Which Crafting Profession to Get Rich On?

[unseenmage]

Assuming one is an aspiring Alchemist/Artificer/Constructmancer with expensive tastes and big dreams which kind of craft check based, brick and mortar shop should one open?

Also assume that either adventuring opportunities are exceedingly limited or a risk-averse character.
And we'll set this little experiment up in a settlement no larger than a large town or very small city.

The plan is to be an alchemist/artificer, but it occurs that those professions might not be the most welcome in many a Faerunian/Golarion town (though both would be more than welcome in an Eberronian one).

Denied adventuring wages, would my mighty player character be better off lumberjacking or muck raking than trying to profit off of alchemy/artifice?

[Florian]

Using the Downtime rules, you do surprisingly well with farming and investing in caravans.

[prototype00]

Poison.

According to the Poison Crafting Rules in Complete Scoundrel, crafters of poison make it the quickest (progress calculated in GP not SP per week) with the most profit (1/6 the price in raw materials not 1/3 if they are readily available).

The legality is questionable but if you make something nonlethal like Sleep-Smoke, I'm sure even the good churches will not have much trouble with you.

Bonus: Sleep Smoke is cheap and cheerful and has the same DC as sleep cast by a genius (15 to not fall unconscious). Use it when you go adventuring at low levels.

[Nodsiu]

I read basket weaver is a good

[tiercel]

Races of Stone has rules for crafting written works: poems, songs, reference books, etc. The upshot is that your raw materials cost is a flat 2 gp/week but the value you create goes as a normal Craft check, which means you have a tidy little profit margin for an activity that doesn't require any particular risk (legal or mortal), magic, or XP expenditure.

[Matrota]

I believe playwrights and composers make the best money going by what I know of the books, but seeing the comment about poisons up above, I'm not quite sure that's the case.

[prototype00]

I believe playwrights and composers make the best money going by what I know of the books, but seeing the comment about poisons up above, I'm not quite sure that's the case.

Lets do the math. Playwright Gnome Shakespeare and Poisoner Half Elf Vetinari. Both have a +10 bonus to their skill, and will take 10 so that they get a total bonus of 20.

Gnome Shakespeare will write an Epic for the ages! (DC 20) He will choose a 100gp value piece.

Week 1. Spends 2gp to summon his muse via absinthe.

(Check) 20 * (DC) 20 = 400sp = 40gp (he's made progress but his landlord is ready to evict him)

Week 2. Spends 2gp. His wife and children abandon him for wasting her dowry.

(Check 20 * (DC) 20 = 400sp = 40gp, total 80gp (IF ONLY THE PHILLISTINES WOULD UNDERSTAND HIS GENIUS!)

Week 3. Spends 2gp. His Publisher is just about to cut him off his top shelf fantasy-cocaine, but a breakthrough!

(Check 20 * (DC) 20 = 400sp = 40gp, total 120gp (Sweet, sweet succour of drugged oblivion!)

Total profit minus outlay (assuming I'm generous and let him keep the 20gp extra, technically he shouldn't by RAW since he chose a 100gp work, but look at the poor guy) = 114gp. Total Time: 3 weeks of work.


Half Elf Vetinari will make some Sleep Smoke. (DC 15) Sleep Smoke costs 25gp per dose.

Week 1. He sets out to make Sleep Smoke and will pay for supplies as he goes. He whistles a jaunty tune while he works.

(Check) 20 * (DC) 15 = 300gp. He's made 12 doses of Sleep Smoke and spent 50gp on supplies. If he's a poor PC he sells items for half price. He sells the sleep smoke for 150gp. Minus his supplies he makes 100gp.

He gives 1gp to the poor wreck of a gnome that he finds sleeping in an opium haze in the gutter, clutching what looks to be a priceless manuscript.

Total Profit minus outlay: 99gp. Time taken: 1 week.

prototype00

Edit: Craft (Poison) is actually in Complete Adventurer, my bad.

[unseenmage]

Lets do the math. Playwright Gnome Shakespeare and Poisoner Half Elf Vetinari. Both have a +10 bonus to their skill, and will take 10 so that they get a total bonus of 20.

Gnome Shakespeare will write an Epic for the ages! (DC 20) He will choose a 100gp value piece.

Week 1. Spends 2gp to summon his muse via absinthe.

(Check) 20 * (DC) 20 = 400sp = 40gp (he's made progress but his landlord is ready to evict him)

Week 2. Spends 2gp. His wife and children abandon him for wasting her dowry.

(Check 20 * (DC) 20 = 400sp = 40gp, total 80gp (IF ONLY THE PHILLISTINES WOULD UNDERSTAND HIS GENIUS!)

Week 3. Spends 2gp. His Publisher is just about to cut him off his top shelf fantasy-cocaine, but a breakthrough!

(Check 20 * (DC) 20 = 400sp = 40gp, total 120gp (Sweet, sweet succour of drugged oblivion!)

Total profit minus outlay (assuming I'm generous and let him keep the 20gp extra, technically he shouldn't by RAW since he chose a 100gp work, but look at the poor guy) = 114gp. Total Time: 3 weeks of work.


