This chapter details the process of harvesting, how optional rules can change the harvesting experience, rules governing buying and selling components, and finishes with a series of tables detailing the components available from each creature type. Components gathered from harvesting can be used for crafting magic items and magical meals.

After a creature is slain, its components must be harvested quickly before their magic fades. There are five steps involved in this process.

Once a creature dies, the GM uses that creature’s type to consult the Harvest Tables section and determine which of the listed components are available to be harvested.

The harvesters decide what they want to harvest and in which order. This order is known as the harvest list.

After the party has created its harvest list, calculate the Harvest DCs.

List the chosen components in the order the party wishes to harvest them and sequentially add each Component DC to the total of all previous Component DCs. The Component DC represents how hard a component is to harvest.

The players make a Harvesting check.

A Harvesting check is the combined total of two ability checks:

(Defined in Assessment and Carving, below.)

Compare the result of the Harvesting check to the harvest list you made in step 3.

If the Harvesting check result met or exceeded the Harvest DC for a component, that component is successfully harvested.

Some components are simple to extricate, while others take significant skill to extract without ruining them. Each component has a Component DC, indicating how hard it is to safely extract before it loses its magical potency.

You decide how many of each component are available for harvest based on the creature and the fiction (injuries, mutations, etc.).

Components can be harvested in any order, regardless of Component DC. The harvest list details which components the harvesters attempt and in what order.

After the harvesters establish their harvest list, calculate Harvest DCs by cumulative addition of Component DCs from top to bottom.

These cumulative DCs are the Harvest DCs.

For the Failing with Consequences and Storage and Supplies optional rules, it matters whether harvesting has started.

Harvesting takes a set duration based on the size of the creature.

To harvest magical components:

Because the shortest harvest time is 5 minutes, a character typically only has time to harvest one creature post-combat before other corpses degrade.

Spells like Gentle Repose do not prevent degradation.

The Harvesting check is the summed total of:

A single creature can make both checks; if it does, it makes both with disadvantage.

To correctly assess extraction and storage, the harvester makes an Intelligence check using the relevant Harvest Skill. This creature is the assessing harvester.

To physically extract components, the harvester makes a Dexterity check using the relevant Harvest Skill. This creature is the carving harvester.

When making a Carving check to harvest an aberration, celestial, elemental, fey, or fiend:

For a spell or magical effect to influence harvesting, it must affect the harvester for the entire duration of the Harvesting check.

Therefore, spells with a duration of 1 minute, like Bless and Guidance, never apply.
A longer spell like Enhance Ability (duration 1 hour) can apply if it lasts the full harvest duration.

Creatures not making Assessment or Carving can help.

If a helper has proficiency in the relevant Harvest Skill, add its proficiency bonus to the Harvesting check result; otherwise add half (rounded down). Helpers must help for the entire duration.

A character receives each component for which the Harvesting check meets or exceeds the relevant Harvest DC. This is cumulative from the top of the harvest list.

Component names are comprised of:

Example: beast horn, fiend horn, monstrosity horn are distinct components.

Metatags expand the number of possible components by increasing specificity.

When using metatags, record what the component came from, e.g.:

Metatags can specify a detail in parentheses: name, size, subcategory, etc.

Metatags can be used to:

This section contains options for a seasoned GM to enhance harvesting.

Two factors influence ruined components:

Destructive types are called destructive damage types.

Acid, fire, and necrotic are destructive damage types.

In addition to acid, fire, and necrotic:

If a creature dies to a destructive damage type, its components are ruined.

If a creature takes destructive damage equal to or more than 10 × CR, its components are ruined.

If a creature is reduced to 0 hit points and leftover damage equals or exceeds its hit point maximum, its components are ruined.

If components are ruined, all Harvesting checks are at disadvantage.

The GM may choose any number of components to be destroyed and unharvestable.

Harvesting isn’t safe.

Creatures with area-of-effect abilities can have volatile components (marked ^v).

If harvesters start but don’t finish harvesting a volatile component, the GM may trigger an effect based on the creature’s unique ability (use its save DC and effect).

If the creature deals additional damage types on hit (e.g., poison), a harvester can hurt themselves.

