Chocobo Breeding (3.5e Variant Rule)

Chocobo Breeding
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Chocobos are majestic, powerful creatures. Docile by nature, they will attempt to flee any time they feel threatened.

Chocobos must be captured, usually by using chocobo greens. They are then bred using chocobo nuts. Chocobos can be used for sport racing, war mounts, or travel.

Basics
Chocobo breeding is based on percentages (as determined using d%). Any chocobo mating without a nut have a base percentage of production, which is modified by the chocobos sharing a nut between themselves immediately prior to the act. This base percentage is as follows:

Chocobo colors are divided into four standings based on the difficulty with which they are obtained through breeding (and, for that matter, from capture in the wild). Yellow chocobos do not fall into these standings as they are the most common and easy to obtain.

Standings are further divided into Class A, for wonderful chocobos, and class B, for normal chocobos.

When a nut is said to increase the chance of producing a specific color, standing, or class of chocobo by a certain percentage, that percentage is assumed to replace a fraction from the base percentage array's chance to produce a normal chocobo of the same color (see table above).

Breeding and Nuts
Nuts modify the mating chocobo-couple's chances to produce a specific kind of chocobo. This can be modifying the chance of a specific color, the chance for a specific standing (usually to increase it by one), or the chance for a specific class (usually in favor of a wonderful). Some nuts increase the chance of producing one color, while other educe the chance of producing a yellow chocobo, and still others almost guarantee a wonderful chocobo.

Unfortunately, only one nut can be used to assist a couple of chocobos and modify their base percentage array at a time.

Sometimes, chocobos of different colors may be made to breed. This only ever happens when carefully arranged by a breeder. This sort of mating changes the bass percentage array of the new chocobo to this:

This, too can be modified by specific nuts to favor the mother instead of the father, or favor the father more. As you can see, the percentages seriously favor the father. This is because, living in the wild, the chocobos tend to produce more males to protect the flock and fewer females, which raise hatchlings and reproduce. It is not uncommon for a wild female chocobo to have several male mates. The gender of the chocobo is determined using the following table, since gender distribution is not equal.

Even that array can be changed however, as specified by the description of the nut.

Wonderful chocobos can be used to breed as well, and that can change the chances of production in different ways depending on the circumstances. A wonderful and a normal chocobo of the same color can breed, two wonderful chocobos of the same color can breed, a wonderful chocobo of one color can breed with a normal chocobo of another color, or two wonderful chocobos of differing colors can breed. The percentages of production follow.

Nuts have a huge effects in the breeding process. All of the above tables represented a mating couple that were not using a nut. What follows shows the various nuts and their effect on all breeding processes.

Poor, Normal, Good, Great, and Wonderful
The many five different kinds of chocobo for each color can cause confusion when breeding. The rules are simple.

Poor Chocobo
A poor chocobo generally isn't worth breeding. They don't breed well with nuts, can't cross-color breed, can't breed with better chocobos, do not produce better chocobos when breeding, and may actually produce a worse chocobo. Fortunately, poor chocobos are hard to find and are virtually never produced from unions of chocobos of better quality. (The DM may replace any one percentage in a breeding result chart except a one percent chance to produce something, like the 1% to produce a Wonderful from two normals, for a one percent chance to produce a Poor Chocobo)

Normal, Good, and Great Chocobo
For the purposes of breeding, they all count as normal chocobos. Generally normal, good, or great chocobos produce chocobos or the same quality and standing, and can sometimes have a wonderful chocobo. For the tables showing chocobo breeding possibilities, treat an entry saying that a normal chocobo of whatever color is produce instead to say a chocobo of the same quality as the great, good, or normal parent (whichever has the best). The DM may replace any one percentage in a breeding result chart except a one precent chance to produce something, like the 1% to produce a Wonderful from two normals, for a one percent chance to produce a chocobo of one level lower quality (Great to Good, Good to Normal).

Nuts: Gender
There are a total of 21 different nuts that can be used when breeding chocobos, all of which affect the breeding process differently. For a complete list of nuts, their market prices, and their physical descriptions, see the chocobo nuts entry.

Some nuts only affects the gender of the new chocobo. Following are those nuts and the new tables they produce.

Gender without Nut
This is the basis of all gender productions, the breeding pair with no nut.

As you can see, the gender chances with two wonderful chocobos and with no wonderful chocobos are the same, so those table will be combined hereafter.

Porom Nut
This nut practically gaurantees the production of a male chocobo from breeding.

Palam Nut
This nut increases the odds of producing a female chocobo from breeding.

Lassin Nut
This nut practically gaurantees the production of a female chocobo from breeding.

Nuts: Color, Standing, and Class
There are a total of 21 different nuts that can be used when breeding chocobos, all of which affect the breeding process differently. For a complete list of nuts, their market prices, and their physical descriptions, see the chocobo nuts entry.

Most nuts affect the color, standing, and class of a chocobo. These nuts and their respective production tables for every color and class breeding combination follows.

Color and Class without Nut
This is the basis of all color and class productions, the breeding pair with no nut.

Carob Nut
This nut eliminates the chance of producing a yellow chocobo for all other color chocobos.

Pipio Nut
This nut slightly increases the chance of producing a wonderful chocobo.

Ruchin Nut
This nut increases the chance that the new chocobo will be the same color as its father, as opposed to the mother.

Param Nut
This nut increases the chance that the new chocobo will be the same color as the mother, as opposed to the father.

