I recently started a new wizard character, and while trying to train him I realized that I did not have a reliable way to get money.
Right now there are really only a few ways to make money: mining, smithing/smelting (usually coupled with mining), leatherworking, hunting, and questing.
Since my character, a scholar, is weak and tires easily, it's unlikely he'd spend his time mining. I don't want to break character by mining all day. (And, OOC, mining is really boring.) That also eliminates smithing since he has no source of ore. Leatherwork is a possibility I guess, but since he is a new character he can't kill the riverlings. He could try to hire a mercinary to obtain them for him, but that requires money of which he has very little. Even if he could start leatherworking, it's hardly a job fit for an academic.
Hunting is a possibility, but it has its own problems. My character knows a few basic spells but can't kill anything much tougher than a diseased rat. After a single fight he usually has to rest for a while to restore his magic reserves. This makes hunting take a very long time, and since rats don't drop very good loot, the income is extremely low. The problem is that you need money to train, but you need training to make money. I can spend a few thousand tria training one or two magic ways, but by the time I rank them up I've only made 500 tria or so in loot.
Last is questing, a decent but unreliable option. Basic quests like "go get my lunch" and "buy me some paper" are good easy ways for someone with no skills to make some quick cash. These can only be done every so often though and once you do use them up you have no income for a few days. Longer quest chains are good, but IC reasons prevent me from doing many of them.
So basically my request is, can we please have a few more ways to make a living? Alchemy would be very good for wizards, maybe something for the sneaky type like pickpocketing NPCs or looting shops while they're closed. Maybe something like enchanting where an item plus a series of magical ingredients can be combined to give the item special properties (shields that resist fire, daggers that have a chance to pass through the target's armor for a critical strike, "holy" helmets that resist dark way magic). The ingredients for the strongest enchantments could be quest rewards where the character must choose only one. Maybe have Levrus or other wizards buy certain plant parts or animal parts at increased prices for potions, so that herbalism is a viable occupation. Maybe have prices of various goods vary over time between cities, so merchant characters can make a living running caravans between the cities when prices are favorable.
These are just some ideas I came up with in the last 5 minutes. I'm sure we can come up with some better ones. My point is I'd like to see the game progress to a point where the attitude isn't "Oh, you're new? Need money? Grab a pickaxe."
