here's something I cooked up while listening to Alestorm and drinking Rum. It's an Aristocrat class, and i called it the Aristocrat because honestly i couldn't think of anything better at the time. In my campaign i am using them as heroic only, so only really important npc's get to level in this class.
so here it is. (p.s. It's a Draft 1 format right now, so....)
Aristocrat
Aristocrats are those born into wealth or a high position. Many are content to live these lives of luxury, but still others want more. They turn to adventuring to increase their wealth, business ventures, and political holdings.
Hit die: d8
Class Skills
The aristocrat's class skills (and key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (all skills taken individually) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Perception (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Swim (Str), and Survival (Wis).
Skill Ranks per Level: 4 + Int modifier
Base Attack progression: Medium
Good Save: Will
level / Class Features and Such
1st: 1st Passion, Influence, Retainer, Wealth and Power
2nd: Fighting Flair, Scorn -1
3rd: 1st Combat Instruction, Untraceable Funds
4th: Shrewdness, Resist Charms
5th: 2nd Passion, Improved Retainer I
6th: Scorn -2, Holding
7th: Leadership, Improved Wealth and Power
8th: 2nd Combat Instruction
9th: Uncanny Cognizance
10th: 3rd Passion, Scorn -3, Improved Retainer II
11th: Improved Followers
12th: 3rd Combat Instruction
13th: Improved Holding
14th: Scorn -4
15th: 4th Passion, Improved retainer III
16th: Supreme Wealth and Power
17th: 4th Combat Instruction
18th: Scorn -5
19th: 5th Passion
20th: Improved retainer IV, Power Of The Kings
Class Features
The following are class features of the aristocrat.
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: An aristocrat is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with all armor (heavy, medium, and light) and shields (except tower shields).
Combat Instruction: An aristocrat gets the best combat instruction that money can buy. At 3rd level the aristocrat may select a favored weapon. The aristocrat gains a bonus combat feat which can only be used while wielding that weapon. At 8th level and every five levels thereafter the aristocrat gains an additional favored weapon and a bonus combat feat which can only be used while wielding a favored weapon.
Fighting Flair (Ex): An aristocrat may use his Charisma modifier instead of his strength modifier on melee attack rolls.
Holding: An aristocrat gains a tiny village, small castle, or medium sized mansion with enough land to support all of the vassals required to run the day to day operations of the type of estate the aristocrat wishes.
At 13th level the Aristocrat may upgrade his holding to a small town, a medium sized castle, or a large mansion.
Improved Followers (Ex): An aristocrat's wealth, power, and influence spread far through his realm, and many beings flock to his banner. He gains double the amount of followers of each level from his Leadership feat.
Influence (Ex): An aristocrat adds half her class level (minimum 1) to Diplomacy checks made to influence the attitudes of non-player characters, and can use Diplomacy to influence a given creature's attitude one additional time in a 24-hour period.
Leadership: An aristocrat has earned enough favor that people flock to him to support his causes or whims and desires. He gains Leadership as a bonus feat.
Power Of The Kings (Ex): An aristocrat's wealth, political power, or business ventures have become so great that he commands many lesser people's lives. He gains five times the normal amount of followers of each level from his Leadership feat. In addition, his holding improves to a small city, a fortified citadel, or a huge mansion. Also, his family's fortunes or business venture's mature fully, and he gains an amount of money equal to 1,000,000 gp's.
Wealth and Power (Ex): An aristocrat is teeming with money, and in most cases that equates to power. Whenever an aristocrat class level is gained, the character gains 1,000 gp's x his aristocrat class level. This includes 1st level.
At 7th level, the aristocrat's family fortunes expand, or his business ventures improved. He now gains 5,000 gp's x his aristocrat level whenever he gains a class level. At 16th level the aristocrat becomes the epitome of wealth and monetary gain. He now gains 10,000 gp's x his aristocrat level whenever he gains a class level.
