[3.P] Merchant Build

[TC X0 Lt 0X]

For my next character I plan on playing a Merchant focused build, making gold on item transactions and earning a income off of a business which will slowly be built up. Organizations/Contacts will be used, as will Business Rules in DMGII which means I need to pump into my Profession check to get good profit ratings. Ill probably utilize Bargaining rules from PF (here) and a few others as well.
The character will not be built with combat in mind in any way, though as a result of the options taken she could be a decent Diplomancer, but I don't think my DM would let me get away with that too often. Ill probably spend a portion of my income, which given the character build will be a lot, to supplement some combat ability later on to prevent being instantly gibbed, but I wont be throwing it all into combat supplies so I wont be pulling off Artificer levels of Magic Items.
Ive looked over the Seto Kaiba build from a few years back and a few other threads on the subject and have come to this build. It is mainly done, but I am looking for 2 more feats to round off the build at higher levels. Also any other suggestions would be appreciated.

A few house rules:
3.5 and PF fine, 3rd Party and Homebrew with approval
Only Standard Races
Wounds/Vitality
2 flaws for 1 feat
Crafting Magic Items cost the same as base price
Casting Spells/Power/Supernatural abilities requires a in world material called hexite which will cost gold based on the ability it is fueling. Recharge Magic as a result of the Hexite rule.
Leveling will require spending gold on training during downtime.


Race - PF Human w/ Focused Study and Heart of the Fields(Profession(Merchant)) Alternate Racials
Class Levels - Rogue 1 / Marshal 1 / Rogue +5 / Alliance Merchant 7 / Merchant Prince 5 / Uncanny Trickster(or other) 2
PF Rogue & Variants - Glory, True Professional, Sanctified, ( Charlatan OR Smuggler ), Possibly Unchained Rogue
Alliance Merchant - Kingdoms of Kalamar Players Handbook
Merchant Prince - Here
Ability Scores - 7, 7, 10, 16, 16, 19 (and +5 Cha from levels)
Feats
Mercantile Background [1st], Skill Focus (Diplomacy) [HBF:Lv1], Celestial Scion (Torquaan) [TPR-BF:Lv1], Favored in Guild(Mercantile/Profession(Merchant)) [Flaws], Favored (Mercantile/Diplomacy) [M-BF:Lv2], Signature Skill (Profession(Merchant)) [2nd], Negotiator [TPR-BF:Lv4], Primary Contact [3rd], Leadership [TPR-BF:Lv6], Iron Will [Otyugh Hole], Skill Focus (Profession(Merchant)) [HBF:Lv8], Landlord [9th], Business Savvy [12th], OPEN FEAT [15th], Skill Focus (Any) [HBF], OPEN FEAT [18th]

Flaws (2 Flaws to 1 Feat House Rule)
Feeble and Noncombatant

Class Options
Marshal Aura - Motivate Wisdom
Rogue Talents - Black Market Connections, OPEN (Probably Charmer)

[Amechra]

You want Celestial Scion (Torquaan), not Celestial Scion (Cranden) - buying everything for 10% cheaper is better for you and lasts a longer time than max wealth at 1st level. I guess this depends on wide-spread knowledge of your family is going to be - check with your DM for that one.

[TC X0 Lt 0X]

I actually missed that one.
Hmm, it makes sense to take it for the 10% discount, but the Unfriendly hurts early on when my Diplomacy might not be able to push someones attitude up. With the action taking a minute too, I might find it difficult to complete the check before the target leaves. Working with guild associates will but me to indifferent at least.
Any Feats or options that move up a targets starting disposition, preferably nonmagical?

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Just noticed one of Amechra's build back at BG.

Community based Diplomancing, ought to drive up sales.

[TC X0 Lt 0X]

Is there an option to do Diplomacy on an entire Community at once?

[phaedrusxy]

Evangelist has something like that.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

hmm might be interesting to list

a1) ... the early GP stuff as like the Venture Capital to start the business
a2) ... borrowing money via what rules?  Savage Species rituals can be payed for after the fact.

b1) ... the various means to upslope the business expansion.
b2) ... basic gold tricks don't count, go for r.a.i. first then I.D. the bork stuff

c) ... the constant infusion of Adventuring Loot, to smooth over rough spots, possible best tactics for when, etc

d) ... iirc there've been a few threads about spells that disrupt "the" economy, probably dive through X-Codes' Platinum spells


My guess is a1 and c might not even be needed, if b1 gets worked out well enough.

