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The Merchant Class

From

Taron Pounds

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$9.95

For over three years, the Merchant has been bringing more business-minded adventurers to Dungeons & Dragons tables around the world!

The merchant a high-support spellcaster that helps the party stay equipped and rewards players that enjoy solving problems using the equipment they have on-hand rather than spellcasting and skill checks. The class creates characters with the playstyle of a:

• Midline Support with spells and features that manipulate the abilities and overall power of other creatures.

• Supplier that gives the party guaranteed access to both mundane and magical items on-the-go.

• Dungeoneer and Face, equipped for the perils of adventuring with a large arsenal of on-demand items.

While this class was first and foremost designed to be a Player Character option, its high support playstyle and unique Portable Storefront feature can be used to create NPCs the party is sure to want to keep around. Allow your players to truly shine by:

• Subsidizing the expensive material components and spell slots of your casters with the Merchant's value-based magic

• Allow them to customize enchantments on their magic items with the Blacksmith, keep them healthy and buffed with the Apothecary, or build a new addition to their base with the Architect!

• Give them a way to shop on the road!

Statblocks for merchant NPCs are provided at the end of the class for examples of how to create such NPCs!

The Merchant Class on Fantasy Grounds

	Community Reviews 4.7/5 Stars
	Eric "Rogue Watson" Watson "I'm gonna say it right now: the Merchant Class is one of my favorite class supplements that I have reviewed-I think so far-in my years of reviewing class supplements."
	Nerd Immersion (Ted Sikora) Rated 2nd in Ted's Top Homebrew Classes "I really like it a lot, probably more than I should? I think I'll definitely be using this to populate my NPCs."
	heavyarms (Creator of the Armorer's Handbook) "The Merchant is a fantastic class that brings a whole new play style to an adventuring party. Not just to one player--to the whole party.The 3rd-Anniversary update adds even more subclasses, including the Architect by guest contributor Ross Leiser (Outlandish Adventure Productions) which I'm excited to see in-play, but my heart will always be with the Swindler because their Misdirection feature is so ridiculous and wonderful."
	Home Brew Crew "Ever wish you had a traveling merchant to follow you around in your Dungeons & Dragons adventures. Wouldn't it be great to have exactly what you need right when you needed it? Feel like there should be a role in the party for a pure support class caster, who always seems to have the very thing you need... for a price of course. Well, then the Merchant Class by Taron Pounds is exactly what you have been searching for to put into your homebrew campaign!"

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Reviews (4)

Discussions (37)

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Damian F December 22, 2022 3:46 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Hm, the v3 changelog mentioned a spell called "Land Grab", but I don't see it in the V3.2 version of the file. What happened to that spell?

Taron P December 23, 2022 5:27 am UTC

CREATOR

Ah yeah, Land Grab was a spell that was concepted and just didn't make it through to the final pass. There is an update coming in early-to-mid 2023.

Matías R November 14, 2022 4:14 am UTC

PURCHASER

Hi. I bought the Merchant class PDF some time ago, I saw that it has received updates. Still it's not clear to me how the main ability "Portable Storefront" works, is it similar to the Bard of Creation ability? What I pull an item at my whim and then it disappears when the bag is restocked. how do I determine the Supply List?

Damian F November 14, 2022 8:40 am UTC

PURCHASER

You make your supply list when you get the feature and change it during a long rest whenever you restock.
Items you brought out won't disappear when you restock, because the items are real. I guess you could say they're conjured or created by money magic. It's just that you have to pay to cover any items you took out and didn't return.

The only part of the Portable Storefront I've never been keen on is "Top Shelf", where you can add magic items in - and that's only because the rules for magic item costs are fuzzy at best, making it a "discuss with the DM" type ability.

Ebony P September 30, 2022 2:38 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Hey there! Bought this class a little while back and started plugging it into foundry. I just hit the Gourmand class and the spell list mentions a spell called Light Bulb with the NAD note on it, but the spell does not appear in the spell list further down. I am having trouble finding any mention of it online. Would you be able to post the spell here?

Thony D April 07, 2022 12:44 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Apologies, but one more thought. The Esotericism Guild's 9th level feature feels quite weak compared to many of the other classes. Considering other classes do things like confer resistance to poison damage, give temporary HP, and can just reduce damage, being able to be undetected by divination-type things for an hour seems quite small.