Half Elf Vetinari will make some Sleep Smoke. (DC 15) Sleep Smoke costs 25gp per dose.

Week 1. He sets out to make Sleep Smoke and will pay for supplies as he goes. He whistles a jaunty tune while he works.

(Check) 20 * (DC) 15 = 300gp. He's made 12 doses of Sleep Smoke and spent 50gp on supplies. If he's a poor PC he sells items for half price. He sells the sleep smoke for 150gp. Minus his supplies he makes 100gp.

He gives 1gp to the poor wreck of a gnome that he finds sleeping in an opium haze in the gutter, clutching what looks to be a priceless manuscript.

Total Profit minus outlay: 99gp. Time taken: 1 week.

prototype00

Edit: Craft (Poison) is actually in Complete Adventurer, my bad.

This is definitely one of my new favorite posts.

Any chance you could.compare poisoncrafting to the creation and sale of the Blessed Bandages magic item? Or do magic items just win on orofit margin by default for not involving the mundane item crafting system?

[prototype00]

This is definitely one of my new favorite posts.

Any chance you could.compare poisoncrafting to the creation and sale of the Blessed Bandages magic item? Or do magic items just win on orofit margin by default for not involving the mundane item crafting system?

You make 1000gp worth of whatever when crating magic items per day.

Your costs are 500gp of that + 40xp, no matter what, per day. (According to general rules about spellcasting, where you get NPCs to cast xp costing spells, 1xp = 5gp) So your total costs are 700gp.

Per day, you make a profit of 300gp when crafting. (As long as your pool of xp holds out). Since you sell items for 1/2 of that, you make 150gp/day when crafting magic items.

prototype00

[unseenmage]

You make 1000gp worth of whatever when crating magic items per day.

Your costs are 500gp of that + 40xp, no matter what, per day. (According to general rules about spellcasting, where you get NPCs to cast xp costing spells, 1xp = 5gp) So your total costs are 700gp.

Per day, you make a profit of 300gp when crafting. (As long as your pool of xp holds out). Since you sell items for 1/2 of that, you make 150gp/day when crafting magic items.

prototype00
Is what I figured. Thank you for the confirmation.


Another thought occurs, are mundane crafters ever actually limited by settlement gp limits or does that not factor in until minionmancy recreates factory floor type outputs?

My gut tells me a single mundane crafter is always going to be too slow to worry about it.

[prototype00]

Is what I figured. Thank you for the confirmation.


Another thought occurs, are mundane crafters ever actually limited by settlement gp limits or does that not factor in until minionmancy recreates factory floor type outputs?

My gut tells me a single mundane crafter is always going to be too slow to worry about it.

Never fast enough, gp limits are in the 1000s, as long as you have a market (not necessarily a given) for your wares, you can keep hawking your poisons.

Note: Craft (Poison) actually nets you something useful for play. Craft (Plays and Poems) gets you bugger-all for adventuring and is only good for downtime moneymaking.

[Âmesang]

Book of Vile Darkness, p.45, lets you manufacture poisons with Craft (alchemy) with a –4 check penalty, so you could get twice your value with it (especially when throwing drugs into the mix).

[unseenmage]

Huh, well guess that's the verdict then. As in life so it is in D&D, drugs are the cheatcodes to the financial system.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Magic items (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/creatingMagicItems.htm) are definitely the way to go if quick money is the main concern. You create more value per day than a regular master crafter per week. If not poisons or potions then staffs, rods, rings, wands, scrolls or any of that stuff. Shame about the XP cost, although you can probably more than get that back by using the item.

[tiercel]

Races of Stone has rules for crafting written works: poems, songs, reference books, etc. The upshot is that your raw materials cost is a flat 2 gp/week but the value you create goes as a normal Craft check, which means you have a tidy little profit margin for an activity that doesn't require any particular risk (legal or mortal), magic, or XP expenditure.

Written works won't make you the most money, but under the constraints I've emphasized above, they outperform other crafts. Even "sleep bombs" may be a highly controlled substance (much less the presence of someone who openly has Craft(Poisonmaking) ranks may be something local law frowns upon, YMMV... if, as the OP specifies, the crafter is risk-averse, living in a community that is fine with open sales of even grey-market goods may already involve more risk than he might like).

Also, while humorous example is humorous, Mr. Shakespeare isn't going to starve. Using DMG upkeep guidelines, he could keep himself at a Good lifestyle with profit left over (or probably keep his whole family at Common, which is only "Common" for adventurers, given that it's "living in a hotel and eating out all the time", depending on how "Common" scales for a family) -- never mind that actually owning a home and cooking meals pretty much has to be a lot cheaper than paying "adventuring upkeep."

If we just want raw money, though, sure.. openly selling poison does better, openly selling even low-level spellcasting does a lot better, selling magic items is better, and economy-breaking magic breaks economies....

[Gildedragon]

Poison is fantastic; but people have said that

If you're an arcane spellcaster then written things aren't half bad; write penny dreadfuls, copy them with amanuensis, sell them all

If you're a divine spellcaster: gemcutting is great. Buy gems costing 1/3 of the material component cost of the spells, sell the spells to rich folks at full casting costs.