Social climbers are sometimes wandering diplomats, hired by powerful people to help smooth over mistakes and broker truces and other such deals. Sometimes they are merchants, seeking social advancement through coin. These silver-tongued heroes learn to profitably navigate the ins and outs of high society.
Example Backgrounds: Feud-Breaker, Arms Dealer, Elturguard Ex-Councillor, Lawyer for Kobold Rights, Manners School Instructor.
Class prerequisite: When you create a character, in order to choose social climber as a class you must have a background related to social grace or commerce.
Level 1 Talent
Practiced Charmer: When someone who you are not in violent conflict with would form an unfavourable or hostile opinion of you and your companions, you may spend 1 adventure point and a minute in conversation with them to give them a neutral opinion of you and your companions. Those with neutral opinions are neither particularly inclined to help or hinder you. When you gain this talent choose one of your backgrounds related to social grace or commerce. This is your social background. From then on, when you make a skill check using your social background and fail you may re-roll one of the dice, possibly turning a failure into a success.
Level 2 Talent
Gossip Gatherer: When you enter a settlement any bigger than a small farming community, you are on good terms with an old friend who is presently residing there. You and the GM should collaborate to decide who this character is and what they are like. This character is happy to catch you up on all of the most important news, rumours, and gossip going around in town, and possibly to make important introductions for you.
Appraiser’s eye: You have advantage on any checks made to find things for sale in markets, and checks made to barter. Additionally, you are able to instantaneously discern the value in gold pieces of any object you are looking at, and the total value of those things carried by a person or creature you are looking at (even when you are unaware of the valuable objects they carry). This power only works until such time that your Game Master becomes fatigued with providing this information upon request, at which point it provides no information, and this talent can be swapped for another talent available to your character at the second level after your next refresh.
Mover and Shaker: When your party sends hirelings and specialists out on a job, you may act as a clerk specialist if you travel with the hirelings as they work. When you do so, your social background counts as your area of expertise. Additionally, you may instruct other specialists in the navigation of politics or trade, such that other specialists employed by your party may substitute your social background for their area of expertise.
Level 6 Talent
Battlefield Truce Maker: You’ve spent enough time in pitched battle to know that there is more than one way out of a fight. At any time, you may spend 1 adventure point to demand a truce and negotiation with an enemy you are fighting who is capable of understanding a language you speak. You have advantage on any rolls to persuade or intimidate an enemy into ending hostilities in that negotiation. After you have entered a negotiation with an enemy once, you cannot call for a truce with them again until you refresh.
Entourage: Your place among society’s noteables easily attracts upwardly mobile individuals into your orbit. Your party’s club may employ a dandy hireling for 2 pull. Dandys have 4 admin and 2 force, or 6 admin and 2 force when working on a job related to your social background. When at least one dandy hireling works on a job, the reputation of your party is enhanced by the job’s success - those who learn about it come to perceive your party as witty, learned, and honorable, if they had no strong opinion of the members of your party beforehand.
Level 10 Talent
Tongue of Silver: Your status as a master negotiator has at last earned you a place in the history books of the realms, and an invitation to practically any event you could want. Your charisma, as well as your maximum charisma, increases by 2.