[note=Three Worlds Classes]This is the noble class from the Three Worlds campaign setting, modified slightly to fit into the standard D&D rules as I have not fully finalized all of my campaign-rules. It should be able to be dropped into any game with no problem. This class overlaps with the Bard heavily, and I don't recommend both being in the same game. While there is overlap, a DM might make distinctions between the two; after all, the noble has better armor and the potential to grab bonus combat feats, while the bard has spells, so they might be able to exist side by side with some explanation; the Three Worlds Campaign Setting doesn't use the bard, so I haven't conceived the two fighting side by side (in the same party, a number of their abilities will not stack).[/note]Version 1.0
NOBLE
Where a warrior succeeds through strength of arms, a noble succeeds with their cunning and charm. Made up of true nobility, military commanders, and others from privileged backgrounds, nobles are gifted with exceptional social graces, possessing the uncanny ability to bolster themselves and their allies to great feats of courage and greatness. While lacking the breadth of skills of a rogue, their persuasiveness is second to none, and many nobles are more than equipped to talk themselves out of almost any situation.
Making a Noble
A noble's place in battle is as a commander, granting bonuses to themselves and their allies. Some nobles choose to lead from the frontlines, acting as shining examples to their party, while others lead from the backlines, keeping their generally frailer physiques safe from harm.
Abilities: A noble's most important abilities are their Charisma (to boost their social skills) and their Intelligence (to expand their skill set). Because of their lower hit die, a noble who intends on mixing it up in combat would benefit from a higher Constitution (which also helps boost their low Fortitude Save), but most gain more benefit from a higher Dexterity score (as it can improve their offenses as well as defenses). Given the choice of having a low Wisdom or Strength, most nobles will have a low Strength, as long as it is suitable enough to wield their choice armor.
Races: While all races have their privileged nobility, nobles are typically drawn from classes that lack charisma or intelligence penalties; dwarves and half-orcs generally make poor nobles.
Alignment: A noble can choose any alignment, though they tend to lean towards lawful alignments. As leaders and members of the privileged elite, their place is within society, not outside of it, so as such even unscrupulous nobles must learn to opperate within the law. Chaotic nobles are less common.
Starting Gold: 6d4 x 10 (150 gp average).
Starting Age: As wizard.
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the noble.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Nobles are proficient with light and medium armor, shields (except tower shields), all simple weapons, and one martial weapon of their choice. This choice of martial weapon tends to be their race's common weapon; a noble may choose an exotic weapon their race has weapon familiarity with as their martial weapon, since it is treated as a martial weapon for members of that race.
Inspire Courage: As bard, except it takes a standard action to activate and it remains active for 5 + Cha mod rounds. It may be reactivated at any time. Requires Diplomacy or Intimidate ranks.
Negotiator or Persuasive: Most nobles are either polite or underhanded. At first level, a noble gains either the negotator feat (+2 Diplomacy and Gather Information) or the persuasive feat (+2 Bluff and Intimidate). Once selected, this cannot be changed.
Connected: Because of a noble's lifestyle and personality, they are privy to knowledge that others might find hard to come by. A noble may make all knowledge skill checks untrained, and receives a +4 bonus on all Knowledge and Gather Information checks.
?:
Bonus Feat: At 4th, 7th, and every 3rd level thereafter, a noble gains a bonus feat selected from the following list. A noble must still meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat.
Alertness, Animal Affinity, Armor Proficiency (Heavy), Blind Fight, Combat Expertise (Improved Disarm, Improved Feint, Whirlwind Attack), Combat Reflexes, Deceitful, Dodge (Mobility, Spring Attack), Exotic Weapon Proficiency, Improved Initiative, Investigator, Iron Will, Martial Weapon Proficiency, Mounted Combat (Mounted Archery, Ride-By Attack, Spirited Charge, Trample), Negotiator, Persuasive, Point Blank Shot (Far Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Manyshot, Shot on the Run, Improved Precise Shot), Quick Draw, Rapid Reload, Skill Focus (any noble skill), Two-Weapon Fighting (Two-Weapon Defense, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Greater Two-Weapon Fighting), Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus.
