selling loot price

[jorgelrr]

My friends and i are starting a table, and one of them asked me for a help building an artificer, he wants to go all crafty and all, and he asked me if there is a way to increase our loot selling price, instead of the 50% usual. I've got no clue, any one know how?

[flappeercraft]

I don't know of anything that does this but if there is it would probably be in the Cityscape splatbook

[xkroku]

There's a very good regional feat in Player's Guide to Faerun, on page 41 - Mercantile Background.

Every time loot you gain 75% (!) instead of the usual 50%. That's a really huge increase.
Also, once per month you can boy an item for 75% of the original price.

I suggest taking it in like every game that it's allowed in - it's a GREAT investment, and you'll be loved in your group for supplying them with that sweet sweet extra gold pieces :smallsmile:

[Deophaun]

Or he could just take one of the many feats that reduce item creation costs.

Though, if you're the DM, I strongly recommend against such get-rich-quick schemes. Unless, of course, you'd rather play Business Simulator in a Dumpster Fire of an Economics Model. The artificer should be providing items for the party and using the money saved for a bucket full of disposables (potions, scrolls, wands, etc).

[Gildedragon]

Iirc Drag Mag has a use for diplomacy for this.
I think it is DC25 for a +10%?

[Ethernil]

Our last dm ruled that we sell items for 20% value instead.

[Kaleph]

Iirc Drag Mag has a use for diplomacy for this.
I think it is DC25 for a +10%?

The official rule for haggling is in the complete adventurer (typo edited).

[Lazymancer]

My friends and i are starting a table, and one of them asked me for a help building an artificer, he wants to go all crafty and all, and he asked me if there is a way to increase our loot selling price, instead of the 50% usual. I've got no clue, any one know how?
There are several ways, but I must warn: story-telling GMing (often reliant on scripted campaigns/"adventure" paths) isn't designed to handle most of those ways. That's how many GMs tend to end up feeling like they are losing control and decide whatever is happening - shouldn't be happening, and it's GM's duty to "cleverly" stop it. Which rarely goes down as smooth as they think it would.

Therefore, the real question is not if there is an option to sell for higher price, but if GM is comfortable with a Merchant Prince (one level behind, but with the wealth that exceeds the rest of the party combined). Those are the uncharted waters of old school badwrongfun, universally hated by corporate game designers (it does not provide controlled environment, which makes over 95% of their products either useless or actively harmful).

1) Magical Artisan feat reduces XP and GP costs by 25%
2) Mercantile Background feat increases selling price to 75%

If character crafts 1,000 gp worth of magic items every day, he spends 375 gp and 30 xp, but can sell crafted magic goods for 750 gp. I.e. it takes one day to turn 30 xp into 375 gp (750 sell price - 375 raw materials).

Consequently, 1 xp can be turned into either 12.5 gp (liquid wealth) or 16.67 gp worth of self-crafted magic items (60 xp => 1,000 gp within 2 days).


3) It takes 5,000 xp to get from 5th level to 6th (and level 6 WBL is 13,000)
There isn't a single questionable tactic involved (it's not even optimized), but simply burning all this XP on craft-to-sell will net 62,500 gp.

It would take half a year of downtime (maybe more, depending on what is being crafted), but the total wealth (including the one from adventuring) is at 5.8 times more than 6th level was expected to have by the book. Wealth-wise it's 11th level character.

Alternatively, if there is crafting for personal use, it's possible to craft 88,000 gp worth of magic items (WBL of 12th level) and have 9,500 gp left from the 13,000 gp (WBL of 6th level character).

If you don't feel like diving headfirst into all of this, I recommend to take a look at DMG2 organizations. Additional examples: Caravan of Shadows/Darkspire College in PHB2, mage guilds in Waterdeep, and in Sharn.

Design some sort of Artificer's Guild, Red Wizard's enclave, or just House Cannith subdivision, with affiliation score that allows to sell at higher margin: +5% for regular shmucks, +10% for respected members, +15% for the elite (20% for the boss). I'd also recommend including 5%-10% cost reduction for raw materials. And don't forget member's fee.

This way player does not waste a feat and GM can make adjustments in-game (without feat tax there is no commitment to provide specific selling price for Artificer). Additionally, with economic angle introduced, there might be more variety among the plot hooks. "Bad guys kidnapped your kids/wife/grandma" can get stale.

[shaikujin]

The official rule for haggling is in the complete arcane.

I know Complete Adventurer has rules for this, does Complete Arcane have rules as well?

[Kaleph]

I know Complete Adventurer has rules for this, does Complete Arcane have rules as well?

No, just a typo from my side. I meant adventurer. Thank you for pointing it out, I'll edit my post.

[shaikujin]

No, just a typo from my side. I meant adventurer. Thank you for pointing it out, I'll edit my post.

No worries :)
I'm AFB, thought maybe my caster has been missing out on a better deal!

[Thurbane]

Mercantile Background is very indicative of a lot of FR material - built specifically to allow FR characters to circumvent usual rules. :smallamused: :smalltongue:


Sort of related: I've been working on a NPC Expert "Acquisitions Agent" build for an upcoming campaign. Exploiting the feats Mercantile Background, Resourceful Buyer and Wanderer's Diplomacy to buy expensive (magic) items at a reduced price, on sell them, and pocket the difference. I want him to form a symbiotic (read parasitic) relationship with the party. :smallbiggrin: