Witness

Prerequisites: Level 11, Herald applicant

It works like the follow command (and would toggle off with nofol), but with a few exceptions:

1) While affected by the power, the Herald gains a potentially strong defense, along the lines of sanctuary, depending on a number of factors like level, time in cabal, and time spent as a witness.

2) While affected by the power, the Herald cannot group or target any other creature or character with any spell or skill they may know, unless they are personally attacked.

3) While affected by the power, the Herald becomes more observant. They have a chance or increased chance of noticing someone camoed, sneaking/hiding, invis, etc.

4) While affected by the power, anything the Herald communicates (say, tell, etc.) while under the effects of witness is magically written into a book held by the cabal leader. The book gets protections like a leader weapon. The cabal leader or imm may, at their discretion, punish a Herald for frivolous reports or anything spoken that might endanger the neutrality or credibility of fellow witnesses or the Herald cabal.

5) At all times, any crime witnessed by a Herald is automatically written to the book. A cunning Herald leader might position the cabal as the chief informant of the Tribunal or the chief scorekeeper of the Outlanders. Either way, it makes a good bargaining chip. Herald pickpockets could get amnesty. Herald explorers could get bodyguards. Or they could just end up with enemies from both sides.

Bad idea all around. Creative, but bad.

Just reading it gives me the feel of Heralds being interested in the world outside the Inn, and keeping record.

I do agree that his implementation is rather...broad, and has the potential to break a lot of things. Still, it's more idea than most people come up with.

As far as I can tell, this isn't really doing anything that can't already be accomplished through roleplay and existing systems (like notes and the pen skill).