(Expansion Note: In campaigns which use sources outside of the Player's Handbook, additional feats should be added to the noble's bonus feat list. Such feats would be feats that require feats present in the noble's bonus feat list, any diplomatic or social skill based feats, or any combative feats relying on speed, precision, or expertise.)
Inspire Competence: As bard, except it takes a standard action to activate and it remains active as long as the noble concentrates, up to 2 minutes (long enough to take 20 with most skills). Requires Diplomacy or Intimidate ranks.
Leadership: At 6th level, the noble receives the Leadership feat for free. If the DM does not with to play with the Leadership feat, substitute this feat for another bonus feat.
?:
Inspire Greatness: At 11th level, a noble is able to bolster an ally who is on the brink of defeat. As a standard action, a noble can grant an ally within line of sight a number of bonus hit points equal to twice their character level, as long as they are currently at one-half their maximum hit points. You can't use this ability on the same ally more than once in a single encounter, and the bonus hit points remaining at the end of the encounter go away. Requires Diplomacy or Intimidate ranks.
Improved Leadership: At 12th level, a noble receives double the number of followers of a given level based on their Leadership score. Additionally, their leadership score increases by 1.
?:
Inspire Heroics: At 17th level, a noble is able to issue a rally cry to improve their group's odds in a difficult encounter. Once per encounter, as a swift action, a noble can issue a call that affects all allies within line of sight who have less than half their total hit points remaining, granting them a +4 dodge bonus to AC and a +4 morale bonus on all saves for the duration of the encounter. Requires Diplomacy or Intimidate ranks.
Greater Leadership: At 18th level, a noble's leadership score increases by a further +4.
[table=NOBLE Hit Dice: d6]
[tr][th]Level[/th][th]BAB[/th][th]Fort[/th][th]Ref[/th][th]Will[/th][th]Special[/th][/tr]
[tr][th]1st[/th][td]+0[/td][td]+0[/td][td]+2[/td][td]+2[/td][td]Inspire Courage +1, Negotiator or Persuasive[/td][/tr]
[tr][th]2nd[/th][td] +1[/td][td] +0[/td][td] +3[/td][td] +3[/td][td] Connected[/td][/tr]
[tr][th]3rd[/th][td] +2[/td][td] +1[/td][td] +3[/td][td] +3[/td][td] ?[/td][/tr]
[tr][th]4th[/th][td] +3[/td][td] +1[/td][td] +4[/td][td] +4[/td][td] Bonus Feat[/td][/tr]
[tr][th]5th[/th][td] +3[/td][td] +1[/td][td] +4[/td][td] +4[/td][td] Inspire Competence[/td][/tr]
[tr][th]6th[/th][td] +4[/td][td] +2[/td][td] +5[/td][td] +5[/td][td] Leadership[/td][/tr]
[tr][th]7th[/th][td] +5[/td][td] +2[/td][td] +5[/td][td] +5[/td][td] Bonus Feat[/td][/tr]
[tr][th]8th[/th][td] +6[/td][td] +2[/td][td] +6[/td][td] +6[/td][td] Inspire Courage +2[/td][/tr]
[tr][th]9th[/th][td] +6[/td][td] +3[/td][td] +6[/td][td] +6[/td][td] ?[/td][/tr]
[tr][th]10th[/th][td] +7[/td][td] +3[/td][td] +7[/td][td] +7[/td][td] Bonus Feat[/td][/tr]
[tr][th]11th[/th][td] +8[/td][td] +3[/td][td] +7[/td][td] +7[/td][td] Inspire Greatness[/td][/tr]
[tr][th]12th[/th][td] +9[/td][td] +4[/td][td] +8[/td][td] +8[/td][td] Improved Leadership[/td][/tr]
[tr][th]13th[/th][td] +9[/td][td] +4[/td][td] +8[/td][td] +8[/td][td] Bonus Feat[/td][/tr]
[tr][th]14th[/th][td] +10[/td][td] +4[/td][td] +9[/td][td] +9[/td][td] Inspire Courage +3[/td][/tr]
[tr][th]15th[/th][td] +11[/td][td] +5[/td][td] +9[/td][td] +9[/td][td] ?[/td][/tr]
[tr][th]16th[/th][td] +12[/td][td] +5[/td][td] +10[/td][td] +10[/td][td] Bonus Feat[/td][/tr]
