Added Expenses

If the DM wishes, he can add to the grief of a player-character armorer by confronting him with a lot of the hidden expenses of any such operation:

Bribery: In many places, local officials will expect a little graft in order for them to process the necessary permits efficiently and regularly. If the PC doesn't pay up, those permits take a long, long time (months) to be processed, and during that time the PC can't operate a retail armorer's shop.

Theft: Armorer's shops can be burglarized just like any other operation. Thieves are quite willing to steal some high-quality armor goods and fence them elsewhere in the city. Depending on the quality of the merchandise lying around in the shop, this can be a serious financial blow for the shop.

Unclaimed Goods: Sometimes a patron who custom-orders a piece of armor never shows up to buy it. Maybe he's been killed in the meantime; maybe he ran low on funds and decided not even to tell the armorer of his misfortune. And if the custom piece of armor was decorated or fine-tuned to that specific customer (for example, if it bears his coat of arms or unusual decoration), it could be that no one else is willing to buy it . . . except at heavily discounted prices.

Unsold Stock: Armorers don't just work up pieces of armor to order. The armorer fabricates numerous examples of the most common sorts of armor (leather and padded armor, shields) for the casual customer and as practice for the apprentices. Not all of this gets sold, and a piece that is never sold is a few gold pieces out of the shop's coffers.

All in all, it may be safer, financially, for a player-character to be a full-time adventurer and only a part-time armorer.

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