Spade, killing a noble can dramatically shift things. for one, inheritance, one child is favored and going to get most of the inheritance, but is killed, so a the inheritance is changed, swift and definitive change, then you have only childs getting whacked off, this removed the hair apparent and if there is no other true hair to take their place, this can case chaos. perhaps not kingdom wide if you talking about a countship with out an hair, particularly with an aging monarch. you also have the possibility of taking care of the king, count, duke, whatever. Fact is, there are numerous reasons to want to axe a noble, and the only way nobles stay ahead of the curve is protection. and even if you go down the noble food chain to very miner ones, killing a trusted adviser can have massive, and predictable, repercussions.
Youy can axe Noble A: Noble A was Advising Noble B, who runs just about every thing, Noble C also advises Noble B, but had a dramatically different outlook on every thing, and the two, A and C, hate one another. depending on B; he might, in one form or an other, axe C and embraced A's mind set: if your D and A was your pawn, axing A to further your goals and neutralize the competition can be very helpful.
Point is, Nobles should be seen as offices, Offices that com from a highly elite and small pool of individuals, the line of succession is clear to see and
best part, nobles in higher positions with out a proper heir can have their position go unfilled for years while the lesser nobles try to get the position for themselves, you can even shatter a kingdom by taking out the king at the right time. This can be even more problematic, or even necessary in war time(incompetent rulers are deadly). Keep in mind, Nobles range from the smallest, that amount to modern day small town mayors and police chiefs, to full blown rulers, and they don't have elected replacements, they have kids who may or may not be ready to take over their parents responsibilities. Who would you rather face as the leader of a nation: A veteran ruler who has been proven as a warrior and a general of armies plural, or their snot nosed child who has always got their way and knows nothing of logistics and thinks if they say "do it" every thing will be done as they commanded regardless of the odds?
In a conflict of Nobles Vs Nobles you might have a code that amounts to "no assassinating other nobles", but in the end, killing off nobles is nothing to be take lightly; think of it this way, how many pesents do you have per a noble? How many solders per a noble? and of those ten or so nobles in a thousand how many are in a influential position or have a real shot at ascending into one? Not-enough if someone starts offing them.
Point I'm making is: its a bigger lose to loose a king then it is to loose a president and its a bigger lose to loose noble then a mayor. Nobles are in place for decades and their indefinite replacement is standing buy to take their place, but the replacement might not have it's own replacement. depends on how many kids the original noble had, and if those kids had kids. Noble based governments are extra vulnerable to getting their heads chopped off.
There is also the part of unsatisied pesents taking things into their own hands, you don't need a full blown revolt or even a major problem to be on the chomping block, you need one faceless drown that "has had it" to come along and kill their direct governing noble. now, success may very, but there are countless risks.
And in the case of protective rings, these things don't have life spans, it just takes one scared noble in the past to have one made, and then every head of that noble hose from then on has a protective ring; they might even improve said ring or just have a better one made from scratch and give the old one off to their hair. this is not a case of "why would a noble have one" its more of a case of "why the hell would they not?" if you ask me any ways; I just don't see a reason for a noble of notable rank could not have such a ring, or other item, warn at all times.
... I'll stop this line of text now... I ramble to much and my brain is feeling like pop rocks.
@DW, ... and AF
When you say it that way I have to admit my newbies, But I am still right, in my mind... (Hallow as it is, I think it's echoing something about napping and Nachos...
)
@HM
not the worst, just very very light. in a PC to PC warrior mach, ya, he would suck, but PC to NPC he would be competent in melee without spells, would be close depending on the NPC, but in general, not somone who can just be written off in melee unless you're exceptional, like most melee PCs who are tailer built to do melee combat. that said, being able to use spells gives him the ability to fight said characters on par amusing the fight starts at melee.
That said, his melee ability would be highly focused on mobility (but do to him always being on stable and flat ground, he could be readily slowed by adverse terrain)
One part he would acutely excel at in melee would be engaging and disengaging, but at the same time, he would not do well if he could not do so. (get in close, deliver a touch attack, back off, recast, run back in, etc)
With his present build out, that it seems I'll be reworking, his curent Combat related feats are:
[FONT="][sblock=Expeditious Dodge] When you move 40 feet or more in a single turn, you gain a +2 dodge bonus to your Armor Class until the beginning of your next turn.[/sblock]
Fleet of Foot [/FONT]
[FONT="]Weapon Finesse
Mobility [/FONT]
[just a note, I was purposely trying to avoid geting combat related feats through trade ins, with the exception of Finesse, to avoid making cheese, if you would rather he trade fighter features for combative abilities I can work with that as well]
that said, I'll look into this Beguiler cass... Know were I can find it? ^^;
...Also, I hop I did not make myself look foolish for the 537th time this weak
;
Addon: just looked and this post seems to be about the long as what I aim for IC, if not as dense ^^;