Taron P April 07, 2022 9:06 pm UTC

CREATOR

Esotericism's 9th level is one of those features that I think shifts in power pretty drastically from table to table. Underdark/Eldritch Horror centric campaigns would see quite a lot of use for it, but others might find it a little lacking. This subclass was also designed pre-Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, so I was still designing way more conservatively than I likely would today. I will say the subclass as a whole package comes with quite a lot of flexibility other Merchants don't have. Page Master is essentially "Magical Secrets on steroids" if you have other spellcasters on your team that spend downtime scribing spells for you. Esotericism is the one subclass here I haven't heard much of any playtest feedback on, so there's potential it might receive some kind of face-lift at a later date.

Lex V November 07, 2022 9:18 am UTC

PURCHASER

I have a question regarding the subclass Esotericism. Page master allows spell scrolls that you find to be added to the portable storefront even if the rarity is higher than allowed. How do you price this spell scroll in the portable storefront? For example I am a lvl 3 merchant with a max of 150 gold in the storefront and I find a lvl 2 spell scroll priced at 250 if u buy it normally. Does this mean that it can't be added due to the pricing or does the price not count towards the storefront inventory?

I also have a question regarding the spell scrolls that can be added to the storefront. How does this compare to the Wizard with his spellbook? Wouldn't this feature just add more flexibility than a traditional wizard spell book? This being the result of changing your storefront inventory during a longrest?

Thony D April 04, 2022 10:12 am UTC

PURCHASER

I just bought this class yesterday, as one of my players loved the idea of the character and split the cost with me. This class is utterly wonderful. A serious support class that's just the right amount of silly. This clearly has a lot of hard work and love in it. That said, there's a few tiny questions and things I'd like to point out.

-A formatting error more than anything, but a few of the spells "At higher levels" portions aren't in bold, making them a bit hard to read.

-For the spell "Money Shot", is it intended to be able to let you attack twice in the same turn for the casting of the spell? As it costs an action to initially use it, then a bonus action, in seems one can do that. Not that the spell is that terribly powerful, but not what I'm used to seeing.

-The Mugger feat is a delightful idea. My only gripe is the lack of wording about needing to be holding an object already in order to plant one, or clarity on being able to pull out and plant...See more

Taron P February 09, 2022 6:37 am UTC

CREATOR

Version 3.2 Change Log:
General
• Layout updates

Proficiencies
• Removed "crossbows" as a proficiency.

Equipment
• Swapped hand crossbow for light crossbow.

Portable Storefront
• Change to pulling the item from the bag now shifting from Bonus Action to Use an Object, with the use of the object being a part of the same action. Current Merchant characters will need an update for the new wording.

• Restocking should be a little easier to interpret and is generally more straightforward on its restrictions.

Spells
• Mandrake Minion was cleaned up and will require updating any Merchant characters with the spell.

Damian F January 30, 2022 11:26 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Oh, just noticed the V3 is out! Yay!
Quick question so I don't scour through the whole document - are there any notable changes from V 2.5 features on the main class, spells, or subclasses other than just adding new ones?

Taron P January 30, 2022 11:51 pm UTC

CREATOR

There's a few quality of life changes and rules clarifications in the base class, but nothing that should dramatically change anything about Merchants made with the v2.4 or later.

James L January 12, 2022 8:04 am UTC

PURCHASER

Hi Taron

Great class, the only suggestion I can think of at the moment is maybe to clear up the wording of the Forgemaster feature that's part of the blacksmith subclass. Currently the "The item can gain enchantments through your Retool Enchantments feature without adding to the total enchantments on the item." part of the feature text makes it sound like you can place as many enchantments upon the weapon without a limit (I think you were trying to say that the Forgemaster feature doesn't count as a property with using Retool Enchantments feature on the item?). Otherwise I really enjoyed this class and it's options ^_^ .

