What are the some of the best ways to make $$

[ScionJustice]

The best way I can think of is to use charm and related spells and force people to give you their wealth.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

1.) Killing monsters and taking their stuff.
2.) Magic Item crafting

Not exciting, but those are the two easiest ways to strike it rich quick. In a very diastant third, for a "regular" option, I'd probably say counterfeiting.

 

[irdeggman]

2.) Magic Item crafting

A strict reading of the RAW indicates otherwise for this one (it is a known bone of contention among people over the years though).

In general, a character can sell something for half its listed price.

I can't readily find it, but I beleive there was a FAQ entry supporting this though - maybe it was a Rules of the Game article.

I personally don't agree with it, but I did say a strict rading of the RAW.

I handle it like this - if you sell something to a shop keeper than the 50% rule is the normal one that applies. If you sell it to an individual then it is an open market (simplified depending on circumstances and how much time I want to put into the role-playing part down to straight market price).

So in general, in my game if you wanted to make a continuing profit from crafting magic items you would need to open up a shop of your own in order to get real coin from it - otherwise you are relying on a sort of contingency sale process where you share profits with the person who actuall makes the sale.

So mostly it would come down to a use of a profession type skill or concept here. Sometimes the line between profession and craft gets blurred in the long run.

 

[Jack Simth]

I know of a few ways not yet mentioned:

1) The Wall of Iron spell
a) Iron is a trade good, valued by weight (1 sp/pound), which means it's usable as cash.
b) The Wall of Iron spell makes a very large amount of iron, all at once (you'll need to look up the density of iron, and do some math to figure your profit margin)

2) The Fabricate Spell + ranks in a Craft skill
a) Materials required for Fabricate are the materials needed to craft the object in question - which is 1/3rd the market price of the item.
b) You can generally sell stuff for 1/2 market price.
c) a+b= 1/6th market price profit off anything you can reliably Fabricate, with a few rounds' casting (so, say, Masterwork Fullplate - Craft DC 20 - nets you 275 gp for a 5th level spell slot).

3) Lesser Planar Binding/Ally, Torches, and the Lantern Archon
a) A Lantern Archon is easy to Call by way of Lesser Planar Binding or Lesser Planar Ally
b) A Lantern Archon gets Continual Flame as a spell-like ability usable at-will
c) An Everburning Torch is a 110 gp item weighing in at 1 pound, and per the description:

Everburning Torch: This otherwise normal torch has a continual flame spell cast upon it. An everburning torch clearly illuminates a 20-foot radius and provides shadowy illumination out to a 40-foot radius.

d) regular torches cost 1 cp each.
e) If you purchase a hundred torches, Lesser Planar Bind/Ally a Lantern Archon, and have it spend ten minutes using it's at-will ability, you've got 100 items worth 110 gp each, which you can then sell for half (5,500 gp), having spent 1 gp (plus the requirements for the spell, which vary based on which you use). If you purchase a thousand torches for 10 gp, and have the Lantern Archon work for 1,000 rounds (1 hour 40 minutes), you've got 1,000 items worth 110 gp each, and you can sell them for half (55,000 gp). If you purchase 10,000 torches (100 gp), and have the Lantern Archon work for 10,000 rounds (16 hours, 40 minutes), you've got 10,000 items worth 110 gp each which you can sell for half (550,000 gp). Do note that the biggest bottleneck here is how long you can Bind/Ally the Lantern Archon - generally 1 day per caster level. As a 9th level caster (do note: Lantern Archons need neither rest nor food) you can get nine days of service, which is 129,600 rounds. If you spend 1,296 gp on torches (so that the archon has one torch per round to apply Continual Flame), you can sell those 129,600 Everburning Torches for half (7,128,000 gp).

4) Binding/Gating in Efreeti
a) Efreeti have the ability to grant 3 Wishes to a mortal, once per day.
b) Efreeti's are in range of Planar Binding, Planar Ally, or Gate.
c) The safe list of Wish includes creating a mundane item worth 25,000 gp, or a magical item (for an increased XP cost... although technically as a spell like ability, the XP cost doesn't apply).
d) You do the math.

Mind you, if you try to break the game this way, the DM will find a way to make it hurt (you're flooding the market on iron - it suddenly becomes worthless because everyone has all the iron they could want; you buy up all the torches in the land and sell an absurd number of Everburning Torches, the price skyrockets on normal torches because there is a huge demand but production is the same, while the cost of an Everburning Torch falls into the toilet because there is an absurd supply while the demand is the same; the price of mundane goods starts to fall, and you get attacked by a bounty hunter who was hired by all those crafters you put out of business, or all those people you Charmed/Dominate into giving away all their hard-earned wealth; the LE Efreeti twist your wishes and/or follow their racial writeup of a hatred of servitude and send bounty hunters after you (paid by way of Wishes); and so on). Thus, the best method is item 1 from StreamOfTheSky - kill things and take their stuff - as it's standard D&D practice.

 

[Tilenas]

A strict reading of the RAW indicates otherwise for this one (it is a known bone of contention among people over the years though).



I can't readily find it, but I beleive there was a FAQ entry supporting this though - maybe it was a Rules of the Game article.

I personally don't agree with it, but I did say a strict rading of the RAW.

I handle it like this - if you sell something to a shop keeper than the 50% rule is the normal one that applies. If you sell it to an individual then it is an open market (simplified depending on circumstances and how much time I want to put into the role-playing part down to straight market price).

So in general, in my game if you wanted to make a continuing profit from crafting magic items you would need to open up a shop of your own in order to get real coin from it - otherwise you are relying on a sort of contingency sale process where you share profits with the person who actuall makes the sale.

So mostly it would come down to a use of a profession type skill or concept here. Sometimes the line between profession and craft gets blurred in the long run.

At some point it says that you can sell certain commodities (e.g. gems) at full price. I would rule the same for magic items, but restrict the sale as you did: Open a shop, or travel about selling stuff.
Then there's the problem of demand. Magic brooms that sweep on their own will sell just fine, but how many people need or can afford magic weapons or armour?
Finally, for making/selling magic items on a large scale it would be smart to move away from the item creation rules and more towards craft. Just with more money and the XP-cost involved (if you haven't house-ruled it out). Keep the item creation process for the stuff you create for personal use.

 

[roguerouge]

I believe that shearing a ladder of its rungs makes two ten-foot poles, which gives you more money than it cost to purchase the ladder.

 

[Tilenas]

I believe that shearing a ladder of its rungs makes two ten-foot poles, which gives you more money than it cost to purchase the ladder.

That would be awesome! You can even sell the rungs as firewood or smelt them into even more ten-foot poles.

 

[akbearfoot]

Simplest way to make money fairly is to become an ADVENTURER. It's the highest paid job in the world...

A CR1 monster is supposed to have about 300g in treasure.