RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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It depends on the nature of the wealth, Anburaid.
Let's say the party obtains an apparatus the the crab. (That's the current name for the apparatus of Kwailish, I believe.) It's a gawd-awful expensive minisub. Now, unless they're already very high level, their wealth has skyrocketed, and the WBL guidelines are 'way out of whack. But their combat power hasn't changed very much at all, even underwater.
The WBL guidelines operate under the assumptions that (a) all wealth is liquid, (b) any combat item in the DMG or Armory is available with minimum inconvenience, if the PCs have enough bags of gold, and (c) PCs will always buy the equipment that helps them in fights. Again, for purposes of generic campaigns, the designers have chosen to make these assumptions. (They didn't have to; both editions of AD&D are explicit and vehement in their rejection of the first two assumptions, and those games get along fine.) But what you really want to track is combat-enhancing equipment, not wealth. If somebody decides to buy the local tavern --or silk robes dwoemered to change color in accordance with her moods-- you don't have to count that property into her combat effectiveness.
And there are other solutions to a spiraling power curve. For example, multiply everyone's current XP total by 133% and downshift from the medium-speed XP track to the slow track. (Equivalently, award 75% of the standard experience rewards.)
GM's need to be aware of wealth, and the speed at which the players are attaining it, if for no reason other than knowing what kind of encounters they will be able to overcome through shear gold expenditure. Gold is also one of the rewards of the game. If you make too easy to accumulate then you change expectations of the game.
Agreed. GM's DO need to be aware of the party wealth. Howvever, all I was saying (and Chris agreed with me) is that it's perfectly OK to play outside the "average" range. All that matters is that everyone is having fun. People have different ideas of fun.
The "merchant" game I mentioned earlier was also a VERY low magic campaign. I can tell you that the ammount of gold in my pocket didn't mean anything to the monsters I was fighting. Our party's lack of magic weapons, however, thrilled them. Gold is just a means to an end.
Party Tactics, not gold, is THE most important factor in ballancing the CR with the party. In fact, I would rank gold a distant fifth behind 1) Party Tactics, 2) Magic items, 3) Party composition (classes), and 4) Ability scores, in terms of importance to the CR. However, it's difficult to guess what someone's future tactics will be. Sometimes my players suprise me with their inginuity. Other times, they suprise me with some... less than smart tactics. IMO, DM's should therefore focus more on magic item value than total wealth when ballancing the CR.
Regardless of that magic item value, it's OK to adjust the CR up or down to maintain the challenge.
EDIT: Ninja'ed by Chris, with a similar comment while I was typing this. He said it better, It's not the total wealth, or even the magic item value, but instead its the "combat enhancing" value of the wealth that is important.
It depends on the nature of the wealth, Anburaid.
Let's say the party obtains an apparatus the the crab. (That's the current name for the apparatus of Kwailish, I believe.) It's a gawd-awful expensive minisub. Now, unless they're already very high level, their wealth has skyrocketed, and the WBL guidelines are 'way out of whack. But their combat power hasn't changed very much at all, even underwater.
The WBL guidelines operate under the assumptions that (a) all wealth is liquid, (b) any combat item in the DMG or Armory is available with minimum inconvenience, if the PCs have enough bags of gold, and (c) PCs will always buy the equipment that helps them in fights. Again, for purposes of generic campaigns, the designers have chosen to make these assumptions. (They didn't have to; both editions of AD&D are explicit and vehement in their rejection of the first two assumptions, and those games get along fine.) But what you really want to track is combat-enhancing equipment, not wealth. If somebody decides to buy the local tavern --or silk robes dwoemered to change color in accordance with her moods-- you don't have to count that property into her combat effectiveness.
And there are other solutions to a spiraling power curve. For example, multiply everyone's current XP total by 133% and downshift from the medium-speed XP track to the slow track. (Equivalently, award 75% of the standard experience rewards.)
This is true. I have no problem with the PCs dumping wealth into taverns/castles/boats or other things that don't increase their damage output directly. BTW I love those purchases because the players are them building their characters into game setting. But there are players who upon finding that apparatus, drag it to waterdeep/magnimar/sigil/walmart and attempt to sell it so they can then dump that gold into magic weapons. That's when the GM steps in to say "its not that simple... you gotta jump through some hoops..."