[TC X0 Lt 0X]

So I discovered the Dune Trader from Dark Sun.
5 levels, 8 Skill Points, 20% discount to buying stuff, Retries on Bluff/Diplomacy, Free Cohort that stacks (awkwardly) with Leadership, weird Favor calling capstone dependent on DM interpretation., and better 1-3/week contact favor which includes an additional 5% discount to purchases, effective free DC20 checks to skills, and other useful stuff pending DM interpretation.
Can be entered by Level 5 with skill points and a terrible campaign +2/+2 skill bonus feat.

Overall not bad.

Probably going to shave 2 levels of Rogue and 2 levels of Alliance Merchant off for this, and take at least 4 levels. The 5th level capstone  is a little vague and the extra contact use is not needed badly so it can probably be skipped.

[Soft Insanity]

You linked the web version of Power of Faerune.  The book itself includes expanded rules for the dmg 2, starting on page 62.
If I were going to make a merchant character who used the DMG 2 rules, I'd go for an artificer who specializes in portals and lightning rails.  The stat block for the epic level merchant on page 82-83 as well as the leadership rules pertaining to business at the beginning of the chapter makes it pretty clear you can own an entire network of businesses.  The artificer can also "cheese" his skill checks for long duration to great effect up to and including changing bonus types on skill boosting items.(if those are allowed)
My favorite aspect of the system is that you only suffer a minor penalty comparatively by just ignoring your business.  Once a month, you just show up, make a standard action skill check, and you're good.  This indicates that you can use spells such as guidance of the avatar and divine insight on checks even tho it would normally seem counter intuitive to do so.  Just use concurrent infusion "spell storing" to cast those spells for free.(it has no component/xp cost)
Your skills should be selected in such a way as to be able to score the "franchise" option if the monthly chart is in play.  If it's not in play, I'd just get the minimum required on secondary skills.  Once you get the franchise, you're looking at some pretty disgusting numbers if you can afford the payoff.
Basically, My level 20 merchant character would be Artificer 18/Chameleon 2, with an Artificer/Chameleon companion.  Take a bunch of reduction feats including the portal specific one and elemental artisan, and go nuts playing railroad tycoon.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

So I discovered the ** Dune Trader from Dark Sun.
5 levels, 8 Skill Points, 20% discount to buying stuff, Retries on Bluff/Diplomacy, Free Cohort that stacks (awkwardly) with Leadership, weird Favor calling capstone dependent on DM interpretation., and better 1-3/week contact favor which includes an additional 5% discount to purchases, effective free DC20 checks to skills, and other useful stuff pending DM interpretation.
Can be entered by Level 5 with skill points and a terrible campaign +2/+2 skill bonus feat.

Overall not bad.

Probably going to shave 2 levels of Rogue and 2 levels of Alliance Merchant off for this, and take at least 4 levels. The 5th level capstone  is a little vague and the extra contact use is not needed badly so it can probably be skipped.

Niice.  That's quite tasty looking, but ...
I went poking around for this at Athas.org.
I kept finding only the 2e Book, not what you've got.
You have a link to that?

[TC X0 Lt 0X]

http://www.athas.org/products/ds3
Last PDF link (DS3_r7.pdf) is the 3.5 Rulebook.
I believe the class also appears in one of the Prestige class appendix, but the feat does not.
The Feat is just +2 Appraise/Diplomacy though so not much to look up.

The Website is set up quite nasty imo =P

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Thanks, found it.

Looks kinda seriously interesting.

[TC X0 Lt 0X]

Hmmm so I noticed the Dune Trader has two versions, the version in the base rulebook which has 10 levels and the version in the Prestige Class appendix which has 5 levels.
The 10 level version has the same class features but more spread out across the board, but also has a few extra features to round it out.

Link to Appendix: http://www.athas.org/products/prc1/documents/39