Merchant Class

I have wanted to add a merchant class to my game for a while. DH Boggs described a merchant class in Dragons at Dawn but the rules were different enough to be incompatible. I created my own based on what I imagine would be the same basic idea but, compatible with the rules that wound up being published.

Merchant Class

Prime requisite: Charisma

Save and fight as: Cleric

Hd 1d6

	Hit dice	Persuade	Experience
Peddler	1d6	25%	0
Salesman	2d6	30%	1,501
Smuggler	3d6	35%	3,001
Speculator	4d6	40%	6,001
Entrepeneur	5d6	45%	12,001
Trader	6d6	50%	25,000
Distributor	7d6	55%	50,000
Merchant	8d6	65%	100,000
Tycoon	9d6	70%	200,000

Restrictions: Merchants must be of neutral alignment. Merchants can wear any armor but have not spent the time to train how to fight properly with armor and are at -3 to hit when wearing anything heavier than chainmail. They are at -1 to hit when wielding shields. They can use any weapon.

Appraise: Merchants can assess the value of any item they are familiar with. E.g. Once they have seen an opal and found out how much it is worth they can appraise all opals. The dungeon master is free to establish what the categories are and how broad. If the dungeon master wants to treat elven chairs of the Pang Theocracy as categorically different than dwarven chairs of the Late Sleetwind Guild Era as categorically different, deal with it.

When Merchants become Entrepeneurs, they are able to learn the read magic spell if someone will teach it to them. They can only cast the spell directly from a spell book and it takes 2 hours.

Persuade and Reputation: Peddlers start with a base chance of 25% to sell any item for 20% more than it is worth to anyone who can afford it. This increases by 5% per level (you can read the chart). For every point the merchant’s charisma is above the potential buyer’s intelligence add 2%. If the buyer’s intelligence is higher than the merchant’s charisma subtract 2% for each point of difference.

Merchants can try to make more modest offers. If a merchant only seeks 10% profit they double their chances and if they go for a more audacious 40% profit they half their chances. Merchants may make multiple offers.

Merchants can even sell goods for a profit to people that clearly do not need the goods. If a merchant does so however, it can lead to a negative reputation in the community. Subtract 1% from persuasion chance for every unconscionable deal the merchant has made in a town. E.g. Werbin Blerbman decides to make some quick cash he buys a barrel of wine from the Salty Nymph and takes it across the street and sells it to the owner of the Vestigial Toe for a 20% markup. The owner of the Vestigial toe did not need to buy wine when he has a perfectly good wine cellar of his own and he certainly didn’t need to pay an extra 20% for it. Werbin Blerbman will now have -1% on all future persuade rolls in the town of Caladan.

Merchants get 1xp per gp of profit regardless of whether they got the item they are selling from adventuring or not.

Stronghold: I haven’t figured this out yet. I am also working on some complicated rules for holding auctions.

NPC Class: The Plague Doctor

There was an NPC in my campaign called the Plague Doctor. He had his own special NPC character class. Here it is:

The Plague Doctor sort of knows what he’s doing. He might be able to keep someone alive if they have enough hit points to waste on dangerous treatments. Honestly, The Plague Doctor isn’t that concerned about keeping people. He likes making money and experimenting on people.

Basic Stuff:

So it’s not surprising that the Plague Doctor can’t be any of the good alignments. He’s selfish. The Plague doctor uses the same saves and experience table as a magic user. He gets 1d4 hit points per level just like a magic user. He starts with spells just like a magic user. He’s not very good at magic though. In fact his prime requisite is charisma.

Abilities:

The Plague Doctor cannot caste spells. The Plague Doctor can only create scrolls using the same rules as magic users. When the Plague Doctor reads a scroll he always lights incense. This has no effect on the spell but the Plague Doctor doesn’t really know what he’s doing so he won’t read a scroll without the incense. Your Plague Doctor might have some other quirk for reading scrolls, but there is always a quirk.

The Plague Doctors primary skill is bleeding patients. At level 1 the Plague Doctor can attempt to cure disease by bleeding. The Plague Doctor cuts the victim for 1d4 damage. The chance for him to cure a disease is:

The Damage Dealt * 5%

The Plague doctor can make as many cuts as he deems necessary before rolling to cure someone but only gets one roll.

