Hello all. My main group consists of a halfling sorcerer, human fighter, half-orc barb, and 2 elven rangers. All are level 3.

The PCs want some sort of involvement with this city and ways of making money outside of adventuring. The human got a job for a weaponsmith and currently has a +11 bonus including his mw tools. I started paying him 4sp a day as outlined in the DMG for NPC's. During one adventure his boss's wife was killed. The boss (Black Jim) no longer has the drive to continue smithing and takes the human as a business partner (pc goal: get own shop), and the half-orc as the humans apprentice. Black Jim will continue to run the day to day things in the accounting and purchasing materials aspect.

My question is how much money should be paid to the human? I guess another question should be, should the business be profitable? Maybe the more time he spends smithing the more he should make.

The party got kinda political one adventure and disposed of some corrupt politicans and is now in favor with the people in the poor district. The halfling didn't have any particular relevant skills though he also wanted a job. His offical title is now the "representive of the people in the north east section"... I was really tired and it was getting late. Since he didn't have any ranks in diplomacy I gave it him as a class skill(good idea: ya or nay). Anyways, I really don't have any idea of what his job functions should entail or how much income he should get. He does now occupy a small business office with living quarters above.

The rangers I have hired by the city. Protect the roads, scout the lands. 3 sp a day. I'm thinking as they get higher level and better status within the city to get them desk jobs and people to command, perhaps like a higher rank in the military. I'm generally unsure what to do with them at all.

All that done....

The PCs are level 3. No one has possession of a magic weapon, and only some minor magic items (dark and stormy knight adventure free for download on main site). They all have masterwork weapons and ammo(rangers). Fighters have mw armor. All have at least one cure potion and a couple hundred gold. How stingy am I being? DMG says they should have ballpark 2700 gp worth. Is that total or no one item should be worth that much.

It can get tricky with 'real' jobs and D&D. The world ecomomy, as per the DMG, is quite poor. One silver coin is a lot of money to normal people, but one is notning to an adventurer. So you run into the problem of the chracter putting in a week of work and getting 10 silver coins. Then they can buy some candles. And if you up thier pay, then they will have tons of money.

The business should be profitable and lose money. At the very least, just roll at random on how well it did on a given day. He should not just get more money because he makes more stuff. Someone has to buy it. And if he is making masterwork dodadys or such, that is beyond the cost that most folks can pay.

I think it's a bad idea to give a character a skill for free, for any reason.

He'll never get rich at a regular job. I'd say not to worry about the money he makes working at the shop - just enough to pay for a decent place to live plus a few extra GP a month. In the long run it's not going to amount to much.

The real value in running his own shop is the story potential, all the hooks that come from that. The local thieves guild starts demanding protection money. A rich and powerful nobleman rips him off. The politics of the smiths' guild leads him to learn about all sorts of corruption and intrugue going on in the city - does he seek to fight it, or profit from it? His apprentice is dabbling in dark magic, what does he do about it?

This reminds me of another thread, and I’m going to say a lot of what I said over here (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=661220).


You (the group) need to decide if this is the kind of thing you want to base your campaign on.


If you don’t plan on focusing on this business in the campaign, spending session time playing out every aspect of it, then I don’t think the character should expect to get rich off of this. You can either run off to get that dragon’s horde or you can spend all of your time and effort and make a decent living as a smith. I truly think that the profit of the business will be a profession roll of some type.

This profession roll can be modified in creative ways. Let the smith take 10 on his craft roll to provide an “aid another” bonus. If the party bard goes around advertising during his sets you might give a bonus for that. Apply circumstance modifiers for things like the local economy, etc. Let the characters get creative, but by all means enforce the time constraints involved in the various skills they use.

The number you come up with from the Profession check would likely be split between the two partners. All expenses including materials and wages for any other employees would already be figured in. It also addresses the point that Bloodtide brought up.

They don’t get any experience out of this. This is really just fluff and flavor. They should be out saving the world.

If you do plan on focusing on this business then play the hell out of it. Have every sale an encounter where each side uses diplomacy, bluff, appraise. Get him involved in a quest to reopen a lost mithril mine. There’s no real treasure there, just a bunch of mindless creatures (possibly fiendish). Are they guild members? What happens when they get big and the guild comes looking for their cut? Or are they seen as unwanted competition to other well connected guild members?

I’ve never thought about government jobs, but I don’t think the rangers are going to get rich from municipal wages. Maybe if they get into situations where they can take bribes… Or protection money. They will need something on the side to really make anything. Maybe they could sell parts of exotic creatures they meet in their scouting duties?

And finally, yes, that number from the DMG is the total. Take a look at the NPCs they’ve got listed for an idea of what they “should” have.