[tr][th]17th[/th][td] +12[/td][td] +5[/td][td] +10[/td][td] +10[/td][td] Inspire Heroics[/td][/tr]
[tr][th]18th[/th][td] +13[/td][td] +6[/td][td] +11[/td][td] +11[/td][td] Greater Leadership[/td][/tr]
[tr][th]19th[/th][td] +14[/td][td] +6[/td][td] +11[/td][td] +11[/td][td] Bonus Feat[/td][/tr]
[tr][th]20th[/th][td] +15[/td][td] +6[/td][td] +12[/td][td] +12[/td][td] Inspire Courage +4[/td][/tr][/table]
Class Skills (6 + Int modifier per level; x4 at 1st): Appraise, Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Disguise, Forgery, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (All), Listen, Perform, Profession, Ride, Search, Sense Motive, Speak Language, Spot
Version 1.0 issues: I need assistance with the class ability at 3rd, 9th, and 15th levels. Currently, I have a few ideas. First of all, my Knight PrC will effectively require entry by a Fighter/Noble, and I could easily require Fighter4/Noble3 by requiring weapon specialization and what ever the 3rd level noble ability is, so keep that in mind.
My first idea for an ability for these levels is a "Duel of Honor" ability. This would allow them to target a foe and have them make a will save or be forced to attack the noble or face certain fear penalties. It could start as shaken at 3rd, then frightened (with the Heroes of Horror -4 penalty version, rather than "run away"), then panicked at 15th. I like this idea.
Another idea would be gaining a bonus to the social skills at each of these levels, to further cement that role into the class.
Another idea would be some type of commander auras.
So, any thoughts?
I've got a suggestion. What if, instead of making someone attack him, make the will save to avoid attacking him. Make it, say, a 20ft. radius, and within that he can make X number of people (of his choice)make a will save, or back up to the edge of the area.
Then for the other two levels, make it so that he gets bonuses against a single opponent. The aura is used to more often make that possible.
Or you could reverse the two, which might make more sense.
For my uses, the social ability is much more important. I use a social reaction CC that is important every time the players meet anyone new (there have been some recent hilariously poor and inopportune rolls...).
Higher social class also means reputation. So a skill that would allow for people to have heard of the noble or the deeds of the noble would be interesting...as well as tremendously gratifying to every egotistical PC (read that as all of them) to ever shake a pair of dice.
Okay, what about a three tier social skill enhancement? At one level, they can make intimidate and diplomacy checks faster, but I can't think of what the other two could be. Raw bonuses don't seem to be that satisfying to most players.
Vreeg, tell me about this reaction thing. Do you run it like the Reputation mechanic?
I don't know. I've been using my own rules for my setting for about 25 years.
Social reaction is ((CHR*2)+APP)+Basic Social in my world. Not every character learns Basic Social or it's sub skills, so the constant use of it makes socially aware characters far ahead of others.
The nobility rule is used for any circumstance where 'rank would be considered an advantage', and then 1/10 of the character's social level is added in (I have a 200 point social scale).
Reputation is done by 1/10 social + Basic Social skill + social awareness(a subskill of basic social) of the person knowing.
I do know that PC's are generally bound to their ego's very tightly. They coo and giggle like little schoolgirls (no offense to any schoolgirls in the audience) when a city guard or bard knows their names or deeds.