Letting your familiar earn money for you

[Karuth]

I recently got the idea of using the downtime of a familiar between adventures to make some cash (when the master researches new spells or crafts items the familar does not have much to do).

What I came up with was sending a pig familar (or some other familiar-type with a good sense of smell) into the woods to seach for truffles.
Usually you need a trainer with the animal since it will eat the truffels, but your familiar is highly intelligent and can be instructed to just take a bag of holding an amulet of mage hand and get harvesting :3

But do truffles exist in D&D? How expensive are they?
In RL they are around 4000-5000$ each pound (and more) depending on quality and region where you are selling.

Feedback on this idea and other methods to make money with your familiar are welcome. :3

[Grollub]

lol.. thats just begging for the dm to mess/ kill your familiar. Sending it off by itself with magic items too.

[Z3ro]

Agreed; you're better off (but still asking for trouble) having some sort of familiar that can run some sort of shop for you. Agree with the DM ahead of time what the shop can earn to hopefully lower the amount of afore-mentioned trouble.

[Karuth]

Not every forest has to be infested with deadly creatures. A farmer must be able to gather truffles too somehow without dying.
And the familar of a wizard should be stronger than a level 1 commoner. At the very least after a few levels.

Anyhow, none of you have even scratched the questions I asked.

Do truffles exist?
What they worth?
How can you find them? Survival check? Spot check?

I had to make a guess about the price I'd say a "standard" truffle might be worth 50 Gold. Any thoughts on that matter?

[Gnaeus]

Do truffles exist?

Hmm. Sounds like a question for your DM.


What they worth?

Hmm. Sounds like a question for your DM.


How can you find them? Survival check? Spot check?

Hmm. Sounds like a question for your DM. Survival might work, but DM could rule that it requires Profession. If they are 50 gp each, probably quite a lot of ranks in profession.


I had to make a guess about the price I'd say a "standard" truffle might be worth 50 Gold. Any thoughts on that matter?

Sounds like a question for your DM.

Seriously. Do you think there is a rule on "truffle collection"? Anything we tell you is just a guess. The only thing that would qualify as RAW would be making a Profession (gatherer) check, or something similar.

[Baconated]

Do truffles exist?
What they worth?
How can you find them? Survival check? Spot check?

I had to make a guess about the price I'd say a "standard" truffle might be worth 50 Gold. Any thoughts on that matter?

1) Up to your DM
2) Up to your DM
3) Up to your DM. In reality, its a lengthy process where the pig is trained from a baby, so it would be Handle Animal and Profession: Farmer, most likely.
4) Up to your DM


Sorry, but thats how its gonna fall :P If your DM wants you to have truffles, you have em. If not, you dont.

[OracleofWuffing]

I couldn't find anything through some searches, though I would expect it to be treated as a trade good. Exotic tapestries and rugs of the finest quality go for 500 gp (and keep in mind your bog standard commoner rarely gets ahold of a single gold piece), so I doubt that you could con your DM into much more than that. Survival is what you'd use for foraging for food, and I assume truffles are edible, so I'd agree on that idea.

[Gnaeus]

Survival is what you'd use for foraging for food, and I assume truffles are edible, so I'd agree on that idea.

I wouldn't. Having the ability to survive in inclement conditions or drink collected rainwater doesn't mean that you know where to find luxury goods. Making a profit usually involves a profession check.

For that matter, a quick wikipedia search suggests that:
1. Truffles have not always been considered valuable. In your part of the world they may just as easily be thrown away as trash (like the "pecan truffle") or regarded as peasant food (like in france pre-1780) or grown by professional farmers, (like in france pre-WW1).
2. The really expensive truffles come from a pretty small area. North Italy & Croatia, and part of France. Your WORLD may be truffle rich, but your spot may not have them, or only the non-valuable types.

or.

Ask your DM.

[Dalek-K]

My friend had a celestial rhino as a paladin mount... Eventually it learned to talk... Then he became a risen martyr and lived for thousands of years (when the campaign was picked back up and continued lol)... His rhino over that time worked around small towns as a tourist attraction type of deal...

I forget how much money he made but it was fricken huge... Of course the money didn't go to him... But his son and their kids... Well actually a bank that invested the money into the communities...

[Amnestic]

I wouldn't. Having the ability to survive in inclement conditions or drink collected rainwater doesn't mean that you know where to find luxury goods. Making a profit usually involves a profession check.

From the PHB:

SURVIVAL (WIS)
Use this skill to follow tracks, hunt wild game, guide a party safely
through frozen wastelands, identify signs that owlbears live nearby,
predict the weather, or avoid quicksand and other natural hazards.

Then under DC10:

Move up to one-half your overland speed while hunting and foraging (no food or water supplies needed).

Survival covers more than simply drinking rainwater and dealing with harsh weather.

[Gnaeus]

From the PHB:

SURVIVAL (WIS)
Use this skill to follow tracks, hunt wild game, guide a party safely
through frozen wastelands, identify signs that owlbears live nearby,
predict the weather, or avoid quicksand and other natural hazards.

Then under DC10:

Move up to one-half your overland speed while hunting and foraging (no food or water supplies needed).

Survival covers more than simply drinking rainwater and dealing with harsh weather.

Show me where it says that you can collect luxury items. I don't see anything there that says that you can use survival to make money, unless your dm agrees to let you charge a fee for identifying Owlbear tracks or working as a guide.

