Bargain in Chult is expected and is a personal offence to the dealer accepting his first offer as the final price.
Dealers bargain ability varies from Attendant [in case of a roll of 1 on a d6 - Easy, DC10(2d4+5)], Employee [2-3/d6 - Moderate, DC15(2d4+10)], and Owner [4-6/d6, Hard, DC20 (2d4+15)]. Trying to win a deal against one of the Merchant Princes is an HeroicDC30 (2d4+25) bargain.
Either in case of sell or buy, You must compare your Charisma (Deception) or Charisma (Persuasion) roll against the DC of the dealer.
Every deal You secure may change the attitude of the dealer against You for future deals. Three rolls (5 minutes per bargain attempts) are the expected bargain progress of a deal; any roll in excess or less than expected shifts the starting attitude (that is Indifferent only the first time You meet the dealer) one step worse.
Remember to record your status with this dealer for future deals. Every step worst than Indifferent for future deals adds 5 (2d4) to the bargain DC of this dealer against You. An Hostile dealer refuses to process any deal with the offending customer.
Keep track of the positive or negative outstanding of your rolls (the difference you got against the dealer DC), add them all, and apply the following rules to determine the final bargained price.
In case you're trying to sell a good, use 3x the total outstanding modifier as a percentage increase added to the base 50% value.
In case you're trying to buy a good, use 2x the total outstanding modifier as a percentage discount to apply to the base 100% value.
Optional Social Rules:
For this purpose, I extended the basic social attitude (Friendly, Indifferent, Hostile) to a more reasonable and backward compatible scale (Helpful, Friendly, Indifferent, Unfriendly, Hostile).
At the start of each transaction, once for all the duration of the bargaining procedure, a character can try to shift one step toward friendship the starting attitude of the dealer. The ability involved can be Charisma (Intimidation) or Charisma (Persuasion). The following option applies only to dealers whose starting attitude is worst than Indifferent.
If You beat the dealer DC by at least 5, You gain a d4 bonus on your rolls, without changing his starting attitude.
If You beat the dealer DC by at least 10, You gain a d4 bonus on your rolls, permanently lowering his current attitude by one step.
NOTICE: any failure involving Charisma (Intimidation), immediately shifts the dealer attitude one step toward Hostile.
For example:
Skaar, the Tabaxi rogue, want to sell the 250 gp gem Syndra gave them as an up-front reward. He goes to the Jewel Market (area 10) and after noticing a very young chultan boy attending a suk - he tried a Wisdom (Insight) roll to avoid rolling to determine the dealer ability - and decided to try to deal with him.
Against his expectation (the roll he done was unsuccessful), he finds himself involved in a deal with Emporo Dawa, a skilled employee (rolled 3 on a d6), whose bargain ability DC is 13 (2d4+10).
Skaar goes for his first attempt (Emporo attitude is Indifferent against him since it's the first time they meet) and after 5 minutes of discussion about nature and origin of the gem, he rolls a 15 (d20+4) on his Charisma (Deception). The outstanding modifier after this first round is +2 since Emporo bargain DC is 13.
Emporo is a skilled and inquisitive talker, thus Skaar is caught in the second round of bargain without even notice it. Emporo is confident in his ability, but this time Skaar truly outnumbers his opponent, rolling a critical 24 (d20+4) on his Charisma (Persuasion) skill. The modifier he gains after this second round is +11 since Emporo bargain DC is 13, for a total outstanding modifier of +13 (+2 from the first round, plus +11 from second round).
Skaar knows that things can only going worst after this performance so he refuses any further dealing and fixes the deal price to what he currently achieved.
Emporo, surprised by the behaviour of the Tabaxi, shifts his attitude against Skaar from Indifferent to Unfriendly, printing his face and demeanour into his memory for future deals.
Skaar total outstanding modifier was +13, so he left the suk of Emporo Dawa with 20 pp, 22 gp and 1 ep [50% +13 x3 = 89% of 250gp gem value) into his pouch.
