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Best (non-exploitative) way to make early/easy money in BG2?

mforwwmforww Member Posts: 78
in Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition
Yeah yeah, everyone knows the fence + potions of master thievery trick. But assuming one doesn't want to cheat, what are the best quests/monsters/locations for making money fast?

I've been playing this game for over a decade now, but I still really don't know the optimal way to get money early on, other than the generic "just do quests' thing. Anybody have a strategy for this (or knows which quests pay out the most)?

Comments

  • unavailableunavailable Member Posts: 268
    Don't know about gold value, but slums is as good a start as any. Its the easiest, and by the time it's over, you should have a couple of good wands, and a few good weapons and some heavy armor. I recommend rebuying the monster summoning wand, and use the wand of fear in conjunction with greater malison on any of the medium difficulty parties (like around the temple district, the planar prison for examples). Everything you need to see you through wherever you go next.
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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    edited December 2016
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  • NuinNuin Member Posts: 451
    edited December 2016
    Just sell everything you don't need. Potions/scrolls/magic weapons and armor... if you can manage to reign in your inner packrat/completionist, you can easily make a lot of gold just selling stuff.

    You can also get Jan early on and boost his pickpocketting manually so you won't have to resort to Master Thievery potions, and I see no reason why you can't sell stuff to some rich merchant and then steal back/sell the stuff to a fence. It's when you steal from/sell to a fence over and over again that the act becomes exploitative. If you want to play "fair", you can simply make it a point to never steal from a fence NPC.
  • qwerty123456qwerty123456 Member Posts: 67
    What do you need the money for? You can steal the eqiupment without tricks.
  • SkatanSkatan Member, Moderator Posts: 5,352
    Agree with @Nuin, selling potions and scrolls can give a lot of cash. Don't let them collect dust in your bags when they are worth hundres of gold coins each.
  • ArunsunArunsun Member Posts: 1,592
    Abi_Dalzim said:

    Gank Khan Zaraa in the tent at Trademeet. Should take about a minute to do if you don't get Flesh to Stone'd, and you'll get 7500 gold, plus gems, that shield, and the +2 scimitar.

    Also, use invisibility 10' radius to sneak through the Druid Grove map, and you won't even need to fight anybody, just get to Cernd and tell him you'll observe his battle.

    When rushing the game this must be the fastest way to get 15k gold
  • sibakruomsibakruom Member Posts: 28
    My openers in nearly every playthroughs are, in no particular order, the Thieves' Guild questline in the Docks and the encounter in the Temple District's sewers. The former involves few and easy battles and pays really well: the quest reward alone is 10000 gold and you'll get some pretty nice items for use or sale. The latter is more difficult but it's a single encounter that's going to cover all your heavy armor needs for the time being and gets you several nice magic weapons on top of that.

    These two followed by the Copper Coronet/Slavers questline will grant enough items and gold to decently set up most parties in the early parts of the game.
  • lolienlolien Member, Moderator, Translator (NDA) Posts: 3,108
    edited December 2016
    I like to gather every item from the dungeon of Irenicus and Waukeen's Promenade, sell them and give the payment of the shadow thieves to Gaelan right after his introduction. That used to give me a nice coffe break while the cut-scenes are playing. (I didn't played that part of the game since Beamdog implemented skippable cut-scenes.)

    Otherwise i use to gather gold in the temple district (Hatchetman's and Sion's bands) and in the Slums (slaver hidout), if i'm not in questing mood.
  • therdretherdre Member Posts: 79
    mforww said:

    Yeah yeah, everyone knows the fence + potions of master thievery trick. But assuming one doesn't want to cheat, what are the best quests/monsters/locations for making money fast?

    I've been playing this game for over a decade now, but I still really don't know the optimal way to get money early on, other than the generic "just do quests' thing. Anybody have a strategy for this (or knows which quests pay out the most)?

    Its not a trick, its a valid way to play the game
  • SkatanSkatan Member, Moderator Posts: 5,352
    therdre said:

    mforww said:

    Yeah yeah, everyone knows the fence + potions of master thievery trick. But assuming one doesn't want to cheat, what are the best quests/monsters/locations for making money fast?

    I've been playing this game for over a decade now, but I still really don't know the optimal way to get money early on, other than the generic "just do quests' thing. Anybody have a strategy for this (or knows which quests pay out the most)?



    Its not a trick, its a valid way to play the game
    I think it's kinda hard to argue that selling, stealing and reselling to the same vendor over and over again is a valid way to play the game and not an exploit. Ofc any vendor would recognize the items he just had in his pockets when you try to sell them to him a second time.
  • KamigoroshiKamigoroshi Member Posts: 5,870
    edited December 2016
    Skatan said:

    therdre said:

    mforww said:

    Yeah yeah, everyone knows the fence + potions of master thievery trick. But assuming one doesn't want to cheat, what are the best quests/monsters/locations for making money fast?

    I've been playing this game for over a decade now, but I still really don't know the optimal way to get money early on, other than the generic "just do quests' thing. Anybody have a strategy for this (or knows which quests pay out the most)?



    Its not a trick, its a valid way to play the game
    I think it's kinda hard to argue that selling, stealing and reselling to the same vendor over and over again is a valid way to play the game and not an exploit. Ofc any vendor would recognize the items he just had in his pockets when you try to sell them to him a second time.
    Depends after how many drinks said vendor had before the transaction. Anything goes with head roleplaying. Works like a charm in real life too, true story. :P
  • JoenSoJoenSo Member Posts: 910
    It would be a nice touch if you needed really high charisma to resell your stolen goods to the same vendor. You're just that good at persuading people that Balduran had eight identical helmets. Oh, the other seven I just sold you? You put them under the gigantic stacks of +1 arrows I also sold you. No need to look, I'm quite sure they are there.
  • SirBatinceSirBatince Member Posts: 882
    edited December 2016
    the irenicus dungeon, circus, mencar group and copper coronet can get you to 25k easily (assuming you sell everything)

    the ""random"" encounters mid-travel are also full of dosh
  • SkatanSkatan Member, Moderator Posts: 5,352
    Kamigoroshi said:


    Depends after how many drinks said vendor had before the transaction. Anything goes with head roleplaying. Works like a charm in real life too, true story. :P

    You really need to tell that story! :)
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