Post/Author/DateTime	Post
aprilia4life 03-06-06, 11:48 PM	In the Ebb CS book there is a part about a large dinosaur mount (a Carver) which can carry a human. My DM, for reasons powergaming or otherwise will not let me buy one in Sharn, which is where we are presently located. Due to the course of the story we cannot travel to the Talenta plains to buy them, so that is out of the question. Now I am assuming that you could buy one from a House Vadalis Outpost which are located all around Khorvaire, in the book it has a bit about house Valadis buying mounts like that, and I would assume they would be very popular in other places around Khorvaire... and it wouldn't be hard to smuggle them out somehow (airship?) They are worth 400GP, I wouldnt mind a magebred one for double the price. Now, my question to you good people is, what fluff can you come up with to convince my DM to let me get a Carver mount. Thanks in advance. Just for the record, I am not a halfling.
ekomega 03-07-06, 12:28 AM	I don't think House Vadalis deals in dinosaurs. They probably deal in a lot of exotic things (magebred bears), but dinosaurs are in the realm of the halflings. Because of this, I doubt that House Vadalis has magebred any of them. Maybe the books contradict this, but I don't think they do. I think they're vague on the issue. Anyway, if your DM really doesn't want you to have it, is it worth it to push the issue? Maybe he has a reason you don't know. Or maybe you'll just **** him off. Buying a certain 400 gp dinosaur mount, as opposed to any other mount, seems like a very minor issue that isn't worth causing trouble about.
Flack Jack 03-07-06, 01:21 AM	There is a halfling distric in Sharn, however I recall more about oily head messages than dinosaurs. You could probably purchase a dinosaur but it would not be magebred quality. You could make a quest out of dealing with the halflings and the house of handling to custom breed you one. Wouldn't it be fun to raise a baby raptor?
igotsmeakabob!! 03-07-06, 02:23 AM	I don't know, the city halflings are alot different than the plains halflings..
Just another user 03-07-06, 03:38 AM	There is no need of fluff, you can buy anything in Sharn, as long as the price is right. The Dm could throw other problems to you (how to feed it, that you don't know how to ride and/or handle it, that it would need a specialized stable, and of course an higher, maybe even much higher, price) but it is unfair just to say that you can't buy it, IMHO.
Beleriphon 03-07-06, 06:49 AM	Find a House Vadalis representative, use House Sivis to send a message to the Talenta Plains rep. Order said item, working out payment arrangements with House Kundarak.
MarkB 03-07-06, 07:08 AM	Although the Monster Manual originally listed Deinonychus as Large, the Monster Manual errata corrects them to Medium, so they are not suitable mounts for humans, and I don't recall anything in the ECS which contradicts that. So chances are, you're out of luck.
realdm 03-07-06, 08:52 AM	I allowed it, one of my pc bought a small dinosaur in sharn not allowing it is meaningless (there must be someone selling them in sharn), and maybe the dino gives you a little extra advantage, but many talenta without one of them loose soooo much flavour.
Setherial 03-07-06, 09:11 AM	If your DM says there are non, there are non, live with it.
Edymnion 03-07-06, 09:34 AM	Saying there isn't one isn't unfair, its just the way it is. There is no *REASON* that someone in Sharn should keep a heard of meat eating dinosaurs in a pen somewhere. Especially if you use the 200,000 population count for Sharn, there just aren't enough people there to meet every demand like that. Xen'Drik artifacts, yeah, those are a dime a dozen. Normal crafts, sure thing. Normal flying mounts like griffons? No problem. A large carnivorous monster? Uh, not likely. Mounts suitable for a halfing, yes. Dinos big enough for humans being kept on hand anywhere outside of Talenta would be pretty darn rare, IMO.
Sir Elton 03-07-06, 09:53 AM	In the Ebb CS book there is a part about a large dinosaur mount (a Carver) which can carry a human. My DM, for reasons powergaming or otherwise will not let me buy one in Sharn, which is where we are presently located. Due to the course of the story we cannot travel to the Talenta plains to buy them, so that is out of the question. Now I am assuming that you could buy one from a House Vadalis Outpost which are located all around Khorvaire, in the book it has a bit about house Valadis buying mounts like that, and I would assume they would be very popular in other places around Khorvaire... and it wouldn't be hard to smuggle them out somehow (airship?) They are worth 400GP, I wouldnt mind a magebred one for double the price. Actually, the dinosaur in question is Utahraptor. http://www.luisrey.com/dinos/images/utah256.jpg Which is listed in the Monster Manual as Megaraptor. Utahraptor is giant enough to carry a human on its back. It's giant enough to carry three. :D Although this is up to your DM, really. Its his Eberron.