If either harvester rolls a natural 1 on its check:

Harvesting success assumes proper preservation.

All mundane materials (containers, solvents, gloves, etc.) are abstracted as harvesting supplies.

Supplies cost (gp) equals the combined Component DC of each component for which harvesting was started.

Creature components are valuable commodities.

If the party lacks established clients, finding a trader requires:

Add them together, then consult:

Apply a modifier based on settlement size. Reset time is how long before a new search can yield a different result.

As a baseline:

Vendors typically sell at twice what they buy.

If using Harvesting Supplies:

Essence uses a separate price structure.

This section presents components available for each creature type. When a player declares intent to harvest, consult the relevant table and choose components that make sense for the creature.

If a creature typically has multiple of a part (e.g., multiple eyes), the Component DC applies to each.

Some components include superscripts:

Essence is required to craft more powerful magic items. A creature yields only one essence, determined by CR.

If a creature has a mythic trait that increases its CR when active, treat it as the higher CR for essence.

Essence can look like anything appropriate (energy, extract, crystal, etc.).

**These items are used only for monster-forged items.

Optional Rule: Supply & Demand. Due to prevalence of beast components, you can halve their trade values.

**These items are used only for monster-forged items.

Celestials often disintegrate on death, shunting their souls back to their home plane.

Optional Rule: Supply & Demand. Due to rarity of celestial components, you can double their trade values.

Edible note: phials of oil count as fat.

Optional Rule: Supply & Demand. Due to the rarity and power of draconic components, you can double their trade values.

Elementals leave little behind; capturing their essence is dangerous.

If a harvester fails to harvest a volatile component, trigger one of the following (only harvesters are considered in the area; effects are instantaneous):

Use save DC 13 for the volatile mote, and 16 for the core.

Fey psyche is volatile and can possess the living.

If harvesters start but do not finish harvesting a psyche, the carving harvester must succeed on a DC 15 Charisma saving throw or become incapacitated and possessed by the fey’s psyche.

Edible note: antennae can be used as eyes.
**These items are used only for monster-forged items.

Fiend bodies disintegrate on death, shunting souls back home.

Because fiend bodies disintegrate, only pouches of dust can be harvested if slain anywhere other than their home plane or in a magic circle.

Edible note: pouch of dust counts as spice.

Possessing giant components may be dangerous in-world.

Humanoid components are low-demand and often taboo.

Optional Rule: Supply & Demand. You can halve their trade values; respectable establishments may not carry them.

Monstrosities are magically created; their components are useful without leaving the Material Plane.

**Some tables mark certain parts as monster-forged-only; apply as appropriate.

Oozes are “treasure sacs”; their kills may contain hard components.

Edible notes: acid counts as blood; mucus as fat; vesicles as livers.

Roll 1d100 and consult the table below. Use other creature-type tables to assign the DC.

*Choose appropriate results for the environment/location.

“Plant” includes fungi and awakened flora.

Undead are saturated with necromantic power; marrow can be valuable.

Edible note: ethereal ichor counts as spice.

Mining ore, gathering cotton, and felling trees provides raw ingredients. Refining them (smelting, weaving, milling) turns them into usable materials. The rules below simplify wilderness gathering.

Mundane ingredients are grouped into:

Usable ingredients require:

A character states what ingredient they’re searching for, makes the appropriate check, and consults the Finding Mundane Ingredients table.

On a success, a creature finds:

Units found = 5 + 5 × (check result − DC)

(If the result barely meets the DC, this yields 5 units.)

On a natural 20 (before modifiers), the character may gain an additional benefit at GM discretion (e.g., extra units, better quality, bonus refined yield).

On a natural 1, the GM may impose a complication (lost time, damaged tools, minor hazard, etc.).

Value of unrefined unit is half that of refined unit.

Use the DCs below based on where the character is searching.

Terrain columns (left → right): Arctic, Coast, Desert, Forest, Grassland, Hills, Jungle, Mountain, Swamp, The Low, Urban

Some rare materials don’t need enchanting—manufacturing them already produces a magic item (e.g., adamantine, mithral, xyxlwood). These items have their own properties, are more durable, and may deal magical damage when made into weapons.