Quickest way to make money...possible spoiler

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat May 13, 2006 3:57 pm

[QUOTE=Hannigaholic]The only thing I will add is that I jsut did the quest to get Aerie and the Nalia quest sold a load of+1 and +2 crossbows, bolts, unneeded scrolls and the like and I already have 35,000 gold - more than enough to pay off the cowled wizards and the 15k needed to move on with the story[/QUOTE]

I hope you're not suggesting that you got 35,000 gold from the extra gear in the Nalia quest alone, because unless your installation is buggy or you've modified something, that's not possible.

Pellinore · Post by **Pellinore** » Sat May 13, 2006 5:35 pm

Thank you all for your input...I am now in the Asylum dungeon....thief got mashed by a trap near the entrance

several times

Is it even remotely possible to disarm that trap???

Anyway, I was quite amazed at how fast I made my 20,000gp. Faster than when I first started a couple years ago(never finished). Most of it was from the Slavers and looting Mae'Var's place (never did quests, just looted). Now I have Immie back and am starting to crawl out of that labrynth.

mr_sir · Post by **mr_sir** » Sat May 13, 2006 7:15 pm

[QUOTE=Pellinore]Thank you all for your input...I am now in the Asylum dungeon....thief got mashed by a trap near the entrance

several times

Is it even remotely possible to disarm that trap???[/QUOTE]

Cast a summoning spell and get it to walk through the trap. Then cast another and repeat (there is a trigger at each end of the small corridor with the crushing walls. Once both have been triggered you can then walk through safely (I've never managed to disarm it any other way). Also, as a word of caution, last time I tried (the other day) my character still died when the summons did, but when I used the spider spawning item I had rather than a spell it worked fine. Not sure if this is just a glitch with my game though.

Yeah, its pretty easy to get money quickly in BG2 (its also pretty easy to spend it quickly too though lol).

Hannigaholic · Post by **Hannigaholic** » Sun May 14, 2006 9:29 am

[QUOTE=fable]I hope you're not suggesting that you got 35,000 gold from the extra gear in the Nalia quest alone, because unless your installation is buggy or you've modified something, that's not possible.[/QUOTE]

Selling the stuff I don't need from the Irenicus dungeon, the Circus tent and Nalia's Keep

I've modified nothing, I just sold a crapload of scrolls, +1 weapons and ammo and every gem I got - plus the quest reward money of course

I'm at 55,000 gold now after doing Umar Hills and the Temple Ruins (and that's all I've done after Nalia's Keep)

It's really easy to make money and levels from a couple of quests

DaemonJ · Post by **DaemonJ** » Sun May 14, 2006 9:34 am

[QUOTE=mr_sir]Yeah, its pretty easy to get money quickly in BG2 (its also pretty easy to spend it quickly too though lol).[/QUOTE]
That is the truth!

I went into the merchant with over 46K gold and left with just 836 gold. It was worse than Walmart because I only bought *2* things.

LOL

fable · Post by **fable** » Sun May 14, 2006 9:44 am

[QUOTE=Hannigaholic]Selling the stuff I don't need from the Irenicus dungeon, the Circus tent and Nalia's Keep

I've modified nothing, I just sold a crapload of scrolls, +1 weapons and ammo and every gem I got - plus the quest reward money of course

I'm at 55,000 gold now after doing Umar Hills and the Temple Ruins (and that's all I've done after Nalia's Keep)

It's really easy to make money and levels from a couple of quests[/QUOTE]

Having played through the game 5 times, I think I can say I'm a bit aware of the gold that's available. And unless you've used some kind of cheat, mod or cheesy exploit, there's no way you could have 35,000 gold after doing the Circus and Nalia quests. It simply does not add up. It is not only impossible within the original game, it would also break the game design, which intends you to do a good deal more before you can afford to pay the thieves and jump forward a chapter.

Hannigaholic · Post by **Hannigaholic** » Sun May 14, 2006 10:27 am

well unless the latest bioware patch is actually a sneaky hiding place for a hack then you clearly don't know the game as well as you'd like to think

Frankly I don't care if you believe me or not but I'm guaranteeing you that I've not hacked the game, changed any variables in any way other than dungeon be gone to skip chez Irenicus

scrolls that can sell for 500g each are a godsend and lots of the +1 weapons from the random attacks throughout athkatla and on the road helped a lot too

I have no reason to bull****, and no worries if anybody thinks I am

fable · Post by **fable** » Sun May 14, 2006 11:14 am

No one is saying you are trying to fake us out, Hannigaholic. I'm simply writing, for the benefit of any new players (and BG2 fortunately gets some regularly), that it isn't possible without mods, cheese, cheats, or something similar. The native game does not have this in it, and it would circumvent the main goal you have in the early chapters: raising sufficient money for help from a certain group. You just mentioned that you've been using the Dungeon Be Gone mod, after saying in an earlier post that you used no mods. Possibly whatever mods you're using that affected the economy have also slipped your mind.

