The Appraiser (SNS)

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﻿: Martia strode stealthily through the streets, her burden hidden carefully beneath her billowing cloak. A movement on a nearby rooftop caught her eye, a shadow briefly silhouetted against the remainder of a waning moon. When she lifted her head for a closer look, it was gone, and she wondered if she had in fact seen it at all.
: She continued onward, taking a circuitous route through the city's winding streets, careful to avoid the many blackened alleys into which even the lights of the street lamps feared to roam. There, she knew, thieves and cutthroats lay in wait. As she rounded a final corner and topped a low hill, her destination came into view. The house of the appraiser stood taller than those around it-three stories at least-and a single light shone through a window set in the exact center of the top floor. A sign out front, barely visible in the flickering lights of the lamps, swung idly in a wind that Martia could barely feel.
: Steeling herself, Martia knocked firmly on the thick door. Stepping back, she saw the light in the window fade slowly-though it soon reappeared on the second floor. Long moments later, a rattling sounded from behind the iron-bound oak door. An eye-level slit in the door slid open, and a soft feminine voice crept out. "It is late. What do you want?"
: Martia swallowed hard before responding. Her throat had suddenly gone dry. She croaked, "Neiglub sent me.
: The voice chuckled. "Yes, yes. I've been expecting you." With that, the door opened to reveal a brunette in her early thirties. She wore a long, cotton nightgown, rumpled from lying in a bed. Her left hand bristled with rings, and she held a lantern in her right. "Enter, quickly, fool. There are things on these streets I would rather not let in."
: Martia complied, turning around as she entered, barely glimpsing the woman waving off a shadow encroaching from a nearby alley. It quickly disappeared.
: ﻿"Nebless?" asked Martia, unsure she had the right person.
: "Yes?" responded the woman as she led her guest into a small sitting room and directed her to a chair. Hanging the lantern on the wall, she lowered herself into the chair opposite Martia and asked, "How can I be of service?"
: Martia hesitated, and then threw back her cloak. She unfastened her blade from her belt and handed it over to Nebless hilt first. "This blade- what can you tell me about it?"
: Nebless drew the sword from its scabbard, then stood and held it up to the lantern, scrutinizing the weapon. "Very fine make. Obviously enchanted." She stepped back and swung the blade about a few times. "Nicely balanced." She turned to Martia. "I'll give you a thousand gold for it." "It's not for sale!" Martia blurted. "I just want to know who it belonged to."
: Nebless harrumphed and turned back to the inscriptions along the blade. Suddenly, the blood drained from her face. "My dear," she whirled on Martia, "do you realize what you've got here?" Martia nodded.
: "It's one of the Seven Swords."
: "But which one is it? My father wielded the Blade of Honesty. I slew Drahlix with this, but only my father's sword can prevail against my next target."
: Nebless grimaced. "This is the Blade of Chastity. Apparently you bested the dragon with the virgin's edge."
: Martia's face fell. Without her father's sword, she was without hope.
: Nebless noticed the young woman's reaction. "Fret not, dear. I am well-versed in the legends surrounding the swords, and I believe I can help you."
: "Are you saying you know where the Blade of Honesty is?"
: Nebless laughed with a twinkle in her eye. "Hardly, but I know someone who does."
﻿Appraisers are people who know how to identify items and establish a reasonable approximation of their fair market value. Often they enter business as merchants, purchasing items brought to them and then selling the items for maximum profit. Appraisers usually pay their clients about half of what they believe they can get for the item in question, making their living on the substantial profit margins.
Seedy appraisers, those not afraid to deal with the poorer elements of their neighborhoods, sometimes work as pawn brokers. They hand out loans for about half the value of an item used as collateral. If the client defaults on the loan, as often happens, the pawn broker gets to keep, and then sell, the held item.
Another type of appraiser is not afraid to get his hands dirty. He purchases obviously stolen material for a quarter (or maybe 10 percent) of its worth and then sells the "hot" items to discreet customers. This fence receives a much higher return on his investment, but he must deal with criminals (always a dangerous lot). In addition, he takes the risk of running afoul of either the law or the original owners of the stolen pieces.
Each of these appraisers has several things in common. They use the same skills, and they operate their businesses in similar ways. The only real difference among them is their clientele.
==Experience, THAC0, and Hit Dice==
Appraisers have their own level advance- ment as shown on the Appraiser Experience Levels table. Appraisers spend more time establishing contacts and moving in social cir- cles than they do learning how to use weap- ons. Most appraisers know little about swordplay, preferring to leave those duties to their guards. For this reason, appraisers use the rogue's THAC0 table and saving throw chart.
