[3.P] 5th lv Druid need more cash.

[Malroth]

Our DM is a real killer who barely gives any crafting time, Never gives Loot of any kind, has declared that there is never any magical gear for sale anywhere and routinely throws CR+4 encounters at the party. He has already let slip a prophecy that 4 harbringers of the apocolapse the first one being the Trassque will soon start ravaging the land and apparently we're the only ones who can stop it for some reason. We're currently about an hours ride outside a desert metropolis.
Our party makeup and resources

1 5th lv Summoning focused druid [me] with Summon elemental, Spell focus conjuration, and Sanctum spell (so i could qualify for summon elemental)
1 5HD Bear trained to flank, scout, charge, wear armour, and balance on a big ball
1 Lv 4.9 gnome Transmuter wizard with scribe scroll and craft wonderous item
2x lv 2.5 dwarven clerics of hephastus unsure of their build
1x lv 2.5 half orc zen archer monk
1x masterwork wagon containing an alchemist labratory and forge
1x normal wagon salvaged from the desert containing 20 barrels of misclaneous fruits and cheeses
1837 GP in total spendable funds
1424 GP worth of misclaneous crafting supplies
1x 45% complete suit of masterwork Mechanus Gear
1x Caster lv 1 continous Create water trap in the form of a 4'x4'x3" slab of stone
10x50 gallon barrels filled with misc fruit juices and non alcoholic bevrages
370 lbs of salted wyvern meat
1 intact preserved wyvern poison gland/stinger
1 enemy Paladin of Tyrrany ubecharger wyvern rider, bound, gagged and stuffed in a box to be turned in for whatever reward we can get.
1 suit of non magical fullplate belonging to said wyvern rider.

The DM has allowed the Gnome to make craft checks to salvage crafting supplies from misclaneous sundries like enemy weapons, He recives his check result in percent of the objects value as material.

[Arranis Thelmos]

Easy, sell the Paladin of Tyrrany.

But on a serious note, why isn't your DM giving you time for this? Crafting is an integral part to a party's economy. And more importantly, why is he dropping the Big T on you at your level? If you're the highest level character in the party, there is no possible way you can handle it.

I'd probably get a price quote on those cheeses on any rate.

[Coidzor]

Yeah, considering the usual way one acquires a wyvern rider and several hundred pounds of his wyvern mount as meat and leather and bones, that's probably one of the more easily justified times to sell an enemy into slavery, and considering he's a paladin of tyranny, it's not even outside his own ethical framework of might makes right, haha.

[Slipperychicken]

Use the Spellcasting Services (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/goodsAndServices.htm#spellcastingAndServices) rules to your advantage. Get your casters to work an honest living as a Hedge-Wizard. Seriously, it's probably more profitable than adventuring is at this rate :smalleek: There should always be market for at least a Prestidigitation for some snooty noble.

Wyvern meat should fetch a pretty good price. Get a per-pound price, sell it, then buy real/cheap rations. Same goes for your fruits, cheeses, etc.

Get that bear doing tricks for cash, if you have time for it. If you don't have time for that, use it to attract attention to your concession stand.

You're in a desert. Fill bottles with your Create Water trap (before you start selling, so no-one sees the trap), then sell them. Bottled water. You can't make this stuff up :smalltongue:

For the Paladin of Tyrrany, check in with the local slavers and government to see what they'll give you for him. Tell each one the other is offering a really good price. Highest bidder gets him.

Holy crap you have a lot of trade goods on you. 10 50 gallon barrels?! Get the per-ounce price on that, then Math-Hammer your way into having a bit of money. Mix the juice with some water, so you get a slightly-bigger overall volume.

[tyckspoon]

1x Caster lv 1 continous Create water trap in the form of a 4'x4'x3" slab of stone

Are these things common in your DM's world? Because if not.. well, you have a permanent and infinite supply of water. In a desert. If you can't find a way to turn that into money, you're just not trying. (That said.. if you can't buy magic and you aren't allowed any time to sit down and craft, there's not really a lot of point to having money. The ~3000 GP worth of goods you already have will get you pretty much any non-magical resource you could reasonably want.)

