[3.5] Business Optimization

[Slipperychicken]

Exactly what the title says: How do I optimize a business to make/break WBL?

Ideally, your suggestion should be possible for a 12th level non-caster, leader-type PC (possibly with a castle at his disposal). Maxed-out leadership is an option, and so is the Landlord feat. We might even be able to get double the leadership fun with Undead Leadership (from Libris Mortis).

For simplicity's sake, let's assume that the DM is willing to let you use your venture get way above WBL, but try to avoid cheese.

PS: Happy Solstice!
this holiday sneaks up on me every time...

[Chilingsworth]

If you can get both regular and undead leadership, maybe some kind of mining operation? You could use the undead to do the (relatively) mindless work of digging around the clock. That would leave your living followers to do more complex tasks, like processing the ore, and maybe manufactuing goods from the metal(s).

P.S. And to You!

[Greenish]

Merchant Prince has minor spellcasting, but otherwise it seems to be what the doctor ordered.

[gbprime]

1. Find yourself a 7th Level Cleric
2. Go to large metropolis
3. Create or purchase lots of wooden/iron/brass/etc rods
4. Cleric casts Create Lantern Archon for 1d2 con drain.
5. Lantern Archon makes Continual Flame items for 1 hour. (600 of them)
6. Repeat 3 times.
7. End of day, cleric casts Restoration for 100gp.
8. Sell 2400 Continual Flame rods at below market price.

[Darrin]

Exactly what the title says: How do I optimize a business to make/break WBL?
[...]
For simplicity's sake, let's assume that the DM is willing to let you use your venture get way above WBL, but try to avoid cheese.

You are aware that these two goals are somewhat mutually exclusive?

1. Perform (Pantomime) or use the ladder/pole trick to get 1010 GP.
2. Buy a Chaos Flask (100 GP, Planar Handbook p. 76).
3. Find a 13th level spellcaster, pay him 910 GP to cast summon monster VII, summon a djinn.
4. With a Wisdom check DC 13, turn the Chaos Flask into a vial of Black Lotus Extract (4500 GP, DMG p. 297).
5. Direct the djinn to cast major creation (CL = 20) with Black Lotus Extract as the material component (per the djinn's description, created vegetable matter has a permanent duration). This creates 20 cubic feet of Black Lotus Extract. Assuming a vial of poison is about an ounce and 1 cubic foot = 957 fluid ounces, 20 x 957 = 19140 vials of Black Lotus Extract with a market value of 86,130,000 GP.
6. Sell off the Black Lotus Extract. Even if you can only get 50% of the market value, that's still 43,065,000 GP.

If you're squeamish about poison or your DM starts stammering about "demand curves" and "market saturation", then you may want to try something similar with saffron.

As a trade good, the PHB lists saffron with a price of 15 GP per pound. I don't have any information on how much volume a pound of saffron takes up, but with just some napkin-style calculations, 1 pound = 16 ounces = 2 cups (dry) = 1 pint (dry) = 0.019444 cubic feet. Thus, 20 cubic feet of saffron works out to be about 1028 pints, or 1028 x 15 GP = 15420 GP.

However, the Arms & Equipment Guide (p. 31) lists what I may assume is an attempt at a more historically accurate price, 65 GP per ounce. 1028 x 65 x 16 = 1,069,120 GP. As a trade good, you should be able to sell it for 100% of the market price, but even at only 50%, that's still half a million GP for only a 975 GP investment.

[tyckspoon]

If you can get both regular and undead leadership, maybe some kind of mining operation? You could use the undead to do the (relatively) mindless work of digging around the clock. That would leave your living followers to do more complex tasks, like processing the ore, and maybe manufactuing goods from the metal(s).

P.S. And to You!

Along this line, there's always the old Wall of Stone dodge; find a canyon or something somewhere. Fill it with castings of Wall of Stone. Have your labor force quarry it out and go sell it to people who need building materials. Or go into the Instant Fortress business: memorize a bunch of Wall of Stone, write some scrolls if you have to, and get a follower who can play a Lyre of Building reliably (it helps if this follower is undead, Warforged, or otherwise tireless.) Find some places where they're building castles or need some other construction done very quickly and tell them you'll do it right now, to be completed within the day, for a mere half of the construction budget. Wall of Stone the raw materials into place and have your follower do the work by playing his lyre for 8 hours (effective construction crew of 100 people laboring for the equivalent of 48 days. Almost any sane construction project should be doable in that span.)

Or you could actually try using the DMG2's business rules, but they're even sillier. Basically you want to start a business in a shack in the middle of nowhere. It helps if it's incredibly dangerous to get to- gives you low startup costs, you see. And then you invest capital into it over and over and over. Then you make your profit check to see how much money the venture returns.. which is based on how expensive the business is to run (almost free, so you have a very low base target number) and improved by how much money you've put into the business (enough.) And then you get money back based on how much you beat that very low base DC by.

[Slipperychicken]

Sweet feedback, gaise!

Rock Wall Stuff

Very nice suggestion with the rock wall; I most likely wouldn't have thought of that

DMG2 Business Stuff

Yeah, I tried to do that earlier, and ended up with a criminal organization being run out of a castle in the middle of the woods, making ~1700gp/month. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. What's the mod for making the business dangerous to get to?

insane djinn stuff

that's just... wow, I think I need to atone....

[Soren Hero]

Step 1: Wall of Iron
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit

actually step 2 is only Fabricate

[Morithias]

Rogue 5/Merchant Prince 5/Legacy Warrior 10

Given feats like Guildmaster, business savvy, landlord, and other such gems. One in the end from my calculations open shops.

Seeing you now have a -130% to cost of opening (I treat this as zero), my current grade of this build reads at opening a shop costs 375 (princes get 25% discount on 'mundane goods in places they own business plus the landlord cuts it further) to open a shop in a metropolis that brings in 4350 a month profit.

One then abuses the rule of exponents, and later buys epic items to give epic skill checks (if your dm is such a prick that he's willing to metagame that even if you have the money the guy won't sell it to you until you gain that last 1 xp just advance the build another level)

After 11 months build up, and 1 month with the item you are bringing in in pure profit a month.

1.5 quinntillion Gp profit.

Also keep in mind the books have no rules for inflation or over supply (well they do in AOE but I doubt many use that and even then it's a -50% at worse).