Saraha Nut
The nut practically gaurantees a new chocobo to be the same color as the mother. Unfortunately, there is not similar nut for the father;s color, though the reason for this is unknown

Porofu Nut
This makes it more likely for a new chocobo to be any color of standing 4. It can only be used when mating yellow and standing 4 chocobos, any other chocobos find its taste unpleasant and therefore will not mate with it. When it is determined to be any color of standing 4, the chocobo's color is determined by rolling a d4 and the result corresponds to the color, 1 being Brown, 2 being Dark Blue, 3 being Purple, and 4 being Red.

Brown Nut
This makes it more likely for a new chocobo to be a brown chocobo. It can only be used when mating yellow and standing 4 chocobos, any other chocobos find its taste unpleasant and therefore will not mate with it.

Dark Blue Nut
This makes it more likely for a new chocobo to be a dark blue chocobo. It can only be used when mating yellow and standing 4 chocobos, any other chocobos find its taste unpleasant and therefore will not mate with it.

Purple Nut
This makes it more likely for a new chocobo to be a purple chocobo. It can only be used when mating yellow and standing 4 chocobos, any other chocobos find its taste unpleasant and therefore will not mate with it.

Red Nut
This makes it more likely for a new chocobo to be a red chocobo. It can only be used when mating yellow and standing 4 chocobos, any other chocobos find its taste unpleasant and therefore will not mate with it.

Pram Nut
This makes it more likely for a new chocobo to be any color of standing 3. It can only be used when mating yellow, standing 4 and standing 3 chocobos, any other chocobos find its taste unpleasant and therefore will not mate with it. When it is determined to be any color of standing 3, the chocobo's color is determined by flipping a coin (or rolling d%) and the result corresponds to the color, heads (or 1-50) being Green and tails (or 51-100) being Light Blue.

Green Nut
This makes it more likely for a new chocobo to be a green chocobo. It can only be used when mating yellow, standing 4, and standing 3 chocobos, any other chocobos find its taste unpleasant and therefore will not mate with it.

Light Blue Nut
This makes it more likely for a new chocobo to be a light blue chocobo. It can only be used when mating yellow, standing 4, and standing 3 chocobos, any other chocobos find its taste unpleasant and therefore will not mate with it.

Porov Nut
This makes it more likely for a new chocobo to be any color of standing 2. It can only be used when mating standing 3 and standing 2 chocobos, any other chocobos find its taste unpleasant and therefore will not mate with it. When it is determined to be any color of standing 2, the chocobo's color is determined by flipping a coin (or rolling d%) and the result corresponds to the color, heads (or 1-50) being Black and tails (or 51-100) being White.

Black Nut
This makes it more likely for a new chocobo to be a black chocobo. It can only be used when mating standing 3 and standing 2 chocobos, any other chocobos find its taste unpleasant and therefore will not mate with it.

White Nut
This makes it more likely for a new chocobo to be a white chocobo. It can only be used when mating yellow, standing 4, and standing 3 chocobos, any other chocobos find its taste unpleasant and therefore will not mate with it.

Xeio Nut
This nut makes it more likely for a new chocobo to be any color of standing 1. It can only be used when mating standing 2 and standing 1 chocobos, any other chocobos find its taste unpleasant and therefore will not mate with it. When it is determined to be any color of standing 1, the chocobo's color is determined by rolling d% and the result corresponds to the color, 1-90 being Gray and 91-100 being Gold.

Zeio Nut
This is the most coveted nut in all of chocobo breeding society. It very nearly gaurantees a pair of chocobos to produce a wonderful chocobo, and also give a good chance of producing a chocobo of one standing higher than the parent of higher standing.

The Results of Breeding
When two chocobos mate, with or withour a nut, the mating takes place over night, so chocobos being bred are placed in a large pen together with the nut in a receptacle (a small, circular depression) between them. The day after, the two chocobos must sleep for 6 consecutive hours that day to regain their normal sleeping patter and strength, and the female has laid an egg in the receptacle where the nut was previously.

The egg has a gestation period of 6-9 months (1d4+5), after which it hatches into a newborn chocobo, known as a hatchling, and will grow to full maturity in 2-3 years.

The parent chocobos, on the other hand, have created a chemical imbalance in their bodies by mating and producing an egg, which must be fixed before they can mate again. This takes a period of 5 months, which can be reduced to 3 months by racing the chocobos (or otherwise getting them intense physical excercise) at least once every week.

Rearing
Rearing a chocobo, or tending to it as it hatches, can be very difficult in the wild, but is fairly easy in a controlled breeding environment. The DC for rearing a wild chocobo is determined the same way as the DC for rearing any wild animal as presented by the handle animal skill. Rearing a chocobo that has be bred from domesticated chocobos on a chocobo breeder's farm, however, is much simpler. Instead of the usual DC for rearing an animal, the DC is only 5 + the HD of the kind of chocobo. This means hatching the chocobo and raising it to be domesticated for the 2-3 years it takes the chocobo to reach maturity.

Raising
While chocobos are being raised, they may also learn trick and be trained for general purposes. However, because the chocobo is young it does not have the DC reduced by 5 (as mentioned below).

Training
Chocobos are remarkably quick learners. The handle animal DC for teaching an animal a trick or training an animal for a general purpose are reduced by 5 and the time it takes to complete the training is readuced by one week (to a minimum of one day).