In The Life of an Artificer

[Just to Browse]

So I'm rolling up a level 1 artificer for a group of mine, and I'm trying to maximize my wealth (for making items) while simultaneously keeping up with roleplaying. My idea is for the character to use his craft skills (weapon, armor, household implements) to work as a smith for a decade or so, and that would give me a stupidly large accumulation of wealth that I could use to fund my Item Familiar feat and all my scrolls.

Of course, that's basically pure munchkinry, so in order to make myself seem less like a rules-abuser and more like a roleplayer, I'm trying to spend some of that wealth (but not a substantial amount, I need to craft early on!) on things that a rather well-to-do peasant would have.

Right now, the character has about 3700gp after spending money on good meals every day (I might have calculated that wrong). I'm electing to spend ~2000gp on a "magic item" that doesn't do anything but looks cool and lets me qualify for Item Familiar, and then I also looked into getting a house (1000gp). So that leaves me with about 700 gold, maybe a third of which I'm going to keep.

Thus my question to you, Playground, is this: What else does a peasant artificer need and want in his life, and how much does that cost?

[Vizzerdrix]

You could hire a few servants, or a small greenhouse to grow alchemical ingredients (and build a lab for that too). Maybe a personal library or a carriage.

[Wookie-ranger]

A cart or covert wagon together with horses or mules come to mind.
add some commoner to tend to the horses.

Masterwork tools would come in handy too.

as a matter of fact you might make most of your equipment masterworked.

[Arcanist]

Right now, the character has about 3700gp after spending money on good meals every day (I might have calculated that wrong). I'm electing to spend ~2000gp on a "magic item" that doesn't do anything but looks cool and lets me qualify for Item Familiar, and then I also looked into getting a house (1000gp). So that leaves me with about 700 gold, maybe a third of which I'm going to keep.

Thus my question to you, Playground, is this: What else does a peasant artificer need and want in his life, and how much does that cost?

I recommend going to Henry Ford (assembly line method) :smallamused:

(please tell me if I'm wrong here)

Effectively you hire as many commoners as humanly possible and pay them on salary (2cp every hour so hiring 100 commoners for an hour would set you back 200gp) and have them takes ranks in Craft (the same thing as you) and use the Aid-another rules to make a super quick item using the progression by day rules.

For example, Making Arrows cost about 1gp (or in days 100cp), the raw materials for the item cost 33cp (sticks... really?). By quickening the creation time of that item you can effectively pump out 20 arrows via the assembly line method that is, a new batch of arrows every couple of rounds. On average half of the commoners will give get above 10 to succeed and grant you the +2 bonus granting you a bonus of 100 to your craft check which helps you make this process go by MUCH faster, in addition to this you can make the base DC much higher as well for an even faster production (if you are really willing to drop that much). On average you will be able to produce the equivilent of 1,500gp worth of Arrows in a single day (result of your check on average, 100 x DC of 15). that is 30,000 arrows that you can sell individually for 5cp each if you'd like. Regardless, in a single day you just triped your funds, by spending 200.33gp.

Personally, the idea of producing Masterwork Arrows intrigues me...

[RaefgarRockfist]

Have the character have a family, then you have plenty of stuff to spend money on. :smallwink:

Have the spouse have some sort of profession as well (and be damn good at it), and have your funds go to starting their dream job, and bam! You're both pulling in the money. That way, when you're out 'saving the world' the funds continue to come in, keeping the homefront nice and cozy. They could even be into the same kind of work you are, or tend your shop, etc. etc. :smallbiggrin: