Game decisions are limited, the strategy is clear. Generally, things within a game don't suddenly change in a way that totally rearranges the entire economy.
Out in the real world, we face changing rules, different definitions of success, and most people trying to give advice don't know what the people they're talking to are facing.
In D&D 5e, you can get infinite money while living a life of luxury from an Uncommon item, Alchemy Jug, by making vials of acid.
Even just a few hundred gold in D&D 5e is probably hundreds of thousands of dollars. Your average D&D party are multi-millionaires.
As long as things go right, you can make more money from acid vials than you can from anything else in DnD. It's insane. The only difficulty is getting the jug.
Unfortunately, uncommon doesn't actually refer to how frequently it shows up in game or even in the area. The Dungeon Masters Guide (pg 135) says:
Rarity provides a rough measure of an item's power relative to other magic items. Each rarity corresponds to character level, as shown in the Magic Item Rarity table.
So uncommon doesn't mean that they're going to be around a lot compared to very rare items, it's talking about it's relative power level to other items and to your character. That also depends really heavily on the DM and how frequently he gives out magical items.
Also, the price of an Alchemy Jug is fucking insane. Originally it was set at 12,000g. In 5e they removed the associated price (which is fucking infuriating) so it's left up to the DMs. However, the Sane Magical Prices guide prices it at 6000g. So you're either finding one randomly or paying a stupid amount of money for one.
If you can get one though.... the rest lines up beyond your wildest dreams. If you had an Alchemy Jug, you can make 8ozs of Acid per day which is enough to fill 2 vials. A vial of acid is also priced at 25g. I doubt a merchant is going to give you the full 25 but 15g per vial so he makes a profit too? 30g x 365 days = 10950g per year. In the PHB and DMG it sets how much money you'd make per year based off of your social level. None of them make profit, weirdly. They all only make enough to break even. The highest is aristocratic. They only make 3600g per year and it takes 3600g to pay for all the trimmings of an aristocratic life.
Life of luxury is putting it mild. You could buy the fucking kingdom.
This is why I frequently played Dwemersmith. I'm still a Cleric/Wizard, but I can make some truly broken magical gear by 20th level and straight up Artifacts by 30th.
10,000 gold a year is enough to support ~14 people at a comfortable standard of living, it's not exactly buy a kingdom levels of money.
Don't even need to go that far if you're a wizard or cleric. It's not totally infinite but selling your spell slots for the day is a thing in almost every world I've played in, and those fuckers are expensive! 10gp per spell per spell level seems to be the going rate.
You don't have to guess the value of gold pieces. It stated clearly in 2nd and 3rd edition that coins of any type are 1/10 of an oz of the substance.
so 1 gp = $192
Never had a cracked head gasket in Faerun.
True. Just cracked skulls, ribs, tailbones and spines. However those are all fixed by a nap.
Never played a gnomish tinkerer?
My husband and I had a conversation about this once. Why do we always end up rich with multiple houses in video games, when we're broke AF in real life? Why can't we transfer some of that into the real world. Then we realized the answer. Crime. We play criminals in video games. Skyrim? I'll have 300,000 gold and 6 houses by level 40. I'll also have robbed every single house, every NPC, and shop in every hold. Damned morals keeping me from doing that in the real world.
You also don't pay for anything besides equipment. We'd all be rich pretty quickly in this scenario
How much money would you have if your Skyrim character had to pay for health insurance and find a hospital after every skirmish?
Idk, is there universal Healthcare in Tamriel? Lol but I guess I wouldn't have any money because I'd have died early on, so I'd still be better off without rent to pay :)
Even without robbing people, video games are often heavily oriented around plundering abandoned dungeons. Not a lot of those in the real world. Heck, they don't even make sense in game. If there's dungeons full of gold, surely they'd be plundered to death by now? A couple of draegr aren't gonna keep people away from life changing wealth.
For games with no combat, the economy is usually just hyper exaggerated. Like Stardew Valley. You can spend an in-game month or two farming by hand with no automation and you'll make enough money to double the size of your house.
fuck, i wish i could just go to the woods and wrestle some goblins for their shitty weapons that i can then sell at the supermarket for 5gp a pop
my financial decisions in games are already shit, you can imagine what my bank account looks like
If I could go around selling random junk like burned books and toasters to every vendor in town, I would be doing a LOT better.
That's me optimizing my characters in Genshin Impact using damage calculators.
Too relevant. I've been collecting EVERYTHING, including cracked buckets. Everything extra gets thrown in a backpack or pouch. If i run out of carry capacity, I toss the backpack or pouch into camp. When we find a merch end I have like 5 backpacks, all with like 300-500lbs of shit in it, and dump them in their inventory to trade for fabric dyes and alchemical ingredients.
I do feel kinda bad going back to the merchant later and seeing all that useless shit in his inventory for sale. Then I sell him more stuff and the bad feeling is gone as I forget he exists.
I had that bad feeling myself, recently. "This merchant is in an extremely dangerous place," I thought. "And here I am, overloading them with 39 scimitars and the equivalent contents of half a library and some dude's entire ribcage just so I can take a scroll off them. What happens if and when they have to run? They'll never make it. They'd have to ditch all of it just to have a chance."
So I just started stealing. It's for them. I'm out here saving lives, and not even needing your thanks. Just saying it would be nice.
Do you pickpocket the merchants?
In games you are petty-bourgeois and own your labor products.
Life Pro Tip: file for bankruptcy