There are profession skills for a reason. Ones like Hunter, Farmer, and Herbalist would presumably not exist if they were all lumped into Survival. Foraging for edible mushrooms, yes. Foraging for valuable delicacies, not so much.

[OracleofWuffing]

Show me where it says that you can collect luxury items.
Just because the food I'm foraging for is a luxury item, that doesn't mean I can't forage it (the rules merely state that I can forage, and do not state any exceptions to what I can forage). Would you be inclined to tell me that I can't use my survival skills to sustain me in the Forest of Entirely Made of Caviar? Additionally, mind you, that the question that was directed to, was "How do you find them," not "How to sell them." The answer to that question is not taking profiting into mind, that falls into the elusive "step two" of the plan, which I'm afraid I don't know.

But "step three" is profit. :smalltongue:

[Xyk]

I'd just get a raven familiar who can speak common to run a shop. They share spells with you, so he could just cast any sort of defensive spells to make sure the shop isn't robbed. And there you go, you've got a shop. Some creation spells might help too. Or Leomund's hut or Mordenkainen's mansion to actually make a shop.

[Amnestic]

Show me where it says that you can collect luxury items. I don't see anything there that says that you can use survival to make money, unless your dm agrees to let you charge a fee for identifying Owlbear tracks or working as a guide.

There are profession skills for a reason. Ones like Hunter, Farmer, and Herbalist would presumably not exist if they were all lumped into Survival. Foraging for edible mushrooms, yes. Foraging for valuable delicacies, not so much.

So what you're telling me is that a person with maxed survival skills, a person who - by the texts own admission - is about as perfect as hunting as one could get, is incapable of selling anything he kills? He knows exactly how to skin and gut a boar perfectly, but can't lug its carcass back to town and hawk it for a couple of gold? - Something he could do if he were adventuring, I might add.

Okay, yeah, by RAW, you're correct. That's more than a little stupid in practise though.

[Z3ro]

So what you're telling me is that a person with maxed survival skills, a person who - by the texts own admission - is about as perfect as hunting as one could get, is incapable of selling anything he kills? He knows exactly how to skin and gut a boar perfectly, but can't lug its carcass back to town and hawk it for a couple of gold? - Something he could do if he were adventuring, I might add.

Okay, yeah, by RAW, you're correct. That's more than a little stupid in practise though.

Catching and killing a boar might be survival, though I would rule that selling said boar parts would be a profession check.

[awa]

a survival cheek to forage for food has no rules for deciding what you find it just means you found something edible. so it could be truffles or more likely its berries or acorns or any number of other easier to find things.
if you are trying to sell truffles in an area where they grow locally you wont get very much money for it. because nothing is stopping commoners with regular pigs from doing it.
But in the grand scheme of things i have repeat what other have said before me ask your dm.
edit
also dnd economics make no sense you can't make a profit just selling magic items

[OracleofWuffing]

because nothing is stopping commoners with regular pigs from doing it.
Actually, a single pig costs 3 gp, and their average day of work results in 1 sp (which is just enough to feed you for that day). Arguably, your commoner cannot afford a pig without starving itself.


also dnd economics make no sense
I think we can agree on this! :smallbiggrin:

[Kerrin]

I'd just get a raven familiar who can speak common to run a shop. They share spells with you, so he could just cast any sort of defensive spells to make sure the shop isn't robbed. And there you go, you've got a shop. Some creation spells might help too. Or Leomund's hut or Mordenkainen's mansion to actually make a shop.
I thought the shared spells stop working if your familiar is more than 5 feet away from you. Am I mis-remembering that?

[Quietus]

I thought the shared spells stop working if your familiar is more than 5 feet away from you. Am I mis-remembering that?

If you cast the spell on yourself and share it with the familiar, yes. But Share Spells also lets you cast spells normally reserved for self only on the familiar itself, in which case it would work normally on the familiar.

[Thurbane]

If you have a Coure Eladrin and a wand of Reduce Person, she could hire herself as a "companion" for Halflings. :smalltongue:

[Analytica]

The fact that the familiar shares your skill ranks is interesting. Technically, as long as the hand issue is handled, a familiar could craft, do research, create art or whatever your skills allow, for profit. :smallsmile:

[Hawriel]

Show me where it says that you can collect luxury items.

A gamer has there thoughts stuck in the small box that is the SRD. A truffle is not a luxury item. It is a fungus, a muchroom that is non-toxic to humans. Weather society values them because they are tasty or not is immaterial. Under this logic a character cannot use survival to find a strawbarry bush. Strawbarrys being a tasty highy loved barry which noble women love to eat with honey or cream.

Survival is used for foraging, finding edible plants, fungus, nuts ect to eat in order to survive. For understanding the right conditions or enviornment that a truffle would grow falls under another skill knowledge nature.

Knowledge nature being the understanding of the natural world.

Knowledge herbalism or profession herbalist would be another skill that may give a character insight into finding plants and fungus for their creations.

[Da Beast]

Not exactly what the OP was talking about, but a bard who takes obtain familiar should be able to send his familiar out to perform for money with the same perform modifier as the bard master.

As for the truffles idea, it would be completely up to your DM.

[Kerrin]

If you cast the spell on yourself and share it with the familiar, yes. But Share Spells also lets you cast spells normally reserved for self only on the familiar itself, in which case it would work normally on the familiar.
Ah, thank you, somehow I missed that bit.