1) As a hard rule, you can't ask the same person for aid twice in a short period of time. You ask once, they do what they can (or don't), and that's their answer for a little while.

2) As a soft rule, there's a sliding scale where if you ask lots of different people for aid in a short period of time, it gets less effective. Waiting will reduce and eventually eliminate this. The total duration depends on whether or not help was granted, and how much.

3) Your starting efficacy is determined by perceived need, so if you're really in bad shape the boons will often be somewhat stronger, and you're more likely to get away with two or three boons in short order.

4) As for practicing, I'd recommend using the skill steadily over time, vs. dedicating time to spam. (This is very deliberate, and how I'd ideally like to engineer most skill improvement. Spamming is dull.)

5) Using Beseech does not require a guildmaster or town healer, although it's nearly always helpful if the NPC has a defined class/profession, and is high enough level to provide substantial help. (I may add some more class-agnostic options going forward.) You'd be surprised how many adventurers hang around within a short walk of common ranking or other conflict areas.

6) Things are still a little experimental and may be tweaked over time. It's by design that NPCs know some minor tricks that a PC doesn't necessarily know, just as there are many abilities that PCs get that NPCs never seem to master.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com