Mazaron's Castle: Adventurers in Business

ADVENTURERS IN BUSINESS

Introducing the Merchant and Craftsman NPC classes

By Matthew Reynolds

I realize that there have probably been several published versions of both of these, but I was bored today and dreamed up some NPC classes. While most people that dream up NPC classes end up calling them NPC classes solely because they are too powerful to allow in a PC, I think you will agree that these NPC classes would not be attractive in the least. Of course, I suppose there is always someone out there who has wanted to be a Half-Elven Fighter-Merchant.

Merchant Class

Merchants are skilled buyers and sellers of goods. They have broad knowledge of many crafts, and a deep understanding of the values of goods. Merchants may gain XP from the profit they make selling a good they have purchased. A high Charisma is essential to a merchant for gaining positive reactions from his vendors and customers. While merchants are generalists, possessing a wide variety of skills, they have little or no combat knowledge. Only at higher levels will a merchant even bother to gain any training with a weapon, and this training will largely be an amusement to them, not serious training in self-defense. No merchant worth his salt can not afford to employ a gang of muscle-bound fighters to protect his person and goods. However, sufficient skill with a sword to look at least comfortable wearing it can be of great value in higher social circles. Fighters of all sorts generally scorn merchant bourgeois for having bought their titles and domains rather than having earned them with blood and valor.

Prime Requisite: Charisma

Minimum Stats:

Charisma: 9; Intelligence: 9; Wisdom and Dexterity must each be 7 or greater or no progression past 2nd level is possible. Half-Elves meeting the above minimums and with Int: 11, Str: 9, and Dex: 9 or better may be multi-classed Merchant-Fighters.

Alignment Restrictions: None

A Merchant may be duel classed or multi-classed Merchant-Fighters, and by extension Merchant-Mariners. Merchant-Cavalier or Merchant-Ranger is right out though, do to conflicts with the social requirements of the two classes. Merchant-Thief is possible, but not likely to be common because of the overlap in skills. Merchant-Cleric is
also possible if your patron is a patron of mercantile activity, but also fairly uncommon. Merchant-Mage is not possible, as Merchant is more or less a sub-class of Mage.

While there is an overlap in skills between the Thief and the Merchant, the Merchant I believe is a subclass of Mage or Wizard. While thief is probably closest to merchant in philosophy, and merchants and thieves make great competitors and rivals, I don't think that there is a lot of evidence that they are a sub-class of thief. They only have 2 thief skills, pick-pocket at 1/2 level and use mage scrolls at 10'th level. They have one other rouge skill, bardic legend lore at 1/2 level.
On the mage side of the argument, they have hp as a Mage, attack as a Mage, and advance in limited mage spells (one school, about equivalent to 1/3 normal level with some bonus low level spells). They also gain almost full use of mage restricted magic items at higher levels. Of course, the aren't really any more of a sub-class of mage than they are thief, but I don't like the idea of dual spell progression in the same spell list, so I'd argue harder for them being a sub-class of mage to prevent it. Merchant is to Mage to about the same degree as Bard is to Thief.

If Charisma is 16 or greater, +5% bonus to XP. If both Charisma and Intelligence are 16 or greater, +10% bonus to XP.

XP Level HD (d4) Title

0-1500 1 1 Clerk

1501-3000 2 2 Shopkeeper

3001-6000 3 3 Retailer

6001-13000 4 4 Merchant

130001-27500 5 5 Trader

27501-55000 6 6 Bursar

55001-110000 7 7 Tradesman

110001-225000 8 8 Master Merchant

225001-450000 9 9 Merchant Lord

450001-675000 10 9+1 Merchant Lord

675001-900000 11 9+2 Merchant Lord

225.000 XP per level for each additional level beyond the 11th.

HD: d4 (+1 h.p. per level over 9)
Attack: As Mage (Weapon Non-Proficiency Penalty -4)
Save: As Thief or Mage whichever is WORSE.
Weapons Allowed: Any
Armor Allowed: Padded, No Shield
Weapon Proficiencies: 0 + 1:5 levels attained
Non-Weapon Proficiencies: Appraisal + 3 others + 1:2 levels attained;
Choose from General, Thief, Mage, or Cleric.

Special Abilities:

Begins with the appraisal NWP.