Kind Regards
James

Aidan A November 23, 2021 1:54 am UTC

PURCHASER

I had a question about the spell "Money Shot" and its up casting, do all the extra coins attack on the bonus action or is it multiple coins but only one coin can attack per bonus action? If it is the former does the coins act like a "magic missile" where each coin is its own attack and they all have the spellcasting ability modifier added on? Because I'm having concerns on its balancing with it being compared to "Spiritual Weapon" since at a upcasting to an equal spell level it has a much higher damage output. And If its the latter I'm having trouble seeing the uses for multiple of them.

marc G October 29, 2021 4:01 pm UTC

PURCHASER

What do use as a standard gold cost for magic items for your portable store front? (As far as I can tell there are no prices in any of the official books)

Damian F October 29, 2021 7:51 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Personally I use the prices listed in the "Buying Magic Items" downtime activity from Xanathar's Guide, using the average dice result and halving for consumables.

Justin S September 03, 2021 1:56 am UTC

PURCHASER

Stupid question on the pet dealer that can be house-ruled for sure but I'd like a solid answer. If a domesticated creature is sold to another person will it count as controlled by the buyer or still be controlled by the character that tamed it and in either case, will interaction with another person keep the domestication effect going or does it have to be the original caster that tends to the creature?

Gage R August 29, 2021 1:10 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Minor suggestion: Pilfer's higher level casting doesn't really add anything. You could just cast the spell as a 1st level and it will actually be better since when combat ends you will lose any unclaimed gold from the spell once you run out of targets and the duration expires. Might I suggest that when cast at higher levels the spell generates the same multiple of gold as the spell provides (For example: A 2nd tier casting has a gold limit of 40, and you generate gold on each strike equal to the damage dealt x2. A 3rd tier spell has a limit of 60 and generates gold on each strike equal to the damage dealt x3, and so on). That's what I did back when my one player played a Traveller Merchant, and the homeruling for it was rather balanced.

Kyle O August 25, 2021 4:19 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Hey Taron, I finally got a PC to sit down and write up a Merchant at level 2 for a new campaign i just stared. And my PC and I did have some balance questions right out the gate. I assume the answer will be you just need to have a good PC that isnt looking to ruin your game bc we were looking ahead and what stops your merchant from stocking on the top shelf gauntlets of ogre strength for example and just handing them out to your party every day so the entire team is decked out to the teeth with crazy items like that. Is it just on a fundamental trust factor where he knows he has that kind of influence over the party and must use it responsibly or is there something i am missing when reading the class?

Taron P August 26, 2021 2:55 am UTC

CREATOR

Sorry, I'm trying to understand your question. If you join up with my Discord, me or one of the several playtesters could possibly give you a thorough answer?

Nothing stops you from stocking Top Shelf items other than the stipulations within the feature's text, but they don't refresh every single day. Those are restocked once for free as a part of gaining the feature, then must be restocked with gp afterwords.

I'm not sure if I answered your question, but I hope it helped.

Kyle O August 26, 2021 4:26 am UTC

PURCHASER

Yeah, no worries, can I have the link to the server? I would be happy to explain further

Ian E August 11, 2021 1:29 am UTC

PURCHASER

This class has loads of potential, even with all these subclasses already. My suggestion is adding 3 more subclasses after the next ones: A Jewel Cutter or Jewelry Maker, something to do with plants so maybe a florist, and a literal builder, like a stone mason or something. I was gonna add a Tailor but Natalie N already suggested that.

I'm Just throwing Ideas out, also do you make your own deadlines for these types of things or do you just go with the flow?

Taron P August 11, 2021 3:38 am UTC

CREATOR

I think you'll be quite happy with the coming update.

I originally had more updates planned beyond the upcoming Gold update, but this class picked up way too much steam too quickly for me to keep up with it and real life work! This next one will bring the Merchant up to the more modern 5e design philosophies and increase the overall palette of character expression.

Thanks so much for your comment!

Natalie N August 07, 2021 10:14 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Hey Taron will there be Tailor in the Merchant Class

Jacob B August 05, 2021 11:32 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Hey, I had a question about the Gambler's Jackpot feature, as it says "gp appear in your Portable Storefront of an amount equal to your Portable Storefront's value." Does this mean that I just gain an amount of gold equal to my portable storefront value for free and its being held in my bag, or does it mean that I can restock my portable storefront for free? I might be misreading something. Thanks for the help in advance!

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