Domain and Regency » Government » Able Assistance » Advisor
Part of a series on Government
How many rule
Monarchy · Oligarchy · Anarchy
Who is served
Aristocratic · Theocratic · Plutocratic
Magocratic · Kleptocratic · Autocratic
Feudal
Domains
Realm · Law · Temple · Guild · Source
Assistants
Vassal · Lieutenant · Cohort · Advisor
Specialist · Follower · Court · Officials
Succession
Dynasties · Bloodline · Investiture
Heir · Ceremony · Cadet
Advisors are the voice of experience for rulers. They are often NPC classes like aristocrat or expert. Sometimes they are retired lieutenants or adventurers. They can also be out of favor members of your organization who advocate policies different from the regent, but are called in when the ruler wants to hear from all sides of an issue.
But the counsel that advisers provide is not infallible. Far from it: A regent goes to advisers to get advice, not to give up his power. A particular adviser has specific knowledge the PC regent lacks (otherwise he wouldn?t be necessary) and can offer a different perspective on problems. But economic advisers see situations in financial terms, military advisers turn problems into war exercises, and civil advisers put everything into a social and political context. The regent himself must synthesize the conflicting counsel he receives and make decisions from all of the assembled information.
Advisers, more so than lieutenants and cohorts, should serve as a tool of the DM. The Dungeon Master ought to develop the PC regent?s advisers. He has to know their areas of knowledge, interest, and personal agendas ? so he can slant their advice accordingly. They can be used to warn the ruler if an action will have a bad consequence, which is especially helpful for characters new to the campaign or to rulership.

[top]Creating Advisors

Generally there is no difficulty finding advisors. After all, everyone has an opinion on how things ought to be done. Of course not everyone is qualified to be useful to the ruler. When a regent is looking for an advisor, he should probably find at least a few serious candidates from whom to choose. The base DC for finding an appropriate adviser through a decree action is 5. If the regent fails this check, his decree wasn?t taken seriously or he simply didn?t appeal to the right people. If the DM wants to make a role-playing session of the selection, the PC might interview several candidates and actually find someone among them who could serve his needs ? though that person might not be exactly what he wanted.
As with many other domain actions, the regent can spend Regency Points and Gold Bars to increase his chance of success. This expenditure represents the amount of time and money he and his trusted subordinates spend to find just the right adviser. Again, the DM can have the player role-play the final interview process, but in this case virtually all of the candidates should be at least minimally qualified.
Advisors should generally be constructed with NPC classes like Aristocrat and Expert, though a normal advisor might have one or two levels of a PC class of the DM prefers. Certainly retired adventurers should be PC class types. Subordinate members in your domain organization can be either PC class or NPC class depending on the DM's discretion.
The purpose of an advisor is not their skills and abilities, but their advice, so they can be of whatever design specifications the DM desires.

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