Sereno 03-07-06, 09:59 AM	If your DM isn't totally against the idea, perhaps you could persuade him/her to make it part of the adventure. You'd need to deal with underworld elements, pay off customs officials, arrange transportation, etc. It could be an exciting adventure all in itself, just getting the thing. It would also make the ownership of said Carver more meaningful to your character than just walking into Dinos 'R' Us and picking out the one with the orange stripes. :)
realdm 03-07-06, 10:34 AM	i think i was talkin about clawfoot. im not too sure now. but still, think about all the mafia style boromar kids , they want their veicles imported straight from the talenta plains
aprilia4life 03-07-06, 03:57 PM	Whoops. It would appear that the Deino HAS been errated to a medium creature... Although in ECS it does say that it IS the size of a Large Warhorse AND can carry a human rider (or a few halflings) The question is, where do you find Eberron related information about the Megaraptor, because it sure as hell isn't worth 400GP :D
Esgay 03-07-06, 04:30 PM	Hey, you know what people in sharn say; If it can be bought, it can be bought here. Of course for things such as large carnivorous repltiles there's the other saying; If someone wants it, someone sells it in sharn. (just point your DM to pages 146 and 147 of the ecs to get those 2 quotes)
ekomega 03-07-06, 04:58 PM	As a DM, and thinking of the reasons I limit certain things, I can only hope that your DM has a good reason. I ban some things (my players would say too many) but for good reason. A lot of it is whether or not I am familiar with the requested thing and have thought about how it might affect the game. I don't trust WotC designers to balance everything, especially for the world I am creating. Hopefully your DM is the same way. But any good DM will explain his reasons, so ask him first, and then maybe you can work around it. Perhaps he just has misconceptions. As for the Megaraptor, there's no way I'd ever allow a player to get that. It'd eat so much meat every day that it'd be the PCs sole adventure just trying to feed it.
Kinger 03-07-06, 07:26 PM	What you need, then, is a Ring of Sustenance. No need to eat, which is very useful for your Utahraptor/Dire Bear/Giant Squid. As for buying it in Sharn, Edy makes a good point. Sharn's not that big. For a feudal, agriculture-based society it's huge, sure, but it's still no modern metropolis. I would think that certain niche products, like, oh, flesh-eating riding dinosaurs, may be limited, or simply unavailable without special-order. Think of your mount like a car. You can buy a little hatchback (or a fastieth) from a dealership without a problem, but it's not going to be easy to buy yourself a tank.
Just another user 03-07-06, 08:05 PM	Saying there isn't one isn't unfair, its just the way it is. Just because it there is not one now, it doesn't mean you can't go to a house vadalis enclave and say "I want a domesticated carver, how much would it be and how many time would it need to procure one?" We are not talking about a domesticated dragon, we are talking about a dinosaur, after all,and if the GM say that it will never be availlable, no matter how much you are willing to pay for it, (or say some absurd price in the 10k+ range) then, yes, it is unfair (and stupid, too, but mostly unfair)
Just another user 03-07-06, 08:10 PM	What you need, then, is a Ring of Sustenance. No need to eat, which is very useful for your Utahraptor/Dire Bear/Giant Squid. Just because they don't need to eat it doesn't mean they don't get hungry, I play those things like ring of sustenance that you still feel the hunger or thirst, it is just that you are not take damage for it, now a intelligent creature can deal with it, an animal not so much.
igotsmeakabob!! 03-07-06, 08:59 PM	Eh I don't like that honestly, Ring of Sustenance eliminates all need for food and water, you shouldn't feel hungry or thirsty, otherwise those things would suck from a RPing standpoint.
Acev 03-07-06, 09:52 PM	There is no *REASON* that someone in Sharn should keep a heard of meat eating dinosaurs in a pen somewhere. True. But I don't see why some guy dealing in exotic animals wouldn't have one or two. A large carnivorous monster? Doesn't that describe a griffon?
