Disciple of Mammon shenanigans challenge

[Telonius]

While looking over some mundane ways of breaking item economy (for another thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=241099)), I came across this little gem: Disciple of Mammon, from BoVD. The prestige class is technically mundane, and gets Enhance Value as an (Ex) ability. Basically, you take a mundane object, spend an hour with it, and increase its value by (appraise check result) percent.

I'm pretty sure that the most expensive mundane object in the DMG costs 7,000gp (gold and ruby ring art object). Increasing the value by even one percent is going to net you 70gp. I wonder how high we can push that percentage. What's the highest Appraise result that a character with 7 levels of Disciple of Mammon can possibly get? How badly can we break the economy? Hard mode challenge: how high can we get the check result without using any magical means of self-buffing?

Let's say the build is Rogue6/Disciple7/(something else)7, 28 point buy, race not yet determined.

[Telonius]

No takers? I'll start one out...

Dwarf
Rogue6/DMammon7/Exemplar7
Str 10 Dex 10 Con 12 Int 18 (+5 level bumps = 23) Wis 10 Cha 10
1 Disciple of Darkness
3 Skill Focus (Appraise)
6 Diligent
9 Leadership
12 ?
15 ?
18 ?

Bonuses to Appraise
Int +6
Skills: Appraise 23 ranks
Craft (gemcutting or jewelry) 5 ranks, +2 synergy
Dwarf (gold is metal) +2 racial
Diligent +2 untyped
Masterwork Artisan's Tool +2 circumstance
Skill Artistry +4 competence
Skill Mastery take 10

So, we're at +51% taking 10, before any magical improvements. Not only will this make you 3570gp per hour, it will turn any Helpful person into a fanatical follower thanks to Persuasive Performance. Can this be improved upon?

[Vizzerdrix]

PHB has galley listed at 30,000gp.

[Telonius]

Ooh! Greatship from Stormwrack is 60,000! 30,600gp an hour. (Too bad Theurgeme is a magical item).

I'm getting an image of him painting racing stripes on the sides of the boat for an hour... :smallbiggrin:

[Keld Denar]

As long as the racing stripes are red. Da red wuns goes faster! Waaaaaaggggggg!

[VGLordR2]

If you look at the bottom of this (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/wealthAndMoney.htm) page, it says that PC's sell items at 1/2 listed price. This means that you would have to increase the value of the objects by more than 100% before you start to make a profit. Unless, of course, I'm missing something.

[Varil]

Maybe I'm misremembering, but don't art objects and gems sell at 100%? So no galley, but that...thing from the first post should be fine.

[Keld Denar]

Yea, "trade" items sell at full price.

So question...If I have a 4,000 GP diamond, and I give it to a Disciple of Mammon for an hour who increases the value of that diamond by 25%, does that mean I can now cast Raise Dead with the exact same stone I had an hour ago that I couldn't previously cast it with?

Magic is goofy...

[Morithias]

I think one of the spellscale's racial bonuses they pick at the start of the day can be bonus to appraise checks equal to 1/2 character level.

I forget how I did it, but with magical items I managed to once get it to 107 appraise check at level 20...I think I also needed to do a faustian pact..then again this was before I knew about item familiars.

[Water_Bear]

So question...If I have a 4,000 GP diamond, and I give it to a Disciple of Mammon for an hour who increases the value of that diamond by 25%, does that mean I can now cast Raise Dead with the exact same stone I had an hour ago that I couldn't previously cast it with?

Awesome, I had never thought of that. +1 Intarnets for you.

Still, out of my boundless generosity towards the 3.5 rules, I feel compelled to hand-wave this. Whatever the Disciple of Mammon is doing to enhance the value of a gemstone is probably related to cutting and polishing it to change how it catches the light. You could argue a gemstone's value as a Spell Component is related to how it acts as a lens or prism for magic, which could work similarly as it would for light.