I think we are both arguing the same point, with different minutia. The wealth by level table is a guideline, not a rule. Slavishly adhering to them does not necessarily making your game better, but ignoring them also has its own perils. Sudden shifts in wealth have consequences, and GMs benefit from being aware of them.
I wouldn't punish the players for wanting to get rich. I would just keep things realistic and look for ways their acid sales could become adventure hooks.
In the first place, harvesting and distilling the acid will be a difficult, perilous process, something noted by previous posters. I would also suggest that prolonged exposure to the acid's vapors might be very unhealthy. The party needs to take steps to preserve themselves from the toxic fumes.
Secondly (and also noted above), supply and demand dictates that the market for acid is limited. Selling it would require a lot of time and effort, resources that the adventurers probably won't want to spare. The market might allow them to sell 800 to 1000 gp during the first weeks, but then it will become glutted, with little demand. They will need NPCs to sell their find; even then, their agents will probably find it difficult to sell more than 200 or 300 gp per month.
For an illustration of what could go wrong, I recommend the Jack London tale "The One Thousand Dozen", about a man who tries to sell eggs during the Alaskan gold rush.
Potential hooks and complications could include:
1.) The Honorable Guild of Glaziers and Alchemysts protests that the PC's products are inferior, not meeting local statutes for purity. The PCs need to argue their case before local authorities or face confiscation of their goods.
2.) A local ruler claims all minerals and natural resources in his demesne as property of the Crown. He insists that the acidic pool's profits rightfully belong to him.
3.) A dwarvish mine needs substantial quantities of acid in order to refine their gold. The party has a potential market, but must deal with various problems getting their product there. The miners also need help dealing with local menaces and gladly turn to their new business associates for help.
4.) Local nature spirits or druids might sense the acid as something wrong or dangerous when it passes through their lands, inspiring them to cause trouble.
Who needs to distill acid? It's a big pool of acid.
What you do is get some one to take Leadership and get a group of followers; clear out the dungeon; set up some apparatus to harvest the acid from the pool; and then have the followers collect and sell the acid for you.
I use supply and demand. If acid is rare it's worth more. If a group of players harvested 60,000 flasks of acid they would flood the market. Basically it would be worthless. Those that need it would buy then no one would buy it anymore. You'd have travel from town to town selling it at every stop and maybe after few years you might get rid of it all. Or you get lucky and find a buyer for the whole lot but you won't get anywhere near the price of 60,000 flasks.
Some one may want to fill their own dungeon pit with acid.
Giant pools of acid are not naturally occurring, I don't think.
And of course you would at least get your money back if not make a profit. Flasks of acid are still worth some 30x an empty flask.
Acid flasks aren't any more dangerous than acid pools. In fact, I think they may be less deadly relatively.
So, I've got a problem on my hands, perhaps others have experienced this also.
Consider a common glass flask, 3 cp value
Consider The same flask filled with acid is 10 gp. that means one pint of acid is worth 9.97 gp.Consider a modest 10 ft. cube acid pool. that's 1000 sq feet of acid.
Now according to onlineconversion.com the pool of acid 1 000 cubic foot = 59 844.155 844 pint [US, liquid]
That means your average 10 foot pool of acid is worth 596,646 gp + 23 cp
What's to prevent greedy players from purchasing 60 thousand flasks and sell the filled flasks for 300,000 gp profit or so?
I just want place interesting environments for my party, I don't want to need to resort to complicated economics around supply and demand to keep them from getting obscenely rich.
Best I can figure is to say that large quantities of acid are typically of a less dangerous variety (something like real world hydrocloric acid) as compared to something more dangerous (like sulphiric acid) in thrown flasks. Using the lesser acid would deal 1d3 points of damage with a throw, making them not an effective weapon, hence not worth harvesting.
Note: I don't purport to be any good at chemistry, but to my mind alchemy should work on very different principals anyways.
Any thoughts on this?
