Everybody loves an NPC shopkeeper in D&D.
But what if instead of just befriending them for discounts,
you could actually play as one?
A traveling merchant, on the road with an adventuring party,
always ready with whatever items they need?
Well, Taron Pounds, known on YouTube as Indestructoboy,
has an answer: The Merchant, a support spellcasting class.
And I gotta tell you,
it's been a long time since I've felt as excited
about the potential of a class
as I felt reading over this one.
Not only does it allow
for a ridiculously wide variety of interpretations,
but it also has a really cool and unique core mechanic
that is unlike any other D&D class.
That's why I chose it for today's video,
which is sponsored by DMsGuild.
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to monster collections and magic items.
There are thousands of PDFs,
all created by DMs like you to help improve your games
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Make sure to use my code for a discount
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whether or not it includes The Merchant.
Learn more in the description.
Today, we're gonna look in detail at the Merchant class,
which includes a staggering 11 subclasses,
each with their own unique flavor and role in the party.
(mystical music)
If you think the Merchant might be a good fit in your game,
hopefully this video will help you decide.
And if not, maybe it'll at least give you
some fun NPC ideas!
On a basic level,
the Merchant is described as a spellcasting support class,
and I think that's more true for the Merchant than it is
for almost any other class normally described as support.
Most of their abilities are practical, not martial,
and out of their entire spell list,
I can count the spells that deal damage on one hand.
Whether they're helping their fellow adventurers
with guidance, or feather fall, or darkvision,
or controlling the battlefield with hold person,
counterspell, or slow, almost every spell
on the Merchant list is about solving problems
and buffing the party.
But the true core of the class
is in their easy access to items.
Need ammunition for a ranged weapon?
You're now traveling with a reliable supply.
Rations? Covered.
Want daily access to holy water,
healing potions, bombs, basic poison?
Thanks to the Merchant, you can buy one a day, indefinitely.
With some restrictions, of course.
- What, you thought it would be free?
I'm a merchant, not a charity.
Gotta get that bread, as they say.
- It's a very common problem in D&D
that once parties start to reach higher levels,
they have way more money than they'll ever spend.
Apart from providing useful access to items,
this class also gives the party something practical to do
with their accumulated riches.
This feature, the true core of the Merchant class,
is called the portable storefront.
(mystical music)
This is probably my favorite part
because it's so darn whimsical:
a Merchant gets to choose any closable container,
maybe a classic traveling merchant's oversized backpack,
or a steamer trunk, or whatever suits their style,
and designate it as their portable storefront.
It's magic, and acts a bit like a Bag of Holding,
in that it can carry any number of items
while still only weighing 10 pounds.
You simply reach into it and think of the item you want.
But just like a Bag of Holding,
you can't just pull out anything you can think of.
It has to be in stock.
When you take your first level in Merchant
and create your portable storefront,
you choose your supply list.
This is a list of items of your choice
that don't exceed the total storefront value
and rarity limit for your level.
For example, at level one, your storefront can only hold
50 gold worth of common items.
That could mean that you have dozens of cheap items,
like paper, rations, arrows, and rope,
or just a handful of more expensive items,
like acid, holy water, or ink.
It could even mean that you stock one,
single healing potion!
It's entirely up to you how to allocate that budget.
As you level up, your storefront grows, so by level 10,
you can stock 1,000 gold worth of items.
You also unlock something called the top shelf,
which allows you to stock a handful of higher rarity items
that ignore your total storefront budget.
Of course, just because something is in stock
doesn't mean it's infinite.
If you take an item out of the storefront
and don't return it in the same state within the hour,
you'll have to restock it.
To do so, you just pay the value of the item in gold
into the storefront before a long rest.
So if you drink that healing potion,
it'll cost you 50 gold to get another one,
but you don't have to travel back to town to do it,
and as long as you have the money,
you're guaranteed to get the item.
You can also change your supply list over any long rest,
as long as the item you're changing out is in stock.
You can prepare items
based on what the party is planning on doing,
maybe stocking rope, pitons,
and grappling hooks before venturing into the mountains,
and then swapping those items out for snowshoes
and cold weather clothing
before you explore the peaks the next day.
At level 10, you get a really cool feature called backstock,
where you can reach into the portable storefront
and try to pull out an item that is not on your supply list.
To find it, you need to roll at or below
your Merchant level on percentile dice.
It's basically divine intervention, but for shopping.
The only flaw in this system that I can pinpoint
is that magic items don't have firm, defined prices,
which means that once you reach levels
where you can afford to include magic items,
creating your supply list may end up
being more like a conversation with your DM
than it is selecting from a list of items.
But honestly, I think the fact that magic items
don't have firm prices is more of a flaw with fifth edition
than a flaw with this particular class.
For DMs who don't want to deal with individually pricing out
magic items for a Merchant player,
I would suggest just grabbing the magic item rarity table
from the DMG and making a call that suits your game.
So if magic items aren't super unusual, maybe you just say,
"If the table says 50-100 gold, it costs 50."
Or, if you want a little more nuance,
just download one of the many magic item price lists
that folks have created online.
I know Kassoon.com has one,
and there's also a PDF created by Saidoro called
"Sane Magic Item Prices" that I really like.
However you decide to handle it,
just communicate with your player about it upfront
so they know what limitations they're operating under.
(whimsical music)
Like any casting class,
the Merchant has a complete spell list,
which includes spells from official D&D
as well as a few spells that are original to this supplement
or pulled from other third party creators' work.
Each subclass also gets an additional spell list.
But it's when the Merchant isn't using their spell slots
for casting that this class really does something unique.
