Merchant - Spacefarer (Character Kit)

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==Merchant==
Description: The Merchant is the bearer of commerce among the Known Spheres. Merchants travel from world to world and from sphere to sphere, buying and selling their cargoes. They thrive on the different needs and desires of the many inhabitants of the spheres.
Merchants are not all venal profit-seekers—but it helps. The risks of interworld commerce create a narrow opportunity to make a profit, and it takes many such profits to offset a long string of losses. Still, the Merchant plies the spacelanes, looking for a little piece of the action.
Role: Merchants are the lifeblood of a thriving spacefaring civilization. Once you have entered the heart of the Known Spheres, it is the Merchant who maintains the majority of the traffic between the spheres. Merchants are not only conveyors of goods; they carry information and passengers from sphere to sphere and help convert the spheres from wildspace to a community.
Only warriors may be Merchants. Paladins are too devoted to religious principles to be motivated by profit, and rangers are not generally as social as a Merchant has to be.
To be a Merchant — a successful one — a character must be able to follow the intricacies of the markets of the Known Spheres. He must know the value of commodities in various markets, and how to move each from a low-value market to a high-value market. This requires Intelligence of 12 or greater.
Quitting the Merchant kit is easy, and it conveys a unique benefit as well. All Merchants have a cargo (see Special Benefits) that represents their current investment. To abandon this kit, the character merely sells all of that cargo. The character loses the benefits of the kit, although the hindrances still remain. After gaining three experience levels without trafficking in cargo, the character loses the hindrances.
Secondary Skills: Trader/Barterer.
Weapon Proficiencies: Any allowed to the class, although Merchants tend to use one-handed weapons (as they are more easily concealed in hostile ports).
Nonweapon Proficiencies:
* Bonus: Appraising.
* Recommended: (General) Etiquette, Spacemanship; (Warrior) Gaming, Navigation (Wildspace), Navigation (Phlogiston); (Wizard) Planetology, Reading/Writing.
Equipment: Merchants may purchase any equipment consistent with their class. In addition, they receive their cargo (see Special Benefits).
Special Benefits: In addition to the normal money received by every beginning warrior character (5d4x 10 gp), the Merchant receives a cargo. This cargo could be gems, jewelry, spices, nonmagical texts, or more normal goods. The precise nature of the cargo is unimportant. As a rule, however, each 10 units of cargo consumes one ton of cargo space aboard ship.
A beginning Merchant starts with three units of cargo. The cargo has the following properties:
* Every time the Merchant enters a different port, he may buy and sell cargo. The exact cargo exchanged is not important. As a result of the exchange, the Merchant makes Id6 gp profit per unit of cargo. (Thus, a new Merchant earns 3d6 gp profit every time he changes ports.) The DM may reduce or even eliminate this profit if he feels that the two ports are close enough together to make such trading unprofitable.
A Merchant may also buy and sell without traveling. If so, he earns the Id6 gp per unit of cargo each month.
* A Merchant may add to his cargo by investing money. As a rule, each 50 gp invested will purchase one additional unit of cargo. This cargo may then be used for further trading in the next port.
* In an emergency, in lieu of making a profit, a Merchant may liquidate his cargo by selling it off. Each unit of cargo sold produces Id6x 10 gp. The Merchant may lose money by selling the cargo for less than his investment, but it is presumed that the Merchant may have to sell at a loss.
The Merchant is not required to sell all of his cargo when he liquidates. However, he must decide how much cargo to sell before making the roll. Once he has decided how much to liquidate, he may not liquidate any more until he travels to a new port or one month has passed.
Special Hindrances: Merchants are viewed as venal even when they're not. "Buyer beware" is the watchword throughout the Known Spheres. Thus, Merchants suffer -2 on reaction rolls when dealing with other people in a commercial setting.
Wealth Options: Much of a Merchant's wealth is tied up in cargo. Thus, Merchants receive only 3d4 x 10 gp for equipment.
Races: Any human or demihuman can be a Merchant. Halflings and gnomes are more commonly Merchants than dwarves and elves, but all demihuman races practice trade to some degree.
Among the nonhumans, the rastipedes are the quintessential Merchants. As a result, they roll 1d8 (rather than 1d6) for the profit on trading each unit of cargo. (They still receive only 1d6x 10 gp when liquidating their cargoes, however.)
Each dracon herd usually includes one or two Merchants, and the grommam and hadozee practice interplanetary commerce. The lizard men and hurwaeti are perhaps the most inept at such commerce, so Merchants among them are rare. Lizard man and hurwaeti Merchants roll 1d4 per unit of cargo for profits in nonreptilian ports. Conversely, nonreptilians — except the rastipedes — roll 1d4 per unit for profits in reptilian ports. Giff military rank is not awarded for mercantile activities, so they do not become Merchants. The scro have no interest in intersphere trade, and the xixchil do not have enough interest in wealth to spend their time in its pursuit.
Category:Character Kit
Category:Character Kit CSH