Merchant

At 1st level, the Merchant gains this feature. Merchants make their living through the art of the deal; knowing the potential value of various items and cargo is a large part of the process. Some merchants manage to develop a very calculating eye towards this task, and may add +2 to their Appraise skill checks when attempting to appraise the value of common objects and equipment ranging from poor to masterful quality. This does not apply to rare items such as works of art, artifacts, antiques, etc. Merchants with this feature may also take 10 when using their Diplomacy skill to negotiate the price of a speculative trade good or cargo.

At 2nd level and higher, Merchants are good at appraising objects and knowing their current market value, be they commodities, rare objects d'art, or illegal substances. Once per game session, the Merchant can re-roll one Appraise skill check being used to appraise an item and use the better of the two test results.

At 3rd level the Merchant gains a common contact as per the Palman Contact Trait and gains a +1 bonus to all contact check rolls.

At 7th level the Merchant gains an additional good contact and the bonus to his contact checks increases to +2.

At 10th level the Merchant gains an excellent contact and his bonus further increases to +3.

Over the normal course of business, Merchants pick up a lot of seemingly useless information that could come in handy some day. Once per game session, the Merchant can automatically recall a specific fact (not dependent on a professional skill) that pertains to the current mission.

The GM must determine what sort of information to give and how to relay it.

For example, while attempting to sneak into Federation space, a Merchant might know which starship patrols the area (and who commands the ship), or, planning to smuggle weapons to rebels, a merchant might know of the local legate's drinking problem.

At 4th level and higher, Merchants cater to many different cultures and species and know how to pander to their customers' base desires or natures.

As a result, the merchant knows how to make logical sales pitches to Vulcans, and how to convince a Romulan that the merchant would be more valuable if left alive. When making Diplomacy skill check, the merchant ignores all penalties and gain a +2 bonus to all skill checks for Knowledge (business) or Diplomacy.

Any Knowledge (specific culture) benefits would also apply.

At 5th level the Merchant designates a trade route. This route may comprise up to 5 cities of his choice.

He adds a +2 bonus to his Knowledge (History), Knowledge (Local), Knowledge (Geography) and Trade Knowledge rolls regarding lore from these cities and surrounding areas. He may make the Knowledge rolls even if he has no ranks in them. Once every year, you must visit these cities (to oversee your business and generally keep up to date with current affairs) or lose the bonus for Knowledge (Local) and Trade Knowledge rolls.

At 6th level, some Merchants (particularly those of somewhat less than sterling reputations) develop a knack for sensing trouble and avoiding it before it spots them, whether it’s pirates, local customs frigates, or a navy destroyer. When an encounter with these types of ships occurs, the merchant may attempt to avoid the encounter before it happens. The Merchant rolls 1d20 and adds +1 for every 5 Merchant class levels he has attained (+1 for levels 1-5, +2 for levels 6-10) against a DC of 17.

If successful, the encounter does not occur.

At 7th level, this feature of the Merchant class bestows knowledge of base market values for trade goods, and the ability to predict general sales trends for a specific world.

To use this ability, the Merchant must make a successful Appraise skill check to appraise the item.

At 8th level, through guile or hard work, the merchant has become the most prominent trader in a specific trade route, controlling most caravans and collecting taxes for the protection of other caravans. The merchant chooses two cities among those chosen from his Trade Routes ability. Each month the DM determines the profit and maintenance costs of the trade route as indicated in the table. If the merchant turns a loss, he must make up for it or lose control of the trade route forever.

At 9th level the Merchant has learned how to use his wealth to sway others into doing his bidding.

Whenever the Merchant makes a Diplomacy check to change the attitude of others, he may spend gold pieces or items to improve the effect of his Diplomacy check.

He may invest 100 gp per HD of the creature per level of attitude to improve, while still keeping the DC of the next attitude level.

For example, a hostile 2 HD creature may be bribed with 600 GP to improve his attitude to Friendly, while keeping the DC at 20 (that would originally improve the attitude one level, up to Unfriendly). You cannot improve the attitude beyond Helpful with this ability, even with further uses of Diplomacy.

This ability does not work on non-intelligent creatures, undeads, constructs, or creatures that are otherwise unable to comprehend the merchant (this includes creatures unable to speak). The merchant is very skilled in making this bribery look like it is no such thing, therefore the attitude of no creature of intelligence lower than 18 may be lowered as a result of this roll. You may use Bribery while rushed with half the normal penalty for a rushed Diplomacy check (that is, a -5 penalty).