Brother, can you spare a dime?

[archer]

I'm not really sure how profitable begging could be in your typical fantasy city. But it did occur to me that if there was more than one person who was begging, that it would likely bring in more money.

 

How would you build a spell to summon an army of beggars who were really effective at what they do (number of beggars, stats, skills, talents, perhaps a subtle Mind Control)? Say enough to work a city of 20,000-30,000 efficiently but not so many that the town seems so overrun with beggars that people would become even more reluctant to give.

 

Since the point is to actually turn a profit, the beggars would look like real flesh and blood people but wouldn't be. They'd return to the master at the end of the day to drop off their earnings then disappear into nothingness rather than need expensive things like food and shelter.

 

Yeah, technically if you could summon effective beggars, you could probably summon effective construction workers or some other trade. But I'm liking the idea of coming up with a King of the Beggars person complete with neuroses which makes him want to hide in the shadows, beg for money, and perhaps trade in information which his beggars have gathered from wandering the city as opposed to a mage who is trying to make an honest living. 

 

I guess you could accomplish much the same thing with duplication and shapeshift. But that seems like it'd be more expensive?

[Ninja-Bear]

@archer, could you do this as a sfx of wealth? And since you want information either Streetwise and or Post Cognition? And is you really wanted it to be a little more complex also add Images with AoE-Mega scale.