Any one come with simple ways to earn cash without investing enormous amounts of time into chopping wood? Mining and crafting jewelry is a good idea. But, you quickly run out of supplies. Crafting armor and enchanting is a good idea. But, that has some overhead expenditures tied to it. I'm looking to acquire Proudspire early. My Nord is two-handed warrior focusing on heavy armor, smithing, and enchanting. I've beat the game with a different toon. Now, I'm just looking for various ways to enjoy the game without having to beat most of the game to get anywhere.

I find calling characters toons devalues the immersion of the game.

Do the Dark Brotherhood quest chain immediately, and pocket all the money (20000+ gold)from it rather than using it on the upgrades. If you know what you're doing for it, it's fairly quick and then you even have the repeatable quest for easy money.

Alchemy.

Just circle around a major city, grab the ingredients, make the potions and sell them. The best place to do this is Riften imo as the Dragonflies and fish make a potion or two with each other and you always find fish near dragonflies in the water. Swimming along the coast, circling that bee farm on the island can net you a lot of ingredients with minimal exploration.

player.additem f 25000

No console access. I'm on the PS3. However, thanks for the input Dragon Slayer.


Potion Idea
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You wind up elevating your Alchemy skill --- which is really not needed. Enough potions exist in the world. I plan on taking the "Thane/Protector" role semi-serious. That essentially means dealing with local issues and having all skills gradually increase.


Dark Brotherhood
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I love the armor bonuses. However, I'm trying to be a goody two shoes.

Sorry about that. I don't play on the PC either, I'm just used to people giving me PC specific advice when I don't specify what system I play on. I figured it was a 33.3% shot at helping you out.

EDIT: Wouldn't it be neat if we had console access? It's my biggest dream.

EDIT:EDIT: I don't even want mods on the console, I just want access to console commands.

It would be nice. Then you could "start" how you want.

I just looted dungeons and sold the booty. I made the 100,000 gold achievement that way.

Just because PC's have console commands, doesn't mean everyone uses it to "start how they want".

Uldred

Do the bandit bounty quests. Get decent loot, and a bonus gold reward.

Fits in with the whole "protecting the city" role.

Most the people you killed in the Oblivion DB where not "good" people.

You can't really snoop around in Skyrim's DB quess and learn anything about your vicitims though.

Make daggers and enchant them. It's an investment, but as your enchanting skill increases the daggers and associated supplies will more than pay for themselves. Just DON'T pay for soul gems if you can help it.

Also, damage stamina and/or absorb health seem to have the highest enchantment values for weapons.

You say you want to focus on 2-handed, heavy armor, smithing and enchanting.

Is simple hunting out of the question? Grab a bow, find a plains area, kill yourself some deer, wolves, foxes, bears, etc. You could also pluck plenty of ingredients out in the wild.

The skins you can use for smithing (obviously) or just sell for cash - animals are plentiful.

Ingredients don't need to be used for potions either - sell them.

You'll likely also find yourself some random encounters, or come across a bandit camp - kill, loot, sell.

Think of it not so much as "adventuring" but rather, exploring - or sightseeing - or simply hunting.

This is starting to sound too much like World of Warcraft. "What's the best way to make money?" "What's the best gathering skill to make money?" Lol

Uldred

I find it strange that someone who has played the game through once would need to figure out how to make money. This game practically throws gold at you every step of the way if you pay attention. Go find some mines. Get ore. Make weapons and armour to sell. Get gems from dead creatures or mines. Find some silver. Smith jewellery. Sell for lots of money. It's really not hard. >.<

There is a difference between early game income and "mid to late" game income. Your speech skill is still low. The biggest boost to barter is 20% -- provided you don't join the Thieves Guild or chase after a particular daedric artifact. Making money is easy -- just not very fast. Bandit hunting is not all that lucrative at lower levels. The bounty rewarded is 100. You'd have to cleanse 20 camps to obtain 2,000. Obtaining silver and flawless gems for jewelry is better. Yes, I could craft leather bracers from animal skins. But, there again we're talking about a lot of tedious effort.

I'm not looking to run around and pick up everything not nailed down. I do loot enemies that I face and sell off their gear. But, it's a slow process.

And don't fret, I am doing a little of almost everything mentioned. It's unavoidable. I just thought someone may have found a clever way to speed things up without rapidly leveling up a skill.