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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wish" data-source="post: 1776064" data-attributes="member: 13404">First thing to remember is that the NPC classes are way behind the power curve to begin with, so resist the temptation to take anything away (such as class skills or weapon proficiencies) unless you're adding something huge.  Looking at the powers you're giving them, they're not getting anything huge.  If you're making it a PC class, the literacy should be automatic, with no skill points spent, like every other PC class besides barbarian.  The money will ammount to less than a 10% bonus over their career, which is probably within the variation range between PCs anyway, unless your group is unusually strict about splitting treasure evenly.  The contacts are interesting, but unless they can kill monsters and rescue kidnapped young princes for you, they're going to be of limited utility in the field, so they don't really replace things like armor proficiency.  The bonus of Leadership is weak, especially since it's only half a feat, and not even the good half.  What's going to happen is that all your aristocrats are going to end up taking Leadership anyway, because the half version isn't worth having.Then we go to the other end of the spectrum - the Diplomacy bonus is way too good.  It's already very easy to get big diplomacy bonuses.  A recent thread had a DM lamenting over his player's 3rd level character with a +23 Diplomacy score.  Letting the Aristocrat add another 5-25 points to that is going to seriously throw the balance out of an already warped mechanic.Ok, enough with the criticism, on to construction.  To make this playable as a PC, look at the role.  Not in society, but in an adventuring party.  The basic class has one good save, cleric/rogue BAB, and a decent skill list, and good armor/weapon proficiencies.  That makes it most similar to the rogue clas, but obviously far weaker (no sneak attack, no super cool abilities, half as many skill points).  It fills the roles of second line fighter and second line skill character.  It's a mundane class, so adding magical abilities wouldn't be appropriate, instead I'd recommend adding mundane abilities like skills, feats, or unusual talents.Grant automatic literacy at 1st level.  Keep the money thing, that's flavorful and not really very powerful (unless you're playing a very treasure poor campaign).  Keep the Contacts for the same reason, flavorful but not very powerful.  Alternately, make the "Contacts" a supplement to the Leadership feat starting at 6th level rather than 4th, and let them be second-tier cohorts (say, 2 levels lower than the primary cohort) who can carry out independent tasks.  Bump skill points to 6 per level base - the rouge stays the master of skills, but the aristocrat seems to be a skill based character, so move it up there with the other similar classes.  Finally, the easiest way to beef up an underpowered class is to award bonus feats.  It's far less work than designing new and special powers, and runs into fewer balance issues.I'd suggest a bonus feat at every even level except those at which a Contact (or secondary cohort) is gained.  The bonus feat at 6th level is Leadership (the full-blown version with cohort).  Create a bonus feat list that's appropriate to Aristocrats.  I'd include things like the various skill boosting feats (Skill Focus, Trustworthy), the mounted combat feats, and the defensive feats (Iron Will, Great Fortitude, Combat Expertise).  I wouldn't include any of the offensive feats other than the Mounted Combat chain.  Remember they can always use their regular feats on offense if they prefer.You'd end up with a class with d8 hp, cleric bab, one good save, a fighter-like feat progression (but less combat effective feats), a pretty good skill set - about equivalent to the bard's or ranger's but not quite as good as the expert's or rogue's, and two relatively minor special powers.Compare to the fighter - very similar, but the fighter gets more hp, better bab, and better feats, but fewer skills and only one very weak special power (the ability to qualify for the higher level fighter-only feats).Compare to the rogue - rogue gets fewer hp, but better skills, and a host of powerful special abilities in place of the bonus feats and weapon/armor proficiencies.Compare to the ranger - they get a similar skill set, and hp, but the ranger gets full BAB and 2 good saves.  The special abilities are very cool, but somewhat limited, probably making them a wash with the bonus feats from the new Aristocrat class.I don't think the new aristocrat as I've suggested designing him would outshine other PCs in a typical party, but he would not be useless either.  He'd be an average second line fighter, and an above average skill-based character.  He wouldn't be the "best" class for anything in particular.  Hope this helps some.</blockquote>

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