May add half his current level, rounded down, to his reaction roll when dealing with other merchants, to a maximum of +3.

Every other level may add a +1 bonus to an existing Non-Weapon proficiency to a maximum of +3 in any one NWP.

Beginning at 2nd level gains minor spell abilities from one school of magic as if the merchant were a specialist mage. When spell powers depend on level of the caster, treat the merchant as being a mage of _ his current level. See below for spell progression.

Beginning at 3rd level, may pick pockets as a thief of 1/2 current level, rounding fractions down. (i.e. 7th level merchant picks pockets as a 3rd level thief).

Beginning at 4th level, may gain an extra language skill in a limited manner, and may use this language skill when discussing simple matters of trade. Any other subject matter requires a successful intelligence check in order to make oneself understood or to understand the discussion. Gains an additional language skill in the same manner every 3 levels attained there after.

Beginning at 5th level, a successful appraisal role may reveal what culture constructed the item, or how recently it was made, or the approximate skill of the craftsman. A successful appraisal role may also reveal if two objects were made by the same artisan, or if the item was the work of any craftsmen whose goods the merchant is familiar with.

Beginning at 7th level, may use legend lore as a bard of 1/2 current level

Beginning at 8th level, may read languages as a thief of 1/2 current level.

A merchant of 9th level may successfully petition the ruler of a region for the right to create a Trading Company if no such company yet exists in the region. The Trading Company must be headquarted is headquartered in a fortified structure of not less that 2000 square feet of space on the ground floor. Thereafter, the merchant will have a monopoly on the trade industries of that region. Existing trade industries must pay to the merchant a fee equal to 5% of their income each month to continue with their trade, and the Trading Company may collect in dues, excises and tariffs approximately 1 c.p. per citizen living in the region each month modified by the wealth bonus for the region. [As my rules for determining these totals are not yet published, assume 2 c.p. per citizen per month. A similar assumption may be used in the event that my rules are not to be used.] Note that while this total is a small fraction of what a fighter may collect, the trading company also has less expenditure. All that might be expected of the Trading Company is that they regulate and protect their members and insure what passes as 'fair business practices' such as the using of honest weights and measures, etc. Of course the ruler of the region expects the guild to insure the continued and increasing prosperity of the industry it is associated with, otherwise he may revoke their charter.

Beginning at 10th level may use mage scrolls with a 75% probability of success.

Beginning at 12th level may use wands, staves, or rods normally restricted to mages with a 75% chance of success.

Beginning at 16th level may use misc. magic items normally restricted to mages.

An optional ability one might want to consider in adding to the Merchant class is that of haggling. There is a haggling skill in Al-Qadim rules, which you might want to consider as well. More Arabic than Western, but haggling was certainly present in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Basically, the list of equipment, items, trade goods, etc is divided into a three columns. One column is the "asking price," a second is the "normal price," and the third is the "bargain price." The asking price is what a merchant asks for a given item when a buyer points it out. A poor haggler often ends up paying this price. The bargain price reflects the most successful result of a haggler, and the normal price is a middle ground, a standoff or compromise. A PC with the haggling NWP points to an item and asks the price. Variations exist, but it is generally assumed that the other merchant, the seller, has the haggling NWP as well (the rules suggest a Wisdom of 14 to back it up, giving them a haggling score of 14). The PC makes a haggling check, and the DM does one for the seller as well.
The results from an interaction between two hagglers:

1. If the buyer makes a successful check and the seller does not, bargain price.
2. If both are successful, normal price.
3. If buyer fails and seller succeeds, asking price.
4. If both fail, normal price.

The rules state that lacking the haggling NWP is the same as failing the proficiency check, making it a key NWP to get in Al-Qadim campaigns. It is sort of the Merchant version of the thief 'Fast Talk' thief skill. While I wouldn't mind including it in the class if it was a common attribute of the game, the fact that it is native only to the Al-Qadim campaign means that introduction of the skill forces everything else to change. It means that once this concept is introduced to an existing campaign, everyone else must have to have been paying the 'asking price' for everything all along. I myself wouldn't mind this, as I think that many of the goods in D&D are overpriced and in fact Gygax himself admitted this in first edition (The whole concept was that the prices on the price list represented hyper-inflation... A very bad idea in my opinion.) However, many people would dislike fiddling with the price list. I might consider adding it as an optional rule, and inserting definitions to the effect of asking price = normal price from the table, normal (merchant) price = 90% of the normal price from the table, bargain price = 80% of the normal price from the table. The thing that is most attractive about adding haggling to a Merchant's starting skills (and dropping a open proficiency slot) is that a Merchant could then make a valuable contribution to a low level party.... by doing their shopping for them. :)

