Consumables, Gold, and the Economy

[metaquad4]

Following a thought I had on the "Binding epic items to characters" thread, I think fixing the current economy could be taken a different route. We need more consumables sold by NPCs, things that cost a good amount of gold and are enticing for their effects. I had several ideas, with regard to this:

--Potion/Scroll merchants, who sell high level (20+? Maybe even full caster level or above full caster level) scrolls and potions.
--Merchants who sell consumble items that grant effects that cannot normally be acquired (dragon breath scrolls/items, etc).
--Increasing the cost of recharging items.
--Allowing 1 time VFX changes to weapons, at a cost.
--Selling custom items, such as powerful summoning rods or scrolls that can only be used once.
--Allowing players to "recruit" henchmen for 1 reset (or even until they rest), as a cost.
--"Random item merchants", who sell items of varying types but who's enchantments are unpredictable.
--Items that grant particular feats for a limited amount of time.
--The ability to offer more to praying altars, for more reward (more gold spent could mean better buffs, the ability to choose the buff you want, a higher caster level, etc).
--Items (or even NPCs) that grant temporary boosts to fundamental parts of the character sheet. Things like Caster Level, BAB, etc (if that is possible).
--Items/NPCs that grant temporary boosts to Ability Scores (and even AC, EB, etc), and stack with enchantment bonuses. Maybe elixirs that grant alchemical bonuses?

If anyone has any other ideas for merchants/consumable items/etc that could serve as gold sinks, feel free to dump this into the thread. Temporary bonuses/items are more welcome, as they are real gold sinks (as opposed to faux gold sinks, which only absorb gold for a time before the theoretical point is hit where everyone has them. Think item merchants, etc.).

More gold sinks will serve to better the "trade only" mentality we have, especially so if players actually feel a reason to go to them. For this, they should have power (be it mechanical or RP power), perhaps even power over and beyond that of normal items (given they only last a period of time before you have to spend gold again to re-purchase them when you need to).

So, toss your ideas in! I'm interested to see what other gold sinks people would be interested to see on BG.

[Theodore01]

Master alchemist... Though the number of players WILLING to buy higher cl potions is, regrettably small. Not sure if allowing higher cl scrolls would be any more effective.

Yeah, why spend a fortune on potions, as long as the loot drop from the epic dragon usually is the same spoon as from everywhere. Better kill the hilltop chief, he may drop a mithralplate.

As long as the reward in the epic/higher areas is not notably better than in areas without much risk, why should anyone spend more coin on consumables, then he usually gains.

That and the unstable/crashing server lately is a good point not to use much consumables at all.

And i would love to have a Diablo-like item gambler