However it happened, you're not playing a vanilla-flavored BG2 install, with our without ToB. Either that, or you're simply in error. It happens. Of course, I could be in error, but then, so would be every other player who has posted here over the last several years about how many quests they needed to cover in order to afford to jump chapters, and which quests they included.
scrolls that can sell for 500g each are a godsend and lots of the +1 weapons from the random attacks throughout athkatla and on the road helped a lot too

What scrolls did you find in Nalia's quest, or in the Circus quest? And +1 weapons certainly won't get you 35,000 gold.

mr_sir · Post by **mr_sir** » Sun May 14, 2006 11:51 am

I've had enough from the Circus and Nalia quests before to pay off the thieves guild but at the same time this also meant purchasing no decent equipment at all and selling the very best items. If you choose to keep these better items and equip your party so they can survive reasonably well then I agree with Fable, you need to do more than just the Circus and Nalia. After I had equipped my party after those two quests I was pretty much down to zero gold again and had to do a few more quests and looting around Athkatla and beyond til I could pay them off. I guess it depends on how well you equip your party and the party size. I imagine soloing you would be able to raise the gold a lot quicker as you wouldn't need to keep so much stuff or spend so much gold on equipment. But a 6 character party would soon spend the gold on armour, spells and weapons alone.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sun May 14, 2006 11:59 am

[QUOTE=mr_sir]I've had enough from the Circus and Nalia quests before to pay off the thieves guild but at the same time this also meant purchasing no decent equipment at all and selling the very best items. If you choose to keep these better items and equip your party so they can survive reasonably well then I agree with Fable, you need to do more than just the Circus and Nalia. After I had equipped my party after those two quests I was pretty much down to zero gold again and had to do a few more quests and looting around Athkatla and beyond til I could pay them off. I guess it depends on how well you equip your party and the party size. I imagine soloing you would be able to raise the gold a lot quicker as you wouldn't need to keep so much stuff or spend so much gold on equipment. But a 6 character party would soon spend the gold on armour, spells and weapons alone.[/QUOTE]

Selling everything? As in leaving yourself none of that nice +2 sling ammunition, or the great three-headed magical mace? Whoa...well, that's a different strategy. So the two easiest of the early quests (at least, that's how I rate Nalia's, and the Circus quest is the easiest at that point, no questions asked) are used to gather money instead of boosting your party's armor and weaponry sufficiently to make the going a bit easier...? I suppose it depends, too, on what level you play the game. On the harder levels, that just might be suicidal. I can see it being done on the easier ones, maybe normal, but what would you need all that gold at that point for, anyway? Paying off the thieves (or someone else) seems to rush things in a way that gets you nothing much, early. Using the gold instead to buy items is anti-logic: you just sold all that stuff, and then you're turning around to buy other goods.

mr_sir · Post by **mr_sir** » Sun May 14, 2006 12:04 pm

I meant you have to sell everything and not buy anything to get that kind of gold. I didn't mean thats what I do lol. Personally I choose to keep most of the stuff from those quests and also buy loads of stuff with the gold (after purchasing a mage pass) then do quite a few more quests before even considering paying the thieves/bodhi.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sun May 14, 2006 12:06 pm

[QUOTE=mr_sir]I meant you have to sell everything and not buy anything to get that kind of gold. I didn't mean thats what I do lol. Personally I choose to keep most of the stuff from those quests and also buy loads of stuff with the gold (after purchasing a mage pass) then do quite a few more quests before even considering paying the thieves/bodhi.[/QUOTE]

Well, yeah. That's what I've always done, too.

So you end up with lousy weapons and armor, and a busload of gold that really doesn't seem to help you in any way. It seems...counter-productive, but maybe it's just me.

I think that's probably why it's never been mentioned as a strategy in this forum. Oh, well--always a first.

Sytze · Post by **Sytze** » Sun May 14, 2006 12:55 pm

Also, one has to keep in mind that you get 10.000gp (correct me if I'm wrong here) when you clear D'Arnise keep with Nalia in the party. That's a huge boost to the 35.000gp Hannigaholic is talking about.

