Characters Making Money

[Vlos]

Ok, In the rules it says a character can make money by using either the craft or profession skill equal to half your resultant DC check per week.

Check: You can practice your trade and make a decent living, earning about half your Profession check result in gold pieces per week of dedicated work. You know how to use the tools of your trade, how to perform the profession's daily tasks, how to supervise helpers, and how to handle common problems.

There is also a list of prices under services where it costs "X" to get a spell to be cast. What is stopping a character from casting spells as a service. This seems a much more lucrative venture than using the above skills. (Yes there would be guild taxes and dues, but even at 75% tax its still much better than any skill payout).

Also what about EPIC level characters making money. For example, I have EPIC character that cast spells. She doesn't have a kingdom or keep or anything like that, so really no costs, other than lodging and eats (lets assume these are free or zero cost).

This sort of came out of another article under House Rules for Harvesting Raw Materials. She can shapechange into lets say, a gold dragon and using her Knowledge(Nature) [33 ranks] determine where the best place is for Giant Oysters to grow/live. Then go and crack open the oysters all day. Rinse and repeat. even if she only found 1 oyster a day its more than the skills payout.

Are there any articles/products which go into this?

 

[Crothian]

nothing about this because well its boring. Sure you can make money in the game, high level characters have great abilities that they could rent out and make some serious cash. But it isn't what the game is about, the economics of D&D are not accurate in the least and they don't need to be., The game is not assuming the characters are farming for money.

 

[Corlon]

once you become epic, you don't need to do anything with oysters.

Take over a rich kingdom...rinse and repeat .

 

[Daesumnor]

I didn't think Epics would ever need to use those rules. IMO, they're more for low level parties (level 2 max) who needed some pocket money, but weren't equipped for a dungeon crawl.

A little off topic: I've always wanted the pc's to be captured, and have to work their way to freedom.

 

[Herpes Cineplex]

The last time we ran D&D, I was playing a wizard and was (after expenses for spellbooks, new spells, material components, etc.) perpetually broke. I tried really hard to get our GM to let me make a little money doing spellcasting for pay whenever our party was spending some downtime in the city we were based out of, just like the DMG suggests.

It never happened. Ever.

So eventually I just bit the bullet and started crafting magic items on commission for NPCs, with a markup as outrageous as the one that NPC casters were charging us. A small XP hit, a few days in the lab, and the massive profits could cover my wizard's ever-increasing expenses. But I'm still bitter that I couldn't get even a little pocket change out of spellcasting, no matter how I tried to market it in- and out-of-character.


I suspect, contrary to the previous posts in this thread, that in many games out there the question of how an epic character can MAKE.MONEY.FAST! aren't easily dismissed with "take over a rich kingdom" or "epic characters don't need to worry about making money." After all, it only takes one GM to fix an in-game price for something (usually a magic item, in my experience), and it suddenly doesn't matter that it's a dorky false economy or that it's not the focus of the game or whatever....you'll still have a PC who needs to amass some serious wealth and is going to have to look for ways to do that.

My preference, if it were me, would be to just handwave the cash-amassing part of the game unless the methods used by the PC are inherently dangerous. And if they are, just play out one or two issues related to the money-farm, and elide the rest: hooray, you've got your money, you pay your bill, the game moves on. Or just tell the player "No, sorry, that cannot be had for any price," and thereby remove whatever reason they had for wanting their character to make a ton of money.

--
decisiveness in the service of sloth
ryan

 

[Darmanicus]

We've recently started plane-hopping and our DM thought it would be really funny to screw with our finances by stating that the currency of the plane we are currenty in is iron.

Just wait until we've completed our current quest and start plane shifting back and forth!

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Nonono, to make money, the character will need a decent mod in Forgery, and probably Craft (goldsmith) or something like that (if we're talking about normal D&D here).

 

[Vlos]

Well sorry for me role playing....

My character is a shaman/shapechanger and doesn't for the most part need /want coin/money. But what she does need is materials for her spirit tokens to offer to spirits, or materials to cast spells or make magic items, she prefers to make items, rather than buy them because they are connected to spirits, where as others are not for the most part.

So the reason I am asking, is because I need to gather a giant pearl, or rare wood, or special herbs, etc. Since these have a value I can't just say, oh, I go get this or that and all of a sudden have 10,000gp worth of spell components or spirit tokens. The reason I used the spell casting and other means was to get a base of what a character could make if they put their magics to use to make money. Thus I could say, I put my magics to finding this spirit token and use a similar value to as if I was selling a ware or casting spells as to what I collected.

Again, sorry for role playing my character, she just doesn't see the need/desire to take over an entire kingdom (though she probably could, but why when she could just slip into the kingdoms vaults and steal them blind).

If anyone else could give some decent feedback for a system where an EPIC character could gather materials (or make money) in a day or week, if putting their magics towards the task (which would give me a base target to work with). Would greatly appreciate it.

 

[Devilkiller]

Thus I could say, I put my magics to finding this spirit token and use a similar value to as if I was selling a ware or casting spells as to what I collected

The way folks generally do this in a D&D game is by going on an adventure and getting treasure. While it might certainly be possible for your character to open up Ye Olde Spell Shoppe and make a nice profit peddling magic to the mundanes it isn't the focus of the average game. For good or ill, I think the core rules omitted information on this intentionally.

That said, I kind of like in game commerce myself, and I see no reason why your character shouldn't be able to open a business and make a little money on the side if the story of the campaign allows sufficient free time for it. I'd say that each week you can make up to as much as 50% of the sale price of your most expensive spell. That is to say that a 1st level cleric could make for 5gp/week (10*1=10) while a 20th level cleric could make 900gp/week (90*20=1800). Of course you'd have to be in a city with a gold piece limit sufficient for sales of that size. Also, the Equipment rules have some suggestions as to where spells might be available, and it shouldn't be possible to sell a spell where it isn't available (barring roleplaying, an adventure, etc).

I figure that even if a 20th level character manages to make 45,000gp/year at his "day job" it will still be a pittance compared to the cash he could make out adventuring. If a player tries to abuse the system by saying, "My character sits back and makes money for 20 years!" I think the DM would be well served to say,"Ok, but he's an NPC now since he obviously can't come on the next adventure. Go ahead and roll up a new PC. If you ever switch back to your original PC he'll be the same level he is now."

Blurb from SRD:
In addition, not every town or village has a spellcaster of sufficient level to cast any spell. In general, you must travel to a small town (or larger settlement) to be reasonably assured of finding a spellcaster capable of casting 1st-level spells, a large town for 2nd-level spells, a small city for 3rd- or 4th-level spells, a large city for 5th- or 6th-level spells, and a metropolis for 7th- or 8th-level spells. Even a metropolis isn’t guaranteed to have a local spellcaster able to cast 9th-level spells.

Footnote from SRD:
2 See spell description for additional costs. If the additional costs put the spell’s total cost above 3,000 gp, that spell is not generally available.

 

[Crothian]

Well sorry for me role playing....

ACtually you can role play anything so just becasue you are fighting and adventureing less doesn't mean you are role playing more.

If anyone else could give some decent feedback for a system where an EPIC character could gather materials (or make money) in a day or week, if putting their magics towards the task (which would give me a base target to work with). Would greatly appreciate it.

Play it out. Use locate object and fly around till you find it and then gather it up. Role play highering a group of adventurers to go get it for you. Use wish to make it appear in front of you. Conjure a creature to go fetch it for you.