Returning to the OP. I would personally discourage this sort of play for the most part, but if my players were REALLY bent on selling this pool of acid, I'd just make them make Profession or Craft checks to earn the money, following all the rules for such checks. Sure, they'll make alot of money, but it'll probably take years to sell all 60,000 flasks of acid. For instance, assuming they sell 6,000 flasks a year (roughly 16 flasks each day), it will take them 10 years to realize the profit. IMO, that might be possible for a merchant dedicated to this endeavor, which is highly unlikely for the PCs. And if they did become THAT dedicated to setting up an acid selling business, we as a group might as well consider those particular PCs retired adventurers.
I might make it a little more complicated than this depending on how much they'd want to roleplay this aspect of the game. For instance, I might allow them several profession checks each week – one for each resource they find, but they'd also have to go through the process of setting up legitimate businesses for each one. The check indicates their net profit after paying all expenses for the business, that they delegate to have run by others.
If they wanted to get fast money for it however, I'd probably just come up with a reasonable price for selling the whole amount of acid to an interested buyer, and it would be nowhere near 300,000gp... more like 1,000 - 4,000gp.
Any thoughts on this?
The acid in the pool is much weaker than that in the flask, that's why it doesn't do massive damage on total immersion. Ergo they would have to gather it, concentrate it (which will cost a lot as it will dissolve the vessels they try and concentrate it in by boiling off the water content), purify it (it contains residue from other victims) .... once they have done all of that, they have a few flasks of acid and a bill almost equal to said flasks in value.
They captured a ship? Shame about the overhaul and repairs it needs!
Just because they find things does not mean those things are worth what they were when new, or even a fraction of it.
"No, because I'm the DM, and you're being retarded." Then I just sorta glare at them.
Alternately, "No, because if you do I swear to god my character is murdering you in your sleep for being dumb." Then I just sorta glare at them.
In truth, I've never actually had this problem. There's a line between being greedy and being lame.
Incidentally, I don't mind PCs using that pool of acid to make a few flasks for that adventure, or to stock up on them between adventures. It's when they try to sell them that there's a problem. Yeah, sure, let the players have a handful of acid vials going into each romp. I don't really mind that.
Wait... how do you fill a flask with the acid from the pool? Wouldn't that require you to dip your hand into the pool? That's how you fill a flask with water from a pool, right?
"Oh, you pull your hand out and find that it's melted off".
Honestly, how would you fill a flask without putting your hand into the pool?
I don't see the problem.
Wait... how do you fill a flask with the acid from the pool? Wouldn't that require you to dip your hand into the pool? That's how you fill a flask with water from a pool, right?
"Oh, you pull your hand out and find that it's melted off".
Honestly, how would you fill a flask without putting your hand into the pool?
With everbright-treated tongs, of course.
I'm not familiar with that substance. I assume that it's acid resistant?
"Dude, it's brown acid."
I'm not familiar with that substance. I assume that it's acid resistant?
From the Realms. Items treated with it are immune to acid and corrosion. It's a +1 ability for weapons and armor alike.
Of course, depending on the type of acid, other things might work like a modified flask (hydroflouric acid, sulfuric for short term) or a stomach (hydrochloric).
You also need to realize that a huge amount of the price of that flask of acid is mark-up by the alchemist's guild and buying in small units rather than large. This goes on in the modern day as well. Consider the price of a pint of beer at a pub vs the price of buying a keg from the liquor store.
There's also the matter of finding a buyer for that much acid. Odds are, your best bet is going to be the local alchemist's guild and trading the acid for guild credit. Do the same thing for all the monster parts and whatnot you gather.
I'm not familiar with that substance. I assume that it's acid resistant?From the Realms. Items treated with it are immune to acid and corrosion. It's a +1 ability for weapons and armor alike.
Of course, depending on the type of acid, other things might work like a modified flask (hydroflouric acid, sulfuric for short term) or a stomach (hydrochloric).
Alright, but there's still the matter of the flasks having had to have been dipped fully in the acid pool... when you bring them out you're going to have to somehow clean the flasks' outsides (which are now covered in acid) off, all without getting any acid on you. I'm just saying it's not the easy "one flask a round with no risk" method many folks might assume it to be. Even assuming you know what you're doing, it's really not that efficient a way to make money if your GM plays it realistically.
