Contact aid

[royalfa]

I give a contact to a PC as "instance reward". She save the NPC and take care of her and his brother.

This contact is a medicine/herbalist that can craft elixirs.

She helps the PCs in a scene when bandits take on the town's only hotel treating injuries and poison.

But later, when the party need to investigate a set of caverns below a mausoleum the PC as the contact
for some elixirs. I gave her some of vitality; but is a correct for to help the PCs??

I was thinking and I came up with this:

I take the "persuation result" based on TRUST and cross reference with the crafting table:

A result of 20 earns 150s in a month then I assume thats the quantity in "elixirs" the NPC can give the
party (his friend) for an adventure if at least she (the friend PC) stay in the town at least a month

Besides the PC whant to make her own elixirs and I think she will ask the contact use her workshop.
Again dont find a think to nagate this request or charge...I was thinking in lend the workshop only for a week as per aquiantance, 1 month for associate, 1 downtime for confederate and until the task is done for partner.

What you think??

Thanks and good gaming
   

[Bhurano]

Hi there,

I don't see to many problems with handing out some potions as help as given in your example. It helps your group to recuperate a bit faster... also without upgrade these potions are useless at the end of the adventure. So no problem there. And the help that any given contact can wield is - IRRC - left quite sketchy. It might be that a trader contact offers advice and better prices, a mercenary contact might help you out to return a favor or for good coin, a goblin chieftain might offer the help of his tribe in a certain quest to repay an favor and so on.

The only thing you might possibly keep in mind is, that the NPC might need the workshop for herself. So sure sharing it might not a problem, but fulltime occupation by the player would probably abuse the relationship with the NPC. If they pay for the privilige on the other hand fulltime occupation might not be a problem. The Herbalist still needs to make income and that comes - so it sounds to me - from crafting potions of all kind.

In general I wouldn't come up with a list what is possible when and how much on the level of the relationship that an NPC and a PC have. For me such things depends how they treat their Contacts/Friends/Allies and how certain social limits/implications limit or favor certain things. The relationship between a commoner and his contacts will be different than that of a noble and his contacts.

In your example the use of the workshop might be okay, even if limited, but using the supposedly "secret" recipes out of the herbalist's book certainly wouldn't. These are after all secrets of her trade (supposedly).
Also I don't see a problem why she wouldn't help the group. Her continued survival might be in the hands of some battle-hardened adventurers who can fight back any threat. That's how I read/interpreted your post.

Try to keep in mind how you would react in certain situations or take another POV and use that to bring up a believable response or just go with your gut feeling. It can also help to write up some character traits before the game to remind you how you want to portray the NPC.

Keep in mind, that I gloss over some things to keep the game fluid at my table.
So your mileage may vary.

[royalfa]

Thanks I will check for a fair use of the worksoph and tell my player about the "use" of her contatc.

Cya