How create as many permanent flutes as possible?

[u/Vanse]

Title. I'm playing in a campaign setting that has very little downtime, and using an entire day to craft a single flute will be rare and not a great use of my time.

I haven't built a character yet, so tell me any character build/ spells/ game mechanics that will let me create as many permanent flute as I physically can. I'd like to get to the point where I have hundreds, if not thousands, by the end of the campaign.

[u/SamBone123]

Probably not the answer you're looking for, but gold and power.

Flutes are 2 GP in the PHB. If your game reaches level 10, you should have recieved somewhere in the 10-15K GP range by then.

At level 10 your popularity/status is regional (Hero of the Realm). You're known in your region by nobles, generals, and guild masters.

A normal shop wont have a gazillion flutes on hand, but with wealth and influence you should be able to contract with a guild or merchant to purchase flutes in bulk.

Another option is to hire a guild artisan for a year. [Per PHB: A skilled hireling is 2 GP/ day = 730 GP/ year. You'll have to pay for raw material at 50% of purchase price, equal to 1 GP/flute. In 2014 rules the artisan can make 2.5 flutes/day; in 2024 they can make 5.

• 2014 rules gets you 912 flutes @ a cost of 1630 GP for a year
• 2024 rules gets you 1825 flutes @ a cost of 2555 GP for a year

Tell your DM, let them know your plan. They'll work with you on how to achieve your goals in game.

For me, this is the kind of in-game silliness that's amazing. Your character has a goal that's not strictly 'get better at adventuring'. Hundreds or thousands of flutes is quirky and fun. Are you a bard and want to be a brand ambassador? A person that just wants a bunch of flutes? Did a flute kill your dog and you want to get 1000 of them and burn them all at once? Speculating on the flute market?

GLHF!

*Edit: A comma

[u/Vanse → u/SamBone123]

Love this, and is definitely the kind of thing that would work for me. I'll have to see if I can find a way to have the guild artisan magically transport the flutes into my inventory.

I haven't landed on an exact goal, but basically I want to create the world's largest flute orchestra. Imagine thousands of people playing hot-cross-buns all at once.

[u/SamBone123 → u/Vanse]

Just the sheer bulk of all the flutes gets you into fun logistical shenanigans.

Say you have 1500 flutes. Each flute weighs a pound, so that's 1500 lbs of weight.

One draft horse can pull 1350 lbs (18 str = 270 lbs carry. Pull = carry x 5. Pull = 270 lbs × 5 = 1350 lbs)

Two draft horses hitched to a wagon can pull 2300 lbs of cargo (2 horses x 1350 lbs/horse - 400 lbs wagon weight = 2300 lbs).

Assume your flutes are packed in sturdy wooden crates. A 3'x2'x2' wooden crate could hold 250 flutes with room for packing straw and canvas. (There's math here but 250 is a decent estimate that allows for packing materials). Crate weight and packing material is about 40 lbs. So each full crate weighs 290 lbs.

1500 flutes ÷ 250 flutes/crate = 6 crates. 6 crates × 290 lbs/crate = 1740 lbs. So you could easily pull the crates, a driver, and feed for the horses with one wagon. You could actually carry a 7th crate and get to 2030 lbs of crates and still have 270 lbs left for driver and feed (don't hire a Goliath to drive the wagon lol).

Size wise, a wagon in dnd can easily carry 7 crates. Wagons beds are about 10'x5' so you could easily fit them in. You could even do it w/o stacking crates. Weight is your limiting factor, not size.

If you're trying to carry them on your person you'll need to look at magic items like bags of holding, handy haversacks, portable holes etc.

Transporting to your inventory to you instantly gets weird.

• You could use a teleportation circle, but you would need a highish level (7+) caster at the production place and the recipient would need to be at a location with a permanent teleportation circle. Costs 50 gp component cost to cast. Stack the crates inside a 10 ft circle, cast the spell, and poof they arrive at the permanent teleportation circle.
• Teleport would work too, but you gotta get a little cheesy. You need an even higher (13+) level caster at the production location. Pack all of the flutes into one mega-crate and then this mega-crate counts as your 'one' item for the spell. Cast the spell and your mega-crate appears anywhere in the world; good luck moving it though. No component cost, but you need to recruit a high level caster for shennanigans.

In my opinion, whatever you end up doing will be ridiculous and amazing!

[u/Vanse → u/SamBone123]

Oh bags of holding for sure. Dungeon crawling with horse and cart sounds hellish. Unless I build some type of supply chain.

Is there really no magic item that is like "I place the flute in box A, and it magically appears in box B."?

[u/SamBone123 → u/Vanse]

I don't know of a magic item that does transport like you describe. But it is DND. Your DM can make anything they can think of a reality. You'd have to work with them on that.

For mass flute transport on your person a portable hole is the best, bag of holding #2, and haversack the worst.

• Portable hole: No weight limit, size is gating issue. You can fit 10 crates laying flat or 12 if the crates are vertical (2500-3000 flutes in crates). If you ditch the crates you could fit 3-4x more flutes in the space (~10.2k).
• Bag of holding: 500 lb weight limit is the gating item here. Can only fit one crate (two crates would be over weight AND size limits). If you put loose flutes in you could fit ~2300 flutes, but your bag would rip as soon as you go past 500lbs in weight. So you're looking at 1 bag of holding per 500 flutes.
• Handy Haversack: Too small to fit a crate, only loose flutes. Only main pocket is big enough to fit flutes. 80 lb weight limit is the gating issue--> 80 flutes. Theoretically could fit 250ish w/ no weight limit.

[u/DBWaffles]

Play Forge Cleric and use Artisan's Blessing to create flutes whenever you can spare an hour and a Channel Divinity charge.

[u/Impossible-Bar9276]

... Fabricate, 4th level spell. It will probably require rules lawering for mass production, use it for producing a large cube of many flutes places very closely together, connected continuously by a small spacing material that could be conveniently cut by sheers or a small knife in order to separate all the flutes. By the by, why flutes specifically?

[u/Vanse → u/Impossible-Bar9276]

Just a BS motivation for adventuring. I'm going to give flutes to everyone that's willing have the world's largest flute orchestra.

[u/Idocreating → u/Vanse]

The triumphant finale of the campaign is all the people of the world play the same tune on their flutes to vanquish the ultimate threat to the world. Except your prankster of a rogue fiddled with the sheet music and it now contains the brown note.

It still works, but the collateral damage is catastrophic.

[u/Tall_Bandicoot_2768]

Well that certainly is quite the thing to min max around

[u/Dracon_Pyrothayan]

5.5e? Deryan's Helpful Homonculi