Merchant Spell Table

Level Cantrip 1st 2nd 3rd

2 1 0 0 0

3 2 0 0 0

4 2 1 0 0

5 3 1 0 0

6 3 2 0 0

7 4 2 0 0

8 4 2 1 0

9 5 3 1 0

10 5 3 2 0

11 6 4 2 0

12 6 4 2 1

13 7 5 3 1

14 7 5 3 2

15 8 6 4 2

No further spell progression past 15th level.

Craftsman Class

A craftsman is a specialist in a particular skill - usually, but not necessarily, skill in a particular industry. By long practice and study a craftsman attains the degree of skill in a vocation equivalent to the degree of combat skill find in high level fighters. Indeed, all other classes may be thought of as particular developments of craftsmanship in a set of highly refined faculties: the fighter in prowess of arms, the magic user in eldritch arts, the priest in devotion and piety, and the thief in stealth and subtlety. Craftsmen are generally known by the profession they practice. For instance, those with skill in carpentry are known variously as carpenters, plowrights, joiners, turners, shipwrights, and so forth depending upon the particular trade in which they are adept.
A starting craftsman must chose a NWP proficiency in which to specialize. Usually this is a general skill of the sort which applies to an occupation, but the DM may allow characters with specialization in a particular skill generally restricted to a particular class if the skill seems to be one widely practiced by the members of a particular profession. For example, there may very well be skilled astrologers, locksmiths, navigators, boat swains having respectively specialization in astrology, locksmithing, navigation, and boating who are not themselves either mages, thieves, or fighters. On the other hand, if the skill is not such that a dependable occupation may be earned from it, or if the skill is one that brings one frequently into danger, such a skill might never be independently developed to a high degree by anyone. For instance, it is difficult to imagine beggars choosing to be craftsman rather than thieves, since thieving gives them a wider variety of options and greater ability to cope with the dangers on the street - although it is quite possible that a craftsman down on his fortunes would be reduced to begging. Similar arguments apply to hunters and gamblers, though perhaps not to say the art of forgery. The DM should be the final arbiter of what skill is acceptable, but as the Craftsman class is designed to be a class for NPC's only he is unlikely to get alot of argument.

DM's that wish to include this class in their campaign, should not or need not assume that all workers in a particular trade are of the craftsman class. Extreme craftsmanship, of the sort made possible and promoted by this class, should be no more common than other specialists like thieves, mages, bards, or clerics. The vast majority of society may well be made up of fighters of low level who prosper in their profession due to having an appropriate NWP and basic skills. In this way the class may be included in an existing campaign without greatly affecting game balance.
It should be apparent that the craftsman class lends itself readily to the idea of kit classes, and anyone playing 2nd edition may experiment with these as much as he likes. This is particularly desirable with professions that either use no tools and/or produce no tangible product, such as singer, or whose tools are complete inappropriate as weapons, as in a painter, as these professions will not be able to benefit from many of the normal powers of the class. Such kits should probably exchange such powers for minor ones from a standard class the profession most closely resembles. For instance, singer or musician kit craftsman might acquire minor bard skills at higher level, or at least the ability to cast certain enchanting spells with their art. Forger or locksmith kits might acquire minor thieving skills, and astrologers might acquire minor skills as a mage, sage, or oracle. Healer kits might gain priestly skills. The exact nature of these kits is left to the DM (unless I get inspired at some point).
Of course the most powerful and significant special ability of the craftsman class is their NWP specialization and this should remain constant in all kits; the ability to reroll a failed NWP check and to increase their skill in that NWP as a function of level and to a high degree is the hallmark of the craftsman class. They recently printed a book with a great diversity of specific classes, but with little unifying principle. It included classes like 'Cook'. I
shuddered. It was a good idea, but badly executed. Way to 1st editionist for the subject it tackled. I couldn't imagine treating a cook class like a Paladin class or something and giving it all these special abilities. Good grief, just say that they can cook well and get on with it. Craftsman bundles all those different classes into a unifying principle, the ability to reroll a particular not combat skill and improve it rapidly as level is attained. A 13th level craftsman specializing in Cooking, could in theory have a +13 bonus to his proficiency check in cooking and could reroll failed results. If the ability to cook could be deemed powerful, that's powerful. He could compete in a cooking contest with the Gods, and beat most or possibly all of them... which of course would be a foolish thing for him to do. :) Oh, and he'd be good with knives too.
Blacksmith, carpenter, bowyer-fletcher, armorer, shipwright, and weaponsmith all work extremely well with the rules as they are written. A kit class write up between them would differ only in the NWP specialization, the allowable 'weapons of trade' (see below), historical notes, and non-rules description, and the bonuses to a given 'work of quality'. Easy (but tedious) stuff to right up.

