D&D 5E "Harvesting" a dragon corpse for magic items

[AntiStateQuixote]

The PCs in our home game recently killed an adult white dragon and have indicated they are planning to skin the dragon to take trophies.

I want to make this more interesting and potentially more rewarding.

With that in mind I've decided that they can use parts of the dragon's corpse to make magic items.

The dragon's corpse will provide enough material for up to three magic items. Having appropriate material is a prerequisite for using downtime to craft magic items.

Possible items:
Hide: magical armor - leather, studded leather, hide or scale. Could be just +1 or higher AC bonus. Could provide cold resistance. Could be Dragon Scale Mail from the DMG.

Wings: cloak of protection; cloak of cold resistance; other?

Claws and teeth: pointy bits for arrows (up to 20 counts as one item), bolts (20 counts as one item), javelins or spears (can craft 2, but each counts as 1 item), daggers (up to 2; each counts as 1 item), a wand (!?!?), staff of frost (!?!?)

Other stuff? I'd love to hear your suggestions. And I'm sure the PCs will have some of their own ideas.

Here's my minigame. I appreciate your critique and input.

In order to "harvest" material the PCs must succeed on three skill checks (one each of Arcana, Medicine and Survival) for each magic item they want to craft. Each skill check takes one hour and can be performed simultaneously if different characters are involved. The DC for each check depends on the rarity of the item to craft. If at the PCs accumulate three failed skill checks total then the corpse is ruined and no more material is available from this dragon.

Legendary magic item: DC 35
Very Rare: 30
Rare: 25
Uncommon: 20
Common: 15

 

[LordEntrails]

Well, blood, eyes, internal organs, bone can all be used as part of ingredients. Whether ground up, or used to seep things in. Any type of cold related item could need one or more of these for the ingredients.

But, I don't make it that easy for my players. They have to have a recipe for the magic item (maybe this is what they buy with all that gold). And the more powerful the item, the more diverse the ingredients need to be. A potion of cold resistance could be white dragon blood and one or two herbs. No big deal if you have the blood. Dragon scale requires the dragon scales, but also things like;
- diamonds that are powdered under a full moon using the skull and femur of a storm giant
- two tears of a dryad caught on the leaf of a nightshade.
- the blessing of a mother sending her only son off to war
- tempered by the dragon breath of the same type of dragon

All of these things are plots for an adventure. If the party wants something cool, make them adventure for it. It means a great deal more than saying they can make 3 items and pay XXX gold.

 

[kbrakke]

I too had players harvest a dragon, mine was more simple, but I actually like the mini game idea. Mine was a simple skill based on which part they wanted to harvest., but the skill challenge style sounds better.

As for what they make, I based mine off of the Dragon Scale Mail. They could craft light, medium or heavy and each had its own rider based on that. Firstly, I did not add any extra AC bonuses, You either made Studded Leather, Scale, or Splint equivalent armor. (I am wary of any extra AC bonuses in 5e). And based on how heavy it was it got a different ability. Light armor would be advantage on saves vs breath weapon, medium armor would be no stealth penalty and acts as adamantine, and heavy armor gave the resistance. Then each of them got a special rider based on dragon type. So they killed a dragon turtle which gave them a swim speed and advantage on stealth checks to avoid being seen if the armor was wet (Lasts for an hour). They were unsuccessful with the red dragon, but it would have been Light - Resistance to Fire, Medium - You can use the scales as a close range create bonfire (30 ft probably[This one was the weakest idea, would need more work]), and Heavy - Deal 1d6 fire damage to people attacking you.

I didn't delve in to making magic weapons because they kept failing those checks.

But I love the idea, I would just try and make each set of weapons or armor feel unique. Definitely start with stuff from the DMG as a base, but given that the item they are crafting is one of the kind, the ability should be too. Perhaps even letting the players mix and match from a list of options is best if they are crafting it themselves.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Satyrn]

I like the skill challenge bit, and I have a suggestion to make it perhaps more interesting.

When the players decide to create an item, along with figuring out what the normal version decide on what a "masterwork" version looks like: It'll have all the qualities of the normal version, but be better in some way. For example, a wand that would have 5 charges instead has 7; or go bigger and give the item a secondary property of some sort (like maybe that's how a magic sword actually gains a +1).

Anyway, whatever the masterwork looks like, they only build it if they have no - zero - failed checks when creating the item.

 

[Satyrn]

I always harvest a dragon. Except I harvest dragons for food.

Dragon is the fruit of the mountain. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. There's, uh, dragon-kabobs, dragon creole, dragon gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried dragon. There's pineapple dragon, lemon dragon, coconut dragon, pepper dragon, dragon soup, dragon stew, dragon salad, dragon and potatoes, dragon burger, dragon sandwich. That- that's about it.

Oh, dragon wings in hot sauce. Gotta have some of those.

Oh, Fred Flintstone might be be jealous of those dragon ribs.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I’d think the classic choice would be a Potion of Speak with Animals made from the dragon’s blood.

I like the idea of making the dragon’s corpse the treasure. But since you’re using downtime days already, I also might add a time limit to the amount of time the magic of the corpse remains viable, so that they might have to prioritize what they want to make, before it rots to uselessness.

 

[robus]

The monk in my group is getting tattoos made with ground up dragons teeth which imbues his punches with extra damage
(when the tattoo is activated)

 

[Satyrn]

I like the skill challenge bit, and I have a suggestion to make it perhaps more interesting.

When the players decide to create an item, along with figuring out what the normal version decide on what a "masterwork" version looks like: It'll have all the qualities of the normal version, but be better in some way. For example, a wand that would have 5 charges instead has 7; or go bigger and give the item a secondary property of some sort (like maybe that's how a magic sword actually gains a +1).

Anyway, whatever the masterwork looks like, they only build it if they have no - zero - failed checks when creating the item.

I just noticed I missed clarifying one key point to my idea here.

I intended to say that they still manage to create the normal item if they win the skill challenge with a failure or two. The masterwork item is meant to represent a critical success while attempting to make the normal item.

 

[Storyteller Hero]

With all the MEAT on the bone, you could craft potion steaks and potion jerky, offering resistance or bonuses based on the dragon type.

Red Dragon Steak of Resistance - Aside from satisfying your hunger, this steak grants you resistance to fire damage for 1 hour.

NOM NOM