The wealth-by-level system doesn't work, and breaks the instant a player decides to break it. Maybe they decide to use magic like Fabricate or they just Greyhawk some dungeon feature you didn't think they'd realize they could monetize. It doesn't really matter how they do it.
That being said, you basically have to limit "magic mart" syndrome. Don't let people write lists of magic items they "need to have." Toss in artifacts that are better than things they can buy. Basically, make people not that interested in the stuff in the DMG or splatbooks.
Then find ways to siphon off money. Open the option to buy a castle or something. Players love that crap.
Don't retcon the adventure because the players did something clever. That really ruins the fun for people.
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There's also the matter of finding a buyer for that much acid. Odds are, your best bet is going to be the local alchemist's guild and trading the acid for guild credit. Do the same thing for all the monster parts and whatnot you gather.
Timothy Leary might buy it...
Alright, but there's still the matter of the flasks having had to have been dipped fully in the acid pool... when you bring them out you're going to have to somehow clean the flasks' outsides (which are now covered in acid) off, all without getting any acid on you. I'm just saying it's not the easy "one flask a round with no risk" method many folks might assume it to be. Even assuming you know what you're doing, it's really not that efficient a way to make money if your GM plays it realistically.I'm not familiar with that substance. I assume that it's acid resistant?From the Realms. Items treated with it are immune to acid and corrosion. It's a +1 ability for weapons and armor alike.
Of course, depending on the type of acid, other things might work like a modified flask (hydroflouric acid, sulfuric for short term) or a stomach (hydrochloric).
I agree it's not efficient. One fight with a dragon that lasts, say, 12 rounds gets you all sorts of moolah, vs. this stuff which takes weeks to do. I'm just being silly.
I'd also wipe the outside with a disposable cloth or better yet use prestidigitation.
The wealth-by-level system doesn't work, and breaks the instant a player decides to break it. Maybe they decide to use magic like Fabricate or they just Greyhawk some dungeon feature you didn't think they'd realize they could monetize. It doesn't really matter how they do it.
That being said, you basically have to limit "magic mart" syndrome. Don't let people write lists of magic items they "need to have." Toss in artifacts that are better than things they can buy. Basically, make people not that interested in the stuff in the DMG or splatbooks.
Then find ways to siphon off money. Open the option to buy a castle or something. Players love that crap.
Don't retcon the adventure because the players did something clever. That really ruins the fun for people.
+1.
Really, so what if they're wealthy? They spent game time to do it, and they got cash rather than items. It's the whole 3.x mentality of being able to run over to the corner magickmart and pick up a Belt of Strength +4 that makes this dangerous - so just limit availability.
Players like feeling as if they had a good idea rather than being stuffed into a box. This may allow for them to feel like having good ideas at other times (like when faced with storyline type problems).
Having said all that, I still stand by my earlier statement that the pool isn't a platinum mine the way the OP seems to think based on the cost of collection, economies of scale, need to distill, etc, etc, I'd say it's barely a silver mine.
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Having said all that, I still stand by my earlier statement that the pool isn't a platinum mine the way the OP seems to think based on the cost of collection, economies of scale, need to distill, etc, etc, I'd say it's barely a silver mine.
Most adventurers, I think, would gleefully accept managing a silver mine in exchange for a life of sleeping in muddy holes in the ground being attacked by little green psychopaths every few days.
Really, so what if they're wealthy? They spent game time to do it, and they got cash rather than items. It's the whole 3.x mentality of being able to run over to the corner magickmart and pick up a Belt of Strength +4 that makes this dangerous - so just limit availability.
"I'll just craft instead."
Who needs to distill acid? It's a big pool of acid.
Someone who understands the difference between vinegar and glacial acetic acid might consider distallation. :)
Who needs to distill acid? It's a big pool of acid.Someone who understands the difference between vinegar and glacial acetic acid might consider distallation. :)
Exactly.
Of course, that would take some Alchemy Ranks...
Seriously, though, there are lots of things that are acid or acidic (coffee, soda, vinegar, etc.) and even different forms of the same acid (Muriatic Acid vs Hydrochloric Acid)
But when exposed to the elements (like in a pool) acid tends to dilute and sequester out into mineral salts. The salts might still be worth something, but overall, I doubt you'll find a non-magical pool of acid that does the kind of damage that a flask does.
