Casting: A snake oil salesman may combine spheres and talents to create magical effects. She is considered a Low-Caster, using her Charisma as her casting ability modifier. (Note: All casters gain 2 bonus talents, and may choose a casting tradition, upon first gaining the casting class feature.)
This ability replaces sneak attack.
Spell Pool: A snake oil salesman gains a small reservoir of energy she can call on to create truly wondrous effects, called a spell pool. This pool contains a number of spell points equal to her level + her Charisma modifier (minimum 1). This pool replenishes once per day after roughly 8 hours of rest.
Magic Talents: A snake oil salesman gains the Enhancement sphere as a bonus sphere at 1st level, and gains a magic talent at 3rd level and every 2 levels thereafter.
Soul of a Salesman (Ex): The ability to close on a deal before the other party has time to figure out that they are being cheated is the bread and butter of a snake oil salesman. She adds half her level to all Appraise checks, as well as any Bluff checks made to convince someone to buy her products or to trust her (minimum +1).
This ability replaces trapfinding.
Snake Oil (Su): Rather than placing an enhancement from the enhancement sphere onto a target, a snake oil salesman can create a magical substance such as a pill, a pinch of powder, or a small vial of liquid. The creature who ingests this substance gains the effects of the enhancement, as if she had the Special Delivery drawback with the same duration and limitations.
A snake oil salesman may apply these magical substances to a weapon as a standard action, as if it were a poison. When used to strike a target, the target must save against the enhancement or suffer its effects. This can affect targets normally immune to poisons, but still benefits from talents, abilities, and feats that affect poisons, such as swift poison or deadly cocktail.
Rogue Talents: A snake oil salesman cannot select rogue talents that enhance her (nonexistent) sneak attack. Instead, she gains access to the following rogue talents:
- Lingering Magic (Ex): Whenever a snake oil salesman uses an enhancement and chooses to create pills, the enhancement lasts an additional two rounds if she does not spend spell points to relinquish concentration - this stacks with Lingering Enhancement.
- Malpractice (Su): Whenever a snake oil salesman poisons a creature with an injury poison, she deals additional weapon damage equal to her Charisma modifier. In addition, she may spend one spell point to enhance a dose of poison; if she does so, a creature that fails their first save against the poison suffers Bleed damage equal to her Charisma modifier in addition to its normal effects.
- Masterful Alchemy (Su): A snake-oil salesman gains Master Alchemist as a bonus feat, even if she does not meet the prerequisites.
- Spoonful of Sugar (Su): Whenever a snake oil salesman uses an enhancement and chooses to create pills, she may coat the pill in a contact or ingestion poison as part of the same action without the risk of poisoning herself. If she does so, any attempts to magically detect the poison must pass a successful magic skill check or fail automatically.
This ability modifies rogue talents.
Cabinet of Miracles (Ex): Snake oil salesmen tend to have a few bottles and mouthfuls of their “product” lying around. At 4th level, she gains Brew Potion as a bonus feat. Whenever she creates a potion that consists primarily of Enhancement effects, she may increase the complexity of the item by one to combine it with an alchemical item. If she does so, the resulting potion gains all the benefits and drawbacks of the alchemical item itself; if the alchemical item is a splash weapon, any creature that it damages is affected by the potion.
This ability replaces uncanny dodge.
A Simple Demonstration (Ex): Of course, it sometimes so happens that a customer does not trust a snake oil salesman’s word, and wants a demonstration of their product. At 8th level, a snake oil salesman may drink potions and swallow pills that they created as part of a move action. Additionally, they are completely immune to the negative effects of any poison, potion, or alchemical item that they personally created.
This ability replaces improved uncanny dodge.
Masterful Salesman (Sp): A snake oil salesman can sell fire to a fire elemental. At 20th level, she gains a unique enhancement; by spending a spell point, she may enhance a single object on her person to seem incredibly valuable to onlookers. When she does so, select one of the following options:
- The object is fantastically delicious. Any creature that is given or takes the object will immediately consume it.
- The object is worth 10 times as much gold or 100 gp, whichever is higher.
- The object seems to be incredibly desirable. A creature will be willing to exchange any one item that they are holding or wearing for the object.
Regardless, any creature she attempts to give, sell, or trade the object to must make a Will save against DC 10 + 1/2 her class level + her Charisma modifier or accept the deal without question. Once the duration of masterful salesman elapses, creatures she has traded with are free to realize how awful the deal actually was.
This ability replaces master strike.
Suggested Rogue Talents
Suggested rogue talents for the snake oil salesman are Black Market Connections, Charmer, Convincing Lie, and False Friend.