What is the fair market price of a Tressym in Forgotten Realms?

Question

In Forgotten Realms there is this ultimate cat-lover pet, the Tressym. It is an intelligent winged cat. It is described in the Storm King's Thunder book.

I probably will need a new familiar: What happens to a poisoned familiar when it is dismissed? And tressyms are immune to poison. But that is a different problem. Lets stick to the pricing of a tressym kitten.

And of course I want one. My DM told me that while he won't allow me to summon one as part of the find familiar spell, but he told me my wizard can research where a Tressym breeder is, and go buy a kitten from him. It will be a side adventure. But I have to convince him of a price.

What is a reasonable price range for such a creature?

Answer 1

Use Fai Chen's Fantastical Faire as a guide...

Fai Chen's Fantastical Faire reportedly sold Tressyms in Season 6 for 500 gp.

Answer 2

There is absolutely nothing in 5E rulebooks that give anything like an answer for you. So, to provide an answer, I'm going to have to go all the way over to Pathfinder, then draw some conclusions and make some guesses.

Tressym are a sentient species. They have an Int score of 11 (slightly smarter than a typical Commoner) and generally have the independent personalities of a cat.

So, let's set some baselines here. According to the Pathfinder SRD you can purchase a cat for 3cp...with the extra note of "You could probably just go find one if you felt like it." Tressym are far more rare and intelligent and valuable than a mundane cat, though. So that isn't very helpful.

The closest thing in rarity and value that I can find is the Pseudodragon...which is marked as having a sale price of 200gp. And there's a note in there that "given their intelligence, many consider the sale of a Pseudodragon to be slavery."

Looking at a simple comparison... In 5E and Pathfinder Armor and Weapons are roughly equivalent in price. Food is the same price. Adventuring gear is roughly competitive (some cheaper, some more expensive). In terms of animals, a basic riding horse is the same price as is a 'guard dog' (Mastiff in 5E). Camels and Elephants are wildly off in price, but most Trade Goods are also the same (Iron, Wheat, etc) Ultimately, it looks like for mundane things...prices between the two are roughly equivalent. Possibly a bit of flex here and there.

So, it's from a different system, but prices transfer reasonably well between Pathfinder and D&D...so I'd guess that 200gp is about the price range you're looking at. Just bear in mind that the 'breeder' you found is someone dealing in the sale of an intelligent race.