I have worked with some pretty serious concentrated acids (the kind that will eat through to the bone if you put your hand in the barrel for 30 seconds) and I've also been splashed with that acid.
Even assuming that in real life, I'm a 3rd level Chemist with ~20 HP, the 1/2 cup of concentrated acid that splashed my leg hardly did 1 hp of damage to me. (The scars are barely visible)
In other words, a pool of acid found naturally, while it will do lots of nasty damage if you immerse yourself in it, would hardly be as powerful as an acid flask.
Good material to MAKE an acid vial, sure, but not that powerful.
The nasty stuff, like hydroflouric, will do damage too, but again, harly that much.
Well, of COURSE you only took 1 pt of damage. Splash damage, in your own words, right :PEven assuming that in real life, I'm a 3rd level Chemist with ~20 HP, the 1/2 cup of concentrated acid that splashed my leg hardly did 1 hp of damage to me. (The scars are barely visible)
I don't think it did even that. That's my point. Not even 1 HP damage with a sizable (1/2 cup) splash.
The amount of acid concentrate ( 1d6) needed to kill a 1st level commoner (6 hp) in a 1 pint flask would need to be rediculously concentrated, much more than the stuff we use for dissolving organic buildups, mineral scale, and oxide deposits.
In other words, the acids used in RPGs are more concnetrated and powerful than the industrial acids today, let alone what could be found in the wild.
Could a person die from being immersed in a pool of natural acid. Of course.
Is a pool of acid with 220 gallons (about 5' square) going to give you 1600 pints of FRPG acid...not even remotely.
The more I look at it and think about what we use in real industry, I would think it would take a gallon or two of acid to get the effects of 1 pint of FRPG acid.
And you wouild need to concentrate and distill it.
Which should solve the pool of acid = money problem.
If you have a pool nearby, is it a ready source of raw materials? Of course.
But is it an instant millionaire-maker for someone with a cartload of glass vials? Only if he's a REALLY good salesman.
My father had a workmate who vanished at work one night. They discovered him as a sodium spike on a trace from one of the sulphuric acid vats...
My father had a workmate who vanished at work one night. They discovered him as a sodium spike on a trace from one of the sulphuric acid vats...
Exactly, surface area and contact time have a lot more to do with corrosive effects than stict concentration.
When we want to clean a surface, a more dilute product for a longer time will clean better and deeper than a highly concentrated product for a short time.
Put a body in a VAT of sulfuric acid and he'll disappear as his whole body dissolves: skin first, then the organs will rupture and the acid will begin to eat away from the insides as well, doubling the surface area being dissolved...
And yes, acids will degrade into salts as well.
It'll take some time, but overnight isn't out of the question.
(And for those of you running modern games: your average hospital incinerator will consume a 250# human body in just under an hour. Reducing it to about 3-6% of its volume in ash.)
Yes, my job is fun.
Setting up a commercial venture could be a great adventure hook, analogous to how the mundane details of running a government are a campaign in Kingmaker.
It would have to be set in a large city, for there to be that large a market for vials of acid. Maybe the clockwork and arcane colleges of Absalom needs gallons and gallons of the stuff.
Of course, with a profitable business, security is going to be a serious concern. And the competition is likely cutthroat in the literal sense, and apt to employ the thieves guild run by demiliches to crush their competitors. Or the sudden wealth attracts the notice of the corrupt aristocracy, who draw the PCs into their machinations.
It's a different direction for a campaign, which everybody would have to agree might be a fun change of pace. And if nobody is really interested in doing that, then handwave and say the dangerous acid inexplicably turns to water outside of its magic pool, or is worth so much less than refined, weaponized acid that it's unprofitable.
Commerce really does tie up a massive amount of wealth. Just think of how many ships go into and out of a port like Absalom each day.
A sailing ship holds 150 tons of cargo. As trade goods go, wheat is worth 20 gp/ton, while flour is 40 gp/ton; iron is worth 200 gp/ton; tobacco or copper is worth 1,000 gp/ton; ginger or pepper is worth 4,000 gp/ton; salt or silver is worth 10,000 gp/ton; saffron or cloves are worth 30,000 gp/ton; gold is 100,000 gp/ton; and platinum is worth a million gp/ton. That says nothing about glassware, silks, &c.