Passion (Ex): At 1st level the Aristocrat selects a skill. He gets a +2 bonus to all checks made with that skill. At 5th level and every five levels thereafter (10th, 15th, and 20th level), the aristocrat may select an additional skill. In addition, at each such interval, the bonus to one skill (even the one just selected) increases by +2.
Resist Charms (Ex): An aristocrat gets a +4 bonus to saving throws against enchantment spells and effects.
Retainer: An aristocrat has a loyal follower that aids him in his daily life. The loyal follower is a 1st level non-heroic npc who gains xp and treasure rewards as a cohort, and is treated as a cohort for all intents and purposes. The retainer begins play with no weapons, armor, or equipment. It is up to the aristocrat to equip and arm his retainer. Should the retainer ever die, the aristocrat must pay a sum of money to the retainer's next of kin equal to 100 gp's x the retainer's level. If the aristocrat does not pay this mount, he cannot gain the services of a new retainer. If the aristocrat wishes to gain the services of a new retainer, he must buy out his current retainer's contract for a sum of money equal to 10 gp's x the retainer's level, and then offer a contract to a new retainer for a sum of money equal to 10 gp's x the retainer's level. A retainer is always an npc and can never possess heroic pc class levels.
At 5th level an aristocrat's retainer becomes more powerful, and can possess 1 level of a heroic class. At 10th level, and every five levels thereafter (15th and 20th) an aristocrat's retainer can possess an additional level in a heroic class.
Scorn: Starting at 2nd level, all attacks made against an aristocrat suffer a -1 penalty. This bonus increases by +1 for every four levels beyond 2nd.
Shrewdness (Ex): An aristocrat knows the value of knowledge, and may use his Intelligence modifier instead of his Wisdom modifier when making Will saving throws.
Uncanny Cognizance (Ex): An aristocrat is proficient in seeing through others plans and true intentions. Any Bluff and Intimidate checks made against him automatically fail. This ability has no effect if the creature attempting the Bluff or Intimidate check has four or more hit dice than the aristocrat.
Untraceable Funds (Ex): An aristocrats political and commercial dealings are now unknown to common folk for the purposes of gather information checks. In addition, the DC of any gather information check made against the aristocrat for the purposes of uncovering any political or commercial information have the DC increased by +5.
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That's my baby. It's a 1st draft, and in constant revision.
My thoughts:
I am iffy on Wealth and Power. It might need reduction in amount of cash.
if i have any more thoughts, or any playtest notes and/or glitches, i'll post em.
thanks for reading
Aristocrats are scornful of attacks from attackers they aren't aware of? That's...weird.
good call, and good find. Thanks, i will have to fix the writing. The ability was intended for the Aristocrat to be aware of the attacker.
Other than the owning stuff class abilities, this seems to step directly on the rogue's toes. A middling-ability fighty sort whose main combat ability is just bringing them up to par with normal fighty sorts, while the main schtick is having a large pool of non-magical problemsolving abilities.
I don't see it that way, and honestly, thus far in my group, our Rogue and Aristocrat are complementing each other nicely. They are only level 6 right now, but so far the Aristocrat player is financing many of the rogues underhanded deeds, lol.
The class needs a _shame_ mechanic such that the Aristocrat is passionate in bringing no shame upon his house (this may include a code of behaviour which the Aristocrat will adhere to just as firmly as a Paladin adheres to LG)
I think that would be better if my Aristocrat was strictly a Noble-esque type, but my Aristocrat is supposed to be modular in the fact it can be Noble-esque, rich playboy-esque, or vile/good corporate-esque.
The Aristocrat in my game right now is an up and coming merchant, and the player uses the rogue to run many of his illicit dealings.
The Aristocrat needs a hereditary item (weapon, staff, whatever) as an option. In fact, the character class needs options for abilities gained at each level.
The hereditary item thing, i could see if the aristocrat was all Noble-ey. But my aristocrat could just buy one. I also originally used Talents at every other level, and I made the aristocrat kinda pick a reason for him being an aristocrat at character creation via a class ability (such as Purchased Nobility or Warrior Heritage) but I didn't like the way it worked. Then i later found out the Freeport Noble had a similar mechanic, and I figured the player could come up with hiw own, and not every flavor needed a crunch.