Hope You'll find this useful to make your bargain in Port Nyanzaru and other Chultan areas spicier.
Bargaining in Port Nyanzaru
Bargain in Chult is expected and is a personal offence to the dealer accepting his first offer as the final price.
Dealers bargain ability varies from Attendant [in case of a roll of 1 on a d6 - Easy, DC 10 (2d4+5)], Employee [2-3/d6 - Moderate, DC 15 (2d4+10)], and Owner [4-6/d6, Hard, DC 20 (2d4+15)]. Trying to win a deal against one of the Merchant Princes is an Heroic DC 30 (2d4+25) bargain.
Either in case of sell or buy, You must compare your Charisma (Deception) or Charisma (Persuasion) roll against the DC of the dealer.
Every deal You secure may change the attitude of the dealer against You for future deals. Three rolls (5 minutes per bargain attempts) are the expected bargain progress of a deal; any roll in excess or less than expected shifts the starting attitude (that is Indifferent only the first time You meet the dealer) one step worse.
Remember to record your status with this dealer for future deals. Every step worst than Indifferent for future deals adds 5 (2d4) to the bargain DC of this dealer against You. An Hostile dealer refuses to process any deal with the offending customer.
Keep track of the positive or negative outstanding of your rolls (the difference you got against the dealer DC), add them all, and apply the following rules to determine the final bargained price.
Optional Social Rules:
For this purpose, I extended the basic social attitude (Friendly, Indifferent, Hostile) to a more reasonable and backward compatible scale (Helpful, Friendly, Indifferent, Unfriendly, Hostile).
At the start of each transaction, once for all the duration of the bargaining procedure, a character can try to shift one step toward friendship the starting attitude of the dealer. The ability involved can be Charisma (Intimidation) or Charisma (Persuasion). The following option applies only to dealers whose starting attitude is worst than Indifferent.
NOTICE: any failure involving Charisma (Intimidation), immediately shifts the dealer attitude one step toward Hostile.
For example:
Skaar, the Tabaxi rogue, want to sell the 250 gp gem Syndra gave them as an up-front reward. He goes to the Jewel Market (area 10) and after noticing a very young chultan boy attending a suk - he tried a Wisdom (Insight) roll to avoid rolling to determine the dealer ability - and decided to try to deal with him.
Against his expectation (the roll he done was unsuccessful), he finds himself involved in a deal with Emporo Dawa, a skilled employee (rolled 3 on a d6), whose bargain ability DC is 13 (2d4+10).
Skaar goes for his first attempt (Emporo attitude is Indifferent against him since it's the first time they meet) and after 5 minutes of discussion about nature and origin of the gem, he rolls a 15 (d20+4) on his Charisma (Deception). The outstanding modifier after this first round is +2 since Emporo bargain DC is 13.
Emporo is a skilled and inquisitive talker, thus Skaar is caught in the second round of bargain without even notice it. Emporo is confident in his ability, but this time Skaar truly outnumbers his opponent, rolling a critical 24 (d20+4) on his Charisma (Persuasion) skill. The modifier he gains after this second round is +11 since Emporo bargain DC is 13, for a total outstanding modifier of +13 (+2 from the first round, plus +11 from second round).
Skaar knows that things can only going worst after this performance so he refuses any further dealing and fixes the deal price to what he currently achieved.
Emporo, surprised by the behaviour of the Tabaxi, shifts his attitude against Skaar from Indifferent to Unfriendly, printing his face and demeanour into his memory for future deals.
Skaar total outstanding modifier was +13, so he left the suk of Emporo Dawa with 20 pp, 22 gp and 1 ep [50% +13 x3 = 89% of 250gp gem value) into his pouch.
Hope You'll find this useful to make your bargain in Port Nyanzaru and other Chultan areas spicier.
Beyond the Woods (HB) - DM
Curse of Strahd - DM
Out of the Abyss - DM
Tomb of Annihilation - DM
Playing and Mastering D&D since 1984.
This is awesome, can't wait to implement in my upcoming TOA game!