Instead of spending their spell slots on casting,
they can use those slots almost like currency,
breaking them down into smaller spell levels,
handing them off to another caster,
or even using them to subsidize material components.
Just like you could exchange one gold piece for 10 silver,
the Merchant can exchange spell slots for equivalent,
lower level slots.
They could swap one third level slot
for three first level slots,
or for one first level and one second level.
They can also transfer a spell slot
to another caster just by touching them.
And if one of your allies uses a spell
that calls for a material component,
you can use your reaction to expend a spell slot
of the same level to take the place of that component.
- Ugh! But it's my last spell slot!
How about this: I'll give you the spell slot,
and you give me your fingernail clippings
for the next two months.
What does it matter what I'm gonna do with them?
Do you want the spell slot or not?
- I think this spell slot bartering is such a cool idea
to bring the economics of the Merchant
into the way they use magic.
And since many of the spells on the Merchant spell list
have really specific use cases,
there may come a time when other casters
have already used up their resources,
and the Merchant's unused spell slots
might be more effective in somebody else's hands.
It's kind of the ultimate support caster move,
to be honest, and I'm obsessed with it.
(whimsical music)
Okay, we've finally gotten to the good part: Subclasses.
For the Merchant, this is called your Guild.
Taron has gone hard on this selection
with 11 different options, and more than anything,
reading through them showed me
that you could play a Merchant in a million different ways
There are a lot,
so I'm gonna summarize them as efficiently as I can.
There's the Architect, who can conjure magical walls
and gets spells like Leomund's Tiny Hut and Stone Shape;
the Blacksmith, who can craft
and even enchant weapons and armor;
the Esotericist, who specializes in arcane goods
and can detect and even duplicate curses;
the Gambler, who has an incredibly cool mechanic
that utilizes a real deck of cards,
which I could make a whole separate video about,
to be honest;
the Gourmand, who cooks magical food that buffs the party;
the Mariner, who would really only be practical
in a seafaring campaign,
but would be awesome in that context;
the Pet Dealer, who gets a familiar
and can summon and domesticate beasts,
and even aberrations or monstrosities at higher levels;
the Potion Seller,
who can craft potions and restock them at half price;
the Swindler, who's basically a cross
between a rogue and a merchant;
the Toymaker, who can animate their own little toy army;
and the Vagabond,
who's just broadly suited to travel and survival.
The character I created for this video
is an Esotericism Merchant!
I picked this class because well, let's be real,
it's because I have an addiction to spooky weirdos.
But also because it allows for a true arcane specialty
that really appeals to me.
I think this would be a great subclass for a dark,
horror-themed campaign like Curse of Strahd,
where the themes this subclass deals with
have a higher likelihood of coming up in-game.
First things first,
this subclass gets a few more combat-ready spells,
like hex and phantasmal force,
as well as some practical ones
that are more thematic to Esotericism,
like banishment and remove curse.
At third level, when you pick your subclass,
you get a feature called Eye for Curses,
which gives you proficiency with Arcana and Jeweler's Kits,
but also gives you a chance to identify
when an item is cursed while casting Identify,
which all Merchants get as a ritual at level two.
You also get a feature called Page Master
that gives Merchants a really interesting way
to interact with spell scrolls:
You can place a spell scroll of any rarity
into your portable storefront for storage.
While it's in there, you can prepare and cast this spell
as if it were a Merchant spell,
without consuming the scroll.
And of course, you can always pull the scroll back out
and use or sell it as normal.
At fifth level, you get Occult Sagacity,
which gives you insight into others' spellcasting.
When you witness someone casting a spell,
you can use your reaction to roll an Arcana check
against their spell save DC.
If you succeed, you learn what the spell is,
what the casters' spellcasting ability is,
and you gain advantage on any saving throws
against their spells for one minute.
I think this is such a clever feature,
because it really embodies the flavor of this subclass
as an Arcana expert,
and in a way that gives the player an opportunity
to be really strategic if they want to,
especially when combined with spells
like Hex or Bestow Curse.
At ninth level,
you get a feature called The Patronage of Patrons,
and it gives you the ability to temporarily protect yourself
from mind reading, divination spells,
and telepathic messages.
This is one of those features
that could be more or less useful depending on the campaign,
and how much your DM is paying attention
to your class features
when designing the challenges that you'll face.
Finally, at 15th level,
you unlock the feature Curse Scribe,
which I absolutely love:
Identify now automatically reveals
whether or not any item is cursed,
and the properties of that curse.
Also, you can attune to a cursed item
and choose not to be cursed by it.
But the best part is,
you can also basically clone a curse across multiple items!
In the rules as written,
there isn't a way for player characters
to create cursed items,
so I think this is a really exciting feature!
I wanna curse stuff so bad.
- For cutting me off with your carriage so grand.
Each time that you drink, you'll taste mouthfuls of sand.
And for one whole year, by my arcane command,
No lover will have you but your own right hand!
- If you're sold on the Merchant class, pun intended,
you can pick it up on DMsGuild
at the link in the description.
It's normally $9.95 for the PDF
and $19.95 for the print book,
but it's actually 25% off through the end of the month,
so it's even cheaper right now!
Taron also has two other homebrew subclasses,
which are equally inventive and thoughtful,
the Dancer, which is sort of like
a rogue-meets-bard martial support class,
and the Alchemist, which goes way beyond
what the Artificer subclass offers and is a must-buy
for anyone who's into alchemy as a fantasy trope.
You can get all three of these subclasses as a bundle,
and I'll put that link in the description as well.
Finally, don't forget to use my code
to get a discount on your purchase.
- Instead of discounts and sales,
my shop has a loyalty program.
So after your 10th purchase,
you get a free human skull!