[Coidzor]

Hmm, well, I suppose there's always starting a cult or founding an oasis on a trade route or both.

Might even be a way to get that Pally to be your first convert.

[Gavinfoxx]

If you are going to fight the big T... you need mounts. Flying mounts

Luckily, you are a 5th level Druid. You can summon flying creatures to be your animal companion... and provided there is an expert animal trainer in the party, they can tame them in a way that is not actually associated with you, personally, keeping them as your animal companions.

Dire Bat (or whatever large sized level 5 pathfinder equivalent) mounts for everyone , and lots of ranged weapons = Dead Big T.

[Mithril Leaf]

What level is the Paladin of Tyranny? If he's effective level 7, you can do it in theory. Paladins of Tyranny can rebuke undead as a cleric of 3 levels lower. If you roll a 20, your check counts as +4 levels. You have to have a check of level 8 to rebuke an allip. From there, it's smooth sailing.

[Malroth]

What level is the Paladin of Tyranny? If he's effective level 7, you can do it in theory. Paladins of Tyranny can rebuke undead as a cleric of 3 levels lower. If you roll a 20, your check counts as +4 levels. You have to have a check of level 8 to rebuke an allip. From there, it's smooth sailing.
That idea's halarious enough to work assuming we can diplomacy a guy 4 levels higher than party average into helping us after we lassoed him from the sky, stole his armour and threw him in a box.

I'm guessing he's probably lv 4 or 5, i guess i could just keep sending earth elementals to fight him till he levels though.



Luckily, you are a 5th level Druid. You can summon flying creatures to be your animal companion... and provided there is an expert animal trainer in the party, they can tame them in a way that is not actually associated with you, personally, keeping them as your animal companions.

Well i've been keeping up with handle animal/ride/survival as well as knowledge (nature, history, local), Perception spellcraft and sense motive. so training mounts is something i could do. If summoning them via the animal companion rituial and immediately freeing them isn't an option
we could always pay scouts/traders for rumors of their nesting sites.



Hmm, well, I suppose there's always starting a cult or founding an oasis on a trade route or both.

Might even be a way to get that Pally to be your first convert.

The dwarves are more than half way there anyway since they've been a little bit showy with the magic use although I suspect it will be quite difficult to convince the evil dark knight who tried to kill us to be our friend. Especially when he finds out that the Gnome is making the skeleton/wings/leather of his Wyvern into an ornithopter.



Are these things common in your DM's world? Because if not.. well, you have a permanent and infinite supply of water. In a desert. If you can't find a way to turn that into money, you're just not trying. (That said.. if you can't buy magic and you aren't allowed any time to sit down and craft, there's not really a lot of point to having money. The ~3000 GP worth of goods you already have will get you pretty much any non-magical resource you could reasonably want.)

I'm assuming No they're not common since nobody owns or makes magical gear anywhere.

Also the GP we make is probably going to be spent on materials for the Gnome to use for enchantment. He pretty much always plays a item creation build so he's probably just waiting around for his next level so he can extend rope trick and start getting crafting time regardless of the plot rails.



Use the Spellcasting Services rules to your advantage. Get your casters to work an honest living as a Hedge-Wizard. Seriously, it's probably more profitable than adventuring is at this rate There should always be market for at least a Prestidigitation for some snooty noble.



spellcating services is a possibliity but due to the low low low low low magic nature of the campaign i'm not sure anybody would even know to ask for spellcasting



Wyvern meat should fetch a pretty good price. Get a per-pound price, sell it, then buy real/cheap rations. Same goes for your fruits, cheeses, etc.

Get that bear doing tricks for cash, if you have time for it. If you don't have time for that, use it to attract attention to your concession stand.

