You can kill almost anything except main quest givers. Side quest givers are a hit and miss because the ones you ARE able to kill will have a fate-like essence surrounding them. That means they will revive. Some will never die and continue to revive and attack you. An example is the first city you get to in the plains where a side quest giver is collecting arm bands. Attack him and everyone else and you will see what I am talking about. Guards are also unlimited and always seem to match your level in some way. If you resist arrest it takes a very long time for them to cool down so to speak.
Shards effectively have quality levels. Instead of adding more ingredients like Alchemy and Blacksmithing, increasing one's Sagecrafting skill allows for the use of more advanced shards.
Sagecraft by the Numbers
Three quality levels:
Seven shard types:
- Fire
- Ice
- Lightning
- Magic
- Physical
- Poison
- Protection
Four gem categories:
- Weapon
- Armor
- Utility
- Epic
Skill Progression
All characters can combine Cloudy Shards into gems innately. At level 2, you can combine Lambent Shards into gems. At level 6, you can use Pristine Shards.
Reaching level 3 in Sagecrafting lets you fuse identical shards into a higher tier, much like Diablo II's Horadric Cube, or Torchlight's Transmuter.
Reaching level 8 unlocks the epic gems recipe category.
Reaching Level 10 allows a master Sagecrafter to extract gems from equipment, with no harm to either gem or armament.
Every time you increase your Sagecrafting skill you also increase the chance of finding shards in the first place.
Gem Recipes
Like Alchemy, there are set combinations to create certain effects. Unlike Alchemy, you get a preview of the results of the transmutation before performing it, so you're never sagecrafting blindly.
There are 196 different combinations (7 shard types, 2 shards per gem, 4 categories), but there is some overlap; For instance, Fire + Protection and Ice + Protection both give + Physical Damage when used as a weapon gem.
Best Answer
What is working for me is a combination of the following:
All the chests and destructible items add up ... a box killing rampage earns a slow but steady income. If you use a chakram or some area affecting magic, it's not even that slow. Don't miss the sunken treasure, look for ripples on the water to indicate their presence.
A shard sells for around 150, a gem for around 1000. It's pretty basic math to see that combining 2 shards before selling them more than triples your income from them. Suddenly Sagecraft + Mercantilism start paying off.
Don't pass up the chance to hit a small hidden area with even more treasure. Hidden treasure, doors and such will add enough to a regular walk through of an area to make it well worth it.
This game isn't cheap on the pops, and it's your personal mission to supply the Kingdoms of Amalur shopkeepers with every kind of crap imaginable.