A few money making suggestions for you though some may be more profitable later than earlier.
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1. When you kill bandits you will get scalps. KEEP ONE scalp on a character seperated from the rest of the scalps you collect. NEVER sell it.
In Beregost in the Inn at the bottom of the map, there is a flaming fist captain named Vai I believe. This toon will let you sell 3 things to her IF AN ONLY IF when you click to talk to her that you have at least ONE scalp in your inventory.
Repeat: DO NOT talk to her with no scalps in your inventory. If you do, she'll complete her quest with you and you'll never be able to access her again.
Anyway 3 things you can sell to her(If I remember the pricing accordingly):
-Scalps= 25g or 50g(dont rememember which).
-Winter Wolf Pelts= 500g
Wyvern heads= 1000g (This is the big one).
Once you get into the chapters requiring you to go into the cloak woods, you'll start to encounter the wyverns. Eventually you'll access a cave and between map zone random encounters that can repeat wyverns. Only problem with collecting their heads is that they are very heavy so make sure you move around inventories to make your strongest character have space for them OR carry lots of high str potions to drink(giant strenths of various sorts).
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2. Know your item values. Dont load your inventories with stuff that sells for 1 gold or less while dropping other items that are of higher value. Remember too that some items stack that can be more profitable(and easier to carry) in stack form than if you stick with 1 item that is less for an inventory slot if you're getting hard pressed for space.
Remember too if you collect items and run out of space in the bags for new items, look to see if you have:
-ammo that can go in ammo slots that arent being used.
-weapons of the same issue
-armors(rare but for example bracers you pick up to sell later can be worn by almost anyone in if the mage types if some character doesnt have any bracers/gloves, so it will free up a slot.
-Neck and finger slots: rings and necklaces you find you can put into empty slots to go n sell later once in town.
-Ready bar slots(potions wands scrolls) that you can fill.
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3. Have a thief with high lock picking and or pickpocketing. Every house and dungeon are gold mines for this. However you can have close to 100k by games end without ever pickpocketing just so you know.
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4. Know your characters. Dont hoard every single potion scroll armor wand or weapon if your group doesnt really use them nor pretty much will ever need to. You'd be suprised not only about how much money you can get from those items but how much more money you'll make because you'll have free space to carry more items later. (Hint: by late game you'll be even potentially not picking up +1 weapons you find due to having space needed for more valuable/needed items).
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5. Know you vendors. Prices vary to buy and worse to sell by. Your stats can also effect this so be mindful.
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6. Have a mage that learns Identify. Dont waste 100g on identifies when you can just remove your offensive spells for the level and fill with identifies, rest, cast them on the items, then remove the idents for your offensive spells then rest again(best/easiest done in inns of course.). This really can add up.
ALSO. Remember that character's lore ability and intel can enhance the chances to identify the item without the use of a scroll or spell of identify.
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7. Dont die. Seriously.. dont die. Resurrections go up in price respectively to the level of the character.. meaning hundreds of gold in the later game per res. If you're saving often and using good strategies, you shouldnt die. If you do, reload and try again or try again with a different strategy(sometimes it can be as simple as changing where folks stand).
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8. Know your ammo and your monsters. DONT waste magical sling bullets, arrows, bolts, darts etc on creatures that dont need them(ie most). Save those for later levels and harder monsters. This does 2 things: 1. It saves you money buying such ammo because you're keeping those items for later use and 2. You can use more ammo from creatures you kill that are normal that you find.
Additionally with this, try to focus on sticking with sling and arrow users. Botls and darts are harder to come by both for purchase and from monsters. Just before you head off to start major dungeons that will either be impossible to get out of once you start them or will be rather lengthy, try to fill your empty inventory slots on 90% of your toons with regular ammo(until chapter 6 on... by then fill with magical versions imo).
The reason is that they are consumed fast and you'll have open slots for carrying loot AND you wont run out. Most fights you can have one well geared "tank" you send in for melee and you can have the rest of the party ranging with ammo or spells. As they use the ammo every few fights, check their ammo slot inventories(3) and max them (20) and take the remainders to combine into full stacks with finally one small remainder stack. You'll be suprised how fast slots in your bags will open up because of this.
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9. In the very very start of the game as you encounter NPC's that offer to join your party, let them join, strip them of their gear, then remove them to make room for the NPC's that you do want to use. Sell those toons gear accordingly.
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10. Have 2 Cleric types and a mage in your party. The reason: summon skeletons, and monsters. Let them do the work for you so you dont waste ammo pots etc. Additionally if you use monster summoning spells, there chances you'll get ones that if killed drop gear.. in the starting game, that gear can of course be sold for some small money at least but also if orcs are in your monster summoning, you can also replentish norm arrows from them.
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11. Know your maps. TONS of items in dungeons and even in the main map zones have nice caches of hidden items and gear that MANY overlook. Check walk throughs for such if you feel you're missing alot. (for example there's a super easy looting you can do down in Nashkal's town across the river far weast. A very small hole in the ground at the edge of a field there is one of the better plate armor's in the game you can get(akheg plate which is also lightweight so you carry more items than if the equivalent store bought plate were used.)
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12. Know your quests. People overlook alot of quests that would otherwise reward them with good exp or good items.
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And this last one isnt really a legitimate in game money maker and I hate to tell about it for first time run through folks but one may still want to go this route:
There is an exploit that I wont detail how to do here that can be done with gems in both BG1 and a similar one in BG2.
The exploit can be done multiple times but if you pick the right gem you only need do it once and you'll have millions of gold in seconds. (as an example, a simple 10g value gem can be stack replicated to over 5k in number and sold of course for over 50k in value. Google keywords gem duplication with the game name and you'll see explanations and videos how to do it.
Anyway, I hope all that helps.
Post edited June 12, 2011 by Sanguinesun