A treasure ship with a cargo of gold should be worth more than a great wyrm's hoard. Piracy is far more lucrative than dragon-hunting.
A mercantile empire on the Inner Sea should be able to command staggering resources to bring their enemies down, especially if they have such pitifully small resources as a 10-foot pit of acid.
I'd subtly push the players to realise that this Acid could have other, benefitial uses. Gold-Plating solutions, after all, are slightly acidic in nature. PCs could, through trial and experiment, figure out how to dilute and which chemicals to add to turn this 'natural pool of acid' into a giant plating bath, toss in a Bag of Holding's worth of Lead Ingots and some gold-saturated solution into the diluted pool, hit it with a Lightning Bolt or three, and use Mass Mage Hands to remove the now shiny gold ingots to pull a switcheroo on a Dragon ... and a handy scroll of Greater Teleport to the other side of the world in the next round when the Dragon scratches one of the ingots and figures out the ploy.
Don't punish players for figuring out ways to get more gold. But remember there are taxes that the local authority will charge on anything they can get too. Guilds will penalise players who attempt to sell 'protected goods' without being part of the Guild in question, and might get violent about it, and perhaps even with legal backing if the local law enforcement is corrupt enough, in regards to stubborn players.
Now I don't know about you guys, but cunning players jot down notes about every interesting thing they find, be it a cavern that is a real bastard to get into due to natural terrian difficulties and has a strong concentration of Underdark Radiation that interferes with Divination spells back at level 4. Come back at level 12 and it's the perfect stash for 'Gear we can figure out uses for but haven't got the room for yet.'
Pool of Acid? Come back a few levels later with a few pouches of Dryness and sell the resulting pellets to a Ranger who specialises in hunting Trolls for a few thousand gold a piece. Just because you find it now doesn't mean you have to use it right there and then. Seal off the entrance to the cave, assuming you can and assuming your alignment will let this pass (further assuming that the cave where this pool of acid isn't some holy place where the Kobolds come to cast their dead into the 'Green Waters of Tiamat' or otherwise) so that it can't be 'stolen' or otherwise find some legal method to stake your claim to it without drawing too much attention.
Alternatively, and this might be stretching, there could be a Water Weird in the pool, in terrible agony and deathly afraid of Humanoids after her last 'patron' was so incensed at her reading of his future that the High-Level Cleric decided to turn around and use a potent curse to turn her pure waters into corrosive acid as punishment. Players could spend a level hunting down the curse-talismans the NPC Cleric left behind and with the proper applications of the right spells, Turn Undead attempts (For holy energies) and perhaps even a bit of whining/begging/etc to the Cleric himself, reverse the effect.\
Estatic Water Weird turns around, kisses all the PCs and dives back into her pool. Sopping wet, the PCs turn to each other, laugh, then swear in amazement as the water soaks right into their skins, healing them of any diseases or illnesses, curing all damage, and giving them a +1 per day to saving throw to all attack rolls, skill checks or saving bonuses for a year and a day, and the notice of a powerful Marid Genie who was subtly watching the whole affair.
Worth a hell of a lot more than a pile of Acid Flasks.
On another note, you could make the acid pools the source of the adventure: the party are hired to go into the volcanic wilderness full of hazards and critters to find acid pools and use the special equipment they have been given for that purpose to drain some acid and return with it for distillation and refinement. There are no permanent camps there because it is too dangerous and the pools change location all the time.
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Guys, guys, GUYS! We're trying too hard here. You've got to think in terms of markets, it's very doubtful there's any city (even a fantasy city) that has a market for "10,000 vials of acid". A few dozens or even scores of vials will be sold, and then the players will be stuck with a huge inventory of acid vials that nobody wants. There are just so many people in a given population who are interested in buying a vial of acid. The costs of storing the stuff will eat away tons of profit as well by the time the boxes and boxes of acid vials are all sold years and years later.
TSR went down for similar reasons...
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Stupid forums ate another post!
WARNING! (MINOR) AGE OF WORMS SPOILERS!