Craftsmen can certainly specialize in singing and musical abilities, though this does present some interesting and unique problems to be solved. 'Singing' and 'musical ability' are valid choices for NWP specializations for a craftsman, but unlike the above they just don't work well under the rules. Neither has tools that make reasonable weapons (see below), nor do they have tangible works of quality (see below). Therefore they can't take advantage of virtually all of the special abilities of their class. They need some sort of compensation for this, though I don't know exactly what that would be without trampling too hard on the bard. Of course, the compensation doesn't need to be great, as the class isn't meant to be well rounded and playable. Quite the contrary, it is meant to explain high levels of skill without the need to be well rounded and playable. Not every singer needs to have all of the Bard's fancy skills, and as a DM I would prefer that they didn't just to keep the number of high level combat orientated character's to a minimum.

The Craftsman should certainly also possibly be an Alchemist by specialization, though this particular choice does not seem to work extremely well under existing rules. That always bothered me, at first because the mage evidently acquired some degree of alchemist powers, and later because of the alchemy NWP. Just who are these alchemists anyway? Mid-level mages? Any dang fool with a alchemy NWP? Or specialty craftsman. I'm opting for the later. Alot of people can do alchemy in a limited way, but with real experts are studying nothing but alchemy. Some other people seem to have the same idea, but no one has managed to put a class together that is interesting and enduring.

Prime Requisite: Dexterity
Minimum Stats: Dexterity: 9, Constitution: 7, Intelligence must be 7 or greater or no progression past 2nd level is possible. Some craft specializations may require minimal Strength as well at the DM's option.

The Craftsman will generally not be seen as either a PC choice or even much as a adventuring NPC, not unless you make some particular skill, like alchemy maybe, highly essential to your campaign, and even then only dual or multi-classed characters would really be practical. Craftsman/Thief, Craftsman/Cleric, and Craftsman/Mage. Even Craftsman/Fighter ought to be legal, although their is a huge overlap in skills with the basic Craftsman.

If Dexterity is 16 or greater and Intelligence is 10 or greater, then the Craftsman receives +10% bonus to XP.

XP Level HD(d6) Title

0-1200 1 1 Apprentice

1201-2400 2 2 Helper

2401-5000 3 3 Assistant

5001-10000 4 4 Journeyman

10001-20000 5 5 Workman

20001-40000 6 6 Craftsman

40001-80000 7 7 Designer

80001-150000 8 8 Artisan

225001-450000 9 9 Master

450001-675000 10 9+2 Master

675001-900000 11 9+4 Master

HD: d6 (+2 h.p. per level after 9th)
Attack: As thief (-3 Weapon Non-Proficiency Penalty)
Save: As Fighter
Weapons Allowed: Any
Armor Allowed: Padded or Leather, No Shield
Weapon Proficiencies: 0 + 1:4 levels attained
Non-Weapon Proficiencies: Any 1 Craft proficiency (+1 bonus) + 2 others
+ 1:4 levels attained, May only choose from general.

Special Abilities
Must choose a craft NWP specialization. Any NWP check indicating failure in this specialization may be re-rolled and failure only occurs if this second roll also indicates failure.

May appraise the worth and quality of any product of his chosen craft as if he had the Appraisal NWP by making a proficiency check against his chosen NWP specialty.

Every other level may add +1 bonus to his NWP specialization to a maximum of +6.