At Level 3 the Plague Doctor gets the ability to alleviate (not remove curses) through bleeding. The Plague Doctor makes a cut dealing 1d6 damage and halts the disease for as many days as hit points lost. Making additional incisions will not increase the length that the curse is alleviated.

At Level 5 the Plague Doctor gets the ability to perform blood transfusions. The Plague Doctor finds a donor and slowly drains their blood dealing 1d6 damage to their constitution. The donor’s constitution recovers by one per day. The Plague Doctor can lower the damage dealt by his blood lettings by 1d6 points if he performs a blood transfusion.

Cursed victims can become addicted to blood transfusions. Every time a curse victim gets a blood transfusion they must save vs. spells. If they fail they will require a blood transfusion every day or lose 1d4 constitution points. This loss is permanent.

At level 7 the Plague Doctor gets the ability to develop plagues. The Plague Doctor can create a Plague that he is immune to that will cause a Plague with a mortality rate of:

5 * Plague Doctor’s Level

The Plague will affect:

d100 * Plague Doctors Level

The Plague Doctor’s most important ability is Inveigle. Inveigle allows the Plague Doctor to worm his way into patronage relationships. Any time A Plague Doctor treats a patient and his charisma + damage dealt by his procedure is higher than the patient’s wisdom + Patient’s level, he Inveigles the patient to support him gaining 100 gold * Plague Doctor’s level per month. In exchange the Plague Doctor provides useless draughts and tinctures.

How Does a Plague Work?

First you roll to see how many people are affected by the plague. Then you roll to see how long the plague lasts. A plague lasts 2d4 days. At the end of the 2d4 days you roll against the mortality rate of the plague (d100). If you roll over the mortality rate the plague is over. If you roll under the mortality rate the plague has spread and you roll again to see how many people are affected. The length of the plague stays the same.  Either way the amount of people die at the end of the life cycle of the plague as determined by the mortality rate.

Example:

The Plague Doctor wants to start a plague because he wants to charge people money to cure the disease. He is level 8; that means his plague has a mortality rate of 40%. The dungeon master rolls d100 to see how many people are affected and gets 67. Sixty-seven people come down with the plague (The Plague Doctor poisoned the well or something).

Then the dungeon master rolls 2d4 to see how long the plagues life cycle is and gets a 5. The plague does kills or goes away in 5 days. At the end of 5 days the plague kills 40% of 67 people or 27 people.

Then the dungeon master rolls against the mortality rate and gets a 23. OH NO!!!!!!! Practice good hygiene people. The plague spreads this time to 34 people. After five days 14 of those people die and we check to see if the plague has spread; this time the dungeon master rolls a 73 and the plague fizzles out. WASH YOUR HANDS EVERYBODY!

How Does The Plague Doctor get Experience?

The Plague Doctor gets experience for every point of damage and every point of constitution loss he causes:

Points * level of victim / Level of Plague Doctor

He also gets experience for every patron he obtains:

100xp * level of patron

After Reading All This the Spellcasting Ability Seems kind of Out of Place, are There any New Spells that are Something the Plague Doctor Would Use?

Level 2: Blood Talisman

This spell transforms a victim’s blood into a talisman that will allow the Plague Doctor to communicate with him. Any one holding the Talisman within 10’ of the person whose blood the talisman was made of can communicate telepathically with the Plague Doctor

Level 2: Soma

This spell will put people who the Plague Doctor has taken blood from to sleep. It will affect all donors within a 15’ radius that is placed up to 20’ away from the Plague Doctor. No saving throw. People affected by this spell will not wake up during bleedings or while ‘donating’ blood.

The Night Dorf Von Sedge's Stronghold Fell

The party wakes up in a jail cell with no equipment adventure. What's going on?

9th Level Fighting Man Dorf Von Sedge finished his stronghold in the town of Witherhelm relatively recently. Since then the peasants have been unhappy. He is eccentric and cruel. Things got worse for the peasants when Von Sedge took ill. He hasn't been seen in months and his doctor has taken over the administration of the Von Sedge's demesne.

One night the peasants revolt.