Euangelion 03-07-06, 11:09 PM	Keep in mind that there's another source of dinosaurs that Sharn has a particular connection to, and that's Xen'drik. You might be right if you think that there's no practical reason to have a Large meat-eating dinosaur in Sharn, but when have the rich been about only doing things that are practical? So it should be possible, for the right amount of money, to either pay someone to get one from Xen'drik or better yet to mount an expedition yourself to capture a Large velociraptor-type dinosaur to use as a mount if there's not already one available in the city. And what heir of House Vadalis worth his or her salt would balk at the chance to train such a creature? They would become legends in their house! (Assuming that it hasn't been done already, and personally I think it's actually rather common for Vadalis to train all sorts of dinosaurs. They are not confined to the Eldeen Reaches and Breland after all.) But if in your game it hasn't, well here's your chance to prove what a hero you really are. That, in and of itself, should be enough to convince your DM to allow the attempt. By the way, there's a few dinosaurs in MMIII that you might want to check out as well.
Just another user 03-08-06, 03:52 AM	Eh I don't like that honestly, Ring of Sustenance eliminates all need for food and water, you shouldn't feel hungry or thirsty, otherwise those things would suck from a RPing standpoint. Why? It would be like to live on a pill diet, you would not starve or anything but this don't mean you don't wish a good steak. Now, an intelligent creature can deal with the hunger because he knows that is inconsequential, just an annoyance with no real effects as long as he wear the ring,an animal is not so introspective, when he is hungry, he need to eat. Period. And as roleplaying goes I think this is better than "I have a ring of sustenance so I would never waste money in food or lodging anymore"
Beleriphon 03-08-06, 04:02 AM	Why? It would be like to live on a pill diet, you would not starve or anything but this don't mean you don't wish a good steak. Now, an intelligent creature can deal with the hunger because he knows that is inconsequential, just an annoyance with no real effects as long as he wear the ring,an animal is not so introspective, when he is hungry, he need to eat. Period. And as roleplaying goes I think this is better than "I have a ring of sustenance so I would never waste money in food or lodging anymore" Right, but the reason that we feel hunger is because our body is saying that we're running low on energy or nutrients. Thirst, we've begun to dehydrate. A ring of sustinence replaces the need for nutrients, caloric intake, and water. So you shouldn't feel hungry or thirsty by virture of having something magical to replace food and water for your body. As for my previous point, there are three Dragonmarked Houses in Sharn that can help. Vadalis, Sivis and Kundarak. One to train, one to message, and one to arrange payment. Even if there isn't a carver in Sharn now, there probably could be within a few weeks.
Sereno 03-08-06, 08:48 AM	As for my previous point, there are three Dragonmarked Houses in Sharn that can help. Vadalis, Sivis and Kundarak. One to train, one to message, and one to arrange payment. Even if there isn't a carver in Sharn now, there probably could be within a few weeks. Don't forget Orien/Lyrandar to deliver it! :)
Beowulfe 03-08-06, 09:41 AM	Why? It would be like to live on a pill diet, you would not starve or anything but this don't mean you don't wish a good steak. Now, an intelligent creature can deal with the hunger because he knows that is inconsequential, just an annoyance with no real effects as long as he wear the ring,an animal is not so introspective, when he is hungry, he need to eat. Period. And as roleplaying goes I think this is better than "I have a ring of sustenance so I would never waste money in food or lodging anymore" True, you may want or desire a steak but that does not equate hunger. Hunger is the body's way of telling you it needs nurishment. Look at aquariums for example, they can have sharks in the same tank as the fish they would eat simply because they keep the sharks feed enough that they don't get hungry. Animals run on instincts more than desires. If an animal is not hungry, it's not going to tear into livestock because it looks good.
Anguirus23 03-08-06, 10:23 AM	It'd eat so much meat every day that it'd be the PCs sole adventure just trying to feed it. Just how much do you think carnivores eat, anyway? We're talking about a fairly large theropod, warm-blooded, so it would eat more than, say, a lion, but that's still not all that much. Predators can't count on a kill every day, you know! A sheep a day is probably too much. And it might actually prefer a schedule of an elephant every three weeks. Or just use the ring of sustenence. Not all of us force arbitrary restrictions on the use of magical items. Keep the ring on and treat it to a kill every so often (last I heard PCs with an interest in riding bad-ass dinosaurs rack up a body count) and that dinosaur will be about as tame as a creature like that can get.
aprilia4life 03-08-06, 03:52 PM	My DM keeps giving me this crap about it being illegal trading in dangerous animals in Sharn, but I would believe it would be the tamed version, so it shouldn't be illegal. What do you guys think?
