Ways to earn some extra gold?

[TheCorsairMalac]

I'm in a large group. Eight players. This means that we fight some pretty tough stuff for our level. My character is also the designated meat-shield. Problem is that I'm blowing too much gold on potions.

Do you guys have any ideas on how my character can miser some extra gold or spend a little less?

Some things that have been mentioned so far.

Just let the squishies get pounded.
Perform skill.
Profession skill.
Take everything that isn't bolted down.
Diplomacy skill for discounts.
Intimidate skill for protection rackets.
Talk to the other players for handouts/fair shares.
Theft.
Race/Class restricted items/potions.
Solo side quests.
Gambling.
Sell scrolls.
Sell spell services.

[JellyPooga]

Cajole, intimidate or persuade it out of the other characters (or if that fails, the other players). If you're the one standing in front of all the hurty stuff, then have the others pay for the maintenance. They are, after all, the ones benefiting from you taking swords, spears and fireballs to the face!

Failing that, here's some other quick-fire suggestions:

- Protection rackets (depends on alignment and opportunity)
- Thievery/Thuggery (really only works in cities)
- Work (Profession is a class skill for you, right?)
- Scavenging (you can sell anything on e-bay...uh, the black market)

[Diarmuid]

Short Answer: Stop buying potions.

Longer Answer: Figure out why you're buying potions and then figure out better ways to get what you're getting from the potions.

If you're buying potions of healing, save up for a wand of lesser vigor. The healing per gp is way higher.

If you're buying potions of buffs, see if your caster friends will provide said buffs. If not, stop using potions and see how well they like getting stomped. If you want to be more compromising, buy them a couple pearls of power. Yes, it's still a cost but it's a one time cost with long term benefit. If they dont have those spells, offer to split the scroll for them to learn them.

If still nothing, change up your fighting style to be more survival-friendly. Get heavier armor, get a shield, trip people, etc. Might mean you arent as good as keeping bad guys off the rest of the party, but thats the role they've forced you into.

[sideswipe]

buying the reduced cost magic items. there are rules for potions that only work on a race -20% cost, and i believe class -20% cost (36% reduction if you actually follow the rules and maths, 40% reduction for people who don't).
and there are a few other ways to reduce it.

.... cursed items????

those are reductions.

now for making money. you could be cheesey enough to buy a 10ft ladder, break it down into 2 10ft poles and a few sticks to sell for fire wood. makes about 2 gold i think for each one.

max your perform skill for making some gold.

take personal side quests. with that many people in the group the gm should allow you to do so.

ask the other players to donate some money for potions so you can continue taking hits from them. only protect those that give you money. if none do then take a back seat next fight and show them how important you are. they will either come around to realising you are an asset to keep them alive and thus should all chip in a small token amount (50g each a fight or whatever depending on the level) to help pay for your potions or give you more buffs, or they will all die horribly as their defensive wall says "nope none of you think that the sacrifices i make are useful and you give me no help so i'm not helping you". the hydra gets to the squishy casters and just eats them.

[Gildedragon]

Also: easy with the roids buckaroo
There's cheaper stuff in general
What sorta potions you downing?
Can you get the party casters to use Minor Schemas of the spell on you, or eternal wands?

[NoACWarrior]

If you need the self heal in battle - healing belt would save you money on potions. It also lets you heal others / stabilize others (I think).

If you have enough strength you could pull the "take everything not bolted down" route for maybe 100 GP more per dungeon. Especially versus the DM who makes a mithril/adamantine door.

You could offer your services on a daily basis during down time - like being a guard what not - for around 1 gold or your level in gold squared (for dangerous jobs with low loot).

One of the better ways to get money during down time which involves a lot more RP is gambling. Yes gambling in game can net you 1k more gold especially if the DM didn't thoughtfully cap how much that one gnome gambler has to gamble.

[SiuiS]

buying the reduced cost magic items. there are rules for potions that only work on a race -20% cost, and i believe class -20% cost (36% reduction if you actually follow the rules and maths, 40% reduction for people who don't).
and there are a few other ways to reduce it.

You can end up with a net 50% reduction on items limited by race, class and alignment and all that.


Making money requires one thing you probably don't have; downtime. Like, you could probably go curb stomp a kobold den single handed and get all their treasure (several hundred gold, surely?) with ease... If you had a week to take up odd jobs. But if you don't have time, no amount of work will actually help you.

You can take out a loan? You could set up a gambling network where rich patrons watch scrying mirrors f your exploits in dungeons and bet on whether you survive and by what margin, and you get a cut? You can ransack a dragon's hoard, stop when the dragon is at 25% health and say this was all a demonstration, would he (that is, the dragon) be interested in a contract for a security plan that covers shoring up weaknesses, retrieving stolen property and even (for an extra fee) helping the dragon fight off any other would-be adventurers who want to make a name for themselves? All it would take is a small investment of his gold...

You can also have your caster friends set up shop and every full day spent in town, they sell their services as casters at 75% the rate of spells suggested in the DMG, undercutting any other casters and guaranteeing business? At that point you basically tally up their spell slots per day for spells townsfolk would value and get X00 GP each.

[Gildedragon]

Another option is to barter (Dr 303) to reduce prices

Also a big burly fighter might make some money in town by putting a particular subset of the perform skill to use, if you know what I mean
Naturally, it is: Perform (Weapon Drill)
Impress the crowds! make 3d6gp a day!

