Quote Originally Posted by EvilAnagram View Post
I want to be clear about something: Meta's simulacrum plan is a bad plan because it's a get-rich quick scheme. It relies on people doing what he wants them to do because he wants them to do it. "I'll just roll a good persuasion roll and it will make all my money back!" Get-rich quick schemes don't work because people don't want to be screwed over by your obvious ploy.

If you really want to make money selling potions, it takes work.

You start the game with an Herbalism Kit, and you make a Potion of Healing. Most importantly, you ask the DM, "Where does the 50 gold go?" He'll probably tell you that it goes towards getting some herbs, so you say, "What herbs?" At this point, the DM will be a little annoyed and try to avoid the question, but you need to be insistent. Ask again, saying you'd like some names, even if he pulls it out of his butt. Write down the names of every herb involved.

Later, after you make a good chunk of change, make a Potion of Greater Healing, and you ask if there are any other ingredients that weren't in the Potion of Healing. Write down any that the DM mentions.

Around level 7 or 8, you should be completing a quest that leads to a windfall of coin. While everyone else is spending theirs, you should save yours. Save up around 1,030 gold and buy a farm. A town costs 5,000 gold, so a farm should be well within that budget. You could probably get one for 500, but 1,000 at most. If it trends higher, grab another 500 gold before looking to buy. The farm will cost 5 sp a day in upkeep, with three hands, so you should account for that from now on. Plant herbs required for making a Potion of Healing, and cast Plant Growth once per year per square mile. Congratulations, you are now producing more ingredients for healing potions at a fraction of the price of all your competitors. The only material cost should be the 15 gold a month it costs to maintain your farm. You're producing a Potion of Healing every ten days, which you can sell at a discount price of 40 gold for a 35 gold profit. You're in the black by the end of the year with a more consistent customer base. Hell, you have more room to drop the price than anyone in Faerun history. Everywhere else a PoH is 50 gold, but you could sell it at 25 for a 500% profit. Those things will fly off the shelves, and your crop yield is guaranteed because of Plant Growth. You could sell to merchants and become the preferred supplier in the region, or you could sell directly to customers and let them benefit from those sweet, sweet savings.

Of course, now your friends are all gathering with you once a week for you to play Harvest Moon.

Edit: You can also sell excess herbs to your competitors if you produce more than you can utilize. Once you attain a solid cushion and have established that demand is high enough, hire another hand. Selling 6 PoHs a month is better than six, and if you're paying him 15 gold a month to make potions you're still making bank off his efforts, and he'll be making a pretty penny at a nine-to-five that gives him plenty of free time to pursue his other interests, which he's sure to have as an apprentice alchemist.

Eventually, you'll be hiring a few more alchemists at that rate and expanding your farm. You'll be casting Plant Growth every month or so, and you'll be managing the business, but you'll have freed up a lot of your time. There will have been pushback from entrenched merchants, but your strategy of vertical integration would have led you to undercut their prices and buy their stalls out from under them. Offering a variety of potions and antitoxins, you'll be able to expand your business to franchises across the Sword Coast.

Around this time, Meta's wizard will have hit level thirteen and begun the process of creating a simulacrum to make PoGHs at extortionate prices. Of course, selling at cost would still make them more expensive than the ones you sell (400 gold, and the whole farm costs you less than that a year), so no one buys his potions.
Your DM (you?) can do whatever they like, but my plan is entirely feasible RAW to the best of my knowledge. Please link any sources you have that say otherwise. You wrote a dozen paragraphs about supply and demand that aren't rules, just how you handle things. That's great for your table, hope it's fun!

But it doesn't change the fact that what I wrote is entirely rules legal and would gain you 1000+ GP per month per Simulacrum. I'm happy to show the math and cite the UA.

The actual written rules of the game are going to be more relevant than your 'verisimilitude' or whatever to every other poster on this board. Heck, chaining Simulacrums and Wishs is also pretty darn good. Doesn't mean I'd want to see it at my table, but I'm not going to pretend it doesn't exist as an exploit either.