Beginning at 2nd level, may attack with a tool associated with his trade as if he were a fighter of 1/2 current level, qualifying for a reduced non-proficiency penalty, possibly higher THACO0, and perhaps even extra attacks. Such tool should be reasonably similar to a weapon: i.e. a hammer, knife, whip, axe, club or staff like. DM may apply penalties to hit and damage if the chosen tool is particularly poorly suited as a weapon. Also fragile tools are likely to require saves vs. normal blows after each successful attack or else break. Craftsman with an open weapon slot (not before 4th level) may take a Weapon Proficiency in the tool if it is sufficiently weapon-like. For instance, blacksmith and carpenters may take proficiency in hammers, woodcutters in axe, cooks in knife or dagger, teamsters in whip, bolo, or lasso, and so forth.

Beginning at 4th level, the Craftsman may attempt work of unusual high qualify. Such work costs three times the normal to perform due to the high quality of materials that are necessary, but when finished will claim five times the usual price if sold. The craftsman must labor not less than one week on the work, at the end of which time he may make a NWP check at -6 on the roll. If the roll fails, then the work is no better than that of normal quality, and if the roll fails by more than 6 then the work is utterly ruined and the materials wasted. As always, a roll of a natural one always indicates failure. The finished quality item will have unusual and desirable qualities - at minimum +1 vs. saving throws. Some suggestions include improved AC and structural points for masonry and wooden buildings, armor that confers a +1 bonus to saving throws vs. breath weapons or other energy attacks, +1 bonus to hit OR a +1 bonus to damage for weapons, greater range as a missile weapon, greater than usual speed in a vehicle, and so forth. Details are up to the individual DM so that the skill may integrate with their existing game balance. Such items meet the workmanship qualification of the Enchant an Item spell.

At 9th level a Master craftsman may successfully petition the ruler of a region to form a Guild for the particular craft he is specialized in if no similar Guild already exists. The Guild must be headquarted in a guildhall, which is a fortified structure having not less than 2000 square feet of floor space on the ground floor. Thereafter the Craftsman may maintain a monopoly on a particular non-trade industry in the region. All trade industries of that type will pay to the Craftsman a membership fee of 5% of their profit. [As my rules for determining these totals are not yet published, assume 1/2 c.p. per citizen of the region per month. A similar assumption may be used in the event that my rules are not to be used.] Note that while this total is a small fraction of what a fighter may collect, the Guild also has less expenditure. All that is expected of the Guild is that they regulate and protect their members and insure what passes as 'fair business practices' such as the using of honest weights and measures, etc. Of course the ruler of the region expects the guild to insure the continued and increasing prosperity of the industry it is associated with, otherwise he may revoke their charter.

Beginning at 10th level, a work of quality completed by a Master Craftsman may receive magic spells as if it already had the Enchant Item spell cast upon it, forgoing the usual need to cast the spell. A wizard must still be present for the casting of subsequent spells if the item is to be enchanted.
I personally thought this was the most significant power included. It drops the requirement for making a magic item from 13th level mage to 10th level Craftsman (advances in level like a thief and gains XP for simply working not killing things). Suddenly magic item abundance is explained, at least to the extent of wands, staves, and rods. Don't get me started on the permanency spell and its ridiculously high level, but just answer how there gets to be so many +1 swords and daggers on the planet if it takes a 17th level mage to make one?

Beginning at 12th level, the Craftsman is treated as if he where specialized when fighting with a tool of his chosen craft if the tool is sufficiently weapon-like and he already has weapon proficiency with that tool.

As a final note, generally a Craftsman will not be able to manufacture the tools they need for their given craft, unless that is their craft. This is not really something that I would want to cover in the rules. For one thing, sometimes a craftsman's tools must be made by a craftsman of a different type, and sometimes they are not. Sometimes he must at least partially depend on another craftsman, and sometimes not. Worse yet, exactly whether or not this is true can depend on the quality of the tools desired, and sometimes this depends on the technology level of the society. A stone age craftsman can certainly make ALL of his own tools as part of his stone age skill, but a late steel age craftsman probably makes none of his tools and may not even no how to make primitive versions of many of them. D&D doesn't deal with these problems very well. But certainly a craftsman could make any tools that are themselves made of the same sort of materials that the craftsman normally worked with, i.e. a smith of any age can make his own tools. For other cases, you'd have to research whether craftsman of the time period to be simulated normally made their own tools. Good luck.