Collecting Materials & Resources

Over the course of the campaign characters may locate raw materials which can used to craft new objects and gear. This may occur while hunting monsters for creature parts, exploring an abandoned mine, or surviving a dungeon. This section outlines the collecting of new materials that can be used for crafting.

Material Sources
Listed below are the general categories that will be used to classify raw materials. Every raw material will be bought, sold, and traded in a standardized increment referred to as a unit that will vary in price based on the material. These raw materials will also be grouped according to rarity: common, uncommon, rare, very rare, and legendary. Other descriptors may include the type of energy (damage type) or magical essence in the material.

Monster Hunting & Harvesting
Creature parts can be used for a variety crafting purposes. Exotic parts like organs may be used as alchemical materials, while resources like bone or hide can be used for creating armor and weapons. Some creatures may have harvestable fluids. Others may chooose to collect parts as trophies and decorations for their armor and houses.

Before you slice up a monster you need to be aware of the risk reward involved in spending the time to harvest resouces. Here are the guidelines:


 * The number of checks a character can make depends of the size of the creature & units of harvestable resources.
 * Each successful check gives the character no more than the maximum units per harvest attempt.
 * The DM can alter the available parts and/or reduce the total harvestable units based on the creature's death.
 * The DC for harvesting a part equals to 10 plus 1/2 the creature's CR. (Creatures with a challenge rating lower than 1 will not be added to the DC).
 * Every harvest check takes a different time to complete depending on the size of the creature, even if the character fails the roll.
 * You can only take one check for each part you want to harvest. You cannot repeat checks on the same part.
 * If the check fails that unit is lost and unrecoverable with an additional harvesting check.

Note: Harvesting meat in lieu of parts will follow the hunting rules as outlined in the Book #2: The Hex Crawl Survival Guide, but will still count towards total checks per creature.

Harvesting By Creature Type & Size
Since creatures and monsters varies in type and rarity, the characters must make a specific ability check. The table below shows which ability check a character must make to extract parts from different types of creatures.

Extracting Creature Parts Table
The size of the creature will determine how long it will take to harvest and how much material can be collected. The chart below will

Foraging For Plants & Herbs

 * Exotic plants and herbs can be gathered while foraging in the wilderness. They can be used for creating alchemical mixtures, cooking, creating dyes for paint and weaving.
 * For the complete forgaing rules please refer to Hunting, Fishing & Foraging.
 * It is possible for plants and herbs to be cultivated in a garden which can provide a ready source of ingredients. However, to grow herbs with an elemental affinity, you will have to create an environment with an abundance of that element for them to grow properly.

Amount of Ingredients Found
Note: The DM then rolls a d20 for each in the respective terrain table, re-rolling ingredients that are above the maximum rarity.

Selling Parts & Plants
Some plants and herbs can be bought and sold at markets although rarer ingredients might not be able to be found at conventional shops and you may need to find these ingredients at specialty shops. Below is the table that will be used to determine the value of harvested creature parts per unit. Additonally, different creature parts may contain different types of essence. The rarity of the creature will also determine the total number of essence per unit.

Minerals, Metals & Ores
Minerals are earthen materials used for making armor, weapons, and when using exotic materials, those pieces of gear may gain special qualities. Minerals can be divided in two general types and each type has a unique way to acquire them.

The DC for extracting minerals is always 15.


 * Ores, including basic and precious metals are extracted with the use a miner's pick by a character who makes a successful Strength (Athletics) check. On a success, the character collects a number of ore units equal to 2d4 + its Constitution modifier (minimum 1 unit).
 * Gemstones are extracted with the use of a gem extraction tool or jeweler's kit by a character who makes a successful Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check. On a success, the character extracts a number of gemstones based on the provided chart. You can determine the kind of gemstones found using the tables on page 134 of the Dungeon Master's Guide.

Gemstone Rarity Table
Note: Gemstones can be sold at half value to interested NPC vendors.

Non-Mineral Materials
There're also other materials which are not ores or gemstones, such as wood, stone, sand and coral that can be also used to craft weapons, armor, and other kind of items and gear.

For collecting those materials, a character needs to make a Strength (Athletics) or a Dexterity check, depending on the material (DC 15). On a success, the character collects a number of units equal to 2d4 + its Constitution modifier (minimum 1).

For example, if a character wants to collect some units of darkwood, he must make a Strength (Athletics) check to cut down the tree with an axe and get the material. On a success, the character collects a number of darkwood units equals to 2d4 + its Constitution modifier.

Note: Materials can be sold at half value to interested NPC vendors.

Spell Components
Spellcasters that require material components for specific spells will need to forage for them in the wild, obtain them from NPC vendors, find loot, etc.

Note: Spell components can be sold at half value to interested NPC vendors.

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