|||
Home
Afflictions/Hazards
Classes
Deities
Equipment
FAQ
Feats
Magic Items
Monster Index
Mythic Index
NPC Index
Prestige Classes
Races
Rules
Skills
Spells/Rituals
Technology
Traits
Licenses
Projects
Sources
Tools
Contact Us
Contributors
Support the Archives
Maximize Menu
Archives of Nethys
Character Creation +
Classes
Feats
Prestige Classes
Races
Skills
Traits
Mythic Index
Deities
Equipment +
Equipment (Non-Magical)
Magic Items
Technology
FAQ
Spells/Rituals
Rules +
Afflictions
NPC Index
Rules
Tools
Hazards
Monsters
Sources
About the Archives +
Licenses
Projects
Contact Us
Contributors
Support the Archives
Toggle Theme
Archives of Nethys
Rules Index
|
GM Screen
Campaign Systems
/
Companions
/
Reviving and Replacing Companions
/
Finding a Replacement
Contacts
Source
Ultimate Campaign pg. 148
A contact is a unique NPC with useful skills or powerful connections. You can call upon contacts for aid to accomplish specialized tasks without getting directly involved. A low-level contact can dig up a local rumor, tell you where to find a good meal, or impart basic knowledge. However, as you earn more of a contact’s trust, he might perform greater tasks with greater personal risk, such as helping you track down an adversary, bailing you out of jail, or loaning you a magic item.
There are many types of contacts—a contact might be a childhood friend, a former adversary with whom you share a mutual respect, a war buddy, a former colleague, or a friend of the family. They aren’t limited to a specific social class or profession. A contact with few connections is capable of providing only minimal aid to you, but others might have more significant resources. A contact’s ability to aid you might even shift over the course of your adventuring career. Changes to a contact’s profession, rising or falling social status, and other personal events can alter his ability to provide aid.
Sometimes a contact needs compensation for his trouble, or at least reimbursement for costs incurred while working on your behalf. Criminal contacts in particular almost always charge for their services or demand favors in return. A contact from a temple or guild might expect you to give a donation to the temple or pay guild fees. Other times, costs arise out of necessity. A contact who needs anonymity to accomplish a task might require additional funds for bribes or to purchase covert access to a secret location. Likewise, you shouldn’t expect a spellcaster contact to pay for the expensive material components when casting a spell on your behalf.
Two factors influence the effectiveness of a contact: the amount of trust you share with the contact and the amount of risk involved with what you ask of the contact. A contact who doesn’t fully trust you won’t risk his neck to help you, though he might still perform some basic riskfree tasks to see if you warrant additional trust.