Hannigaholic · Post by **Hannigaholic** » Sun May 14, 2006 1:49 pm

absolutely it is - that 10k is always welcome

and yeah, I sold most of the weapons I got, even the quest rewards (a lot were because I wasn't going to equip Minsc with a spear, or Nalia with a long bow)

I kept the flail though as Minsc's offhand (I will eventually have him dual wielding maces)

fable · Post by **fable** » Sun May 14, 2006 4:19 pm

[QUOTE=Hannigaholic]absolutely it is - that 10k is always welcome

and yeah, I sold most of the weapons I got, even the quest rewards (a lot were because I wasn't going to equip Minsc with a spear, or Nalia with a long bow)

I kept the flail though as Minsc's offhand (I will eventually have him dual wielding maces)[/QUOTE]

It just occurred to me that one way you might increase your money and still keep the flail is to sell it at the Thieves Guild after giving your thief NPC a couple of nice doses of potions of mastery thievery. Then simply steal it back. I'd consider this an exploit, unless you use it once, on one item. Then it seems to me perfectly in keeping with the environment.

Hannigaholic · Post by **Hannigaholic** » Mon May 15, 2006 7:57 am

true, I could start stealing stuff and selling it back, and I agree that if you just keep doing it then it starts to smell of exploiting and power-gaming more than just roleplaying a sneaky thief-type

Rav · Post by **Rav** » Mon May 22, 2006 5:28 am

SPOILERS coming up about treasure.

I am a "rescue imoen quickly" player with pretty much a vanilla install (Bonus merchants and the stacking of rings and armor from ease of use, oh, and BG1 style paper dolls).

After Chateau Irenicus, keeping the ring of protection, a +1 wepon or two and some mundane armour, you'll have rougly 4500 gp. This includes selling the composite longbows in the dungeon, which will net you about 600 gp if done at the right merchant.

The most important thing is to never sell at Adventure mart. They have copies of almost every item, and that makes their "demand" worse.

After the circus tent, you can have about 6000 to 6500 gp. After the slaves in the back rooms of copper coronet you will have about 12500. Again sell everything. 20 chainmails at 20 a piece equals 400 gold. Sell bows, sell swords, everything. Keep only items you are using all the time.

The harper compund will give you the rest, or even one of the bridge quests. You have done none of the class specific quests, the slaves are still in their compound, but are well over 15000. The 10k form nalia would put you at 25000, the selling of most of the loot in the keep would put you at 35000. It requires you to take evrything that's worth more than 5 gp though, which means a lot of inventory management. It requires you to not pay for any of your identifications, and generally living like a miser. You are not ill equipped though, but definitely not optimally equipped either.

Rav

Celacena · Post by **Celacena** » Mon May 22, 2006 6:41 am

who pays the best prices in all of Amn?

I would be interested to know which merchants pay the best prices.

one lesson that I learned the hard way was if you are going to sell more than one of something, have them all with one characters and sell them all by highlighting them all and then pressing 'sell' - that way there is no lowering of prices and if you are selling multiples of e.g. plate (from the Windspear Hills quest), you don't want to lower the price per suit.

for a thief, stealing stuff fits the RPG, even if sell/steal on big items is thought cheesy. it is only cheesy if there is multiple sell-backs to the same merchant. in RL, you could probably re-sell a whole load of stolen low/medium grade diamonds to a merchant without being spotted that easily - same in the game. if the merchant only has one full plate mail +1, it's not likely that he wouldn't notice you stealing and re-selling it. going betwen merchants such as Mae'var's and the Guild's fences, seems fair game.

it is also wise to get your highest CHA character to be the one making contact with the merchant - I'm not sure the exact effect on price, but I have noticed a difference sometimes. even a most unpleasant roll-up can get over 20 CHA
ring of influence 18, nymph cloak 20 and sword of roses 23 then helm of glory (?) = 24

Cwell the fine · Post by **Cwell the fine** » Mon May 22, 2006 4:26 pm

I think the Flail of ages is one of those weapons you can not sell.

if you want to sell and steal something, use wands. They will recharge this way, and sell for a ton when fully charged.

Rinse n Repeat

Rav · Post by **Rav** » Tue May 23, 2006 2:37 pm

I just did Chateau Irenicus with a Stalker. I kept the Helm of Balduran, the long Sword +1, all scrolls, the ring of protection, the anti-crushing weapons belt, and the metaspell influence amulet. I now have 7227 gp. I will edit this post later for some other totals.