Appraisers gain one six-sided Hit Die per experience level up to the 8th. After that, they gain two hit points per level, but do not gain any extra hit points from high Constitution scores.
 Table 7: Appraiser Experience Levels
Level	XPs 	Hit Dice (d6)
1 	0 	1
2 	1,250 	2
3 	2,500 	3
4 	4,500 	4
5 	9,000 	5
6 	17,500 	6
7 	35,000 	7
8 	60,000 	8
9 	90,000 	8+2
10 	140,000 	8+4
11 	200,000 	8+6
12 	400,000 	8+8
13 	600,000 	8+10
14 	800,000 	8+12
15 	1,000,000	8+14
16 	1,200,000	8+16
17 	1,400,000	8+18
18 	1,600,000	8+20
19 	1,800,000	8+22
20 	2,000,000	8+24
==Ability Scores==
﻿The life of an appraiser may seem like an easy one on the surface, but these purchasers and purveyors of goods work hard for their money. They must astutely size up not only the merchandise that comes their way, but also the people with whom they do business. In addition, appraisers must earn the good will of their customers, or at least the good will of those who would protect them from disgruntled customers.
For this reason, all appraisers must have a minimum Intelligence of 12, a minimum Wisdom of 10, a minimum Dexterity of 9, and a minimum Charisma of 9. Intelligence is an appraiser's prime requisite.
==Permissible Armor and Weapons==
Despite their rogue-like natures, many appraisers do not have much use for breaking into places and stealing. In addition, most appraisers prefer not to wear armor when on the streets of a city, as they believe that a person who wears armor only invites trouble. A good appraiser knows that this can scare off potential customers, some of whom may be fugitives who do not need any added trouble.
Still, appraisers can wear any kind of armor they like. However, armor affects an appraiser's thieving abilities exactly as it does any other rogue (see Table 29: Thieving Skill Armor Adjustments in the Player's Handbook for full details). If an appraiser wears any armor heavier than studded leather, he forfeits all of his thieving abilities except for reading languages.
﻿Appraisers can use a club, dagger, dart, hand crossbow, knife, lasso, short bow, sling, broad sword, short sword, or staff, just like a rogue. They do not spend enough time on weaponry to learn the use of other weapons.
==Individual Experience Awards==
Despite their rogue-like natures, appraisers concentrate their skills more on buying and selling than stealing. Thus, their individual class awards differ slightly from those of a rogue. Use Table 8: Appraiser Experience Awards for determining how many experience points an appraiser deserves at the end of a scenario.
 Table 8: Appraiser Experience Awards
Action 	Award
Per successful use of a special ability 	100 XP
Per successful identification of a magical item	200 XP
Per gold piece value of item successfully sold 	2 XP
==Proficiencies==
An appraiser receives two weapon proficiency slots at 1st level and a new one every four levels (at the 4th level, 8th level, and so on). He suffers a -3 penalty when using a weapon with which he is not proficient.
An appraiser also receives three nonweapon proficiencies at 1st level and gains a new proficiency every four levels after that (at the 4th level, 8th level, and so on). Appraisers can choose from rogue, wizard and general proficiencies without additional cost.
==Thieving Abilities==
As a class, the appraiser is most closely aligned with that of the thief. A 1st-level appraiser's base thieving skill scores are listed on the Appraiser Thieving Skill Base Scores table. These differ from the standard thief's base scores, owing to the fact that the appraiser spends more time in an office than out "in the field."
Appraisers use the same racial and Dexterity skill adjustments that thieves do for their base scores. See Table 27: Thieving Skill Racial Adjustments and Table 28: Thieving Skill Dexterity Adjustments in the Player's Handbook for full details.
When starting out, the appraiser receives an extra 40 percentage points to add to his base scores as he likes. No more than 20 of these points can go into a single skill, otherwise the player may spread points among the skills as he wishes.
When an appraiser reaches another level, he automatically adds 5% to his read languages skill. He then receives another 20 percentage points to distribute among his skills as he likes. No more than 10 points per level can be assigned to a single skill, and no skill can reach higher than 95%- taking into account all adjustments for race and Dexterity.
As an option, the DM can state that the appraiser may only raise those skills that he actually used during his last level. Since most appraisers rarely use skills like pick pockets, these skills will quickly atrophy, while others increase dramatically.
