Magical Manufacturing

[Samloyal23]

Well... if you want to do mass manufacturing, you don't do it as a spell, you do it as a Timed automatic reset magic device trap of the spell you want.

Hmmm... Just add a spell to conjure monsters and you've got the Gauntlet video game translated to D&D...

 

[Jack Simth]

Hmmm... Just add a spell to conjure monsters and you've got the Gauntlet video game translated to D&D...

Heh. Potentially, yes. Any spell you like can go in there, as far as what little rules there are for magic device traps are concerned. Summon Monster Y, Summon Nature's Ally Z, Summon Elemental Swarm, whatever.

However, when speaking along the lines of beneficial spells, the general thing to do is make a soup (or other bland food of your choice... which isn't bland when served, thanks to a cantrip) kitchen:

"Traps" along the waiting line for getting the soup:
Cure Light Wounds
Extended Endure Elements
Neutralize Poison
Lesser Restoration (once for each ability score)
Remove Disease
Remove Curse
Remove Blindness/Deafness
Remove Paralysis
Prestidigitation (cleaning)

The soup kitchen itself is powered by a "trap" of Create Food and Water, combined with a "trap" of Prestidigitation to make it tasty (and possibly a 'trap' of minor creation to put it all in a bag, with wooden utensils, to get people through quickly, although this is optional and doesn't really matter)

Whoever goes through gets food for 15 at the end of the line, is feeling pretty good, and is quite healthy.

Charge five coppers for a trip through the line. The untrained hireling who makes 1 sp/day can now support a family, if he's got somewhere to shelter them. If he just has himself, he needs to worry about hail, lightning, and particularly extreme weather, but otherwise can do whatever and save half his wages for retirement.

However: There's a relatively fixed number of coins in an economy! You're going to slowly choke the life out of a city doing this if you don't put all the coins back in. So hire people who are out of work - ANYONE who is out of work - initially at 7 coppers/day - to do something you want done. Yes, it's below normal wages for untrained hirelings. That's intentional - it means they won't be working for you if there's better work elsewhere... and you can demonstrate that the company store will get them, personally, well taken care of, with a little spending cash left over, and probably let them support a family, too, if they've already got suitable lodgings. You're a coin sink, and the lack of coins will slowly drive other people out of business (very slowly; doesn't matter how much your goods are worth if nobody has the coin to buy them), at which point... everyone's working for you. Doing... whatever. Making trade goods, maybe. Possibly walking the city wall with a sling and a bunch of rocks (Simple weapon, within range of a commoner-1 to know, and doesn't cost anything). Possibly dancing. Whatever. But unless something interferes (and it will - there's going to be some people who'll figure out what effect your business will have, or a local thieves guild who may disable your traps, or whatever), you end up ruling by way of having essentially everyone on your payroll.

 

[Samloyal23]

Heh. Potentially, yes. Any spell you like can go in there, as far as what little rules there are for magic device traps are concerned. Summon Monster Y, Summon Nature's Ally Z, Summon Elemental Swarm, whatever.

However, when speaking along the lines of beneficial spells, the general thing to do is make a soup (or other bland food of your choice... which isn't bland when served, thanks to a cantrip) kitchen:

"Traps" along the waiting line for getting the soup:
Cure Light Wounds
Extended Endure Elements
Neutralize Poison
Lesser Restoration (once for each ability score)
Remove Disease
Remove Curse
Remove Blindness/Deafness
Remove Paralysis
Prestidigitation (cleaning)

The soup kitchen itself is powered by a "trap" of Create Food and Water, combined with a "trap" of Prestidigitation to make it tasty (and possibly a 'trap' of minor creation to put it all in a bag, with wooden utensils, to get people through quickly, although this is optional and doesn't really matter)

Whoever goes through gets food for 15 at the end of the line, is feeling pretty good, and is quite healthy.

More likely than a mere soup kitchen, this would be a set of prayer stations in a temple, where you kneel and recite a series of prayers to receive your miracles...

 

[Sekhmet]

I would make this soup kitchen out of a Wall of Stone + Polymorph Any Object.
I would name it WallMart.
It would be the destroyer of communities.

 

[Jack Simth]

More likely than a mere soup kitchen, this would be a set of prayer stations in a temple, where you kneel and recite a series of prayers to receive your miracles...

That depends on the deity, and whether it's more of an eastern or western style.

Besides: Most soup kitchens are run by religious organizations anyway....

More likely than a mere soup kitchen, this would be a set of prayer stations in a temple, where you kneel and recite a series of prayers to receive your miracles...

Wall of Stone and Stone Shape, or Wall of Stone and Fabricate; don't use Polymorph Any Object, as you don't want it being dispelled.

 

[Greenfield]

So, in conclusion, if you expend a few hundred thousand gp on the right magical "traps", you can create a business that will net thousands of gp.

Sounds like a winner to me.

 

[Samloyal23]

So, in conclusion, if you expend a few hundred thousand gp on the right magical "traps", you can create a business that will net thousands of gp.

Sounds like a winner to me.

It's a factory, invest in it and eventually you will not only see a profit, you will become rich. You just have to look at the big picture and have the lifespan of an elf...

 

[Jack Simth]

It's a factory, invest in it and eventually you will not only see a profit, you will become rich. You just have to look at the big picture and have the lifespan of an elf...

Or do it in a particularly sizable city, yes. If you get 10,000 customers a day, at 5 cp/customer, that's 500 gp/day. In a single year, that's 182,500 gp....

...if you can get 10,000 customers a day doing this.

The real money, however, comes in when you start hiring people to make trade goods for you.

 

[Samloyal23]

Or do it in a particularly sizable city, yes. If you get 10,000 customers a day, at 5 cp/customer, that's 500 gp/day. In a single year, that's 182,500 gp....

...if you can get 10,000 customers a day doing this.

The real money, however, comes in when you start hiring people to make trade goods for you.

No, the big money comes from nobles and merchant princes bribing you to gain the support of your worshipers/customers and passing laws that give you an advantage over the competition...

 

[Jack Simth]

No, the big money comes from nobles and merchant princes bribing you to gain the support of your worshipers/customers and passing laws that give you an advantage over the competition...

... OK, yeah, you're probably right.