Automatically immune to bluff should be changed to something like automatic skill focus in Sense Motive.
I thought about this, but as is in my first draft i have already given several skill bonuses out there, including the whole passion ability. What I have been kicking around in my brain is a weaker-ized version of this, in which once the aristocrat makes a successful Sense Motive check against a character, or someone else fails to Intimidate him, he is immune to that character's attempts for 24 hours.
I'd give a cultural/regional package (1 martial or exotic weapon prof and 2 skills determined by cultural/regional background) - so a Dwarven Aristocrat from a house located in mining territory gets a different package from a human house on the planes known for fine horses which will be different from another human house known for it's vineyards which will be different from another elven house known for it's seaborn trade and etc.
I'd give the banner abilities of a Cavalier to the Aristocrat as a leveling option.
the cultural package things is interesting, but i think it would work better for a class that strictly noble-ey. Same for the cavalier banner option. My aristocrat is not pure noble-ey, as I believe that not all aristocrats have to be nobles or member of a noble society. Again, the player running my Aristocrat in the game right now is nowhere near a noble, he's moving towards being a merchant with ties to the black market. He said next level when his Improved Wealth and Power kicks in, he's using the cash to buy a ship and supply a crew, so he might get into pirating or even tramp shipping. we'll see.
I'd make all gear be required to be at least Masterwork (this may be part of the Aristocrat code).
i would leave this up to the player, honestly. I have known enough rich people in my everyday life to see some of them only buy the cheapest stuff that will work for their needs, and i think an aristocrat in the game could be the same way.
or, in fact, the aristocrat could feel that since he has the cash, no need to be a skimper, as there is always going to be more money, only buy the masterwork quality of everything, but again i don't think the flavor here needs a crunch.
though i just got an image of an aristocrat getting picked on by all the other aristocrats for not having the shiny masterwork armor, sword, and shield that they all have, and as a result they won't let the aristocrat join in any of their aristocrat games. :)
thank you so very much for your input. You seem to have a grasp on noble-ey type characters. I would like to see some of your noble-ey stuff as archetypes for other characters classes.
You and I disagree on our views of Aristocrats. Aristocrats, IMHO, aren't just rich people. They are often old money and have certain social obligations which seperate them from the unwashed masses. This is where the concept of being "classy" comes from.
i agree with you on this. But insofar as a game is concerned, i feel that should be up to the player as a backstory, with maybe some archetype elements added in.
I could easily see a "Noble Scion" archetype, with my aristocrat getting many of the things you have said. The 'shame code' could easily replace the Passion ability, and grant some kind of ability based on the noble's behavior, or punish him. the inheritance could also easily be added in to the noble scion archetype.
for my purposes though, i wanted my core Aristocrat to be able fill a few different niches, from a Noble Scion to a slimy Rich merchant to a cocky arrogant rich young punk with more gold than brains.
many of the core classes are just generic enough to allow individual players the ability to customize the way they see their character within the confines of the class abilities itself.
here's something I cooked up while listening to Alestorm and drinking Rum.
YAR!
here's something I cooked up while listening to Alestorm and drinking Rum.YAR!
Yar, captain deathbeard! Perhaps, together we can hoist our Black Sails At Midnight, and go Back Through Time and face Death Before The Mast while bearing witness to the Death Cry Of The Terrorsquid, and drink some of that Famous Ol' Spiced at the Sunk'n Norwegian! But only if ye don't get Keelhauled or Shipwrecked before ye go Scraping the Barrell once more, ha haa!
according to the old core rulebook that was named for the dude that ran the game, "aristocrats are usually educated and wealthy individuals born into high position. Aristocrats are the wealthy or politically influential people in the world".
i feel my class does that quite well. i am more interested in the actual mechanics of the class instead of arguing semantics over the name.
i did NOT build my aristocrat to be strictly a Noble. If i wanted it to be strictly a member of the noble class, I would have made the class a Noble, and given it more noble-ey abilities like some of the ones that were mentioned above.
