Vendor Mechanics??

[berniemckean]

I do not understand vendor mechanics. Hopefully, I can explain this well enough for someone to give me Insite.

I have two groups I’m playing, both of which are in the Lower City of Baldur’s Gate. It seems the vendor discount is tied to the individual somehow. Some of my characters receive a greater discount than others. I’ve read that you should use a character that has a high level Performance Skill and use the Enhance Ability spell to grant you Advantage on Charisma checks. I tested that and not so sure.

So it’s Act3, Lower City. Both Groups have rescued Figaro from that assassin. The Highlight Color listed below is the color the vendor will reveal if you hover the mouse over them. Usually Yellow or Green

Group1
https://imgur.com/t8zP8b4

Group2
https://imgur.com/MIE05ba

[Smerk]

Charisma is your friend for merchant prices. No expert here but a few items in act 3 buff charisma too.

[Izuzul]

^^^ What they said. You can also switch to Barter mode and give a vendor either gold or items to increase vendor approval to get better prices overall.

It's cheaper to influence a vendor the lower you level is. At lvl 1 you need 400g value to get to 100% approval at lvl 12 it's like 4500 or 5k.

So Dammon for instance it's much better to get max approval with him asap because he is also in act 2 and 3 (depending on how your story plays out).

[Pacipoodillie]

As far as I'm aware there are only two factors for purchase price from vendors, the Charisma score, and the Affinity the vendor has toward the character that initiated the trade dialogue.

I'm not sure if all of the Cha scores work toward discounts but I believe it will be based off the Skill (Deception, Intimidation, Performance, Persuasion) and not the Ability Score itself.

As far as using Enhance Ability for better prices, I don't think that it does. Enhance Ability only confers advantage on a roll using the ability chosen and does not add an actual score modifier.

If anything were going to work it would be Guidance as that adds to your scores but again it does so when a die is rolled and there isn't a roll when you enter the trade screen it just pulls the score off your character sheet. I think I tried it before and it didn't work.

Edit: There are times in the game where assisting a merchant leads to them offering a discount. Whether they actually provide a discount, and if so whether the discount is applied to the entire party or just the character that spoke with said merchant, I have no idea but it may be a mechanic.

[Pat Fenis]

Persuasion skill and attitude determine prices. Charisma helps because it adds to persuasion, gaining proficiency / expertise is a chonky boost.

[Oozy Monster]

Originally posted by Pat Fenis:

Persuasion skill and attitude determine prices. Charisma helps because it adds to persuasion, gaining proficiency / expertise is a chonky boost.

I thought CHA and attitude, didn't know it was actually persuasion. Hmmm. . .time to respec my bard with expertise.