I had a thought the other day as I was burning and pillaging yet another town that made the unfortunate mistake of trying to arrest me for vagrancy. Adventurers often have a bad reputation; and many times when an elf, a dwarf, some indeterminate life-form made entirely of spikes, and 2 giant spiders wander into town the so-called "murderhobo alarm" is sounded and people scurry indoors with terrified looks on their faces. It seems the average village, town, or capital city expects wandering purveyors of violent science to burn their homes and steal their things.
As a card-carrying member of the Golarion Union of Murderhoboes for the Betterment of Others *holds up blood-stained, obviously stolen card* I pondered the best way to deal with such mistaken assumptions, and came upon the idea of putting forth a challenge to you good folk. What do you believe is the best way to win friends and influence people via good works and non-murder activities?
Joking aside, my mild addiction to god games and city/nation sims mean every character I play inevitably wants to exploit non-combat situations/powers to either make money or (because WBL) win indefinite forms of influence. After all, adventurers SHOULD have a bad reputation (the difference between "hero of the land" and "homeless serial killer" is who writes the press release) and having the town guard or local lord actually LIKE you because you did something for him is really nice the next time you need a new quest hook (because you killed the last one accidentally) or to bail a party member out of jail.
Plus, any time the cleric is upgrading a magic sword for his ungrateful teammates those teammates need something to do for a few days.
Now magic is easy. Run around casting mend (or at higher levels, stone shape/fabricate) and you can win a lot of friends in a few hours, but these ideas are still welcome. The REAL challenges are figuring out good works a Martial or Sneak character can do, and ways in which the efforts might accidentally intentionally go wrong because the GM is a bastard.
Example: Wizard talks with the captain of the guard, uses fabricate to outfit an entire platoon with masterwork quality weapons and armor for the cost of the base materials, now the blacksmith's union is pissed at the wizard for costing them a prime contract.
