---|---|
| Perfect buyer, known need, proper documentation | Full value |
| Normal buyer in a suitable market | Half value |
| Suspicious, damaged, unidentified, or inconvenient material | One-quarter value |
| No local demand or unsafe to handle | No practical sale value |
A character may usually apply a harvested material toward their own crafting at full listed value if the material is suitable for the item being made.
Preservation and Spoilage¶
Raw materials decay. Essences endure.
Raw magical blood, organs, glands, soft tissues, venom, sap, ichor, and similar materials must be preserved if they are not used quickly. Poor storage may reduce value, reduce yield, increase the distillation DC, or make the material unusable.
Plant units are especially delicate. Fresh plant units remain usable for a short time under ordinary travel conditions and should be preserved quickly with an Herbalism Kit.
Once successfully distilled and sealed, essence is stable. Essence does not normally spoil, rot, ferment, or lose potency unless its container is broken, unsealed, dispelled, contaminated, or exposed to extreme magical conditions.
Example: Hydra¶
A hydra is a Huge CR 8 monstrosity. It is a Potent creature and has a total magical yield of 8 units.
A typical hydra might provide:
| Material | Yield | Magical? | Unit Value | Total Value | Unit Weight | Total Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meat | 8 units | No | ration value | varies | 10 lb | 80 lb |
| Hide / Scales | 8 units | No | 25 GP | 200 GP | 10 lb | 80 lb |
| Blood | 4 units | Yes | 500 GP | 2,000 GP | 2 lb | 8 lb |
| Heart | 4 units | Yes | 500 GP | 2,000 GP | 2 lb | 8 lb |
| Distilled Essence | up to 8 units | Yes | 1,000 GP | 8,000 GP | 1/4 lb | 2 lb |
The hydra carcass is a logistical problem. The distilled hydra essence is treasure.
Final Rule¶
Use value to measure magical usefulness, not butchered mass.
A unit of raw monster material is bulky and specific.
A unit of plant material is lighter but diffuse.
A unit of essence is compact, stable, and broadly useful.
Or, in its shortest form:
Raw materials are heavy. Plants are fragile. Essence is wealth.