Harvesting Creatures
Requisites
- To attempt harvesting from a creature, you must have proficiency/expertise in the specific skill designated for that creature type in the Appraisal & Harvesting Table.
Appraisal (Step 1)
- Spend 1 minute examining the creature to be harvested.
- Roll INT (Skill) using the specific skill designated for that creature type in the Appraisal & Harvesting Table only once for each creature type.
- Add your INT ability modifier to the roll.
- Add your skill proficiency/expertise bonus.
- In some cases, you may substitute a tool proficiency for the specified skill proficiency.
- Most creatures have a baseline DC of 8 + the creature’s CR.
- If you succeed, continue to Harvesting (Step 2).
- If you fail, you cannot proceed with harvesting any creatures of that type until after a long rest.
Harvesting (Step 2)
- Spend 10 minutes per CR of each creature being harvested if the creature is tiny, small, medium, or large. For huge and gargantuan creatures, harvesting times are longer (as specified by the DM).
- Roll DEX (Skill) using the specific skill designated for that creature type in the Appraisal & Harvesting Table once for each individual creature to be harvested.
- Add your DEX ability modifier to the roll.
- Add your skill proficiency/expertise bonus.
- In some cases, you may substitute a tool proficiency for the specified skill proficiency.
- DCs vary from creature type to creature type, among any creature type’s various body parts, and according to the circumstances of their deaths.
- If you succeed, the DM declares the results.
- If you fail, you cannot ever harvest from that individual creature, but you may attempt to harvest from other creatures of the same type.
Cooperation
- If two characters work together during the entire appraisal and harvesting process, then one character can roll INT for appraisal and the other character could roll DEX for harvesting.
- This is the only type of “help” that PCs may give each other while attempting to harvest from small, medium, and large creatures. For huge and gargantuan creatures, one PC may take the Help Action to assist another PC during the harvesting stage.
Learning from Experience
- If a PC fails an appraisal or harvesting check for any particular creature type, then that PC gains a +1 bonus on subsequent attempts to appraise or harvest that same creature type after comp leting a long rest. The maximum bonus for appraising and harvesting any particular creature type is +5.
Appraisal & Harvesting Table
| Creature Type | Skill |
|---|---|
| Aberration | 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 |
DM-only Notes
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 wellorchestrated 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.
Carcass Degradation (Optional Rule)
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 unharvestable or may decide to increase the DC’s 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 putrefaction 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.