OK, some may know this. I imported a party and actually have a bishop with 42 in communication. I see some better deals in transactions, but not alot. What is the best way to increase this skill? Charm spell on merchants? (never used it but may start, we need 3 more Cloacas).

P.S. Got not one but two Light Shields! Fun.... ;)

Communications only increases two ways i know of (and by adding points when levelling):
Every time you talk to an NPC the first time, there's a chance of Comms going up; and every time you negotiate with an NPC who's mad because they caught you PPing.

I haven't found any way to train Communications, although I suppose you could keep PPing to annoy NPCs and then negotiate with them.

Then again, I'm not really sure it'd be worth the effort anyway. I know Communication skill affects the prices at certain vendors (though not Ferro, I believe) but is it really such a big difference that you'd want to improve Communication over other, more generally useful, skills?

xfactor

I find Communications skill gos up quite nicely on their own.

As for the best prices, once you've met all the vendors you know who will give best prices and yes, Ferro buys and sells at the same price once you've become a Templar.