The party wake up in a dark cell; anyone with infravision is wearing a blind fold. They are groggy and have the impression that some sound awoke them. They are lying on filthy hay. If they look at their arms they are covered in cuts, some old and scarred, some fresh. They have memories of passing in and out of consciousness. 

The cell door is unlocked. They key is in the door. Here is the Map:

I spelled rack wrong (I jutst learned "wrack" is an alternative spelling for the verb only). The map for the top of the keep is on this page too. 

The Stirge Pit

Its a pit filled with  stirges, the plague doctor has a mask that can control the stirges. There is a lid. You can close it.

The Torture Room

That's the room with leech well. the room also has sharp knives that look like they would leave the type wounds that the pcs have up and down their arms (listed as daggers on the map). My players did not fill buckets with leeches and throw them at enemies; I was  disappointed.

The Guard Room

So obviously someone freed the PCs and killed the guard. When the party get here they can start to hear battle sounds. 

The Ground Floor

Everyone on this floor is pretty fighting the peasant uprising and it is easy for the party to sneak around

The Skeleton Archers

... are all shooting at roving bands of armed peasants. They will ignore the party unless attacked.

The Spy on the Wandering Monster Chart

This is the spy that freed the party. She is having a hard time escaping in the chaos. She may be willing to help the party kill either Von Sedge or the Plague Doctor.

Domesday Book and Records

Anyone that take the time to read these books will see that the peasants are oppressed. Anyone magic user that really studies them will notice that a lot of money was spent on black magic and alchemical supplies.

The Semicircular Room at the Bottom of the Map

This is the throne room. It is two stories with a balcony around the top. The Plague Doctor is here with four elite guards. Lucky sneaky parties can kill them from the balcony. If the Plague Doctor is threatened directly he will command the stirges to attack. If the Stirge pit was not sealed, swarms will appear in 1d4 rounds and attack peasants and PCs.

Plague Doctor LV 5

AC 7

HP 16

Mask of control Stirges

Dagger of Bleeding (save vs spell or bleed 1hp each round)

150gp

His hood can pull down to cover his face 

Bird Seed

Empty black bag

key to the lab

Guards LV 2 Fighting Men

AC 4 Chain and Shield

HP 10, 11, 6, 7

Swords

1 Javelin each

The Third Floor

I messed up making this map. I used tracing paper so it would have the same dimensions as the second floor and it made it hard to read.

Bed Baron

This is where Dorf Von Sedge is. He is bed ridden and hooked up to a brass IV poll that supplies him with blood stolen from the PCs. If the IV is disconnected he will die. He has a lot of hit points but can't really fight back.

Lab

So, there is a basilisk in this room. It is one of those rooster Lizard hybrid basilisks. The idea is that the Plague doctor pulls his hood down and uses the bird seed to lure the basilisk into the bag so he can lock it in a cage when he enters the room. My players never entered the lab. 

There is also a blood transfusion spell in the Plague Doctor's spell book that is used to keep people undergoing energy drain alive. I never wrote it out exactly.

The Note about the Tapestry

Hunting w/no shirt on - Dorf Von Sedge takes style cues from Putin.

The Top Floor

There is a wraith magically confined to a room on the top floor. Somehow he is bonded to Von Sedge, giving him the power to create skeletons and other things that were never really worked out. The wraith might bargain for his freedom or he might try to turn pcs into wraiths that are not magically trapped in the room. I still haven't decided if the powers that confine him to the room work on just him or on all undead. During play, he sucked the life out of a brave peasant . The rest of the party escaped.

The Uprising

I created several groups of peasants. During the adventure they broke into the castle and started fighting guards. There were also berserk peasants that would attack anyone. The party never found out what was behind those berserkers. The peasants were armed with items on the angry village chart i made:

Rioters HD 1d8

AC 9

dmg 1d6

Group 1:

hp    weapon

1. 8    club
2. 1    club
3. 2    torch + molotov cocktail
4. 8    torch
5. 3    hook
6. 2    knife
7. 6    pitchfork
8. 4    oar
9. 4    scythe
10. 3    butter churn

There was also a roaming group of zombies and some guards. In order to escape the players also had to find way to avoid the archers shooting from the stronghold. In the end they just ran for it and one of them was killed trying to escape.