I used to DM for a group that really tried to strip the dungeon bare (they called it Greyhawking the dungeon). Once I identified the behavior, I did the following:
1) Read the adventures carefully and identified any dungeon trappings that could lead to us getting bogged down in dungeon-stripping for profit instead of advancing the story
2) Made changes that preserved the feel of the dungeon without creating scavenger's paradises. Adamantine doors were replaced with magically-treated iron or force fields, 500 lb tapestries were replaced with mosaics etc...
eg.
Knowing that the party would try something silly like turning into iron merchants, I substituted the iron balls for skulls. Lots of skulls. It made for a really creepy change in the adventure to have hidden devices chucking skulls at people, causing them to fight a grick while waste-deep in nothing but skulls.
3) Threw them a freaking bone. I indulged their scavenger behavior from time to time by making parts of the dungeon easily portable as part of the treasure for the adventure. Gold doorknobs, gems in ceilings laid out to look like constellations, a fountain that had holy water in it etc... They found it rewarding and it didn't break the game because I had planned for it.
Mr. Jacobs says that pools of acid, dead monsters, lairs, and traps are not designed to be harvested. Well this is probably the first thing that he has said that I have ever been irritated by. If Paizo didn't design the game to take into account of such things then they should have written a huge section in the rulebook that says so, they also shouldn't provide prices for these things. In fact my true opinion is that not building into the game that people would take advantage of these things was a huge oversight.
Well you have to consider that the acid in the pool in the basement is probably not as concentrated as the acid in a vial you would throw as a weapon. To use it you would have to concentrate it. Just because it is called 'acid' does not mean it is the same 'acid' you have in a glass vial - lots of things qualify as 'acid' and only some of them are harmful, and not all of them are harmful in small quantities.
I think this is to what he is referring about things not being designed to be harvested. Look at traps in dungeons - they were probably constructed in-situ as it were, and have been there for many, many years. They still work ... but if you pull them out then by the time you have dismantled them, found out all the bits that were rusty and broken, and had to take to bits something not designed to be taken to bits in the first place, what you have left is largely scrap metal.
Then there's a reason seal culls are done with clubs - it doesn't damage the fur, and the fur has to be as undamaged as possible to get the full price. Most dead monsters are often burned, frozen, chopped and cursed as well as clubbed to death. On top of that, what if they have friends? If you saw the head even of an acquaintance stuffed and mounted or being sold as 'spell components' (think of the muti killings of albinos in Africa) you might get angry with the person doing it, to the point of 'taking steps' as it were.
I'm not saying that the way you play is wrong, but it is based on assumptions that may well be incorrect: that all 'acid' is the same strength, that it's possible to dismantle and remove traps and devices, that they are in salvageable condition, that dead bodies are not so damaged that their hides or whatever you want to remove are worthless etc.
I certainly wouldn't stop you trying if I was DM, but you might not make as much money as you think you would, and it may come with unintended consequences.
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I gotta say I disagree with MonstermattXL's opinion in this matter. Any time someone gives "screw the PC's over" advice because they don't like a given behaviour/spell/rule, it takes away from the fun of the game and can lead to a disfuntional gaming group.
Know thy group. Deal with the problems in fun and creative ways, and keep an open OOC dialogue with your players about your expectations for the game. You'll be less frustrated as a DM and your players will have more fun.
Oh, and throw them a frickin' bone from time to time! :)
PCs want to loot everything, well and good, but it will make them a target for conmen, corrupt officials, rival adventurers and so forth.
On the other hand, given the venom from the Player who popped into this thread, they enjoy such tactics. Throw the PCs a bone and have them either employ or form a partnership with a powerful merchant-prince. This gives the PCs a valuable, friendly seller who will give them, depending upon their diplomatic/bluff/sense motive efforts, could give them a cut of the selling cost, rather the normal 1/2 price most stuff is sold for.
Might only be a few gold more, but they can safely unload all their ill-gotten loot onto the merchant safely, avoiding taxes and angry Guild representatives but opening the players up to political shenanigans as their merchant friend decides to make a play for more power and drags the PCs into conflict with other highly placed political opponents, giving the PCs a broader scope of the world to play in while at the same point offering the DM and nearly endless procession of plot-hooks to pick and choose from.