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"A gold piece and a sword: carry both to see business done!"
I'm looking to play a character based on this kind of concept, someone whose main focus is his/her business savvy, but can handle themselves in a scrap.
What class should I look into? Investigator and Rogue seem like obvious choices, but they also seem kinda fragile...
Honestly, any class can fit the general idea of a merchant adventurer, as long as you have enough skillpoints to cover the needed skills.
You basically just want anything that can have a high score in Diplomacy, Bluff, and Sense Motive. Maybe something with a caster level if you want to be producing your own wares. My recommendation would be a Bard but like Chengar said this isn't something that relies on any particular chassis other than "have skill points".
Occultist can work, since using magical knick-knacks is there thing.
Let's see, you'll want to be proficient with axes, and capable of using a cart as a weapon...
Barbarian?
Is the book out yet?
Technically no. But it's out next month, and there is the playtest document out already.
Contributor
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What do you think of this?
You could also look into player options associated with Druma and the Prophets of Kalistrade. There's a prestige class, for example.
Hope this helps. ^_^
"A gold piece and a sword: carry both to see business done!"
I'm looking to play a character based on this kind of concept, someone whose main focus is his/her business savvy, but can handle themselves in a scrap.
What class should I look into? Investigator and Rogue seem like obvious choices, but they also seem kinda fragile...
Your going to want something with good Charisma, skill points and then whatever combat/spell stuff you would like.
Believe it or not but Archeologist Bard would be ideal given the good skill points and spells and how it's replaced abilities can be used for so many things.
Skill wise you probably want to max Diplomacy, Bluff, Sense Motive, Perception, Appraise, Profession: Merchant and Spellcraft so you can ID magic items and try to appraise them too.
Maybe take some extra languages/linguistics so you can speak the local lingo and influence people.
Given that your goal is to be able to able to handle both combat and business I would recommend swashbuckler. If by merchant you mean someone who buys and sells items then most crafting classes would not really fit. Why risk your life buying and selling when you could make more money simply creating items? This would also be a reason to avoid prepared spell casters. They could make more money by selling their services than they ever would buying and selling. Unless you are worshiping a god of trade or merchants most divine classes would be difficult. You will probably need the following skills appraise, diplomacy, knowledge local, perception, and sense motive. Bluff, intimidate, would also be useful, but may not be needed. At this point it seems to me that the bard, rouge and swashbuckler would all fit.
While the rouge would be able to handle the business end of things well, he would have trouble handling himself in combat. Sneak attack is fine as an offensive tactic, but does not work well for defense. As a merchant you are going to be more interested in defending yourself then taking out the enemy. Other than having more skill points than any other class the rouge has no advantage. Keep in mind that as a merchant most of the people you will be having business dealing with will probably not be that high level. This means that once you get to a certain point extra skill points become less important.
The bard has about the same combat abilities as the rogue, but has magic and other useful abilities. The bard spell list is actually pretty good for a merchant. With spells like alarm, identify, detect thoughts, heroism, and other they will have a huge advantage. While their magic allows them to be very effective they still have one weakness and that is combat. Your stated goal is to be good with both the sword, and the gold piece. This is where the bard falls short. If you are ok with trading out some combat ability for magic that bard would be a good choice.
That brings us to the swashbuckler. With an INT of 12 or favored class bonus you will have enough skill points to cover your needed skills. If you do both and play a human you will actually end up with more than you need. Swashbucklers are very good at combat so he would be able to handle himself in a fight just fine. The fact that he does not use heavy armor would actually be to his advantage. There are probably a lot of situations you will be in as a merchant where wearing heavy armor is not appropriate. Menacing sword play allows you to demoralize an opponent as a swift action so you may be able to stop a fight at first blood. Overall the swashbuckler fits what you want better. The bard may actually be more optimized but does not fit the concept as well.
I agree with idea that many classes could work. Heck, you could do a lore warden fighter and use a couple traits to improve his skill list.
The crafty face rogue with ranks in appraise and the social skills would be good enough to represent the merchant side and a couple multi class levels into fighter would represent his knowledge of arms. Throw in worship to abadar for flavor and I think you have a fun character there.
Let's see, you'll want to be proficient with axes, and capable of using a cart as a weapon...
Barbarian?
Give me 50% more for these or I'll punch you!
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Give me 50% more for these or I'll punch you!Let's see, you'll want to be proficient with axes, and capable of using a cart as a weapon...
Barbarian?
That could work too.
"Supplier busting Groff's balls. Groff return favour."
My original comment was a joke about the merchant class in Ragnarok online. :P
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Given that your goal is to be able to able to handle both combat and business I would recommend swashbuckler. If by merchant you mean someone who buys and sells items then most crafting classes would not really fit. Why risk your life buying and selling when you could make more money simply creating items? This would also be a reason to avoid prepared spell casters. They could make more money by selling their services than they ever would buying and selling. Unless you are worshiping a god of trade or merchants most divine classes would be difficult. You will probably need the following skills appraise, diplomacy, knowledge local, perception, and sense motive. Bluff, intimidate, would also be useful, but may not be needed. At this point it seems to me that the bard, rouge and swashbuckler would all fit.
I agree, and I think Investigator would fit pretty well too, though they sort of fall under the rogue's umbrella I guess. The kind of character I'm looking to play is an entrepreneur who specializes in moving cargo into dangerous areas, as well as exploring remote and dangerous locations to try and set up resource extraction things like mines and stuff, possibly taking Leadership and having his followers as his "Company" or "Consortium."
While the rouge would be able to handle the business end of things well, he would have trouble handling himself in combat. Sneak attack is fine as an offensive tactic, but does not work well for defense. As a merchant you are going to be more interested in defending yourself then taking out the enemy. Other than having more skill points than any other class the rouge has no advantage. Keep in mind that as a merchant most of the people you will be having business dealing with will probably not be that high level. This means that once you get to a certain point extra skill points become less important.
I see. I am looking to be dangerous in combat, though. I've got my eye on the falcata specifically.
The bard has about the same combat abilities as the rogue, but has magic and other useful abilities. The bard spell list is actually pretty good for a merchant. With spells like alarm, identify, detect thoughts, heroism, and other they will have a huge advantage. While their magic allows them to be very effective they still have one weakness and that is combat. Your stated goal is to be good with both the sword, and the gold piece. This is where the bard falls short. If you are ok with trading out some combat ability for magic that bard would be a good choice.
It has possibilities, especially with that Negotiator Archetype Kalindlara linked.
That brings us to the swashbuckler. With an INT of 12 or favored class bonus you will have enough skill points to cover your needed skills. If you do both and play a human you will actually end up with more than you need. Swashbucklers are very good at combat so he would be able to handle himself in a fight just fine. The fact that he does not use heavy armor would actually be to his advantage. There are probably a lot of situations you will be in as a merchant where wearing heavy armor is not appropriate. Menacing sword play allows you to demoralize an opponent as a swift action so you may be able to stop a fight at first blood. Overall the swashbuckler fits what you want better. The bard may actually be more optimized but does not fit the concept as well.
I see. It would work well with a falcata, especially with that Slashing Grace feat, though there ARE more skills that I'm interested in, like Perception, Profession: Merchant and Spellcraft as suggested above, both for the purposes of roleplaying, magic item appraisal and because EVERYBODY needs Perception.
Thanks for the suggestions, they've given me a lot to mull over. :)