Who Runs Barter Town

My group has actually requested a skill challenge to be able to get more money out of items, the feel that 20% of an item isn't enough. I personally don't see it being that unbalanced to allow more, considering the party is often using funds to cast rituals and buy non-essential items.

The following skill challenge i present is something that can be requested by the players, it offers no xp, simply the ability to gain a bit more gold from items. The key problem with this kind of skill challenge is that if they fail, the group can just sell the item at 20% or disenchant it to residium.

This is why i designed the failure to be that no one is willing to buy items from the party in town, the players need to be aware of the risk they take when they chose this skill challenge

Also i increased the complexity as the players reach new tiers, the reason for this is because being high level you are known more, merchants would need more convincing to give you more money for items when its wildly known that you have much more gold then they do.

Bartering for a better price

Perception & Insight (Easy DC)
Each skill confers a +2 bonus to the next roll, its used to determin how well the bartering is going. Each time they do this, the DM may tell the player how many success they have, and how many more they need.

Streetwise, Thievery, Arcana (Moderate DC)
Each skill can only be used for one success, they are used to show the value of the item, and to convince the seller that others might be willing to pay more.

Bluff & Intimidate (Hard DC)
Each skill can only be used for two success, if a bluff or intimidate roll is failed, it grants a -2 to all rolls made by the party until the skill challenge is over. Also once failed that skill cannot be used again this challenge

Diplomacy & History (Moderate DC)
The bulk of the skill challenge is used to convince the buyer that the item is worth more, and provide history of the item, and history of the sale. Diplomacy & history can be used for as many success as the group wishes.

Heroic: Complexity 2 (6 success before 3 failures)
Paragon: Complexity 3 (8 success before 4 failures)
Epic: Complexity 4 (10 success before 5 failures)

Success: The party can sell items in this town at 30% - 1% per failed roll. This lasts until the next time the party is in town.
Failure: The party can never again attempt to barter in this town as they have been labeled cheap. No one is willing to buy their items.

See DMG page 42 for Difficulty Class by Level (Remember to increase DCs by 5 for skill checks)


DM Tip o the day
In last nights game i had one party member decided to sleep away from the rest of the party, to spice things up and add some role playing opportunity i had some guards go to where he was sleeping and cause trouble. Instead of role playing he just said "i kill them" instead of me wasting time building an encounter on the spot that i really didn't plan for, i just said, OK -1 healing surge, this place is no longer safe. It allowed me to go back and focus on the game at hand, and no one felt left out. However in this case i did not reward experience points, i am thinking that i should at least offer some sort of reward since he paid a cost. (not that it matter in the long run)

Well that's it for today, until next time keep the dice on the table.