Celebrim said:
I think that the 4e method would be just tell them what the gemstone is worth.
I recall alot of posters on the boards complaining that the 3.X 'Appraise' skill was useless. After querying this for a while, it turned out that most of them where simply being given the value or quality of everything without any fuss. That is to say, 'Appraise' was useless because it wasn't being used.
Maybe it was also because of "meta-gaming". If you found jewels, yes, you could have used Appraise. If you found a magical item, most prices could easily be known. A +3 sword is worth 18.000 gp or 9.000 gp when selling it. A Level 4 Scroll is worth 4 x 7 x 25 gp. And stuff like that.
So, you needed Appraise only for a subset of the items. But you got tons of them. Imagine nobody appraised the item. The DM would have to write down the worth of each item on a list hidden from the players.
And then, you'd have eventually to roll for each individual item.
And what happens if you go to a buyer - how do you arrive at the price if both you and the buyer could fail to appraise the item, or have different opinions. What if the players demand to use Sense Motive to see if the buyer is ripping them off instead of relying on Appraise?
In the end, Appraise is a lot of hassle that earns you little benefit.
The only fun use of Appraise is if you'd actually roleplay out a haggling scenario. But then, Diplomacy, Bluff, Intimidate and Sense Motive should be enough skills to pull this off.
My guesses for appropriate skills in 4E would be any of the following:
- Arcana
- History
- Insight
- Perception
Edit: - Thievery actually is my favourite ATM. And I missed it initially!