So, I've created a kitsune sorcerer, he can contribute to the party with a bit of blasting and some mind fuckery. But, the DM has integrated an economy into his world.
Now, I'm something of an economy nerd. I've never actually gone to college, so no formal degree, but economics has always been something of a fun subject for me, so I've built my character as the scion of a wealthy merchants house. Complete with arranged political marriage and all. Thing is, my party has no desire to play merchant, they're all happy running around murder-hobo'ing the shit out of everything. So
tl;dr: I'd like some ideas on how to be a merchant, without cutting into my party's murder hobo time.
For anyone wondering, the campaign starts at level 3, I'll be taking leadership at level 7 in order to have a merchant organization to help out. But in the interim I'm a tad lost.
Isaac Morgan
Just ask your GM if you can have a business on the side that you can check in on every so often and make some rolls for.
Carson Barnes
develop contacts among the vendors your party sells shit to
use your income from adventuring to invest in business ventures or expeditions that could lead to further adventures for your party, ex. opening a mine that has to be defended from goblins
Don't expect your DM to shower you with shekels for a few dice rolls. Often times, income in business investiture is not tremendously liquidious
Find novel ways to exploit the adventures of your party and the byproducts, ex. Hire a bard to write penny dreadfuls or songs about your escapades, thus making you more famous
Get a majordomo NPC who can help by being in charge of your parties logistics. This way, your party has to worry about ancillary things even less because you have hirelings cooking the food and tending the pack animals
Thomas Martin
I intend to earn this gold fair and square. Do you have any thoughts on how to maintain contact with stationary businesses while traveling around the wilderness for weeks at a time? (Maybe try to keep a coop of messenger pigeons, or something?)
Austin Lewis
Carrier pigeons are a good idea, just have them be ones from your house's nearest office. Best method for generating profit is to note what's available cheaply in the areas you pass through and what the local inhabitants need. Then negotiate the deals, and arrange for delivery/pickup of goods by your hirelings. Alternatively, you could always travel in a wagon loaded with typical peddlar's goods.
Gabriel Garcia
>tl;dr: I'd like some ideas on how to be a merchant, without cutting into my party's murder hobo time. Among other things, rent out your party's services.
Jacob Lee
It's a good idea. I'll have to be careful how I do it (the Not!Paladin won't like selling their services to the local slavers or necromancers, and those are perfectly legal in several area's.) but over-all I'm definitely going to have to pitch this.
The only problem with the wagon is that if we go into a dungeon (which the party has expressed interest in) we'd be leaving a wagon full of goods completely undefended in areas infested with bandits and kobolds.
Anthony Lee
Could hire caravan staff to basically keep the caravan going while you're in the dungeon doing your shit, then catch up to it afterwards.
Joseph Collins
That could work up to a point. I think I'd have to find some way to prepare a destination ahead their arrival though, in case we didn't catch up before they made it.
William Reyes
There's a few different wagons in some of the Pathfinder books, including a smuggler's one that has a Portable Hole between the floorboards, potentially with enough air being able to go in or out of the hole that you could still keep cargo alive or at least keep your produce from wilting. That won't make the wagon smaller, but makes it so you won't have to keep all the goods in it, you just take the Hole with you.
There's also one that unfolds into one of those pavillion tents that can help staff all your hirelings and help establish a base camp, maybe with some NPC guards to help keep riff-raff away until you emerge from the dungeon.
Xavier Reed
Samefagging, but there's also some crates that help preserve goods you put in them. Keep your dragon corpse from rotting and keep your ice cream from melting all at the same time! To a lesser extent, if you can corner some odd market by getting perishable goods to a location that couldn't otherwise support them, you'll probably be able to make a killing for a little investment, and then your murder hobos are having fun trying to figure out how to make sea serpent fillets for your business.
Benjamin Reyes
These actually sound amazingly convenient. Do you have any links to them? (Especially that wagon.) And overall I'd just be happy having them help me track down and kill the thing and doing the prep work myself. (Though we've got a 'professional monster hunter' in the party, so they'll definitely help with that sort of thing.)