class design means sometimes you have to be broad in your overall design. My aristocrat does this. If you want to be a noble, you can. If you want to be a wealthy merchant, you can.
my main reasoning for NOT making it a noble was the fact that a Wizard can be a noble without a level in a noble class, as can any other class, except for maybe a commoner (yeah, bad joke Insert Princess Bride Pun here). And many of the Noble class write ups are so broad to cover this aspect that i feel they were lacking in overall choosability. I chose to focus on the core aspect of what an aristocrat really does or is, according to the definition in that old gaming book on my shelf.
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first, i want to pull my hair out every time i read noble-ey. Gah.
Aristocrat always screams noble, for right or wrong, if you stick with this name you will always run into that problem.
Honestly adjust the name and people will be annoyed a lot less.
I might have missed it but is it using a rogue or fighter advancement?
Heavy armor? that i think is over powered. Medium, why should he be proficient with heavy Armor? Honestly, unless you are a noble, knights crusade etc, you should drop the heavy armor. I know you want to give your "baby" everything, but there is NO justification for heavy armor as a free give away.
Hi there
I too disagree that nobility/aristocracy should rime with wealth readily available in the form of gold pieces. You seem adamant on this however, but my first impressions about that are twofold:
First, the class seems to assume that the character is the sole inheritor and owner of its keep/village/estate from the get go. The class does not represent well the majority of aristocracy/nobility that has limited secular, material holdings and resources. This could be better represented (and balanced with other character classes) if the character came into its inheritance at higher level (lets say 9 or 10). Of course, unscrupulous and power hungry characters could arrange the untimely death of their parents/siblings/cousins to accelerate the process...
Second, the class does not seem to represent any of the responsibilities of landed gentry. No suzerain lord/lady to pay taxes or perform duties to, no investments in construction/renovation/maintenance of infrastructures, no salary to pay etc. While it could be considered that these are already accounted for, I find the class both unclear and thematically very dry about this subject.
A DM may argue that the money granted by the Wealth and Power ability is required to hire soldiers and repair roads etc, while the player might argue that all of these are accounted for and that the point is to play Dungeons&Dragons and not Resources&Management. Personally, I'd add a random element to represent years of plenty and unexpected expenses, which otherwise have to be laid down in a chart in order to be fair with the player (that's assuming that the Wealth and Power ability is NOT meant to fund a complex estate management sub-system aside from the class). Something like 2d6x100 per level instead of a flat 1000 gp per level for example.
Other that that, Leadership and Retainer is redundant. Leadership at level 1 is both unclear (since the cohort need to be 2 level lower than PC) and overpowered (especially if cohort is a caster, or any character classes for that matter).
Uncanny Cognizance is a game-breaker. A +4 bonus on Sense Motive made to detect lies and bluffs would already be significant, and an effect similar to Detect Lies would IMO be almost too powerful for a level 9 ability.
Ultimately, I too wonder what such an aristocrat would gain by adventuring, and therefore wonder if it is fit for a character class. From a DM perspective, I wouldn't want to fight the character's obligation to attends his cousin's political wedding and keep it 'obliged' to stay with the adventuring band who most likely won't be performing duties that would benefit that aristocrat's immediate needs, even detracting it from its lordly obligations.
As always, we bring out the worst of your ideas because we feel they are the ones needing adjustment, but it's not meant to be an ungrateful b#*&$ fest about your work. Keep it up.
'findel
See if you can find a PDF of the Game of Thrones from GotO. It had a Noble class in it that was spot on, imho, or see if you can find the Noble class from Alea Publishing. It's 4th ed, but can easily be brought to PF.
I am thinking about altering Uncanny Cognizance.
i was thinking at 9th, making all lies told to MY aristocrat get a -10 penalty per the Bluff skill rules, and at some point at a higher level (thinking 18th or in that area) have all Bluff checks get a -20 per the Bluff skill rules. I would apply the same penalties to Intimidate checks made against the character.