You're in a desert. Fill bottles with your Create Water trap (before you start selling, so no-one sees the trap), then sell them. Bottled water. You can't make this stuff up

For the Paladin of Tyrrany, check in with the local slavers and government to see what they'll give you for him. Tell each one the other is offering a really good price. Highest bidder gets him.

Holy crap you have a lot of trade goods on you. 10 50 gallon barrels?! Get the per-ounce price on that, then Math-Hammer your way into having a bit of money. Mix the juice with some water, so you get a slightly-bigger overall volume.

was planing that already

[MesiDoomstalker]

Ok, I see a few issues. The game is low magic. Emphasis on low. Alright, thats fine. Did the DM tell the party this before game started? So they wouldn't build around item crafting and such?

About the plot: I assume he is expecting you to gain enough levels to be a credible threat to The Big T before he unleashes it. Has the plot rails been so strict? Has he pulled crazy weird things to get you guys to move along with the plot and not sit still?

What I'm seeing is a DM who wants to tell his story, and not let the PCs mess it up. Which is a big no no. Have you voiced concerns with him?

[Slipperychicken]

spellcating services is a possibliity but due to the low low low low low magic nature of the campaign i'm not sure anybody would even know to ask for spellcasting


That just means it's time to bust your way into the market, and overcharge the hell out of people. Just watching you do magic should be a once-in-a-lifetime experience worthy of shelling out loads of gold.

Say the bear is magical (how would an ignorant peasant know the difference?), and charge a fee for playing with or petting it. For the lulz, if nothing else.

Advertise with highly-public magic tricks (with "magicians outfits", complete with top hats and wands), like making monsters appear literally out of thin air (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/summonNaturesAllyI.htm), turning things purple and grape-flavored (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/prestidigitation.htm), raining down lightning for 5min (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/callLightning.htm), and healing wounds with only a touch (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/cureLightWounds.htm), and have your Monk collect donations/tips. Later, charge people out the wazoo for admission. Or sell instant divine healing to any nobles with broken noses or whatever, for a massive fee of course :smallbiggrin:

If you can't monetize magic, you aren't trying. :smallcool:

[Malroth]

The rails have been pretty tight so far but he's been giving hints that it was the prologue or something. and I'm pretty sure he's going to open up at least a few choices once we get to this city in the desert and the prisoner is dealt with. I also suspect you're correct about him expecting us to gain enough levels along the way to become a credible threat, but the clerics and monk are going to need magic items and a lot of them to reach that kind of competence.

[Gavinfoxx]

Clerics don't need magic items. Druids don't need magic items. Wizards don't need magic items (well, beyond their spellbook). All of those classes have spells, which can take the place of magic items. The monk... they will need magic items...

Also see if you can talk to the GM about encouraging the player characters to be something like, 'one character per person, and everyone is within 1 level of each other'... the game works best when the group is closely leveled with eachc other.

[Malroth]

everybody started on the same level but then people missed sessions so they were a level behind, and then new people joined so they were a level behind the people who were a level behind.


Plus both clerics are very much the "smash and heal" low OP builds so they act more like lower str lower Bab fighters so they'll definately need help from the crafter gnome.

[Gavinfoxx]

So ask the GM about maybe bumping everyone to within a level of each other...

And why would new people join at lower level??

D&D is a game that works best when people are at least CLOSE to the same level of one another. Does the GM not know that?

[Malroth]

He threw a lv 4-6 power attack-spirited charge smite-good mounted charger on a CR 6 flying mount with a lance against 3x lv2's and 2 lv 4's and expected us to survive. We did thanks to the crazy gnome who had 2 rope tricks prepped, sacrifical air elementals and some really really lucky fort saves from me and the monk. He's a great guy but has a really poor grasp of appropiate difficulty and how much equipment is necessary for lower op buids to function.

[Gavinfoxx]

He's a great guy but has a really poor grasp of appropiate difficulty and how much equipment is necessary for lower op buids to function.

It sounds like you need to make a few example encounters, have that link to the CR system calculator (the one at d20srd), and sit down with him outside of gaming time to explain this stuff in detail...