I'm not seeing that other wagon that turned into a big tent, I'm sure it's somewhere though. I'll try to find it.
Isaiah Rogers
First, here. dandwiki.com/wiki/Dungeonomicon_(3.5e_Sourcebook) This shit will give you the rundown on how economies actually work in a dnd/fantasy setting. You might also learn some basic economics as a bonus. Run from there.
Or just hire out the party. The DM will love you since you make hooks easy, your party will love you since you facilitate murder, everyone wins.
Thanks man, this is pretty awesome stuff. I'm going to have to pitch that whole 'selling the party's services' to the party itself, so that'll have to wait awhile, but overall it's a pretty good idea for at least a decent sum of quick cash.
Also, I'm wondering if anyone knows of a magic item that would allow one to keep contact with a vast network of other people over a large distance. (Low-magic options are, of course available, but they're slow. So it never hurts to ask.)
Daniel White
Thanks for the link, I'm a bit curious about game economics and this will probably help!
I'm trying to figure the communication part out myself. Feather tokens can get a message across, but they're not super fast and they're for an individual target. You can get Sending in a wand if you have a cleric enchant it instead of an arcane user, but that's a bit exploitive, needs UMD, and it's still got a ten minute casting time. Also, it's single target but you get a response back, and nobody hears the message you send out or what you receive back, so no getting your friend killed because your magical-text went off when he's hiding.
For a network, Permanencying Telepathic Bond could work, so you could sort of make a network of minds that can communicate in real time as long as they're on the same plane of existance, but each strand of that "web" would cost its own Permanency, and that might not be the cheapest or most doable thing at low levels depending on your party.
Michael Robinson
Yeah, the cheapest effective method I could come up with was the 'mirror sight' spell enchanted into an actual mirror, and that cost roughly 64k/a unit... not terribly cost effective.
Ethan Diaz
Perhaps the GM could be talked into letting you create an unlimited use feather bird token for 10k? I mean, this doesn't seem too game-breaking, so I'd personally allow it for a price like that.
Zachary Russell
Relying on GM allowances isn't very helpful, since every GM is going to be different.
Luis Myers
What's wrong with relying on messengers like in e world? The service is cheap and people plentiful.
Ryder James
It's less finding something 'wrong' with it, and more an attempt to find a more efficient way of accomplishing that task. After all, messengers aren't going to be wandering around the wilderness, and messages can always be lost, stolen, or destroyed. (Also trying to find things to work towards with this 'merchant' schtick to make it easier and more rewarding as time goes on. Like any good capitalist.)
Luke Bell
>Kitsune sorcerer
Kill yourself, preferrably in most painful way.
Isaiah Bennett
Messengers are the most COST efficient way to send messages though. For the price of single permanencied feather token you can buy three DECADE'S worth of messenger services. They're not available in wilderness? So the system has a bit of latency, no big deal. A messenger might get lost? No problem send another one, they're cheap and plentiful.
Christian Perry
I'm a minmaxing faggot that wants my enemies to fight themselves while also being able to blow fuckers from here to the moon. Fortunately for you, you don't actually have to deal with that sort of thing.
Ryan Smith
>Fortunately for you, you don't actually have to deal with that sort of thing. I'm speaking on behalf of your DM who has to deal with your shitty weebtrash furry character.
Josiah Cooper
>Weebtrash furry character
>MFW the character is european
>MFW the furry literally has nothing to do with 'furry shit' beyond being a race better than almost any others at enchantment spells
Man user, you sure got me good.
Gabriel Myers
I know Unchained has a feather token that can be used once a day, when you reach the right level at least, though that would still just be one target at a time.
Jacob Jackson
>TFW people are so butt mad about furries they miss out on cool beast races like Minotaurs and Kitsune.
Matthew Parker
Set up Terry Pratchett Clack towers wherever you go or plan to go user.
Not only can you send your own messages but you can intercept other messages from people who pay to use your Clack Tower, imagine the intrigue you could collect, dungeon opportunities for your friends, rare items being transported etc etc, lots of opportunities and it gives the DM a tool to help keep you a little more on track.
