New Role: Lawyer (as a way to give Mayor purpose)

[Homeschooled316]

Hey, I know a lot of people have suggested lawyer (since mob lawyer is a very realistic, natural thing), but most have suggested that they do something subversive at night to hide the mafia, when they should really be acting during the day. I'm a total nub to the forums, I know, but it doesn't take an expert to realize that the mayor can't make much of a difference until the end game. If a mob lawyer were the mafia alternate to the mayor, giving x number of votes (but not saying WHO was giving the extra votes), the mafia would only need to convince a few townspeople into voting innocent (still difficult) in the face of a lynch to save the mob on trial. At that point, the mayor role would have serious purpose, allowing him to counteract the lawyer votes. Also, to make this interaction seem a little more intentional, the mayor role might have its name changed to "District Attorney" or "Judge" or something of that nature.

Here's an example of what it would look like:

New Role: Lawyer
Affiliation: Mafia
Summary: A corrupt lawyer who manipulate the courts in favor of the mafia
Goal: Mafia wins.

Power: During the daytime, you may type -vote to give you X extra votes for a day. The town will be alerted that a lawyer is influencing the vote (or not, depending on setup), but your identity will not be revealed.

Investigation:
Sheriff: Mafia member
Investigator: Your target is a leader among men



EDIT: Less than 5 minutes after posting and I already forsee a problem with this. Nothing is there to stop the lawyer from waiting until the last second to type -vote so that the mayor has no time to react.

[Yarre]

I dont think that this role should be implemented as this makes the mafia extremely op. The mayor is (usually) only useful at the end of the game and a lawyer with 3 or even 2 votes would make it way too easy for the mafia to win. This might only work in a setup with 2 mafia and very few neutrals, but even then it would almost guarantee a win for the mafia.

edit: could work only if everyone got to know the lawyer's identity, just like a mayor's

[Lysergic]

Plus, if someone is on trial, and every confirmed town votes him guilty, but he SOMEHOW manages to get several innocent votes from a lawyer, I would instantly assume he was mafia and either have him jailed, shot by a vig, or lynched the next day.

Like, if the lawyer votes innocent for you, you are guilty 100%. It's an instant giveaway that the target is mafia, even if they get off.

[Homeschooled316]

The lawyer couldn't vote on his own trial. It doesn't make mafia instant win, it just means the town has to kill the lawyer first if he survives into the endgame.

As for the other argument:
The lawyer could vote innocent on a townsperson that's about to be lynched to make them look guilty, delaying mafia lynching another turn (or at least wasting a vig shot) as the town scrambles to kill the innocent. That means not every innocent vote from a lawyer proves anything, and people will catch on to this after playing a few games with a lawyer. Furthermore, making someone an obvious mafia is better than them being lynched right then and there.

The lawyer has to be terribly careful to make sure at least a couple of other people are voting innocent, as well, or he will be caught along with the mafia on the stand.

[Elixir]

Then all the town needs to do is look for someone who magically got more votes and lynch them

The only way this would work is if the mafia lawyer lowered the required votes to send someone to trial.