I was thinking that it would be awesome if you could get a fishing pole with +luck +strength available as a rep 8 reward, purchaseable, from Chef Lethrow. A small token for those dedicated fisherman, with stats that help fishing (i could be wrong that luck/strength help fishing). Maybe instead of rep 8, it is one of the long term rewards.
It would be exciting to see things like this from each of the vendors, and if the +stats on that item speak to a players play style, then maybe it incentives them to work that much harder to get rep 8 with that certain vendor. You could equip them to your belt and have that extra stat available whenever you have the item on.
Darius could have a monster skull you equip to your belt and it gives you +crit chance, perhaps a Marlow item would be better for +crit chance and Darius could give you vitality or defense (idk just throwing stuff out there).
There are 7 mission vendors and 7 stat bonuses, right? Darius, Sicilus, Pierre, Marlow, Whisper, Chef, Mayor; Wisdom, Intelligence, Strength, Vitality, Defense, Crit Chance, Luck.