[ExperimentAlpha]

Something I thought of (but hadn't actually tried) is getting your caster to craft Scrolls of (X) and then selling them to people who A: don't have caster access or limited access to casters, and B: Could, with a little bit of training, use a spell scroll to significantly better their way of life.

Example: Selling scrolls of Change Weather to farming villages.

[The Grue]

Something I thought of (but hadn't actually tried) is getting your caster to craft Scrolls of (X) and then selling them to people who A: don't have caster access or limited access to casters, and B: Could, with a little bit of training, use a spell scroll to significantly better their way of life.

Example: Selling scrolls of Change Weather to farming villages.

I can't imagine there are a lot of farmers who can make the DC 33 UMD check to use a scroll of Control Weather.

[ExperimentAlpha]

And that is their problem, not yours.

[NoACWarrior]

I can't imagine there are a lot of farmers who can make the DC 33 UMD check to use a scroll of Control Weather.

Which is why you make wondrous magic items instead with universal triggers - charged with a single charge

2000 gp x spell level x caster level / 2 / 50 = 20 gp x spell level x caster level.
For even more shenanigans go with the 1 / 20 years path - 0.274 cp x spell level x caster level.

Don't forget to divide by 2 for crafting.

Sure it will take you 1 day to make it regardless of price, but you'll be helping out a farmer drastically!

[TheCorsairMalac]

Cajole, intimidate or persuade it out of the other characters (or if that fails, the other players). If you're the one standing in front of all the hurty stuff, then have the others pay for the maintenance. They are, after all, the ones benefiting from you taking swords, spears and fireballs to the face!

This is probably the best option. We often joke about how the sorceress is cowering behind my guy, so they definitely understand the importance of his role.

He's also a paladin, so protection rackets et cetera aren't really an option.

[Darrin]

This one is a longshot, but ask your DM if you can get ahold of Gremma's Cauldron (5000 GP, Expedition to Undermountain). Brew your own potions. Or buy scrolls and convert them into potions at a discount.

[lonewulf]

Some of these ideas are great! The obvious response is to try Basket Weaving for fun and profit XD

[Gildedragon]

If you're resolved to crafting: Poisons and Drugs can be extremely profitable. Poisons in particular cost only 1/6 in raw materials, and are crafted in GPs not SPs, so much quicker to produce (and if time is of the essence...)

[Azraile]

Steal from the rich and give to yourself!

Using illusion spells on items before you buy them to make them look like cheaper items they have in stock.

Using illusion spells to make copper coins look gold, or a fair sized rock like something valuable.

Using stealth/invisibility to hide in a store / bank / whatever till it closes, then sneak off with as much as you can.

[aleucard]

A few things.

1; That is a horrifically overloaded party. What exactly is the makeup of it?

2; If you're not using potions exclusively as panic-buttons, then you're not using them right. There are several ways to do the same job as a potion without having to throw your cash down the rat-hole. For instance, if your UMD is good, Eternal Wand/Lesser Schema/custom magic item with charges per day is good enough for most uses (and the last one might not even need UMD). If it's something in line with a buff or healing, though, then you need to bitch-slap the party Cleric(s) for not even recognizing his job exists.

3; http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3167166 should help all your money-generating needs, or at least most of them. Failing that, UMD a Minor Creation wand for a metric @#$%-ton of whatever organic-origin items you can produce out of your local forest or something. Certain types of poison are a good example if you can offload anything you want, but something to the tune of Ironwood-ready armor could also do the trick if druids are common to see spending money in your campaign world. What crafting skills do you have?

4; If you're a Paladin, then maybe you can talk to your DM about selling spell casts and class ability uses. Try and find things that would be useful to the average random person without being the sort of thing that a Paladin would feel guilty about charging full-price for. The fact that it would get your character's name and face on the map and has opportunities to show his good character are also juicy Roleplaying opportunities.

[RustyArmor]

What our group likes to do is put aside a cut of the loot for various one shot items (Mostly potions of course). Spending your cut of the gold on such items only hurts you in long run as the rest of the party gets more impressive gear while you blow all yours on pots that have no long term investiment over just keeping you alive for one encounter. The problem with doing any "get rich quick" scheme is that it does not stop the other party members from doing it once they see you are.
But as mentioned above, healer belts is almost a sure thing. Eternal wand or some sort of healing or vigor spell is also great if someone in party can use them on you.

[Werephilosopher]

This is probably the best option. We often joke about how the sorceress is cowering behind my guy, so they definitely understand the importance of his role.

He's also a paladin, so protection rackets et cetera aren't really an option.

Ideally, spellcasters shouldn't be paying cash to the tanks in exchange for protection- they should be compensating them with buffs. Get your casters to buff you more, and you won't need to buy quite to many potions.

[Yahzi]

What our group likes to do is put aside a cut of the loot for various one shot items
You mean there are parties out there that don't pay for expendables before dividing up the loot? :smalleek:

Why even call that a party?

[John Longarrow]

Just let the squishies get pounded.
Sell scrolls.
Sell spell services.


If you are high enough level to have spell access, get an eternal wand instead of potions. Much cheaper. As mentioned, healing belt is an even better investment.
More important, what are your casters doing during/after combat? Your party should be 4th+ level, so if there is something going really bad in combat your cleric should have a close wounds available to keep you from dropping. Out of combat Lesser Vigor works wonder. If your party cleric has extend spell, that makes an incredible healing spell.