The bit about business deals? Yeah, unless you consider diplomacy and combat two sides of the same coin.
Still, do you have other suggestions for tactics and/or background?
A horrible little creature with a spiderlike body and a long neck and head resembling a predatory eel, save for the head's pointed ears. The creature appears intelligent, for it bears equipment. It walks on four hind legs and has four arms with long-fingered hands that would look delicate if it weren't for their formidable claws. Entirely hairless, its body is covered in shiny chitin, with leathery black hide on the joints and eel-like portions.
Tso are relatives of the neogi who journey the planes in search of wealth. They possess the same enslaving power as their kin and are seldom encountered without a retinue of slaves. Groups of tso can use a time-consuming form of cooperative magic to weave spells of formidable power, this cooperative magic is incomprehensible to non-tso.
Highly sociable, a tso rarely strays far from others of its kind. Family bands of tso, known as
broods, travel in flying vessels, most commonly a spider-shaped ship called an aracheon, aracheas, or arachantine. Broods are led by the most powerful tso, typically a sorcerer of at least 6th level, although some base their power on another class or the possession of a mighty slave. Spellcasting tso leaders usually select metamagic feats as their level increases.
Tso are insatiably avaricious. No act is too contemptible or treacherous for a tso if there's profit in it, save for one - they always keep a contract. Tso will only act on a deal once they have an ironclad contract, but they'll take a contract for kidnapping, sabotage, murder and soul-trapping as readily as one for smuggling, slave-trading or even honest trade. It matters not to them whether they're shipping medicine for a deva to save a city or selling an iron cage of larva to a devil. Tso are extremely devious, and use cunning wording or complex sub-clauses in a contract to trick clients into paying more for less. They reckon anyone who signs a contract that may lead to penury or slavery deserves what they get. Tso will make liberal use of spells to make a profitable business deal and aren't above using their enslave ability on an unwary customer. Their contract negotiations with devils are infamous for their deceitfulness and complexity.
Tso reproduction resembles that of neogi. A brood selects one of their older members and paralyzes it with venomous bites that trigger the parent-to-be's transformation into a breeding stage. The elder tso is immobilizes and possessed by ravenous hunger, it eats constantly for 8 to 10 weeks and then 3 to 6 infant tso burst out its swollen body, killing their parent. Unlike neogi spawn, newborn tso are intelligent creatures that look (and act) like tiny versions of the adults. They become active members of their brood's hierarchy within a year. If a brood's population becomes too large for its flying vessel, it'll try to alleviate the pressure by dispatching permanent trading parties, but eventually the over-large brood must split up and build a new ship. This is a time of great danger, uncertainty and intrigue among tso.
A tyical tso stands 5 1/2 feet tall and weighs about 120 pounds.
Tso speak Common, even among themselves, and most also know Celestial, Draconic and Infernal.
COMBAT
Tso avoid melee, preferring to cast spells or use their enslaving ability from a safe distance. They go to great lengths to let their slaves and summoned monsters do their fighting for them but are surprisingly capable combatants if given no other option. While tso try to avoid throwing away the lives of their slaves, as it's poor business to lose valuable property, they always put their own lives ahead of any slave's.
A portion of tso in an encounter will often be armed with a simple darkwood polearm (quarterstaff, spear or longspear) instead of the sample tso's rapier and darkwood shield. A typical tso has a +6 melee attack with a darkwood polearm and is AC 19 instead of 20, since it has no shield bonus.
