SlagMortar said:
It sounds to me like the ability is fine, but doesn't fit with the adventures that DMs have chosen to run. Perhaps when Rinaldo has the ability, we need more adventure hooks like "Hi, I'm Kazaam the chair of the Wierd Experiments college at WM Technical Institute. I'm I need a rare crystal for an experiment in, well, you wouldn't understand, but I need this crystal. I don't know any known repositories of such crystals, but I'm sure you'll figure something out. I was just awarded a huge DARPA (Dwarven Advanced Research Projects Agency) grant for the research and so can pay 50,000 gold pieces per pound of the crystal."
Yeah, maybe I just miss all the adventure that time isn't a limit, and where taking 20 on a roll and wait a week to see the result, but that kind of adventure would be made for Rinaldo, or he would be pretty lucky.
Also, a limitation that isn't stipulate in this explicitly, but a DM would quickly see, is: Let,s say Rinaldo has Conected, is wandering in teh tower of Air and try to figure something and need to roll a Knowledge(arcana) roll. The tower, being unhabited, he has all teh time, but he is far from all civilzation... well, i don't think he will be able to use his connections, has he can't enter in contact with anyone. So, it must be done in civilized place, not in the middle of a dungeon or far in the wilderness or on another plane.
My two solutions was:
As Bront, to have it done in a day instead of a week. now, I see some opportunity in the many adventure I had in LEW. In M3, he would had many chance to use it. In Vinyard Trek, Merrry Chase, M2, Attack Bandit Camp and M4, it would have been pretty much useless i think. If I include what my otehr character have made, It could have been usefull in D2:Lost Manor, but not in Thimbrall curse, Slave of teh Dragon, or Clash of Earth and Sea. So it makes 2 on 10. 20% of the adventure. A bit slim, but at least, it means something. At one week, forget it, it would have been a big 0%.
The other, it would be to remake it as I was seeing it at first. When I first submitted it, I tried to immitate some power of the Noble class in Starwars D20... well, I had to do some modification as it wasn't SRD... but I've found in the SRD of D20 Modern, something that is pretty much what I wanted, and would need only a few tweek. That power can be taken at level 3 in D20 modern for a Charismatic Hero:
SRD D20 Modern said:
Favor:
The Charismatic hero has the ability to acquire minor aid from anyone he or she meets. By making a favor check, a Charismatic hero can gain important information without going through the time and trouble of doing a lot of research. Favors can also be used to acquire the loan of equipment or documents, or to receive other minor assistance in the course of an adventure.
A Charismatic hero spends 1 action point to activate this talent. To make a favor check, roll a d20 and add the character's favor bonus, equal to the character's Charismatic level. The GM sets the DC based on the scope of the favor being requested. The DC ranges from 10 for a simple favor to as high as 30 for formidable and highly dangerous, expensive, or illegal favors. A Charismatic hero can't take 10 or 20 on this check, nor can the hero retry the check for the same (or virtually the same) favor. Favors should help advance the plot of an adventure. A favor that would enable a character to avoid an adventure altogether should always be unavailable to the character, regardless of the result of a favor check.
The GM should carefully monitor a Charismatic hero's use of favors to ensure that this ability isn't abused. The success or failure of a mission shouldn't hinge on the use of a favor, and getting a favor shouldn't replace good roleplaying or the use of other skills. The GM may disallow any favor deemed to be disruptive to the game.
We don't have action point in LEW, so maybe just to allow the character to do as much favor roll as he want, but on each favor check, he has a penalty of -5 for each favor check he has already made in the month (or in the davneture,so quickly, it would become useless during an adventure if the character try to abuse it).
Also, the check is a class level check with a DC that can reach as high as 30. But the check modifier can range form +3 to +10 (minimum level to get that power is 3, and there is 10 level in Charsmatic Hero class). In LEW, that power is given at level 5 on a class of 5 level, so it would be a fix +5 roll... and thatd oesn,t allow to recah the DC:30. or we could lower the max DC to 25, or change the modifier for a Charisma check. I don't expect Traders to be a Charisma Monster like Sorcerer could become, but +10 on this check is achevable with some magical item (Cloak of Charisma +6 and Circlet of Persusaion, who gives a bonus to charisma check). And I don't expect impossible task to be DC:30. As the description tell, the GM can decide that favor will be disuptive and just tell the check failed...
Any thought about those two solutions?
