I have tried a couple times, but can't get a good balance of flavor and playability.
Troy
Havard
Your thoughts about the lower level OD&D spells being turned into class features follow my line of thinking. What about these abilities:
Quick Counting: Starting at 1st level, once per day for each class level, a Darokin Merchant can, as a full round action, determine the exact number of coins in a given pile or container. He must either run his hand through the pile or handle the container directly. If the coins are clearly visible, he can also determine what type of coins are present. At sixth level, he can do this as a standard action.
Appraiser’s Eye: At 2nd level a Darokin Merchant is able to more accurately determine the market price of items he examines. He is also more likely to notice a forgery or hidden signs of poor workmanship. He may add his Merchant level to appraise checks to determine an item’s market price, to forgery checks to detect a forged document, and to spot checks to notice faked items.
Efficient Travel: At 3rd level, a Darokin Merchant’s skills at organizing and running a traveling group streamline the usually time-consuming details. Any caravan or party with which the Merchant is traveling in a leadership or investor role moves at one mile per hour faster than normal.
Rapid Inventory: Once per day for each class level, a Darokin Merchant can, as a full round action, determine the exact contents of a 10 ft cube of merchandise. He must actually be able to see the merchandise to use this ability. At ninth level, he can do this as a standard action.
Smuggler’s Guile: At 7th level a Darokin Merchant is able to apply his business acumen to concealing the more shady aspects of his operation. He may add his Merchant level to sleight of hand or hide checks to conceal an item and to forgery checks to create faked documents.
Smoothing the Ride: At 8th level, a Merchant’s travel management skills help his team avoid many of the typical delays from difficult terrain and road conditions. Any caravan or party with which the Merchant is traveling in a leadership or investor role treats roads, trails, or lack thereof as one level better than the actual conditions. For example, a caravan of wagons traveling over a road calculates hourly and daily movement as if they were traveling over a highway. For details on overland movement modifiers, see page 164 of the Players Handbook.
I have also initially worked out a basic 4-level prepared arcane spell matrix based on intelligence. Plus a couple bonus feats thrown in.
The more 'urban' flavor of the material in Races of Destiny and Cityscape opens up a lot of opportunities for a Darokin Merchant, just like Stormwrack provides for the Dread Pirate. Blend this with the trade and caravan information in GAZ 11, and you have plenty of campaign concepts which would be ideal for a Darokin Merchant player character.
So, the question is less about the playability, in general, of a Darokin Merchant presitge class, and more about appropriate balance of the class features relative to other prestige classes that would work in a campaign along side the Darokin Merchant. With that in mind, I'm working on finalizing a proposed Darokin Merchant prestige class. When finished, I would love to hear feedback on it.
Stay tuned....
I made it an NPC class, but it could be taken by PCs (there is a great 'playing a commoner' thread in the general wizards board, for inspiration on NPC classes).
I never playtested it, and it is probably not very streamlined. But you can check it out for inspiration.
I'm about ready to share what I've developed; I just need to know how to get the table to display correctly in the post....
I'm still not sure how playable it would be for a typical player.... Please share your thoughts.
Thanks!
[u]DAROKIN MERCHANT[/u]
“That cursed Linton! He never checks the entire cargo against the manifest – everyone knows that. But this time, this one time … it’s like he knew, before he got to the caravan, that something was up. I pay my wizards good coin to make sure these sorts of mistakes don’t happen. Maybe it’s true, what they say of Darokin Merchants, that they have some sixth sense.” -- An anonymous Irendi Merchant.
In the Republic of Darokin, trading isn’t just a job for most people; it is a way of life. No matter what a person’s profession, every citizen must be skilled in the ‘art of the deal.’ Even adventurers visiting Darokin should hone their negotiating skills.
Most Darokin Merchants are experts in various professions and crafts who have risen to high positions among the merchant houses. Rogues and bards are among the adventuring classes which often pursue this career when their adventuring days are over, although some find a few levels of Darokin Merchant essential if they intend to operate at the highest levels of Republic society. Wizards occasionally choose to turn their arcane skills into a lucrative business, becoming Darokin Merchants of renowned skill.
NPC Darokin Merchants are the most powerful of business leaders in their communities. While they do not utilize blades or bows, they nonetheless frequently wage war with their enemies. Their weapons of choice: the daro or the dinar. Their lack of combat prowess in no way reduces the risk of making one an enemy, nor does it diminish their potential value as an ally.
Hit Die: d4
Requirements
Skills: Appraise 8 ranks, Bluff 4 ranks or Diplomacy 4 ranks, any one Craft, Perform, or Profession 4 ranks
Special: The character must either hail from the Republic of Darokin or must have worked for a Darokin merchant house for at least two years.
Class Skills
The Darokin Merchant’s class skills are Appraise, Bluff, Concentration, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Forgery, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (geography), Listen, Perform, Profession, Sense Motive, Speak Language, Spellcraft, Spot.
Skill Points at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier.
The thing that I always got hung up on with conversions of the Darokin Merchant and Minrothad Merchant-Prince was just in the nature of class progression (ie, experience).
In OD&D both classes (IIRC, I may be wrong about the Merchant-Prince) gain XP through business transactions, rather than combat, which seems about right. 3E doesn't really have a terribly good system for dealing with mercantile transactions (not in terms of complexity like the rules in the Gazetteers, anyway- they are very simple and don't allow for a lot of leeway in 3E as they stand).
Given that, and that gaining XP through combat didn't seem in flavor for either class, I wasn't sure how to deal with them adequately.