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#1 Gemstone Sep 27, 2005 4:59:50

Krunh, the half-orc barbarian and his band of orcs stood still, so very still. With a sour face Krunh said, "What do you mean we not get full price?" His scowl would normally discourage any man, but not this one. The sturdy dwarf weaponsmith smiled and said, "You see here my friend. First of all, the quality of the weapons you brought me is far below that of the average orc work." With those words, some of the orcs scowled, while yet others smirked at their friends. "Second, I must make a profit as well. These weapons may be worth about a tenth of what you demanded from the start." Krunh frowned and said, "Then... we take your price master dwarf." The dwarf nodded and brought up a bag of gold. Soon, the orcs and their leader were on their way. Brougan smiled and had to keep himself from laughing. "This is most fortunate," he thought, "these weapons are worth more than ten times the price they demanded from the beginning." Sometimes a player wants to argue about the price of a given item. Other times the shopkeeper may want to pay only half of what the players demand. This can be a real pain for most DMs since it can take up precious time that is required for other, more heroic actions than to bargain about the price of a short sword. This article presents a solution and quite a handy way to solve these arguments. When trying to haggle the price of an item, object or sometimes even a creature, a player or NPC make opposed diplomacy checks. These checks represents a base time of 10 minutes of haggling. The difference between the rolls is how much the base price changes in percent. In the example above, the Krunh made a low diplomacy check against a trained dwarven shopkeeper who easily recognized the value of the objects they held. If the player wins, the price changes the difference in percent to his advantage, and if the shopkeeper wins, he haggles the price to his advantage. For each roll the player wants to make, the total time increase by x2. If he wants to make 3 rolls for example, it would take 10*2*2=40 minutes to haggle about the price. He or she can make as many rolls as he/she has ranks in diplomacy /4 as a total. Thus a rogue with 20 ranks could make 5 rolls and try to haggle the price for 10*2*2*2*2*2 = 320 minutes, or five hours and 20 minutes. Base Price Each object has a sell and buy base price that represents the value a given object represents for the buyer. The base price for an object the PCs want to sell, is half the buy value. For example, a +1 weapon normally costs around 2000 gp, but the base sell price for this object would be 1000 gp. When the PC's buy something however, the base price is the full price of the object listed in the DMG, PHB or other books. If the players try to sell something to a non shopkeeper (anyone who expects to not make a profit of the sold object), the base price is 3/4 of the listed price. Haggle the Price As mentioned above, haggling the price is: PC’s diplomacy check - NPC's diplomacy check = the percentage that the price changes. Example Krunh has a diplomacy modifier of +2, while the dwarf shopkeeper has a modifier of +12. They both roll and Krunh rolls 3, for a total of 5, while the shopkeeper rolls 17, for a total of 29. Thus, the price changes 24% in advantage to the shopkeeper. Note: Most shopkeepers refuse to lower the price with more than 50%. There are special circumstances however, such as that the PCs are the heroes of the town, then the price could go lower, but never below 10% of the base price. New Feats & Skills Here is a list of new feats & use of old skills that can be useful for the professional haggler. Bluff: By making a clever ruse, the item may look more valuable than normal. Add a forth of the bluff ranks to the diplomacy check. This only works on the first roll however, since the buyer gets a better feel of the item. Professional Haggler Prereq: Cha 14, Bluff 8 ranks Benefit: You may add 1/4 of your bluff ranks to all haggle rolls you make. Tradesman Prereq: Cha 14, Diplomacy 4 ranks Benefit: Change the base price of any object with 10% to your advantage when calculating the base price of an object.