 Table 9: Appraiser Thieving Skill Base Scores
Skill 	Base Score
Pick Pockets 	5%
Open Locks 	10%
Find/Remove Traps	5%
Move Silently 	5(%
Hide in Shadows 	5%
Detect Noise 	5%
Climb Walls 	40%
Read Languages 	10%
Appraisal 	10%
===Read Languages===
﻿Unlike thieves, appraisers automatically begin with 10 points in their read languages skill. This reflects the fact that reading languages is an essential skill for an appraiser. The ability to decode ancient letters on an item often means the difference between a good deal and a bad one. 
===Appraisal===
﻿Appraisal is a new thief skill available to appraisers only. It replaces the Appraising proficiency.
Appraisal permits the NPC to approximate the worth of a particular item. Appraisers with a poor appraisal skill may soon find themselves out of business.
Appraisal rolls are not required for common items only for special pieces. Just about everyone is aware, for instance, of the price of a good long sword. It takes a master, however, to correctly assess the value of a rare gem, magical item, or work of art. Appraising an item takes 1d10 rounds. In certain cases, a close inspection with a jeweler's tool or a magnifying glass can assist the appraiser in his job. The use of these tools adds 10 percentage points to the appraisal skill when the appraiser inspects small items, obscure inscriptions, or gems.
In certain cases, the DM should apply penalties to the appraiser's attempt. This can range from -5 percentage points for pricing a weapon still caked with blood to -60 percentage points for identifying a particular rare jewel prized by an ancient culture.
Appraisers often consult with historians to establish the identity of certain notable pieces. Such information can be incredibly useful. This consultation helps to offset any penalties the appraiser might have when appraising rare and exotic items. The DM. can add a 5-50 percentage point modifier whenever an appraiser consults with a historian. These modifiers should never exceed the penalties applied to the appraising attempt.
===Appraising an Item===
﻿The DM should secretly roll for every appraisal attempt. If the appraisal roll succeeds, the appraiser comes up with an estimate of the item's worth that is accurate to within 10% of the item's true value (known only to the DM). The DM can determine the appraiser's exact percentage of error by examining the appraisal roll. If the tens digit of the appraisal roll is odd, the appraiser estimates too low. If the tens digit is even, he estimates too high. The ones digit gives the exact percentage by which the estimate was off.
For example, Nebless examines an item worth 500 gp. Her appraisal skill score is 75%. The DM rolls a 65, so the appraisal is relatively accurate. Since the first digit of the appraisal roll is even, the estimate is low. The second digit of the roll shows that the appraisal erred low by 5% Nebless estimates the item is worth 475 gp.
If the appraisal roll fails, the DM should subtract the character's appraisal skill score from that die roll. Then the DM adds 10 to that number. This final number is the amount by which the appraisal is off. Again, if the tens digit is odd, the appraiser estimates too low. If the tens digit is even, he estimates too high.
For example, Nebless examines another item worth 500 gp. The DM rolls an 87; she fails the basic skill check by 12 more than her skill of 75%, so she is off by 22% (12+10). Since the tens digit is even, she estimates too high. Nebless places the value of the item at 610 gp.
===Appraisal Adjustments===
﻿An NPC's race and ability scores affect the appraisal skill. These modifications are represented on Table 10: Appraisal Racial Adjustments table and Table 11: Appraisal Intelligence Adjustments table shown below. Note that the ability score changes for the appraisal skill are based upon the appraiser's Intelligence, not his Dexterity. Dexterity does still influence an appraiser's other thieving skills.
 Table 10: Appraisal Racial Adjustments
Race 	Modifier
Human 	—
Dwarf 	+10%
Elf 	-5%
Gnome 	+10%
Half-elf	—
Halfling	-5%
 Table 11: Appraisal Intelligence Adjustments
Intelligence	Modifier
12 	-5%
13 	—
14 	—
15 	—
16 	5%
17 	10%
18 	15%
19 	20%
===Backstab===
﻿Appraisers can backstab just like thieves. However, they spend most of their time in shops and not on dangerous streets. Because of this, appraisers are not nearly as skilled at backstabbing as are normal rogues.
 Table 12: Backstab Damage Multipliers
Appraiser's Level	Damage Modifier
1-6 	-2
7-12 	-3
13-18 	-4
19+ 	-5
===Thieves' Cant===
Due to their constant exposure to thieves, appraisers can understand quite a bit of their secret communication-called thieves' cant. For every level of experience, the appraiser has a 10% chance of understanding thieves' cant. At 10th level, for example, the chance is 100%. The DM can adjust this chance for individual characters who have a greater or lesser exposure to thieves.
===Scroll Use===
﻿Appraisers can read scrolls at 8th level- just like thieves. Their chance of error is only 20%.