I know that making money in this game is not difficult, and you almost have to try to avoid ending up with well over 100K in gold by the end. But if you have the max party size, trying to gear up everyone to the max, and if you are in the mid-game (around levels 8-15), then maybe you want a little extra cash without grinding away at crafting items just for sale. Early game, you don't really need to buy much at all because you are finding items on par or better than what merchants have. Late game, you find so much high end loot that you aren't even scavenging half the items from chests and bodies.
Note, I hate using exploits...takes me out of immersion...so these tips seem reasonable in my mind for RP purposes, and reflect how it could work in RL...I think
So, here are some quick tips without fiddling with the bartering mechanic (which I find annoying). ***very minor spoilers below***
- as a general rule, don't sell your good stuff until you are desperate for gold, or have a very high attitude rating with a merchant
- early, in town, find an abandoned building with some crates and barrels these will make do for quick-sorting early game, and you won't have weigh yourself down while your tanks are still relatively low STR
- use 2 barrels: one for "junk" (things worth less than 20gp or so) and one for "value" (everything else you are going to sell)
- everything that's junk you are going to GIVE away to merchants. You lose in the immediate term, but it will very soon make big profits. Giving away 400gp (book value) of a bunch of junk items right now might boost their attitude to you by +5 or +7 or so, and it is well worth it. The idea is that you are going to be boosting their attitude towards you with the junk, dumping it off to them constantly, I suggest once per level-up. This attitude uses your reputation as a base, therefore....
- don't sell anything of any value (magic gear/weapons, paintings, gold dinnerware) until you've gained many levels (for me, until after my first excursions outside the city, around level 5 or 6)
- focus on the merchants that have the gear you usually need (the woman in the market selling magic stuff, the map salesman, the ship captain is good too)
- scale your sales as your reputation and the merchant's attitude increases...as in keep your most expensive things in the barrel until you absolutely need the money and you are getting close to book value
after several levels, you'll be able to craft or find some charisma rings/necklace to swap in to boost the merchant's attitude when you are on a sales run...for example, I usually don't sell the best paintings and gold plates until about level 10 or so, and so then I'm getting max value
- go to your "value" barrel as you increase in level and start grabbing items in a range to sell for a particular sales-run through the market/inn/docks (for example, with a merchant attitude around 50, I may be selling everything in my value barrel under 200gp, but first giving away more junk I've collected to boost it as high as possible). Next level-up, maybe the attitude + junk giveaway brings it to 60, so I'm selling anything under 300gp...and so on.
- You can spend alot of time crafting things to sell, but I don't bother. Simply, have your smither/crafter sharpen all blades on the wheel before selling, anvil every metal armour, and if you create a mobile kitchen beside the abandoned house (over the fire the guards are using at the gate) you can plop in all leather armour...all these things boost the item's value, and cost you nothing and are done pretty quickly.
- Drop those pearls on the best armours you are selling mid game, but keep them for high end armour or the value is kindof wasted
- Your biggest challenge will be merchants who run out of money...most (not all) refresh their gold with your level-up so make sure you get back home between each level up for a quick sales run
- **spoiler** the Teller of Secrets will be someone you'll be spending ALOT of money on, so keep giving her your junk items to get her attitude up, because later she'll be one of your best fence merchants to sell your good stuff.
There are ways to squeeze even more money out of the system (bartering, crafting) but I'm usually just looking for easy ways to make enough money to be comfortable in the game, and enough so that I don't have to sweat about dropping 20k on a really good belt should the opportunity suddenly arise.
Have fun! (what a great game, thanks Larian!!)
Nanny