Kinger 03-08-06, 04:33 PM	Most horses won't eat people. A Carver will. I stand by my "trying to buy a tank when all they sell is hatchbacks" analogy. You're probably not going to find them miling about in a Vadalis showroom. HOWEVER, having said that, I would think that it shouldn't be impossible to aquire one, just difficult (black market, Vadalis paperwork, that sort of thing). I also wouldn't expect many halflings to be riding carvers around Sharn, either. At least, not in the nicer districts. All of this is moot, however. The DM is the only one whose say matters, no matter what we on the boards have to say about it. If your DM won't let you have one, you can't have one.
Acev 03-08-06, 04:45 PM	All of this is moot, however. The DM is the only one whose say matters, no matter what we on the boards have to say about it. If your DM won't let you have one, you can't have one. I'll second that.
Edymnion 03-08-06, 08:16 PM	Just how much do you think carnivores eat, anyway? We're talking about a fairly large theropod, warm-blooded, so it would eat more than, say, a lion, but that's still not all that much. Predators can't count on a kill every day, you know!Accourding to this site (http://www.lionresearch.org/faq.html) your average male lion can eat 43 kilos in a sitting, but average about 8-9 kilos a day. To put that into imperial measurements, thats about 95 pounds of meat in one sitting, but they average 17.5 to 20 pounds of meat per day. Compare that to your average humanoid which, by the rules, can easily survive on only 3 pounds of trail rations per day. So basically, your mount would eat five to seven times as much as you do every single day. And thats assuming the lion spends most of it's time sleeping and laying about. You make a mount out of one thats spending most of the day, every day, running around carrying loads, you could increase that intake by a good 50%.
maollelujah 03-08-06, 11:15 PM	Originally Posted by Anguirus23 Just how much do you think carnivores eat, anyway? We're talking about a fairly large theropod, warm-blooded, so it would eat more than, say, a lion, but that's still not all that much. Predators can't count on a kill every day, you know! Considering that the creature (if based on the Utahraptor) probably weighs 3 times as much as a lion, thats on average 60 pounds of meat a day. Another problem is where does one keep a 16 foot long (1400 pound) meat-eater? Or just use the ring of sustenence. Not all of us force arbitrary restrictions on the use of magical items. Keep the ring on and treat it to a kill every so often (last I heard PCs with an interest in riding bad-ass dinosaurs rack up a body count) and that dinosaur will be about as tame as a creature like that can get. Then it might acquire a taste for the slow moving and easy to catch citizens of Sharn, which wouldn't be good. Plus as opportunists, predators might still prey on someone that walked by within easy range of its jaws even if it wasn't hungry. My DM keeps giving me this crap about it being illegal trading in dangerous animals in Sharn, but I would believe it would be the tamed version, so it shouldn't be illegal. What do you guys think? Tame or not, a large carnivorus dinosaur would be a dangerous animal. One would never know when it might decide to attack a commoner or party member that irked it.
Just another user 03-09-06, 03:59 AM	True, you may want or desire a steak but that does not equate hunger. Hunger is the body's way of telling you it needs nurishment. Look at aquariums for example, they can have sharks in the same tank as the fish they would eat simply because they keep the sharks feed enough that they don't get hungry. Animals run on instincts more than desires. If an animal is not hungry, it's not going to tear into livestock because it looks good. Exactly, they feed them enough. They don't give them pills or inject the necessary nutrients. Look, you play it your way, I'd play mine. In my games a ring of sustenance give you all the nutrients you need, but if you have a chance you'd rather eat and drink and sleep (No in-game effects, only RP)Of course you being intelligent you can choose to not eat, drink or sleep, because you know that the ring make that unneccessary. An animal OTOH could stay without eat with a RoS, but because he act on instinct when he want to eat, he eat. unless you keep them feed for real you had to keep an eye on them so than don't attack someone for lunch or go hunting by himself if in a wild area. (With a RoS you could need to feed it less and less often than usual so it is not totally useless for a animal but is still not as so useful as for a human character.)